Nightfall_at_Algemron

Blue eyes. Big blue eyes, almost luminous even in this near darkness.
Will you come with me? Enda asked.
Gabriel sat up in the bed, half confused by sleep. How'dyou get in here? Where's the guard? Gabriel, be still and come on!
They made their way swiftly out of the cell and through the dimmed corridors of the security area. Not a soul was to be seen. The one duty officer who routinely manned the desk down at the corridor's end was not there.
Gabriel came out at the end of the corridor, and someone slipped near him from around a corner and threw a cloak over him, the kind of thing an Orlamu based on the station might wear.
"Come on," said Delde Sota's voice as she fell into step beside him. "Window of opportunity only so wide. Put these on." She pushed a pair of shaded glasses into his hands, something like a vacationer might wear on a sunny Bluefall day. "Will help to hide your eyes."
They do attract attention. Enda smiled at him apologetically as he donned the shades.
Ten minutes later they were on the public transport that led down to the main lifts serving the docking spars. The transport was full of a group of people coming back from a party, laughing and joking. No one had time to spare a glance for a fraal, a mechalus, and a sleepy Orlamu, all clinging together like the punchline from some offcolor joke.
The three of them got off the lift and headed down spar five. As they passed a port, Gabriel could see four ships berthed together there. Sunshine, Lalique, Longshot, and another ship he didn't know. To his astonishment, Enda pushed him past the lock serving Sunshine's tube and into the next one along, the one for the larger sleek ship he didn't know, the one as large as Lalique.
"But Enda—!"
"Grawl is handling Sunshine at the moment," she hissed. "Hurry!"
She pushed him into the new ship, shut the outer door and the inner door behind them, slapped the control to disconnect the tube, and headed forward to the pilot's cabin.
"Go, Helm!" she called.
"Grapples away," Helm said down comms, "starfall in one minute. Last one away gets to cook when we come out."
"Enda!" Gabriel raced after her, ditched the cloak and glasses in passing, and slid into the pilot's seat across from her. They were in a cabin that had to be three times the size of Sunshine's. "How did we.? Helm ?"
"Someone died and left it to you," Helm answered. "Who?"
"Bald guy with a funny staff. Just an opinion, of course. Can't swear to it. I didn't see anything. Can we get out of here before he changes his mind?"
"Where are we going?"
"Away out where you can look for all these other strange places you've been told about," Enda said, "and where we can use up all those staples you bought!" She tsked softly. "I really am going to have to find a way to get some more exercise. I shall put on weight, otherwise."
We will certainly have some dealings outside ofthe judicial process, Kharls had said.
The ships arrowed away from the docking spars, and Gabriel looked over his shoulder at the great bulk of Lighthouse. The side turned toward Algemron shone brilliantly. The battle scars from the battle had been thoroughly cleaned, though a few rents in the hull were still being repaired. The vast ship's darker half sparkled with dozens of lights, any one of which could have come from the viewport of the Concord Administrator's office. Perhaps.
You son of a bitch! Gabriel thought as loudly as he could.
Four vessels soared away briefly on system drive, then made starfall.
And all the starfalls were black.
Aboard the Lighthouse, a man in the act of packing his few belongings stood up straight, suddenly possessed of a roaring headache.
I've brought this on myself, he thought.
The Concord Administrator stood there with his head throbbing. The pain was probably only a harbinger of things to come. The events of the past weeks were going to take a good while to settle, and he expected a fair amount of recrimination from his superiors over exactly how his plans had worked out. It was the cross he routinely bore that they usually did not understand what he had been doing, even when he explained it in mind-shattering detail.
Results, though. those they understood. eventually. They would be weeks digesting the ones that had resulted from the events at Algemron. It would give him time to marshal his thoughts and recuperate a little. It never took him long, for completing any piece of work always lent him energy. Then he would start the next plan of action, which would also have to be explained to the people above him in the hierarchy, and which despite the explanation, they also would not understand.
He was used to that, though. Such situations often provided their own refreshments—such as beings who were not his superiors but did understand.
He paused, went out to the window, and looked out into the darkness. There was a greater darkness coming, one with its own terrible agenda and possessing power much greater than had recently been seen. Humanity and its cousins would need all the help they could find in the fight against that encroaching darkness.
If there was anything he was sure of, it was that bureaucracy and governments and armies and mighty weapons were not the force that would finally win that fight. Individuals would do it, people who walked their own road, lifting their single weapons against the night and refusing to be cowed by the darkness around them. They were his kindred spirits, the ones who understood the old saying, "The lifting of the single sword will keep the whole world in peace." He would help them as he could, knowing that their swords and his were lifted in the same cause. Eventually they or their successors would triumph. Months or lifetimes. it did not matter to him. Together they would get the job done, though some of them walked strange roads to do so.
In the meantime, Lorand Kharls smiled to himself, enjoying the headache, for he knew where it came from. Then he picked up his tri-staff and headed off toward his next job.
Glossary
Aegis – A G2 yellow star. The metropolitan center of the Verge.
AI – Artificial Intelligence. Sentient computer programming whose sophistication varies from model to model.
alaith – A tropical tree native to Bluefall. Aleerin – see mechalus. Algemron – A G5 yellow star.
Alitar – Fourth planet of the Algemron system, and home to the Imperial State of Algemron. Angolas – A large asteroid of the Algemron system. AU – Astronomical Unit. 150 million km
Austrin-Ontis Unlimited – A corporate stellar nation that is the strongest arms dealer in the Stellar Ring. Most Austrins view themselves as strong individualists with a deep sense of altruism.
Beranin – Once the largest and most beautiful city of Alitar, Beronin was nearly destroyed by the Galvinites in 2461. It has since been rebuilt as a fortress city.
Bluefall – Capital planet of the Aegis system. Ruled by the Regency government.
Builder – A segment of fraal society that believes in integration with other species and cultures.
Calderon – The innermost world of the Algemron system.
caulia – A red vegetable from the Stellar Ring noted for its rich flavor.
cerametal – An extremely strong alloy made from laminated ceramics and lightweight metals.
charge weapon – A firearm in which an electric firing pin ignites a chemical explosive into a white-hot plasma propellant, thus expelling a cerametallic slug at extremely high velocity.
Churgalt Insurgency – A force of rebels on Galvin who claim that the Federal State of Algemron is in league with unknown aliens.
Churgalt region – A densely forested area of Galvin's equatorial regions. CM armor – cerametal armor. Concord – see Galactic Concord.