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

down from the surface. They were native plants that grew until the bulbs on them became so heavy they detached and sank like slow little bombs all the way to the seafloor…except they rarely made it that far before being snatched up as free food by many different races, including some that couldn’t eat them, for which the sun saplings became toys until they tired of carrying them around in their mouths or tentacles.

Ariel hadn’t found an ublu yet today, but just as she detected a large presence on the horizon of her senses she got a comm via her narrow crown that was holding the forward part of her green hair from drifting down into her face.

The Elarioni immediately spun upward, heading straight to the surface as fast as her tail could take her as she summoned an aqua-pod to her location, with the water-filled anti-grav ‘egg’ craft popping up out of the water above the nearest underwater tower and cheat traveling through the air to cover the hundreds of miles of distance far faster than one could underwater.

It was waiting for her by the time she reached the surface, hovering a meter over the water until she called it down and slithered inside, rubbing her tail over the edge of the hatch that quick sealed up again, leaving her in a small booth large enough to hold four Elarioni or something larger, but to her it still felt incredibly confined…especially when it left the ocean waters for the air…which for a water breather was a toxic environment.

Fortunately she didn’t have to travel through it for long as the ‘egg’ took her to one of the settlements in this cluster where new arrivals were constantly coming in near a submerged shipyard that was building both aquatic and naval warships for her use here and across the star system.

Ariel had the egg drop her in the water just outside the settlement, then she swam in through one of the numerous entry points on her own, navigating the ‘safe’ zone that was surrounded by shield walls to keep the predators and other native beings out of the Star Force city. She eventually came to a receiving area where many dropships were floating and offloading passengers from the aquatic transports in orbit that were not designed to land themselves on a planet.

And out of one of those dropships had come a single V’kit’no’sat that was waiting patiently on the floor, curled up three times into a coil as his triple tail flicked in a slow rhythm that Ariel sensed was eagerness.

The Elarioni swam over to the Joor’nak with a smile on her face.

Hello there. My name is Ariel. I was told you were coming. I’m glad they finally sent one of you. I am in great need of your help.

Are you, little one? Bio’bo said suspiciously. What do you require of me that your empire does not already have in ample amounts?

Size. Most like you have gone to combat. Building has been left to the smaller races.

There were many Elarioni that came to the war to rescue me.

I didn’t say the small ones only built, but when combat calls a single Joor’nak is far more capable than a single Elarioni. We become dangerous in numbers, and numbers have a habit of thinning in war. Star Force does not like to fight in this way, so the bigger you are, the better suited you are for fighting the Hadarak in the contested oceans. How is it that I have the fortune of claiming you?

I was told this is where I could help the most, so I chose it, Bio’bo said, loosening his coil a bit as his head raised up even to where Ariel floated. You are the ancient Matriarch I was told about?

Depends on what you mean by ‘ancient.’ You are probably far older, are you not?

I am half as old as Star Force. I am told you predate it?

We began at nearly the same time, though I did not originate within it. I was rescued by Star Force and taught the ways of self-sufficiency, and have sought to repay that debt ever since. This system is my great repayment, and I need your assistance along with that of many others.

Explain how I may help.

The waters are savage. Beyond the safe zones carnage occurs on such a scale my people here cannot free swim in them…but you can. Nothing here can match your strength, nor will many try. In nature your biology holds supreme, and where you go the others will adjust to your presence…whereas they will attack me not knowing my strength. Your strength is obvious, and I need it for many tasks, but primarily so you can free swim where others cannot.

What dangers are there here?

Many threats lurk, few show themselves until revealed. The ocean is scared, even the predators, and I do not know why. If there is something greater here to scare them, I have not yet found it.

Have you searched their minds?

Yes, but I have found no encounters to justify it. The tenseness is not something I have encountered in other waters, but it is everywhere on this world and several of the others in the system, but not all. Not most. I cannot explain it.

You wish me to solve this mystery for you?

That is not why I asked for a Joor’nak, but I would be glad if you did.

Show me the threats you have encountered, Bio’bo said, then he received a telepathic data dump far too complex and powerful for the tiny Elarioni to produce.

How are your skills this advanced? The others of your race were not so powerful of the mind.

I am unique, and have been enhanced by the Trailblazers themselves. I hold great honor in this, and they have bestowed upon me genetic upgrades knowing