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Nova Wars Chapter 9: Commander and Commodore By Draconicon

It had been a long time since he had been surrounded by Hierarchy bureaucracy, but Klim hadn't quite forgotten the level of paperwork that they went through. He shook his head as he left the minor admin offices, shaking his head. Dresnath followed behind, the dragon rolling his eyes a few times.

"What the hell was that about?"

"Labeling you as an assistant."

"And the reason for that is?"

"So that they don't decide that you belong outside the office, rather than in it. I want two sets of eyes on this Rumiir at all times."

"If you say so."

The velociraptor nodded, turning his attention back to the halls of the space station. He doubted that they were going to have any issues today, but he didn't want to risk bringing any attention down on him and Dresnath. He was already concerned about how things were going for his other two teams, and the last thing he needed to do was open up risks for himself at the moment.

Almost wish that I was back with Ailsa on the ship, he thought, though that was far from true. The last thing he wanted was to spend all his time on the ship. There was nothing interesting there. Everything 'fun' was happening out here.

He followed the halls of the station, walking with his hands held behind his back, shaking his head at some soldiers and nodding to the others. The scaly forces were still fairly organized through the station, those on patrol making their way around in twos and fours, and those that weren't spending time out of the way so that they wouldn't interfere.

The velociraptor went through the layout of the station in his head. There were a total of six different levels, not including the elevator down to the star below and the mining tunnels within the star itself. At the top were the administration levels that had been commandeered by Commander Rumiir. At the bottom were the storage levels, with direct freight elevators up to the docks on either side of the station.

Between them, in order from the bottom to the top, were the living quarters for soldiers, living quarters for slaves, the communication deck, and the gym. Most of the soldiers would be either in their bunks or up in the gym, which should mean that they had little in the way of interference for their meeting with the Commander.

Klim turned them towards the central elevator, passing by a pair of lizard soldiers in the process. He nodded his head to them, giving a slight inclination of respect, and they nodded back.

As they stepped into the elevator, Dresnath stepped into place beside him, clicking his heels together. He looked up at the ceiling, and then back down. Klim knew the questions were coming. It was just a matter of when.

Thankfully, it didn't seem to be right then and there. The dragon kept his mouth shut as they rode up to the top floor, and didn't speak as the doors opened onto the bigger dragon's office. They stepped out, looking around.

It had only been a few hours since they had been up here before, but the construction efforts had obviously continued. The knocked-out walls and furniture had been replaced by rapidly-constructed bits of plastic and stuffing, barely strong enough to hold the body of the feral dragon that they were built for - at least, he imagined, as fabricators weren't good at designing that strong of a material - but large enough and curved enough to make the room look opulent and ornate rather than spartan.

Rumiir himself was already lounging on one of the large pieces of furniture, sprawled out on his side. A number of collared, naked slaves attended to him, with several wolves running their hands down his hind legs and rubbing oils into them. The big blue dragon looked up as they approached, nodding his head.

"Commodore."

"Commander."

They met each other's eyes for a few seconds, then Klim gestured to the dragon behind him. Dresnath stepped forward, bowing his head briefly.

"This is Dresnath, my second in command. He will be staying as assistant during this meeting, to record the minutes of it."

"Heh, you believe you need to cover your tail?"

"I know that there's enough going on that it's better not to risk it, what with an Evaluator on station."

"Yes. I can see that."

The commander gestured with one foreleg towards a pair of smaller chairs, and he and Dresnath took their seats. The velociraptor had to lay his tail through a hole first, before he could sit down, but he managed it after a few seconds.

"Thank you for seeing us, Commander."

"No trouble. You have much information for me, I imagine."

"And you for me," Klim said. "After all, you aren't doing what the Federation thinks you're doing."

"And how do you know what they think?"

"I intercepted a number of their ships on the way here. There were a few prisoners that died in transit, but before they did, I had the time to interrogate them."

"I pity them, if you had to get involved, personally."

"There were reasons. I wanted to ensure that the information was accurate," he said.

Dresnath looked at him with an arched eyebrow, and the velociraptor turned. He narrowed his eyes, just for a moment, then looked down a bit.

"Shouldn't you be keeping notes?"

"...Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

Klim shook his head a few times, turning back to the bigger feral.

"I apologize. He's not used to the role of assistant just yet, but with the casualties on the way here, I lacked anyone else of sufficient skill."

"I understand. Good staff are hard to find. That's why I keep my own attached to me as slaves, if I possibly can."

