Arc 1, Chapter 4: Coordinates and Consequences
The safe zone turned out to be a galactic graveyard.
Dead stars and planetary debris drifted through space in a cosmic ballet of destruction. Whatever had happened here, it had been catastrophic, and thorough. Stellar counted at least seven shattered worlds on the long-range sensors, their remains forming asteroid fields that would take centuries to fully disperse.
"Cheerful place," Clark observed from his station. "Nothing says 'safe' quite like the aftermath of systematic planetary annihilation."
"It's off The Confluence's charts because there's nothing here worth claiming," James explained. He stood near the viewscreen, his mechanical arm hanging loose at his side. The fight had taken something out of him. Not physically, but emotionally. Stellar could see it in the set of his shoulders, the way his organic eye kept drifting to the empty space where his crew's ships should have been. "No resources, no habitable worlds, no strategic value. They swept through this system two hundred years ago, harvested what they wanted, and moved on."
"Two hundred years," Carmelon repeated, moving closer to study the debris field. Mitchell had gone uncharacteristically quiet, perched on the professor's shoulder like a statue. "That's a long time to leave a system untouched. What exactly are we looking at here? What were these worlds before The Confluence came?"
James was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice carried the weight of witnessed history. "A civilization called the Korath. They were....beautiful, from what I learned. Peaceful. Artistic. They'd reached space flight about five hundred years before The Confluence found them." His mechanical fingers clenched into a fist. "The Confluence filed a claim. Said the Korath's home star had been seeded with the heavy elements necessary for life by some other species billions of years ago. Under their law, that made the Korath property."
"Let me guess," Thorne said, her voice hard. "The Korath refused the deal."
"They tried to fight. Seven planets, three billion souls, and they tried to fight." James gestured to the debris. "This is what happens when you fight The Confluence directly. They don't negotiate with violence. They eradicate it."
The bridge fell silent. Stellar looked at the shattered worlds and felt a cold certainty settle in his gut. This could be Earth. This could be every human world, every colony, every outpost. All of it reduced to cosmic dust because they'd dared to claim ownership of themselves.
"Captain," Hayes said from communications, breaking the heavy silence, "I'm picking up some strange readings in the debris field. Multiple metallic signatures, too regular to be natural. Could be intact structures."
Clark was already pulling up the data. "She's right. I'm reading at least a dozen objects that match artificial construction. Heavily damaged, but still holding together."
"Korath orbital stations," James confirmed. "Some of their ships too. The Confluence stripped them for useful technology, but left the shells. They're dead now. No power, no life support. Just tombs floating in space."
Carmelon leaned forward, his academic curiosity overriding the horror. "Captain, if those structures are intact enough, they might contain data. Records. Information about how the Korath tried to fight The Confluence. That could be valuable."
"Or dangerous," Thorne countered. "If The Confluence left them here, they could be monitoring them. Waiting to see who comes looking."
"Negative," James said. "I've been here three times in the past two months. No Confluence activity. They consider this system dead space. Just not worth the resources to monitor. It's why we use it as a fallback position."
Stellar studied the debris field, his tactical mind already working through the possibilities. They needed information. They needed to understand what they were up against. And if the Korath had tried to fight The Confluence, there might be something to learn from their failure.
"Reeves, take us to the nearest intact structure. Hayes, keep all sensors on maximum range. Any peculiarities, I want to know about it immediately." He turned to his grandfather. "James, I want you to tell me everything you know about The Confluence. Their structure, their laws, their weaknesses. Everything."
"They don't have weaknesses," James said quietly. "That's the point. They've been doing this for thousands of years, across hundreds of sectors. They've refined the system to perfection."
"Everything has weaknesses," Clark said with a slight grin. "It's just a matter of finding them. Besides, if they were truly perfect, you wouldn't have escaped."
James's organic eye showed something that might have been hope. "We got lucky. Commander Rodriguez figured out how to spoof their tracking systems long enough to steal a ship. But that was one ship, one crew. Earth is a whole planet. You can't hide eight billion people."
"No," Stellar agreed, "but maybe we don't have to hide them. Maybe we just have to make sure The Confluence can't legally claim them."
"You can't beat them at their own game, Bub. The law is written in their favor. Every clause, every precedent, every interpretation. It's designed to make indigenous species fail."
"Then maybe we need to change the game," Stellar said. He looked at Carmelon. "Professor, you said they claim they seeded Earth with genetic markers. Can we prove they didn't?"
Carmelon stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Proving a negative is notoriously difficult. But if we could demonstrate that those genetic markers occurred naturally, or came from a different source..." He trailed off, thinking. "We'd need to examine their evidence. See exactly what they're claiming and how they're supporting it."
