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”And here comes the cavalry. Sadly late as usual.” Yrala commented with a grimace. Selendil had taken care of the black rebel ships almost twenty minutes ago. Dozens of white CAS ships were jumping into the system and moving around in seeming confusion, like angry attack dogs seeking for their prey.

"As far as response times go, that's not bad." Moonshadow pointed out. It was certainly much faster than anything the Mrrroww were capable of, though that was mostly due to the time used on traveling through phase space. Phase travel just couldn't compete with the speed of the Hyper Jumps made by the CAS ships.

“As a response time counting from the time they got the word it’s mediocre at best. Assuming they were not ready to jump on a moment’s notice their time was quite good. However, they should’ve been prepared to jump. That’s what defensive fleets like this are there for. If your only job is to respond to unexpected threats, then you better damn well be prepared to respond immediately when the word comes, otherwise there’s no point. They should’ve been here ten minutes ago at the latest. Besides, even if they had been faster, that would be a cold comfort for the people of the agri-world. The rebels could’ve destroyed the colony in this time.” Yrala retorted with a displeased tone.

“How much time could the orbital defenses have bought?” Xiaoli asked. With the exception of certain fortress worlds, it was a sad truth that most orbital defenses were not there to win battles by themselves. They were there to buy time for reinforcements to arrive. Ships were able to take out such defenses from a safe distance if they were willing to take the time to do so. That was the problem with mostly immobile defenses. They were quite hard to miss while ships could avoid attacks from long enough range, or retreat if they suffered damage.

“That depends on how willing the rebels would’ve been to risk losses or potential damage. If they had come prepared to lose a ship or two, then a few minutes at best. This is not a fortified position. Assuming they wanted to play it a bit safer, maybe ten minutes. That would’ve still left more than ten minutes for them to move into position and bombard the colony from orbit. Agri-colonies aren’t exactly known for their defenses against such bombardment, so the colony would’ve been devastated. The only positive thing is that the loss of lives would’ve been relatively low. Agri-colonies are very spread out and the rebels would’ve focused their fire on the crops and not the people. Assuming they didn’t want to do something really heinous to render the planet unusable for a long time, like planet busters. They usually don’t employ such weaponry though.” Yrala speculated.

“How many people live on the planet?” Moonshadow asked.

Nochehuatl consulted his screen that had the system’s specs all listed. “Three million and change. Three million and fifty-six thousand to be exact.”

"Well, I'd say we can take credit for saving at least a million people today," Yrala said. "Not too bad for a day's work."

Moonshadow’s station gave an alert. “And we’re getting a signal from Dalzamar. I’m guessing it’s your mother.”

"I'm surprised the CAS ships didn't try hailing us," Yrala muttered. "That's highly irregular. Even if they had gotten the word about this ship, they still should’ve tried asking some questions about what happened.”

“They did. I explained the situation and passed along the security code Pharaa gave us for this operation. I felt it wasn’t necessary to bother the rest of you with it.” Nox interjected.

Yrala snorted a laugh. “Most CAS fleet commanders hate dealing with AI’s. I’m surprised they were fine with it.”

"I may have neglected to mention they were talking to an AI. Incidentally, Lilly, don't be surprised if some CAS ship captains recognize you. I used your voice and likeness." Nox explained in a joking tone. Nobody was quite sure how serious she was.

“You did what?!” Lilly screamed.

“As much as I’d like to keep Mother waiting, I think it might be better to patch her through before she gets her tails in a knot.” Yrala pointed out.

“They patched me through a while ago.” Pharaa’s voice came from a display on the sidewall. “Incidentally, I’m glad to know you’d like to keep me waiting. I’ll keep that in mind the next time you’re in a hurry.”

“Whyyyyy?” Yrala asked with her ‘pretending to be betrayed’-voice while looking at Moonshadow.

Moonshadow grinned. “I thought it only fair to let her know why we were taking our time to respond. Have to observe some basic politeness after all.”

“If you’re done fooling around.” Selendil prompted them a bit with a serious voice.

"I don't think they are done," Xiaoli added her own fuel to the fire. “And don’t pretend like you’re not enjoying watching them make fools of themselves. I see the way your tails are wiggling.”

"I never said it wasn't amusing," Selendil admitted freely. “But I assumed Pharaa had a reason to contact us.”

“I did, though it’s not very serious. It seems your little performance did the trick. The satellites caught most of it on video, and that video is already spreading around. The military people are having a field day breaking the whole thing apart in order to either copy the tactic or to come up with a way to counter it.” Pharaa explained.

