Karled Point of View

Captain Mallory was alone at the airlock to docking bay thirty-six. The Karled battle frigate was far more menacing than ambassador Ur’eka had described. The vessel was heavily armed and Mallory soon realised that the station would not last five minutes against the vessel. She just hoped that she could give Captain Taybar and the Leviathan enough time to put their plan into effect.

The doors to the airlock opened and slowly something emerged from the far end of the corridor. The Karled was not what Mallory had expected, instead of something vaguely humanoid, a machine appeared hovering centimetres above the ground. The machine was about two metres high and was an elongated oval shape. It had no visible arms or legs, just a single red eye which looked menacing at the Captain, then the machine spoke in a slightly metallic voice.

“We are the Karled.” The machine announced. “Where is the blood enemy ?”

“The Axeline ambassador is here on the station.” Mallory lied. “But I would like to speak with your representative before they meet face to face.”

“I represent the Karled, I am Supreme-Protector.” The machine replied. “This shell may have confused you, the results of the actions of the blood enemy.”

Mallory suddenly realised that she was actually speaking with a Karled and not just some machine at all.

“This way.” Mallory announced, leading the Karled down the corridor to one of the state briefing rooms.

Briefng Room Three

Taking a seat at the head of the table, Captain Mallory felt very uncomfortable as the Karled moved towards the table and stopped.

“So, I would like to know why you want to destroy the Axeline race.” Mallory started.

“They are an inferior race, they must be exterminated.” Karled stated. “Their attempts to wipe our ancestors out have proved that. We survived, if you can call having to spend your entire existence encased in a protective casing surviving. They failed and are therefore inferior, we are the superior race, we will not fail.”

“So this casing keeps you alive ?” Captain Mallory asked nervously.

“We developed these casings to hold our mutated forms, which evolved to survive in the radiation of our homeworld. At first the casings were dependant on an external power source and we could therefore not leave the vessels constructed by our ancestors. As the years progressed, the ancestors started to die off, whilst our numbers grew. Eventually our ancestors managed to harness the radiation we need to survive and created a new casting, which has allowed us to continue the vendetta against the blood enemy and all those who assist us. Your Federation will be destroyed if you attempt to assist the Axelines, their fate was sealed the day they attempted to destroy the ancestors.”

“You have spoken a lot of the ancestors, who were they ?” The Captain asked.

“The ancestors are those who came before us.” The Supreme-Protector replied. “They are what we the Karled were and they are the ones who created us to continue their fight.”

“So you are not the Karled who the Axeline’s fought over a thousand years ago.” Mallory suggested.

“Some of the ancestors who returned to homeworld managed to survive because they remained within the vessels they had returned on.” The Karled replied. “But even their vessels could not protect them fully from the radiation created. They started to show signs of mutation and knew that they would eventually die out just as the Axeline’s had hoped. They could not leave the planet because of the defence net left by the Axelines, so they started to seek another way. They started to experiment with the acceleration of their own evolutionary processes, to see if they could discover a way to manipulate their own evolution to survive. The results surprised them at first, they never realised that what they would eventually mutate into would still be highly sentient. Within a few years the first of us were created and we started to re-build our world and our forces.”

“Are there any ancestors left ?” Captain Mallory asked.

“The last ancestors were exterminated three hundred years ago.” The Karled replied. “Their usefulness to the Karled race was minimal and they knew that sooner or later we would no longer need them.”

“What happened ?” Mallory enquired further.

“They attempted to destroy our means of reproduction, the breeding pits in which our race are born. If they could prevent themselves from becoming useless, then they knew they would survive. But they were inferior and failed, the pits survived and the last of the ancestors exterminated, we the superior beings became the Karled race.” The Supreme-Protector announced.

“You destroyed the last of the ancestors ?” Mallory asked.

“They were no longer useful.” The Supreme-Protector stated coldly. “That was when the first Supreme-Protector was created, a direct ancestor of my own. Fifty years later, a vessel arrived and was shot down by the defence net. The vessel survived the attack, but crash-landed on the planet surface. We recovered the vessel and managed to use it’s cloaking technology to leave the planet surface for the first time. Once above the planet, using our new-found advantage we destroyed the defence net and freed our home from the iron-grasp of the blood enemy. Now free we moved to take revenge on the Axelines and we will succeed.”

“Have you ever tried to understand why the Axelines did what they did ?” Mallory asked.

“No. They are the blood enemy and they will be exterminated.” The Karled replied. “The ancestors will be avenged.”

“The Axelines are not proud of what they did, but taking revenge on another race by using the same tactics they used is not the answer.” Mallory stated. “Both races are here and the Federation would like to negotiate a peaceful solution to this war. We have not taken sides and nor will we unless provoked. If you attack the Axelines vessel or this station, then any chance of peace will be lost. The Karled and the Axelines have been fighting for nearly two centuries, isn’t it time to end this.”

All the Karled Supreme-Protector did was stare at Captain Mallory from the other end of the briefing room table. Eventually the Supreme-Protector gave the Captain his reply.

“We want peace, we want an end to this war.” He announced. “We will talk with the Axeline ambassador.”

Captain Mallory let out a sigh of relief, for once she had got something done. Thinking quickly, she came up with a reason to delay the negotiations.

“The hour is late, might I suggest that you return to your vessel until tomorrow.” She suggested. “I will speak with the Axeline ambassador and get her to agree to the meeting. In the meantime, let’s us this break to establish what each side requires of the other.”

“Agreed.” The Karled replied. “I will return to my vessel.”

With that the Karled Supreme-Protector turned and headed down the corridor towards the airlock. Captain Mallory was relieved, but still worried, the Supreme-Protector had given them time, something she had not expected.

“Mallory to Operations.” She announced. “I want a full sensor sweep of the Karled vessel and all internal sensor readings of the Karled Supreme-Protector. I want a full report in one hour. Mallory out.”