The Powers That Be by Aer-ki Jyr (best pdf reader for ebooks txt) 📗

They had to swim further before there was a break in the buildings to see what was the source of the detonation…and to Bio’bo’s dismay a ship had crashed into the water right on top of the Hadarak swarms assaulting the city spires where the Dan’chey and others were putting up some light defensive fire.

But the ship that had ‘crashed’ had done so intentionally, for it was now spewing out thousands of tiny objects that were engaging the minion swarms and immediately diverting them from the spire fields they had been destroying.

Do you know what those are? Bio’bo asked.

Tiny aquatic troops from Star Force called ‘Elarioni.’ Fast but weak. Ferocious like Rit’ko’sor, but smell better.

Bio’bo took the next junction as suggested, doing a corkscrew upwards and around a bend until sliding back down into an angular path that brought them up on another line of Dan’chey walking slowly in the water and using their tails for as much extra propulsion as they could. The Joor’nak picked all of them up, leaving Bio’bo with three riders in total, and slowing him down considerably, but it seemed the minions were too distracted by the Elarioni to care…for the most part. Two of their lumpy masses saw the Joor’nak and swam down through the buildings to come after them, but the combined telekinetic defense ripped them in half before they could get close enough to harm them.

They swam on without incident all the way to the telepathic beacon, where they saw several giant straws dipping down from the distant surface to the city floor, inside of which there was a current taking those nearby upwards…which several mechanical beasts flanking the entrance of the straws and occasionally firing tiny projectiles upwards to intercept Hadarak minions getting too close.

Where do those go? one of his Dan’chey riders asked.

I do not know, but the only way off this planet is by starship.

Perhaps it is Satu to another region?

Whatever it is, we are going in. If you wish to stay here, detach now.

We will go as far as you will take us.

Then hold on, Bio’bo said as other aquatic races were pinching in around them as they were all crowding together to get into the current being sucked into the giant straw. The Joor’nak tried to make sure their Dan’chey clingers didn’t get scraped off by collisions, having to telekinetically nudge others aside when needed, but then they felt the grip of the current grab them and haul them upwards…but nobody floated with it. Instead they raced up it to get away from the combat as fast as possible, with Joor’nak being the slowest of the group other than the loose Dan’chey that were being bumped around like toys as the true swimmers passed them by.

He grabbed two more that were being helplessly smashed into the sidewalls and added them to his riders, shoving a Garas’tox aside with a jab to its neck when it slapped a fin on his tail. That more than got his attention and the sleek ‘superior’ V’kit’no’sat swam by him with an angry glance, but kept his distance. The discord being shown here was very un-V’kit’no’sat-like, and Bio’bo wondered if all the underpinnings of the empire were now gone as well as their territory and leadership.

When they got to the top of the straw Bio’bo saw he had been right, for they swam out into a much larger receiving area surrounded by shield walls at a distance. Dan’chey covered the floor as they walked/swam forward towards receiving ports that had little Elarioni stationed at them giving telepathic orders on the other side of the walls, through which the Joor’nak passed, seeing the normal murky waters of the planet clear up immediately as the residue in the water was filtered out.

It smelled fresher than Bio’bo could ever remember sensing.

Thank you, Joor’nak, the Dan’chey said, all letting go simultaneously and drifting to the distant floor below where their kin were as Bio’bo swam on ahead and got in line behind a Sess’nat. When it passed through another shield gate, the huge Joor’nak came to a halt with a reverse wave that made the Elarioni swim for a moment to hold position.

I and the other Joor’nak wish to accept the Star Force invitation to join in the war against the Hadarak. Until now we have been unable to make contact.

Noted, she said as a scanning beam reached out and contacted Bio’bo’s armor. Please allow genetic sampling so we can catalog you. I will attach your intentions to your file and once you reach a safe port you will be redirected accordingly.

Bio’bo retracted his armor into a single collar that ran around his ‘neck’ just behind his head, which allowed the beam to contact his flesh and take a sample.

Follow the markers, the Elarioni said as holographic orbs formed in front of him like escorts and directed him through the indoor pond they were now within towards a specific aperture in the distance.

From there he was essentially a prisoner onboard a Star Force aquatics transport, feeling very confined in the ‘small’ ship that was appropriately large for his size, but with many areas configured for the smaller aquatics races, leaving him and the other Joor’nak with limited movement options as they were eventually taken away from the planet and began a long journey across the stars…but one where they did not have to worry about J’gar ambushes, for they wouldn’t dare strike a Star Force ship, knowing what payback would come if they did. Star Force may have been seen as ‘timid’ to the V’kit’no’sat in their aversion to offensive combat, but everyone knew their sense of vengeance had been inherited from the V’kit’no’sat and had not been tempered by the Rim.

Attack them, and you would lose more than a few