"Good luck," Yrala grumbled. She remembered Selendil's explanation of the tactic and the futility of countering it.

Pharaa smiled evilly. "Yes, I suspect they might have a tough time with it. I was quite impressed personally, and that’s not an easy feat. This was exactly the sort of display I was hoping for. Not only did you counter an entire rebel fleet, albeit not a large one, alone, but you also did it in a way that could easily be used against the CAS as well. Well done. This should be enough to do the trick.”

“So you’ll help us with the other part of our deal?” Moonshadow brought up the rest of their little trade. They still had to visit certain systems to search for signs of visitors from outside the galaxy.

“Yes, although that’ll have to wait until you get the Hyper Jump on your ship working. Some of the places you need to visit have little to no phase lanes that can be used. While it might be possible for you to find a route, it’s much easier if you just jump there. One of our larger ships could take you, but I’d imagine this would be a good way to test your core as well. Besides, if we send too many ships at once, it might be taken the wrong way. The one system you seem to be the most suspicious about needs the core to be operational. Our ships won’t approach the place, and the phase space around the area is a mess.” Pharaa suggested.

They exchanged some pleasantries and time estimates before Pharaa cut the connection. Once they all had a moment to breathe, Amaterasu turned to Yrala. “What happened to your previous ships and command? I’m asking mostly because if I was someone trying to create trouble for you, that would be the next place that I would go for.”

Yrala nodded. “Luckily Mother has a devious mind just like you. She already arranged for my old ship and crew to be assigned to a cushy posting under another Eriad Lightbringer. He’ll keep them safe while I’m on your ship. Well, he’ll keep them as safe as you can be on a warship during a war. It’s a dangerous career choice at the best of times, and these aren’t the best of times.”

“So you’re still worried?” Amaterasu asked.

“Of course I am. I’ve known some of those people for years. Still, they’re competent people and we’ve made it as difficult to make trouble for them as possible.” Yrala shrugged.

Moonshadow looked at Selendil. “Do you think you could warp me back home for a few days while we wait for the core to be finished? I’d like to find out what the current situation with the Shinzen is. The whole thing was left a bit ambiguous the last time we visited.”

“That should be fine.” Selendil nodded. They had to wait around for a while anyway.

“Ooh, I and Amaterasu could take Yrala to visit Haven as well!" Xiaoli suggested. "She'd get the honor of being the first Eriad to visit another galaxy.”

Selendil simply waved her acceptance. It didn’t matter to her if she warped one or more people. “Speaking of Shinzen, I wonder how their little operation against the Cortoids is going?” Lilly asked rhetorically.

--------

The Queen felt satisfaction. Great satisfaction. Learning and implementing lessons always brought her pleasure, but this one was especially satisfying. Not only had they learned from their enemy and were turning this war against them decisively, but they had also managed to implement the lesson the Great Teacher had tried to tell them before. It seemed there truly was a benefit to sparing some of these weak races. She still had some trouble with the concept of ‘mercy’ but she was getting there.

Of course, it helped that she was one of the new Queens. All of the Shinzen had been forced to admit that the Queens created from the crystals found deep in phase space were superior to the old ones. Not only were they stronger, but they also had some ability with this 'communication' thing the Great Teacher had also told them about. She had repeatedly 'communicated' with many of these weak races and she had learned much. It was almost a shame they all kept dying while she 'communicated' with them. Well, fortunately she had managed to learn the concept of a language as well.

The way these lesser beings used their mouths to make noises to ‘communicate’ was so inefficient! Both the Shinzen and the Great Ones could use their minds to really exchange ideas and relay information in an instant, and she had tried the same with these weak races. For some reason they didn't seem to have that capability. Instead, they used this inefficient language thing. It took so long to relay what you wanted, and even then there were no words for many of the things she wanted to convey. And then there was the fact that apparently these lesser beings didn’t even have the decency to all speak one language. That had been another new concept she had learned. Decency. The concept seemed to have multiple meanings, but some of the ideas were sound, mainly the parts about proper conduct. She wasn’t so sure about all that murky stuff surrounding the reproduction of these weird creatures, but some concepts simply had good sides and bad sides. Why you would mix proper conduct and reproduction she didn’t know.

