(Dock 53, Mollen’s Rest Station, Star’s Reach system)
There were three space stations in orbit of Star’s Reach. There were plenty more orbital platforms, but only a few of them were manned. Most of those were little more than maintenance hubs for crews maintaining the defense satellites and weapon platforms. But there were only three proper space stations.
The first was Hephaestus Station, the primary shipyards and orbital factories that had been built early on after we had taken control of the system. If anyone bothered to ask me which the most important of the three stations was, I would immediately point them to Hephaestus. It was, after all, the key to everything else that happened here. It was the core of the system’s growing industry. Sure, there were factories growing on the surface, but they wouldn’t have existed without Hephaestus building the parts they needed to set up.
Second, and the one that most people would think to be of the greatest importance, was Blackstone Station. That station was the headquarters for the Black Star Navy not just in Star’s Reach, but in the entire galaxy. More than that, it was also the core of the system’s defense, should it come to that. The station was completely military, with the only civilians allowed on board being either family, or those who had been specially vetted to serve in the support roles.
Third, and finally, there was Mollen’s Rest, the civilian station. By the time I had gotten around to approving the plans, it had already been named by my people, so there wasn’t much I could do about it. This was the administrative center for the Star’s Reach colony, and the primary headquarters for the Black Star Company as a whole. Needless to say, most of those who didn’t think that Blackstone was the most important structure in the system focused their attention on the Rest.
Since refugees were a civilian matter, rather than a military one, System Control had directed the refugee ships to the civilian station. If the ships had been defectors from the military rather than civilians, it would have been a different matter, but they weren’t, so it wasn’t. But that did bring up the very pertinent question of why these refugees showed up here.
Even if the entire Ihm Imperium was going up in flames, there should have been other ports that people would have chosen when fleeing for their lives from the insane Empress and her followers. Star’s Reach was moderately famous, sure, because we had been in the news a good bit over the last few years, but it wasn’t like we were a common port of call, either. Most people who came here were looking to get something they couldn’t get through other means, or they were looking to skirt a few laws. Refugees went to the bigger nations, the ones that had experience helping refugees.
But not these ones. No, they had apparently dialed straight from the Ihm Imperium to Star’s Reach, given the data we got from the gateway. At least they didn’t have tagalongs, like some of the refugees that had tried to make it to Confederate space. There was one group that had been chased by an Ihm navy destroyer through the Desolace gateway. That was a messy affair all the way around, and put the Confederates on high alert.
Our new guests had four ships. Well, depending on how you defined ‘ship’. They were all over the place, really. An in-system passenger shuttle, an armed merchantman, a heavy freighter, and a mining vessel that had a jury-rigged connector so it could haul a cargo container. They were all old models, and the merchantman, the only ship with conventional weapons, looked as though it had been through hell. The engineering team viewing the screens were of the opinion that the thing was only being held together by sheer force of will.
There were seven hundred Ihm on the four ships. Seven hundred people on ships that were designed to carry no more than forty. The people-hauler was the one with the highest rated passenger loadout, being designed for twenty-five passengers. The freighter was rated for five, and the merchantman for nine. The little mining craft was designed for a crew of one.
I shook my head as I looked at the merchantman which had just docked. It was named the Frivolous Enterprise, and was an Imperial civilian ship from before the last war. The class was supposed to be solid and reliable, able to keep going through anything, provided you kept up on the maintenance. That it survived was clearly a firefight to get here said there was more to those stories than just marketing. That it had gotten here without exploding, leaking radiation, or any one of a few other dozen ways it could have ended up killing its crew and ninety-one passengers was a testament to the crew’s skill.
As the Frivolous Enterprise powered down, there was a screeching, grinding noise. Slowly, the cargo bay doors started to swing open. Then, they caught with a sound of metal wrenching against metal and the scream of tortured gears. The scream rose to a crescendo, and then suddenly went silent, just as the door began to fall forward, crashing to the deck with a horrific bang as the thing literally fell off the hull!
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Frowning, I couldn’t help but mutter to Raven, who was standing beside me. “These people are impressive, I’ll give them that. Looking at the damage alone, I can’t imagine how they possibly survived, much less got through the gateway.”
The lead Ihm off the ship at least had the good grace to look embarrassed, if not ashamed, at the state of her craft. Seeing me standing out in front of onlookers examining her ship, she walked up and offered a low bow in the traditional Ihm style. I noticed that the rest of the Ihm aboard remained on the ship, watching on intently, but not stepping foot off the ship. “Lord of the Black Star Clan, I am Captain Sirzah Dhas of the Ikkae Liberation Front, and Ship Master of the Frivolous Venture. My crew and I ask for Sanctuary amongst your clan, and for protection to be offered to those we shepherded here.”
Raven whispered in my ear. “The Ikkae Liberation Front is a separatist movement originating on the planet Ikkae III. Stated goals are the ending of the monarchy, the abolishment of the caste system, and putting power in the hands of the workers. They first appeared shortly after the start of the last Ihm-Terran war, leading to concerns amongst the Ihm military that they were sponsored by the Terran Empire. Whether they currently have ties to the Empire is unknown.”
