Coeus?

“

Be everywhere at once and in the end you are nowhere. Believe me, it's true. God tried it.

”

-A wise man's idea

***Kaus Borealis, Coeus***

***Gideon***

I lean back in my rocking chair and start using it to its full capabilities. Everyone else inside the conference room has to use the uncomfortable stools, which don't even count as real chairs. At least in my mind.

“Are you sure that you feel well enough?” Cyla whispers from my left.

“Yeah, sure. They recharged me with a defibrillator. I am back to normal as far as I can tell. Though it seems like they incinerated the few hairs which I had on my chest. That's it for being a manly man.” I grumble and try to forget my awakening. If you believe yourself safely in your bed and wake up being surrounded by unknown people... let's just say it's not an experience I want to repeat.

“They had to restart your heart!?” Cyla asks shocked. “Gideon, do you have a death wish?”

“No. And I am sorry. The experiment was a stupid whim of mine. I'll never again experiment like that. I promise. There, are you happy?”

Ed clears his throat to silence the room. There are three more high ranking officials besides us and him inside the room. One is a diplomat from the contact team, Bertram Thug. Another is the leader of the linguists, Paula Schwarz. The third new person Phillipe Etoulie, psychoanalyst.

The fire-mage elder Zibil Firestorm is leading this meeting via a secure connection to Sol. His avatar is projected onto one of the empty chairs and just debriefed us once more to ensure that everyone knows what's going on.

An hour ago one of our reconnaissance platforms registered a fleet of sixty-seven ships passing through Tarazed. They were coming from Sham and if they are keeping their course, then they are going somewhere in the direction of Albaldah, Shaula or Antares.

The problem is that the Forlorn's settled worlds are in that direction. Judging by everything which we learned so far it's very likely that the fleet belongs to the Drazi.

Zibil's avatar crosses his arms in front of his chest. “So we elders have to decide what to do. The Forlorn are a potential future ally and we got information which they might need. We could hide the fact that we saw that fleet long before they arrived in Forlorn space, but we don't think that the Forlorn will react well if they ever find out that we could have warned them.”

“What's the problem in giving them the information?” Paula Schwarz asks. “I don't see the problem in telling them that possible enemies are on their way?”

I raise my finger. “The problem is that by telling them we give up several of our hidden cards. First, they'll know for sure that we have FTL-communication.”

“It's very likely that they've already figured out that one.” Ed throws in his own thought.

I continue. “Yes, but they certainly don't have an idea of how powerful it really is. So far they can only guess at the speed and amount of information we can process.

Second, Their ship isn't able to carry the information to their people in time. They know that we are faster than them, so they'll surely ask us. The question is if we want to reveal our method of star travel to them? We would have to reveal our weapon platform to reach the Forlorn in time. Probably we would also need to fight their battle.”

Our weapon's platform is a powerhouse with seventy mark eight fusion reactors. That's equal to an asteroid colony. It's able to carry our whole fleet over thirty light-years in a single jump. Originally we designed it as an armed shipyard with limited repair functions, but someone decided to turn it into a juggernaut for fleet assistance.

We also thought about something like a fleet carrier, but we ditched the entire concept. Our biggest ships have a hard time even scratching the enemy. There is no point in creating a swarm of annoying mosquitoes if they aren't able to deliver a deadly punch.

Small ships lack the needed power level to take on the enemy and our rockets don't need to be carried to their target.

Zibil nods slowly. “So we called you to get a few final opinions from the contact team at the site and the fleet's commander. What you say now may very well influence our decision.”

Oh, that's right. I totally forgot that I am the fleets most experienced ship commander. That makes me the one who's responsible in case something unforeseen happens.

The elder changes his attention to Paula. The blue haired linguist starts fidgeting in her chair. “All I can say is that we seem to be able to communicate nicely. The initial problems were solved. The misunderstandings are getting fewer, so it's not like the Forlorn are too alien. They can be considered as unproblematic neighbours.”

Phillipe Etoulie takes over. “From our point of view they seem to be on an understandable level. Their society can be compared to human societies from Earth, though I warn of humanizing them. They are far from that.

It seems like bargaining with them is possible.”

The wiry Bertram is next. “From a diplomatic point of view we can deal with them. Though there seem to be things which they try to avoid telling us. But it's on the expected level. We aren't telling them everything either. It's much too early to say anything for sure regarding the Forlorn.

But! I wouldn't make this decision dependent on the Forlorn alone. We have to keep in mind that they seem to represent just one species among many.

