Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera by A.K. DuBoff (jenna bush book club TXT) 📕

“Like Lower Dynasties with grander political aspirations?” Raena suggested.

“Arvonen certainly wasn’t an isolated case.”

She sighed. “What do we do about it?”

“For now, monitor the situation. The Guard has taken renewed notice of the planet’s activities in light of these events, so it will be a while before the perpetrators have the breathing room to try anything else.”

“All right, we’ll let you get to bed.”

“Thank you for going over this with us,” Ryan added.

“Anytime.” Cris smiled warmly at them. “We’re on the right track. Stay the course.”

She nodded. “Talk soon.” She terminated the vidcall.

“Well, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.” Despite his upbeat tone, Ryan still looked concerned.

“I suppose so.” If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. At least a crisis was averted today.

She was about to lock down her desk and suggest they head for bed when a message came in from her father’s handheld. The desk lit up with the urgent communication.

“Fok! Of course there would be something else,” Ryan muttered.

Raena answered. “Hey—”

“They’re heading for Tararia,” he cut in. “Dahl gave me a heads up. Nothing on scan yet. We’re headed your way on the Conquest.”

Ryan froze. “Oh, my stars…”

“I want you up here with us,” Wil continued. “Ryan, you’re welcome to come along.”

Raena’s heart pounded in her ears. “Okay.”

“We’ll be there in five hours. See you then.” The call ended.

Ryan swallowed. “By ‘they’, I take it he means the aliens?”

“I assume so.” Her stomach flopped. They’re coming here? How?

“I thought they came through the Rift? How are they getting all the way over here?”

“I have no idea.”

His brows furrowed. “Do we warn people?”

“What could we say? An invisible enemy is coming to vaporize our planet?”

“No… I don’t know.”

Their eyes met. Fear. Concern. But also determination.

“We’ll stop them,” Raena said. “I not sure how, but we’ll find a way.”

He gave a resolute nod. “Let’s get ready.”

—     —     —

The initial traces of spatial distortions had begun to form around Tararia by the time the Conquest dropped out from subspace. Two dozen other TSS warships were waiting for them, along with four times as many from the Guard.

Wil assessed the preliminary scan data with Saera. “Well, I guess this is it.”

“Time to find out what we’re really up against,” Raena said from behind him. She stood hand-in-hand with her husband, both looking worn. They’d only arrived on board a few minutes prior and had yet to settle in.

Wil, Saera, and Jason occupied the middle seats in the Command Center. They’d telepathically linked with the ship to get a real-time feed of the scan data so they could monitor the situation. It was feeling eerily similar to the conditions around Alkeer before the attack.

“Come on, join us up here,” Wil suggested, motioning to the two remaining seats on the central dais.

“Even though we’re not TSS officers?” Raena asked.

“You graduated from the TSS. That’s enough qualification for me.”

They obliged, though they didn’t seem entirely comfortable. Granted, the situation didn’t lend itself to feeling at ease.

“Any movement around the other Rift?” Wil asked.

Saera brought up a galactic map with status indicators of various incidents as well as locations of ships. No red was showing near the Rift in the Outer Colonies.

All the same, Wil wanted to confirm with Michael. He initiated a vidcall in a window at the base of the front viewscreen.

“We’re in position,” Wil reported as soon as the call connected. “The spatial distortions are growing.”

“We’ve been monitoring from here. What’s the plan?” Michael asked.

“We’re going to attempt to make contact. Still working out the ‘how’.”

“Okay. What about the fleet by the Rift?”

“Keep a quarter of the ships there. Have the rest disperse to the most populated colony worlds nearby.”

Michael nodded to acknowledge the order, thankfully not protesting to the unspoken subtext. Breaking up the fleet wouldn’t offer protection to those worlds, but it would make the people feel better. That was all they could do.

“We’ll be in touch,” Wil said.

“Good luck.”

The call ended.

“What is the plan?” Saera asked telepathically.

“We try to talk in terms they’ll understand.” Wil’s greatest regret from the last encounter at Alkeer was that he’d waited until the aliens had fully emerged before they’d tried to make contact. Under normal circumstances, that would have been the right move. But these aliens were different. This situation was different. ‘Wait and see’ wasn’t a viable approach.

They had no idea how to pronounce the alien language, or if it even could be spoken aloud, but they did have the tablet of the dialect in its written form.

“CACI,” he addressed the onboard AI, “can you generate a written translation program for the alien languages on the Treaty Tablet?”

“The tablet contains enough language to translate with eighty-two percent accuracy,” CACI replied.

“All right, ignore the Gatekeeper language for now, aside from using it as a reference point for translation accuracy. In the other unidentified language, please attempt to translate the following message from New Taran: ‘We come in peace. We wish to speak with you. What is the name of your race?’ End message.”

“Processing.”

A couple of seconds later, a text message in foreign characters appeared on the lower portion of the viewscreen.

“All right. Let’s get their attention.” Wil accessed the ship’s controls using the bioelectronic interface. “Ready to see how this new imager works?”

“Yes, let’s put a face to these guys,” Jason replied.

“Entering momentary communications blackout.”

Wil activated the imaging protocol, drawing enough simultaneous energy from the PEM to cut out all but life support systems. The front viewscreen refreshed as soon as the burst was complete.

“Well, they should know we’re onto their game now,” he said.

The resulting image from the transdimensional