Darkest before Dawn
by Warringer
Chapter Two
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T'Kor stared at the screen of his Q'Quan cruisers bridge for the n-th time. He had stopped to count the times he had stared at the strange light gray colored ship that floated close to Kotoks single moon.
It had appeared from nowhere two weeks ago and hadn't changed position since than. However, it had started to transmit on several radio band frequencies using a code that was close to Interlac, a mathematical language that was used by many races.
It had needed a day until tachyon communication with Narn had come to a result and the orders to try and communicate with the unknowns. Interlac First Contact protocols had been transmitted by the Narn ships and after a week something like a communication was building up.
Informations were exchanged. It wasn't much, but enough to learn some about the strange ship and its crew. The ship was called Pathfinder and the crew was coming from a planet they called Gaja, or something close. The crew called themselves Sounansha1.
Until now they hadn't shown their faces, but that was only a matter of time, as the video systems had proven to be incompatible. But it seemed that they made fast process in creating a matter of using video communication.
"We are getting a video transmission," one of T'Kors subordinates said," Its coming from Pathfinder."
T'Kor nodded, holding onto his chair to now float out of it in the microgravity environment of his ship.
"Put it through," he said and he wasn't the only one who was interested in finally seeing the Sounansha.
The screen changed from showing the huge triangle shaped vessel, and showed a being that looked like a Centauri at the first glance. But before T'Kor could say anything about that, he noticed the differences.
The skin color of the being on the screen was paler than those of the Centauri, even if it was a Centauri noble. The hair was completely white and not formed into the hair crest the Centauri males had, it was rather cut short and covered the whole head, hanging down, not standing up.
But the most prominent thing were the red eyes. Eyes red as those of the Narn. But that wasn't all. The eyes seemed to glow from the inside.
The Sounansha smiled, and again showed that he wasn't Centauri, as he didn't have the long canines of a Centauri.
The being said something in a strange language, and she screen showed an Interlac subtitle.
T'Kor presumed that it was a good idea, especially as the computer of his ship translated the Interlac into Narn.
"Greetings," T'Kor could read," I am Michael Storski, the commander of this vessel."
T'Kor nodded towards a subordinate and straightened.
"I am T'Kor," he said and hoped that the Interlac translation and subtitling worked on his end of the com line," Commander of the K'Nor."
The Sounansha named Michael Storski smiled a bit more.
"I am glad to see you from face to face," the subtitle read, but an alarm noise brought T'Kor away from reading the rest of the subtitle.
"Multiple Jump Points forming," a subordinate said and mentioned a direction.
T'Kor had dreaded this. It could only mean one thing.
"Dilgar," the subordinate confirmed T'Kors thoughts.
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Decades ago, the Dilgar had waged war across Known Space, years before their homesystem was destroyed as their sun went nova. The had attacked the League of Nonalligned Worlds and than the Narn. Numerous systems fell to the Dilgar Armada and billions of sentient beings died in the cause of the war.
In the end it was the attack of the Dilgar on Centauri space that halted their advance through the neighboring space and it was the Centauri Fleet that pressed them into a form of peace. The Narn never had thought that it would be a Centauti who would come to help, however they had to say that the young Emperor Turhan was different to his predecessors.
He had sowhat stabilized the relation ship between Centauri and Narn, but it hadn't stopped the Narn from hating the Centauti. The only hated the Ancient Enemy of G'Quan more than the Centauri and the Dilgar.
Even through the war had ended the Dilgar still fought against the other races, sending raids towards minor systems to take everything with them that wasn't nailed down.
Now a Dilgar raiding force had come to Kotok, one of the tradeworlds of the Narn. Kotok was important to the Narn, carrying about ten to twelve percent of the whole import and export of the Narn and being a traffic trade hub for the surrounding worlds of the League and the Narn Regime.
The Dilgar Raid would disturb this peace and productivity.
The Dilgar vessels, two heavy cruisers and several smaller frigates left jump space and immediately launched fighters, which went after the numerous smaller trade vessels.
The Narn force went towards the Dilgar force at full burn, leaving Pathfinder alone and open to attacks of a Dilgar Heavy Cruiser that left jump space just after the Narn had pulled towards the main force and close to the moon.
The commander of the Heavy Cruiser noticed Pathfinder, assuming it to be a large freighter, attacked.
1 I just hope that 'sounansha' really means 'survivor' in Japanese.