Chapter 1

A star ... Nondescript, yellow, alone. Its satellites, whirling with silent grace around its axis in a cosmic dance to a beat only they themselves could hear, barely significant to be noticed; but, like all of its celestial cousins, holding unfathomable secrets waiting to be discovered. It was on the fringes of the known galaxy, but it was here that everything would change.

A planet ... blue, at first sight, with streaks of white and brown and green, a planet of astounding diversity in its climate, geology, and native inhabitants. Teeming with life, all types of life, that any Imperial Xenobiologist would find absolutely fascinating. It almost defied reason, but for the simple fact that it did indeed exist.

A ship ... small, by the standards of its builders, its dull gray hull contributing to its dirty, utilitarian impression. Oblong, flat and smooth, with no markings to be seen on the exterior save the occasional scrape or char, it also managed to possess a certain sinister promise, something clearly not the intent of its well-meaning designers. It had personality; it had history—and it was dark. A small freighter, or perhaps a courier, glided silently through the void.

A woman ... Great Lady Kurana Mitonir SeliGarde paced impatiently across the deck of her bridge. Her boot heels clicked loudly on the metallic floor. From time to time one of the crew would look up at her in exasperation, but no one said anything. While technically not possessing a military rank of any kind, she had the presence of a commanding officer, and the crew followed her orders unquestioningly. She was used to that; for all of her adult life, she had been a leader among her people, and it wasn’t only due to her father’s position.

She felt a surge of frustration and fought to suppress it. The planet below her was doomed to fall to the might of the Valoran Empire, and the Resistance was powerless to stop it; but that was not her mission, anyway. The only thing she could hope to do was recruit some people for the Resistance, that one day they might be strong enough to pose a significant threat to the Empire.

The Empire’s Battle Group Nine would reach the planet in a little over one of their years. Kurana’s little ship had to be hell and gone by that point, or risk being destroyed. Or worse—captured. She would be quite a trophy for Admiral Brennij to bring back to Valor—if he didn’t decide to have her serve in a less pristine function; she had heard that his tastes ran far into the realm of the perverse. She gave a small shudder, then looked quickly about to make sure no one had noticed her little display of weakness. She had seen some tight scrapes with this ship and crew, and had no desire to push her good fortune any further than was absolutely necessary

“Lady Kurana! Ready for orbital approach in,” the helmsman glanced at his console. “Twenty seconds.”

She nodded. “Proceed with care, helmsman. Make sure that we don’t get picked up by one of their detection devices.” True, the chances of that were slim– these people were barbarians, compared to the civilized worlds of the galaxy, but since there really was no prior contact with these people it was possible that they had developed some form of technology that could surprise even her. The helmsman nodded irritably– he knew how to approach a silent orbit, and obviously he resented being told how to do his job. Kurana almost laughed.

Not for the first time, Kurana marveled at this surprise world. An Imperial mineral probe had found this system while looking for a good mining planet. The Resistance carefully tracked these probes, because a mining planet allowed for more ships, more weapons for the Empire. It was a shock when the probe reported the system as unviable due to a resident human population. It was even more of a shock when the estimated population strength was reported– well over six billion people.

There were no reports of colonies anywhere near this sector, certainly none that had been here for well over five thousand years, which was the youngest this one could be. That wasn’t even to mention that the star charts stated that the system possessed nothing but gas giants, which was clearly false. But there were legends ... She remembered her lecture on Strechigar Lim Naziophit, the most powerful of the Great Lords. It was said that his Essence rating was damn near half a billion Jerits. Even the Emperor was barely over quarter that. The lecturer had mentioned that Strechigar boasted of founding a world to be a breeding ground for the Great Lords on the outer rim of the galaxy...

But people had searched for that world for literally eons, and there was no sign of it. Besides, if it was this planet, then they would have come out of this little star system a long time ago and would have probably been ruling the Valoran Empire themselves by now. Perhaps this was Strechigar’s world, but it did not breed the Great Lords as he had hoped. If anything, these people were lesser humans than those of the civilized worlds. This would be an easy victory for the Empire.

The helmsman spoke again. “Orbit secured, My Lady.” His voice betrayed nothing of his prior irritation. Most likely he had already forgotten it.