"Which means going to The Confluence session," Thorne said. "The thing we just ran away from."
"Not necessarily," Clark interjected. He was scrolling through data on his tablet, his expression intent. "James, you said you've served in their enforcement fleet for seventy years. You must have access to their legal databases, their precedent files. Could you get us that information?"
"My access codes were revoked when we escaped," James said. "But..." He hesitated. "Commander Rodriguez might have left a backdoor in their systems. She was always better with computers than the rest of us. If her codes are still active, if she managed to get that far before..."
He stopped. They all knew how that sentence ended.
"Before the enforcement cruisers killed her," Stellar finished quietly. "She knew she wasn't making it out. Maybe that's why she stayed behind. To give us time and keep that backdoor open."
James nodded, unable to speak.
"Then we use it," Stellar said firmly. "We honor her sacrifice by making it count. Clark, work with my grandfather. Figure out if we can access The Confluence's legal database. I want to know every case they've ever adjudicated, every precedent, every loophole. If there's a way to beat them at their own game, it'll be buried in there somewhere."
"And if there isn't?" Thorne asked.
Stellar looked at the shattered worlds on the viewscreen, the cosmic graveyard that had once been someone's home. "Then we find another way. Because I'll be damned if Earth ends up like this."
"Captain," Reeves called from the helm, "approaching the structure. It's...big. Looks like it was some kind of space station. Maybe a shipyard. Not sure."
The structure resolved on the viewscreen as they approached. It was massive, easily five times the size of the Pathfinder, and shaped like a spiral, its arms reaching out like a frozen explosion. Sections of it were missing, torn away by weapons fire or salvage operations. But the core seemed intact, a dark sphere at the center of the spiral that still held its structural integrity.
"Life support?" Stellar asked.
"Negative," Clark confirmed. "No power, no atmosphere. But the structure is solid enough for EVA operations. We could send a team aboard."
"I'm going," Carmelon said immediately. Mitchell chirped in agreement, spreading his wings.
"Professor..." Stellar began.
"Captain, I'm the most qualified person on this ship to analyze alien technology and extract useful data from damaged systems. You know that." Carmelon's tone was gentle but firm. "Besides, Mitchell and I work well in zero-g. He can scout ahead, check for structural dangers."
Stellar wanted to argue, wanted to keep the elderly professor safe on the Pathfinder. But Carmelon was right. If they were going to find anything useful in that wreckage, they needed someone who could understand what they were looking at.
"Fine. But you're taking a security team. Thorne, pick three of your best. Full EVA gear, weapons, the works."
"I'll lead the team myself," Thorne said, already moving toward the armory.
"Commander Clark, you're going too," Stellar added. "I want someone who can interface with whatever systems are still functional. And James..."
His grandfather looked up, surprised.
"I'd like you on the field team as well. You know The Confluence's technology. If there's anything salvageable in there, you'll recognize it."
James straightened, his military bearing returning. For a moment, Stellar could see the legendary commander from the old stories, the man who'd led Earth's first deep-space mission. "Aye, Captain. It would be an honor."
As the field team assembled, Stellar moved to the command chair, feeling the weight of command settle on his shoulders. He was sending people he cared about into a dead alien structure in a graveyard system, searching for information that might not exist, to fight an enemy that had destroyed entire civilizations.
Hayes looked up from her console, her young face troubled. "Captain, I've been running that trace on the original Prometheus message. The one that warned us about The Confluence."
"And?"
"The relay network it bounced through is...odd. It's not Confluence technology. It's not any technology in our database. But the pattern of the relays, the way they're positioned..." She brought up a star map, highlighting specific points. "They form a network that spans half the galaxy. Someone built a massive communications infrastructure, and they built it specifically to stay hidden from The Confluence."
"Another resistance." Stellar asked.
"Maybe. Or maybe just survivors. Species that escaped, that found ways to slip through the cracks." Hayes zoomed in on one section of the network. "Captain, one of the relay points is only four light-years from here. We could reach it in under a day."
Stellar studied the map, his mind racing. An underground network of species fighting The Confluence. Or hiding from them. Either way, potential allies.
"Bookmark those coordinates," he ordered. "After we finish here, that's our next destination."
The field team assembled in the shuttle bay. Stellar watched them through the observation window. Thorne checking weapons, Clark running diagnostics on his scanning equipment, Carmelon securing Mitchell in a specially designed EVA harness that allowed the eagle to fly in zero-g. And James, standing slightly apart, staring at the alien structure through the bay doors.
"Captain," James's voice came through the comm, "whatever we find in there, whatever data the Korath left behind...it might not be pretty. The Confluence doesn't just destroy civilizations. They document it. Record everything. It's part of their legal process."
