Opening Moves

By James Traynor

Published by James Traynor

© Copyright 2013 James Traynor

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

~ * ~

ORION, [əˈraɪən]

The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. At its greatest extent it stretches for some 3,500 light years across and approximately 10,000 light years in length. The Sol System (and therefore Earth) is located within the Orion Arm. It is also referred to as the Orion-Cygnus Arm, the Local Arm, the Local Spur or the Orion Spur.

The Orion Arm is named for its proximity to the stars in the Orion constellation. It is located between the Carina - Sagittarius Arm and the Perseus Arm, the latter being one of the two major arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Within the Orion, the Sol System and Earth are located close to the inner rim in the Local Bubble, about halfway along the arm's length, approximately 26,000 light years from the Galactic Center.

The current state of exploration by known spacefaring species and human nations encompasses a sphere of <2,500 light years. There are seventeen known sentient species, eleven of which have mastered faster-than-light travel.

– Encyclopaedia Galactica, 2792 C.E.

“It takes an angel to make a devil.”


              
Old Rasenni proverb.

P R O L O G U E

Karashan, Home World of the Ashani Dominion.

2786 C.E.

Amber light touched the round, squat towers of the capital drawing long shadows from their light earthen colored forms. Between them cut off pyramids and housing blocks rose in various shades of terracotta, brown and deep red, their peaks a hundred meters and more above the ground crested by transparent domes glittering like crystal in the light orange sun's rays above. The city extended in all directions farther than the eye could see, an infinite ocean of arcologies and towers, parks and lakes, factories and ports, all illuminated by the life-giving star above.

For many early cultures the sun had been a religious symbol, a deity, but for modern man it was something on the same level as oxygen: it just was there.

“
Shade,” the man's pleasant voice commanded and the laboratory's windows changed from transparent to a muddy black, blocking most of the natural light from outside.

Corr'tane's eyes blinked, quickly adapting to the sudden twilight before he turned his attention to the experimental setup in front of him. A series of spotlights above sprang into action, focusing their light on the pieces below, dividing the room into a round illuminated sphere of white and a near black darkness that hid Corr'tane's slightly feline features.

Bipedal, pointy-eared mammals the Ashani had little in common with the small furry creatures as they scurried around in his test set-up, his green eyes fixed on the four-limbed animals with their dirty brown fur and their bare naked tails. Corr'tane's own thin layer of fur was a bright gray almost as white as the sterile lab overcoat and reinforced gloves he wore during his experiments.

The Inxxa trader he had acquired the animals from claimed they were among the most resilient and adaptive creatures in known space, but they looked most unremarkable to him. He sniffed derisively, his rough tongue licking across the longer canines in his mouth, the evolutionary remnants and reminders of a past when his people had roamed Karashan's forests and steppes as pack hunters. But that had been hundreds of thousands of years ago. Paws had turned into four-fingered hands with opposable thumbs, carnivores into omnivores, and if one in ten thousand children was born with the superfluous appendix of a tail it was a source of shame for its parents and their whole family, an oddity.

Just like the animals in his set up. He regarded them running around the sealed transparent case and was decidedly unimpressed with these 'rats' as the trader called them. He switched on the monitoring equipment. Karashan's
National Academy of Sciences
was as well provided for as the name suggested. It was the most prestigious center of learning of Ashani society, lavishly funded by both the state and the private sector. And as the academy's best student of xeno-biology Corr'tane had free reign to use whatever resources he needed.

Ashani biology below the cellular level was incredibly complex, more so even than that of many of the other known sentient species. Their fast metabolism and extremely potent adaptability to pathogens and even increased levels of background radiation meant that few plagues had ever left a lasting impact on Corr'tane's people. Unfortunately the same adaptive qualities and resilience made efforts of genetically manipulating Ashani physiology almost an exercise in futility. Not only was it scientifically frustrating, the state saw it as a national liability.

It was this fact that gave young talents like him access to almost infinite resources – relatively speaking, of course. As the screens blinked to life he went to the cryo freezer and removed his latest creation. It was a genetically engineered colony of bio-mechanical nanomachines, designed to reduce the effects of aging on his people. It was something he had always desired, ever since he had been a small boy forced to watch his mother slip away to a genetic disease which rapidly sped up the aging process. What took his mother away had been a rare enough affliction to have not warranted a resistance spread through the Ashani gene pool. And it had been and still was a reminder of the fact that, no matter how much knowledge and power the children of Karashan accumulated, nature always had a deadly ace up its sleeve.