I nodded curtly, before looking back to the captain. “Ship Master, why do you come to my domain, seeking shelter, in a ship that has been through fire and battle, leading others that are packed overfull of civilians? I would know what trouble you flee before answering your question, as I have a duty to my people, first and foremost, as I’m sure you understand.”
Sirzah remained bowing. “The Empress has gone mad with envy and pride, tearing open the sky in her quest to prove how ‘superior’ the Ruling Caste is. Every day, the rift in space grows larger, and foul creatures from that realm have begun manifesting in the worlds closest to the rift. The Ikkae system is only a light year from the rift, the closest Gateway to the Eye of Despair. The Warrior Caste fights amongst itself, while the Merchant Caste begins getting ever more bold in the ways they flaunt their power and influence.”
She paused, and then said, “The servants of the Mad Empress are different, somehow. Rulers that have never shown psy power before now wield it as though it were second nature to them. Their Warriors grow huge and hulking, sometimes becoming misshapen as if they were the product of some flawed breeding. And there are creatures on the world that I have never seen before.”
“For years, we have tried to free the people of Ikkae from the Ruling caste’s oppression, but now horrors run through the nest cities, ravaging those in the undernests. The Rulers do nothing to stop it. Worse, if we try and defend ourselves, they send in their misshapen ones and burn out nests as a lesson to others. I have seen camera drones following the monsters around, filming what happens.”
I nodded slowly. “That explains plenty about why you chose to gather all you could and leave, Captain. However, it does not tell me why you came to me.”
The Ihm paused and took a breath. “We have heard about the exploits of the Black Star Company, and the Black Star Navy. When the former Warleader denounced the Admiralty’s decisions following the Second Battle of Coldana, it sent shock waves through the Imperium. When she disappeared, it was widely thought that she had been taken and silenced by the Empress. Then, we heard that she had joined the Black Star Navy, and had fought and won honors despite being exiled from the Imperium, it was a second blow, especially to the Ruling caste.”
“The Ikkae Liberation Front is all but spent. We had grown to number over six thousand active fighters, trained and ready, but most of our people and weapons that we have been stockpiling in preparation for our eventual fight we were forced to use against the horrors hunting the undernests. Now, we number only thirty. The rest died defending the tunnels, or buying time for us to take the ships we used for smuggling weapons and load them up with as many of the surviving families of our people that we could fit. The four ships you see are the only ones that survived out of the ten we launched.”
“My crews and I are wanted criminals in the Imperium. Some of us have open warrants in other areas, as well, because of our business. We don’t want to risk being placed in a Confederate jail, or an Imperial slave camp. We’d rather stick with those we rescued, and rebuild, so that we have a chance to take back Ikkae, and the rest of the Imperium. Failing that, we want to survive, so at least something of the Ihm will live through this untainted by the Empress’s madness.”
I nodded slowly. “And you had heard that Star’s Reach and the Black Star Company did not care who you are or what you may have done, so long as you follow the rules within our domain. Very well, then. I can agree to giving you Sanctuary, and allowing your group to become residents of Star’s Reach. But you will all need to undergo testing, to prove that you have not been corrupted by the energies of the chaotic space.”
Sirzah started to interject, but I cut her off. “Believe me when I say that I have information on the realm the Empress forced her way into that you do not. I know the dangers of that realm better than you, and I won’t have any of that corruption on my world. The quarantine and testing is non-negotiable. If you dislike it, you can get back on your ship and fly elsewhere.”
The Captain didn’t like it, that much was obvious, but she didn’t have to. With resignation, she nodded her head, once. I nodded in return. “Good. Then, you have a choice before you. You and yours can either become transient residents in one of the settlements on the surface of Star’s Reach, which would give you the fewest restrictions, but the bare minimum of aid from the Company beyond ensuring that your basic nutritional needs are met. Or, you could become citizens of Star’s Reach, binding yourselves to the Black Star Company. You would have more restrictions on what you can do, but you would also have the Black Star company helping you rebuild.”
I paused to let her process those two options, and said, “But I’ll warn you, the Black Star Company isn’t looking to create regime change in different star polities for fun. We only engage in such things when we’re attacked. This also means that we may restrict people from traveling certain places if they look like they are going to cause trouble that will affect the Company. So, if you are dead set on revenge, then you will want to be transients. If, however, you want to have a place to rebuild your community, well, citizenship has responsibilities attached to it, but it also has rights and privileges.”
I looked from her, to the people on the ship, still watching our conversation, and back to her. “But I’m sure you don’t want to make this decision alone. Return to your ship, Captain. You have one week while the engineers do a ‘structural review’ to make your decision. Of course, the sooner a decision is made, the sooner we can start unloading those passengers and finding proper accommodations for them. Wouldn’t want to drop citizens-to-be in a tent city, and giving transients a taste of citizen life only to rip it away would be cruel. So, take all the time you need, but not too much of it. I’ll be waiting for your decision.”