Eyes of Tomorrow (Duchy of Terra Book 9), Glynn Stewart [reading well .TXT] 📗

maintain a real blockade of the Nebula and must hope that the Infinite exit on the route used by their new captives.” She paused. “We have no idea what the final fate of the conspirators was, but I must assume that Builder of Tomorrows is in Infinite hands.

“Captain Casimir has been assessing the threat level with a team pulled from my staff and hers. They have a preliminary report that I have attached to this transmission, but it is concerning. These are dark waters we swim in, and I fear for the survival of my command and the completion of our mission.

“Containment remains the best option against this threat, but I do not feel that my task force is sufficient to achieve that mission,” Tan!Stalla admitted. “Reinforcements from any source are required by the swiftest currents.”

She paused, her tentacles twitching.

“I believe, based on what we know so far, that the first wave of Infinite excursions will be scouting missions. They will be smaller ships and small in number. I have units in hyperspace, scanning for anomalies at all times, and hope to be able to intercept those scouting expeditions.

“That will keep the Infinite blind for a time, but true containment will require vastly more forces than I have to hand. You will understand once you have reviewed Captain Casimir’s report.”

Tan!Stalla flashed the dark green of determination.

“We will hold as long as we can,” she promised. “But every ship I am sent will increase the chances we can hold for long enough.”

The A!Tol’s image froze, fading out to be replaced by Morgan Casimir. Rin took a moment to just drink in the sight of his lover, clearly alive. The slim blonde woman was perfectly turned out in her black uniform.

Her eyes and her hair told the truth to him. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, not the more complex short braid she favored, and her eyes were just…tired.

“We have now spent roughly two full cycles working through all of our scan data on the Infinite in the Eye of the Astoroko Nebula,” she began, her voice precise. “We have established an identification taxonomy with, currently, ten separate items.

“The base categorization is by size, beginning at Category One: bioforms of up to one hundred meters, and rising exponentially. Thankfully, we currently have only identified two Category Eight bioforms: the Great Mother we encountered near Kosha and what we are designating the Infinite Queen.”

A holographic simulation of the monstrous beast Rin remembered from the Eye appeared above Casimir’s left shoulder.

“All categories of Infinite bioforms follow roughly the same overall structure as the Servants encountered at Kosha,” Casimir continued. “The Servants themselves represent a subcategory, as they used organic plasma thrusters where all true Infinite bioforms use an unknown form of reactionless acceleration.”

New images appeared as she spoke, highlighting the Servants of the Great Mother.

“For comparison with what we are looking at here, the Servants are Categories One-S, Two-S, and Three-S. The Great Mother does not appear to have created bioforms above Category Three.

“This, combined with our understanding of how she was made, leads me to the conclusion that the sun eater and her Servants may not be a useful data source on the Infinite…but they are what we have.

“The key secondary category currently identified among the Infinite bioforms is Category Six-A,” she noted, a spherical image replacing the Servants in front of her. “While the other bioforms share a roughly spermatoid shape, the Six-As are bound into a spherical form by their defining characteristic: each of them has taken over the shell of an Alavan mothership.

“We have confirmed forty-six of these units,” she said grimly. “Given the strength of the Alavan fleet we know the Infinite pursued into the Astoroko Nebula, we believe there may be more.

“The units will be significantly more survivable than the rest of the bioforms and may even be in possession of Alavan-style teleporter weapons,” Casimir concluded. “The rest appear to be mostly armed with plasma cannons, with the Category Six and larger bioforms possessing a microsingularity weapon that defies our current ability to explain.”

Tan!Shallegh’s skin was dark with fear when Rin glanced at him.

“Currently, our best estimate is that there are eight Category Sevens and roughly two hundred and fifty Category Sixes,” Casimir noted quietly. “We saw forty-six Six-As and approximately five hundred Category Fives.

“Category Four, with bioforms between ten and one hundred kilometers in size, is where we encounter units that are likely comparable in threat level to most capital ships of the Core Powers,” she continued grimly. “Estimated strength is just over two thousand. Numbers in the smaller Categories could not be meaningfully assessed.”

“Two thousand capital-ship equivalents and eight hundred more powerful than any Core capital ship,” Tan!Shallegh estimated aloud. “What did we wake up?”

“I don’t know, sir,” Rin admitted.

Casimir was still speaking, and both of them turned their attention back to the transmission.

“The only good news I can offer is that none of the identified bioforms are capable of any form of FTL travel,” she told them. “They are, as things currently stand, utterly trapped in the Astoroko Nebula.

“However, once in possession of hyperdrive technology, it is extremely likely that they will be able to create their own version of it. This will take them time, however…”

Captain Morgan Casimir visibly swallowed, then squarely faced the pickups.

“Based on the Category Six-As, I believe that the Infinite are more than willing to incorporate hard tech into their bioforms,” she admitted. “I estimate that we will see a small number of cyborg-style vessels equipped directly with Laian hyper-portal emitters in the near future.

“Their numbers should remain low so long as the Infinite do not come into possession of significant amounts of the raw materials necessary to build more emitters. Most especially, exotic matter.”

She shrugged.

“If we can restrict their access to exotic matter and exotic-matter-production facilities, that could limit their ability to provide FTL capability to their forces. On the other hand, I hesitate to suggest that a species capable of generating black holes on command lacks