Para Bellum (The Contact War Book 1) by Edmond Barrett

Author:Edmond Barrett [Barrett, Edmond]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2020-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

According to some of the most ancient legends, the bottom of the Ormy Rift Valley was the birthplace of the Aèllr species. Of course, it was one of only dozens of supposed birthplaces – every ancient Aèllr culture had its own place of myth where god or gods had intentionally or accidentally created the people. The distinction for the Rift Valley was that in more recent times, science had suggested that Ormy or one of the other valleys in the region was perhaps the place where the first proto-Aèllr evolved and began the long ascent from smart animal to a species that had first dominated the planet, then expanded out beyond the world of its birth.

Alongside that debate was the hotly debated question of whether Ormy was the most beautiful place on the homeworld? Back in the days of the individual nation states, at least one ruler had taken this view. She demonstrated her conviction by building a magnificent palace at the very edge of the most precipitous cliff in the surrounding the valley. The private balcony that projected from the back of the palace offered an unrivalled panorama of the valley – provided the viewer had a head for heights. With the unity of the nation states and foundation of the world government, the palace had become home to the House of Speakers, with the balcony attached to what was now the private office of the Prime Speaker.

Prime Speaker Mupjre didn’t much care for the view, but she had learned to appreciate the balcony’s value as a political asset. Its small size encouraged a feeling of intimacy in any conversation and whether it was because of the view or the sense of vertigo it induced, visitors tended to give away more than they intended – sometimes anyway.

Fleet Commandant Srusd looked over the valley below with a dispassionate eye. Her predecessor in the post had, when invited onto the balcony, stayed as close to the doorway as she as possibly could. But then that officer had spent much of her career serving deep within ships where she could rarely see more than a few paces in any direction. Srusd, in contrast, had spent more than ten years commanding a deep space observatory and now considered any distance of less than a light year as barely worth mentioning. This innate sense of calm served her well when bringing unwelcome bad news.

“You seem to be taking the loss of a ship with a good deal less agitation than I would expect, Fleet Commandant,” Mupjre observed.

“Because the situation is poorly served by any reaction other than calm,” Srusd replied evenly. “It would be premature to assume that disaster has befallen the Tefuh ifain thture. However, I know that some will assume the worst or at least do so publicly.”

That was certainly true. The fleet office hadn’t forwarded the news that a ship was missing when it was first reported as overdue. Ships could be delayed for all manner of reasons, but when the

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