"I understand," Stellar said.
"Do you?" James turned to look at the observation window, his mechanical eye glowing softly in the bay's light. "Because once you see what they're capable of, once you really understand what we're up against, you can't unsee it. And you might wish you'd just run. Taken Earth into the darkness and hoped they'd never find you."
Stellar met his grandfather's gaze across the distance. "Maybe. But we'd always be running. Always looking over our shoulder. That's no way for humanity to live."
James was quiet for a moment, then nodded. "You remind me of someone."
"My father?"
"Your grandmother." A sad smile crossed James's face. "She never believed in running either. Even when she should have."
Before Stellar could ask what that meant, Thorne's voice cut through. "Field team ready, Captain. Awaiting your orders."
Stellar took a breath. "Team, you are authorized to board the structure. Rules of engagement: this is reconnaissance only. We're looking for data, nothing more. If you encounter anything unexpected, you pull back immediately and report. No heroics. Clear?"
"Clear, Captain," Thorne responded.
"Then good luck. And come back safe. Captain's orders." He showed a half-smile.
The shuttle launched, a small spark of light crossing the void toward the dead station. Stellar watched it go, feeling the familiar mixture of confidence and dread that came with sending people into danger.
"Captain," Hayes said quietly, "I've been thinking about something."
"What's that, Lieutenant?"
"The Vescarri Sovereignty claims they seeded Earth three billion years ago. That's a long time to wait before claiming ownership."
"Clark mentioned that earlier. They waited until we were valuable."
"Right, but..." Hayes pulled up data on her console. "Three billion years ago. That's before complex life existed on Earth. Before anything existed except maybe some bacteria. If they really seeded us that long ago, they couldn't have known we'd turn into humans. They couldn't have known what we'd become."
Stellar moved to her station, studying the timeline she'd created. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying maybe they didn't seed Earth specifically for humans. Maybe they seeded thousands of worlds, millions of years ago, and they're just now coming back to see what grew. Like..." She searched for the right metaphor. "Like planting an entire forest and then checking back centuries later to see which trees survived."
The implication of that hit Stellar like a physical blow. "They're farmers. They've been farming entire civilizations."
"And we just became ripe for harvest, apparently." Hayes finished quietly.
On the viewscreen, the shuttle reached the alien structure and began its docking procedure. Somewhere in that dead station, there might be answers. Might be hope. Might be a way to fight back against an enemy that viewed entire species as crops.
Or there might be nothing but the recorded screams of a civilization that had already tried and failed.
Stellar settled back into his command chair, watching the shuttle disappear into the structure's docking bay.
"Come on," he whispered to the screen, to his team, to whatever ghosts still haunted that place. "Give us something. Give us anything."
And in the silence of the dead system, surrounded by the shattered remnants of the Korath civilization, the Pathfinder waited.
Minutes stretched into an hour. The field team had gone silent after their initial check-in, focused on their search through the station's dark corridors.
Then Hayes's console lit up with an urgent ping.
"Captain, I'm getting something from the field team. Audio only. It's..." Her face went white. "Sir, it's Commander Thorne. She says they found something. She says we need to see it immediately."
"Put her through."
Thorne's voice came across the comm, tight with barely controlled emotion. "Captain, you need to get down here. Now. Professor Carmelon found the station's main database. It's still partially functional."
"That's good news, Commander."
"No, sir. It's not." A pause, heavy with dread. "Captain, the Korath kept detailed records of their contact with The Confluence. Every negotiation. Every legal filing. Every..." Her voice cracked slightly. "Every species The Confluence has claimed in the past thousand years. There are hundreds of them, sir. Hundreds of civilizations. And Captain..."
"Commander?"
"Earth isn't the first human world they've claimed. There's a record here. From forty-two years ago. Another human colony. One we didn't even know existed. And according to these files, The Confluence didn't just claim them."
Stellar felt ice form in his veins. "Be clear. What did they do, Commander?"
"They sold them, sir. Sold them to something called the Collector's Guild. Every human on that world. Men, women, children. All of them." Thorne's voice was barely above a whisper now. "And Captain, the sale was facilitated by someone from Earth. Someone who helped The Confluence find that colony in exchange for technology."
The bridge went deadly silent.
"Commander," Stellar said slowly, "are you saying someone from Earth betrayed a human colony to The Confluence?"
"Yes, sir. And Captain...the facilitator's name is in the database. The person who made the deal."
"Who was it?" Trying to hold his anger.
Another pause. Then, "Admiral Chen, sir. The head of United Earth Command. She's been working with The Confluence for over forty years."