I've no doubt that we can afford angering the Forlorn. The important question is if we can afford looking bad in front of the other races. The Zeen at least seem to have their fingers in many different pots. And there is one of them with the Forlorn contact team.”

Zibil nods slowly. “I'll forward that last consideration to the other elders. It has to be considered that we could cut off relations with other species if we don't warn the Forlorn. We'll have to publicly emphasize the point that the Forlorn aren't responsible for the Oibras incident in that case.”

The elder's avatar flickers and disappears.

We spend our time with talking until he finally reappears again half an hour later. “Tell them. If the Drazi are really as dangerous as they are saying then it's better if they have to chew on the Forlorn as long as possible. Also assist them if you can, but don't put the fleet unnecessarily at risk.” He disappears again.

I purse my lips. “Well, that was a short set of instructions with a lot of room for interpretation.”

Ed smacks his forehead. “Let's go to the habitat. The faster we get this over with the better.”

***Kaus Borealis, Asteroid Habitat***

***Ilin Kleio***

“Look. This time we get the big bosses as visitors.” Ayo points at the approaching group of aliens.

I turn away from the alien whom I was just talking to. “How can you tell them apart from each other? I am still envying you for that ability. The only ones I can identify are the technicians and that's only because there are just two of them.”

Ayo happily approaches the new arrivals and raises a hand to greet the male technician. “May you live long and prosper. I've watched the first twenty episodes of Star Trek, just as you suggested. It was very interesting to learn about one of your race's fantasies.”

Gideon also raises his hand. “I see that you took a liking to the Vulcans, but sadly we have no time to waste in idle talking. We've found something disturbing and we want to hear your opinion on it.” He raises a hand and the miniature sun above us dims down. Then a huge star chart appears above our heads.

I recognize the part of space which is supposedly between us Forlorn and the Mages. The chart also spans a huge part of the space down the spiral arm.

“A few hours ago we spotted a fleet of sixty-seven ships. They are heading towards your worlds.” Gideon informs us. “We think they are Drazi. And they are going in this direction.”

Another wave of his hand zooms in on a star further down the galactic arm and I get to see a map of a solar system with a cloud of ships and a dotted line which is indicating their path.

One of our military advisers steps forward, looking at the holographic display above us. “By the two suns. There are enough of them to punch through our standing defences. It'll take days to gather enough ships to stop them. How old is this information?”

“It's happening now.” Gideon answers bored.

Ayo starts dancing and twirling around himself, causing all the aliens to step away from him. “Instant communication over several dozen light years! That's even more interesting than gravity manipulation. How far can you reach?”

The technicians remain silent on the matter. Apparently they have no intention of sharing their technology with us.

I already noticed that they are avoiding to tell us how this magic of theirs works exactly. All we get are very abstract explanations. The female technician outright refused to explain magic, insisting that she has no idea how to explain it. When Ayo asked for her to try anyway she simply asked back 'And how do I explain the sense of touch to someone who doesn't have that sense?'.

The military adviser folds all his hands to his body. “This is infuriating. We can't even get this information back to the senate. There is no time to make a difference. They'll run amok on our worlds.”

“How can they run amok on a world with that few ships?” Gideon asks. “They don't have the troops. Someone would need five hundred thousand ships of that size to subdue the population of an entire planet.”

Ayo stops his weird dance and freezes up.

I shake my head. “I think you underestimate the determination of the Drazi. They'll throw asteroids on the planet and eliminate major population and industry centres. Once the planet's population is beaten beyond recovery they land a small group of colonists and start reproducing. Their numbers can explode within a few years and they have no problem with fighting a ground war that lasts for generations.”

The masked one tilts his head. “If it's like that, then we'll deliver the information for you. You just have to tell us what you want to say to your authorities.”

Our military adviser shakes his head. “It won't help. The only fleet which is powerful enough to stop them outright is at the home system. We need to collect ships from several worlds to stop them, even if our ships are more powerful than theirs.”

Gideon turns to Cyla and makes a strange gesture, pointing at his head. “It seems like they've spread their forces so thin that they can't stop an incursion.”

The female technician elbows him.

I look to the ground. There is no need to ask for the meaning of that gesture. The worst thing is that Gideon is right. We've made a fatal mistake even though we knew what's coming. But who knew that such a big fleet appears out of nowhere?

Ayo steps forward, facing the aliens. “Can't you stop them?”

.