Pax Galactica - A Space Opera

Chapter 21 - Duty Bound

Decker opened his eyes. Every part of him was battered and throbbing with soreness but thanks to his suit he was still alive and without serious injury. The suit itself was badly damaged and had retreated into hyperspace to repair itself. Only the tiniest protrusion down into the lower dimensions clung to the small of his back, a little black dot representing worlds of potential.

Decker turned off the pain. His body had made its point.

Crowded all around him were a group of Xalaxians, but none of them spoke Ringlot. They did, however, speak Low Xalaxian and were doing so over one another. Given the fact that each individual Xalaxian already sounded like two people talking over one another and it was hard to pick out individual sounds.

Decker pulled up the language in his implant and slowly what they were saying started to resolve into words.

"-is damaged!" said one Xalaxian. "Take notice of the damage!"

"Humans are meant to look like that," chirped another.

"He stirs!" announced a third, noticing Decker was moving.

Decker stood up and the Xalaxians backed away a little, to give him space. As he looked around Decker could still see the aftermath of the one-sided firefight, all the smoking craters where the kinetic beams had hit the buildings.

"Do you require assistance?" asked the first Xalaxian, the tallest of the group.

"No," said Decker, in Low Xalaxian. A mechanical voice acted as a second mouth for Decker, and allowed him to approximate the language. It surprised him a little as his body did this automatically. His accent was atrocious. "I'll be fine. I- I'll be fine."

He wasn't entirely sure that was true. Decker pinged his location to Aranarth's implant, again using the ship to route it.

<I'm already on my way,> came the reply. <Stay where you are.>

"Describe what happened!" insisted a second Xalaxian, whose frill of skin was particularly shaggy.

"I got shot with some kind of kinetic weapon while using high-speed AG flight. I don't recommend it."

"You should assume a human rest position," said the tall Xalaxian. "Lay horizontal."

"I'm fine," repeated Decker. "My suit took the brunt of the damage."

"I offer gratitude," said the third Xalaxian, small enough that she might have been a child. "Your people risk much in our defense. You are friend to Xalax and this memory endures."

"The memory endures," agreed the shaggy Xalaxian.

"Now and in the future," added the tall one.

There was an awkward silence.

"Thanks," said Decker, shrugging. He didn't know what else to say.

"I fear you do not fully understand my sentiment," said the small Xalaxian "Humanity has been friend to Xalax ever since we made first contact generations ago. Without your help we would not have been able to pull our planet of its death spiral. The more of the wider galaxy I see the more I realize how much of a blind fluke of probability that was. How uniquely fortunate for us that it was your people who discovered our probe."

This was really getting awkward.

"I really didn't have anything to do with that," said Decker.

"Perhaps not, but you just risked your life on our behalf. We are in your debt," said the small Xalaxian.

"You're welcome," said Decker, his face burning red with embarrassment.

Decker was saved when a small repulsorcraft, containing Aranarth and driven by Huayi/Eeeek, swooped down and landed in the street. The Xalaxians backed away when they saw it coming.

"Get in," said Aranarth.

"Thanks for the concern everyone," said Decker, with a wave.

"The honor was ours," said the tall Xalaxian.

Still flushed and feeling a little uncomfortable about the whole situation, Decker got into the back seat of the craft. It immediately took off into the air.

"That was close. We're lucky they only had kinetic wands," said Aranarth. "If those had been lances we'd both be dead."

"Yeah," decker sarcastically agreed, "lucky. Is everyone okay? The civilians, I mean."

Aranarth looked at him like he was a particularly stupid mule.

"Is everyone okay? They're dead, Squire."

"No I mean were their mind-states recovered?"

"They're dead. Xalaxians don't have mind-state upload technology. When they die they're dead."

Decker paled visibly.

"What? That's horrible! So all the Xalaxians who died when the space elevator fell..."

Aranarth's look of contempt only grew.

"What did you think you were getting involved in? This is the Corps. We do what we do because if we don't people die. If we sprell up people die. No do over. No back-ups. Dead. This isn't a game, squire. This isn't a Deathrace where you can pretend to be in danger as some kind of a hobby. We're making decisions that affect people's lives. Permanently. I should wash you out right now for asking a question that stupid."

Decker had difficulty swallowing. He couldn't believe how naive he had been. This was bigger than him and all his babbleskite, all his stupid, selfish, nebulous reasons for wanting to join A.R.C.

Aranarth was exactly right; he had been treating this like a Deathrace. The ranger's contempt for him was entirely justified.

He had read essays about it in the canon. He had repeated the words at his squiring ceremony because he knew that was what was expected of him, but now he understood what was meant by the word 'duty'. He would not allow himself to fail these people again. He was going to live up to the promises he made.

"We need to find whoever did this. We need to stop them!" Decker insisted.

"Yes," said Aranarth, coldly. "We do."

"I can not adequately express the shame I feel that fellow Xalaxians would betray our species like this," said Huayi/Eeeek. "How can we stand strong against the enemies without when there are enemies within?"

"If it makes you feel any better there are humans who work for the Long Shadow as well," said Aranarth.

"The Long Shadow? What is this?" asked Huayi/Eeeek.

"It's the name for the Old One intelligence service. Well, not really. It's what we call it. We don't actually know what they call themselves which gives you a bit of an idea of how the Long Shadow conducts itself."

"You believe the traitors who attacked the prison are assets of this 'Long Shadow'?"

"I personally guarantee it," said Aranarth. "They had kinetic wands, personal shields, and equivtech scanner cloaks. That's functionally their uniform. This is also a planet the Old Ones have an interest in. They're Long Shadow alright."

"We must inform Jeeke/Gyeee about this immediately," said Huayi/Eeeek. "The Planetary Security Directorate needs to know what's going on."

"That's probably wise," said Aranarth. "I'll need to get in touch with my people as well."

Decker just sat in the back in utter silence. He had a lot on his mind.