Kurana nodded again. “Power up the BioEssence Array, level...” What level, what level? The BioEssence Array drained a great deal of energy, but it wouldn’t find a Lord or Great Lord below setting four. The best way would be to start at one and work up to twelve, but did they have the time? Kurana sighed. No. Lords and Great Lords only. “Level four.” The man at the Array station glanced at her in surprise, but acknowledged her command.

“Powering up BioEssence Array, level four. Estimated charge time, thirty-six standard days,” he responded. “Stand down NavCon?” he asked. A routine question, and a routine answer was required.

“Yes. NavCon, stand down. Helm, stand down. Bridge will be at minimum manning until T-minus 2 days.” The crew sighed in relief. Having the BioEssence Array charging and the NavCon up at the same time drained all available power from the ship, with the exception of life support– it made the waiting time unbearably boring. Well, they weren’t going anywhere for a while anyway, so Navigational Control hardly had to be up. For the next month or so, the crew was on vacation, and a well-deserved one, by their reckoning.

Kurana sighed as she and all but two of the bridge crew crammed onto the lift. As the door slid closed and it dropped quickly down to the Living Quarters Level, all she could think about was how good a hot shower and a nice full night’s sleep was going to feel. After months of fairly danger-free travel, approaching the star system had required nervous attention on everyone’s part. If one of the Imperial probes the scouts had left behind got an energy signature lock—but that was borrowing trouble. There were no probes, as apparently the Empire considered these people more or less worthless, except as future slaves ... hence the coming Battle Group.

It was frustrating, waiting for the BioEssence Array to power up, but the signal strength and complexity required were really not designed for such a small class ship, and she hadn’t wanted to risk bringing a larger one, for fear of giving her enemies an energy trail to follow. When will I no longer have to compromise? When will I not have to decide between necessity and safety? Her face betrayed none of her weariness as the cramped lift slowed.

The door slid open and the crowd spilled out of the lift, rapidly moving down the hall to their perspective rooms. In seconds, she was the only one in the corridor. In comparative silence to the normal noise of the bridge, she walked with purposeful stride to the end of the hall where her chambers lay. The click-click-click of her boots echoed eerily in the abandoned walkway.

The door connecting to her quarters recognized Kurana’s approaching form and opened. As she walked in, the doors closed silently behind her, and she immediately began stripping out of the uniform she had worn for the last 72 hours straight. Leaving the clothes where they lay on the floor, she all but ran into the head, turned on the steaming jet of water, and immersed herself in a violent but wonderfully refreshing shower.

As the water coursed over her body, she began to relax. It was only in times like these, where she was at peace with herself, calm, that she could open herself to the Essence, and gain guidance from that cosmic transcendental awareness. Every time that she had tried this since accepting this mission had resulted in nothing but a strange feeling of unease– like there was a momentous change just out of sight over the horizon. It was tantalizingly definite, but frustratingly vague in its exact meaning.

Slowly she opened her mind to view the universe in a whole different way. The shower ceased to exist, as did the ship, and she was floating in a great void, streaked with colorful bursts of energy, chaotic, beautiful...

Eventually she became aware of the planet floating below her. She saw in minute detail the blue depths of several oceans teeming with exotic life, the cloud formations of violent storms, the tall trees growing undisturbed on the mountains. The people...

Great Garaz! The power hidden beneath the surface of these people! It was unbelievable! Why wasn’t it immediately apparent? She peered closer...

Abruptly she was looking a young man in the eye. He was relatively short, stocky, with a shock of blond hair that ruffled in an unfelt breeze. Frowning, he returned the stare. His eyes were green, his features strong but careworn. He had smile lines. Kurana’s heart skipped a beat. He was the key. Somehow, he was the source for her feeling of unease.

And then she was flying back, beyond the clouds, beyond the atmosphere, back to that void, which burst apart in a million million jagged shards like a pricked bubble, and hot water was once more cascading over her. She shuddered. Suddenly this mission seemed a whole lot less than ordinary.

Eric Janis shuddered as he woke up. These dreams of his had always been disturbing, but this was the first time he had ever seen a face. That face, a woman’s face, was in his future. It wasn’t in his past, that he was sure of—he possessed a nearly eidetic memory, and he was never wrong about this kind of thing—and his present contained no women of any sort. More’s the pity. Still, she was rather attractive. Maybe this is a good omen.