Anyway, this language stuff had allowed them to make use of the lessons the Great One had tried to teach them. At first, these inferior beings had acted in a very hostile manner, but they had become more pliable after she had killed some of the more annoying ones. Suddenly this language stuff had become a lot more efficient at getting the message across. Maybe she should try it more often? Fear seemed to be a very efficient communication tool, and you didn’t even need this ‘language’ for it to work. Anyway, she had relayed a simple message to these lesser beings. Attack the blasphemers and the Shinzen will stop killing you.

The message had been well received and accepted, or so it seemed at least, and the lesser beings had actually proved useful. The Shinzen were no strangers to tactics, that had been one of their earliest lessons learned after all, but apparently there was more to this tactics stuff than they had originally thought. These lesser beings knew when to attack and where to cause the maximum effect. And apparently disrupting the ‘communication’ of the blasphemers was very effective. Who knew such a simple method could be used to disrupt the enemy? Apparently just stopping their ships from talking to each other suddenly threw them into complete disorder, and it worked every time. It seemed in addition to being unable to learn, the blasphemers were really dependent on this communication thing. Yet another reason why the Shinzen should not adopt such bad habits, except when absolutely necessary.

In any case, these new tactics had made one of the older tactics of the Shinzen much more effective. The Shinzen had always been masters at wars of attrition. Not only could they rebuild their ships quickly, but their ships were not manned so there was no need to train crews. And they learned from every battle. Every time they fought the blasphemers, they fought with more effectiveness. The carapace of their creatures became more effective against the enemy weapons, the tactics that the enemy used turned ineffective, and the Shinzen Queens became more powerful.

The Queen had been part of several large battles where large enemy fleets had been destroyed or crippled, and apparently the blasphemers were running out of ships. Every time they fought now, the enemy fleets were smaller and fought more conservatively, and it seemed that whatever ships they had left had been pulled to protect their most important systems. That left many worlds for the Shinzen and the inferior races to take. It also allowed the Shinzen time to adapt many of the technologies they had taken for study.

Even now their ships and weapons were much more effective. The blasphemers had used a weird weapon in a battle some weeks ago, and the weapon had wiped out half of the Shinzen fleet. Nevertheless, the enemy had lost and the weapon had fallen into their hands. The Queen had personally executed the people guarding the weapon, which had been a worthy fight. The Shinzen had tried to copy the weapon, but it worked in a way that they had seen only once before. It had similarities with the tiny ship the older Queens had taken apart on the Great One’s ship. They could not copy it yet, though they might with enough time. They could, however, adapt this one for their own use. Apparently, the blasphemers had thought it to be single-use, but the Shinzen knew how to fix that. They had learned from the Great One's ship after all.

The Queen looked on with pride as the weapon was successfully joined with a new ship of theirs. The ship was a gigantic plantlike vessel that could regenerate from almost any damage. The Shinzen had discovered that such ships grew well in this galaxy. The appearance of the Shinzen of this galaxy in general had turned a bit more plantlike to take advantage of that fact. There was just something about the stars and the soil of this galaxy that made plant-like constructs more effective. It also seemed the blasphemers had some difficulties in dealing with ships that large. It was true that the core of a ship of that size could project a very powerful defensive field. It had simply been too hard to create cores that were powerful enough to support such ships before, but these new crystalline cores could do it. Unfortunately, it took longer to grow such large ships. This one had taken months to grow. Hopefully, it would prove worth the time and effort.

They would start their assault on the core systems of the blasphemers very soon. They knew the resistance they would face would be much stronger than any they had faced before, so they had to prepare properly. Most likely the first fleets to go in would all be wiped out, so it was better to make sure those were easy to replace. Luckily they had taken over many of the old shipyards of the blasphemers and the inferior races had constructed new ones as well. These weak races were not very good in battle, but they were good at building things. Once they understood what the Shinzen wanted and needed, they were quick to adapt.

Of course, the weak races had tried to put traps in place for the time the blasphemers were defeated. Those traps were quickly found though, and it was something new the Shinzen had learned. It wasn't a bad idea. The Queen wasn't entirely sure why they had done it, but the idea was good. They would have to keep it in mind. The Queen had been forced to punish the weak beings of course, but she had kept it light thanks to the new lesson. Not too many weaklings had died.

There was something that the Shinzen all wished though. They hoped that the Great One would return soon. She had given them the mission of punishing the blasphemers, and they had taken to the mission with gusto and excitement. But it would be nice if the Great One would return in time to see their success. The Shinzen all wanted to show off what good job they had done. Maybe the Great One would have other lessons for them if they did well. Maybe she could help them reunite with the ones that had been left behind.