For five years the young Corr'tane had watched this ghastly spectacle, had stood by helplessly as a woman in her prime was rapidly reduced to a withered husk. The best doctors money could buy dithered and complained but ultimately proved powerless to halt the inevitable. It was by his mother's tomb that he had resolved to find the formula to prevent old age claiming any more of his family, and from that day on he and his sister had dedicated themselves to the study of science and the need to serve the Ashani race. It had been a child's vow, and age and experience had mellowed it, but still it was the foundation of his efforts.

He observed the viscous yellowish liquid in the tube for a moment. Compiling it, creating the nanomachines from scratch and programming them with his experimental routines had taken him the better part of a year. It was in moments like this that he couldn't help but wonder if maybe one day it would be his responsibility to elevate the Ashani race, if not to virtual immortality, then at least to lives measured in centuries. Was it maybe his destiny to defeat death?

It was a line of thought millions of scientists, alchemists, shamans and sorcerers had followed for the better part of their lives, all across the universe, regardless of whether those lives had been spent on a space station or in a cave. It was the hubris of youth, the purely analytical part of Corr'tane's brain told him.

A brief smile flickered across his lips. Well, he certainly would never find out if all he did was stand there and daydream, would he? So, with precise movements he placed the tube into a dispensing mechanism atop the translucent dome that covered the experimental set-up. The delivery receptacle pumped her solution into hair-thin needles no longer than a millimeter, tracked the individual lab animals, then used pressurized air to fire one small needle into each of the 'rats'.

The animals stopped in their tracks, sniffing the cool, fresh air that had transported the needles. Some tried to scratch themselves where the extremely thin projectiles had pierced their skin. Corr'tane didn't mind. The needles had delivered his nanomachine solution into the rodents' bloodstreams upon impact. If one or two actually managed to get rid of the paper-thin things it wouldn't make any difference. But nothing happened. The creatures merely wrinkled their noses at the new smell and continued scuffling.

He broke a smile and exhaled in deep relief. If the product showed no adverse effects on the lab animals, in time he'd be able to begin with the work on a version dedicated for clinical tests on his own people. He would have to publish a paper first, of course, and present his findings to the department and the scientific community. Well, before
that
he'd have to celebrate the new success with his sister and his...

Then it all went wrong. The small creatures began squeaking loudly and running frantically around their transparent prison, faster and faster until they fell to the floor, breathing erratically. Corr'tane's festive mood evaporated as fast as it had come. Blood trickled from the orifices of some of the creatures. The fur of others had taken on a sickly coloration as if the tissue holding it had suffered a toxic reaction. The eyes and oral cavity of one of the animals had liquefied. He frowned in distaste and picked up the biosensor's readings. The graphs and columns on the tablet revealed the serum had caused a massive brain aneurysm in the tiny rodents. One by one they expired.

Corr'tane threw the tablet onto a nearby table and grunted. So much for that one. He silently cursed to himself, then took a deep breath.
Failure is an integral part of science
, he remembered the professor's words from the first lecture he had ever visited half a decade ago.
The failure of one experiment does not call all your scientific work into question. It merely eliminates one path, telling you to concentrate on others
.

He would have to write a full report on his progress – or the lack thereof - ending with the acknowledgment that he needed more time to refine his thesis. He picked the tablet up again and typed a message to the bio-hazard team to come and remove the experiment at their earliest opportunity. And like so many scientists before him who had believed they had found the Philosopher's Stone he left the lab and went back to his own quarters, studying what had gone wrong.

However, Corr'tane didn't have long to deliberate. With a sharp bang the door to his room flew open to reveal Pyshana, his sister and fellow scientist stumbling into the room, scanning around for him.

“
Corr'tane?!” she shouted. “Brother?”

“
Over here.” He leaned to the side and waved his four-fingered hand, appearing from behind a shelf filled with memorabilia and books printed on actual paper, or rather, synthetic materials that made it look and feel like paper. “I've just finished something that didn't go quite as planned,” he grimaced and glanced at the watch on his desk. “Our dinner meeting isn't due for another half hour. You know, I could use that time to...”

“
Brother, you must look at this!” she waved a thin tablet computer over her head. It was the same sort he used, the sort the academy provided its senior students and researchers with. “Gods, please tell me I am losing my wits, Corr'tane!”