"Yes, I'd heard of that. Almost a little harem, there, isn't it?"

"You are well-informed, Commodore," Rumiir said with a chuckle. "I can't say that most people know that...but yes, they are something of a harem. A very willing, very able harem, after all that I've put them through."

"Perhaps, in the future, I will have the privilege of seeing that."

"Perhaps. But let's get back to business. You say that the Federation has an idea of what we're doing, but you don't?"

"...You are as perceptive as I am informed, Commander."

That had been a slip that he hadn't quite intended to make, though he supposed it was relatively obvious when one looked back at it. He had implied that he needed information, and he had stated that the Hierarchy wasn't doing what their enemy thought they were doing. A smart person could pick up the pieces from that without needing anything else.

He leaned back, drawing on a new lie.

"I have to admit, I do not know the full purpose of the operation. Obviously, there have been many different rumors throughout Hierarchy space, and the military victory of seizing one of the enemy's energy sources from them cannot be overstated. That said, I know that there is more to it than this. Such an operation risks quite a few ships; I can't imagine that the entirety of the border is secure with so much of our war material assigned out here."

"You'd be correct, and I'm not keen on the time that this is taking," Rumiir said. "But that doesn't mean that we can avoid taking the risk."

"I haven't heard of any loss of energy back home."

"No, no, we're doing fine with that. No, it's something..."

The dragon hesitated, and the velociraptor knew that the feral was debating what he was allowed to say. It was fascinating, in a way, because such hesitation defied the point of the Hierarchy's main goals.

The whole point of the Hierarchy was to place people on different tiers from each other, each tier up having the right to command the ones below it with almost infinite authority. Though there were both social and military ranks, the military ones almost always superseded the social ones, with one exception.

Feral dragons, as a general rule, could command most any other species within the Hierarchy. A captain who was a feral dragon could command a general who was just a lizard. For that matter, a feral dragon of sufficient other rank could make any other member of the Hierarchy a personal slave, if they so desired, a specific power that was given only to them. It was something that Klim had always been concerned about, if he was honest.

The fact that Rumiir hesitated meant several possible things, but two stood out.

One, that the blue feral had been bound not to spread information by someone higher ranking than him, who was also a feral.

Two, that there was doubt towards Klim's true rank.

If it had to be one of them, he preferred it to be the former, because if it was the latter, his disguise was in trouble, and he didn't know how long it would be until he was unveiled as a spy. He leaned back as much as his body structure would allow, folding his hands over his lap.

"Let me see if I can guess it. You don't have to say anything, but you can tell me if I'm getting close with your face, I'm sure."

"Or you'll simply read it. I know your skills, Commodore."

"I'm sure. My reputation remains?"

"Embedded quite strongly."

"Then let's play a guessing game, shall we?"

The slightest tremor ran down the dragon's spine, something that Klim hadn't seen for a long time. He tapped his large toe claws on the floor as he considered the information that he had available to him, puzzling through it slowly. He didn't have to hurry, he reminded himself. After all, this was no different to the interrogations that he used to conduct. He just had to use different tools than usual.

What do we have? he thought. A massive invasion by a significant portion of the Soaring Fleet into an enemy planetary system, led by a commander that has obvious talent for the task of a sneak attack. Holding a mining facility when there is no shortage of energy in the home system, but not for the energy. There is something else here, but what does the mining facility offer? Access to the star.

"There is something in the star below. Something that the Hierarchy wants."

Tensing muscles. Not the usual flick of the eye that gave away the truth, but the tension of someone that knew how to throw off the first tier responses. Klim nodded.

"Alright, yes, that makes sense. There would be no reason to center your base here if you just wanted to strike out and capture other resources. If you wanted the people, you would have had time to capture them after the first assault. If you wanted to raid and seize energy, you would have done that. If you wanted to deny a star to the enemy, you would have blown up the station. Instead, you have stuck around, using the tunnels. That means that you want something from inside the star."

"And what's the reason why it can't simply be the power source inside?"

"Simple. You haven't sent any back home yet. You've had some time, but you haven't dispatched anyone, only called for more supplies."

That was something he had picked up on the Thousand Claws databanks, and from his 'interviews' with the crew. With the time that the Hierarchy had held the station, there should have been at least three or four different shipments of fuel back to the home systems, but they were all still gathered here.

"So, if the mining is a ruse to keep the Federation from finding out what you're really looking for, the question is, what else can be found inside of a star? Not much, if you go by the standard scans, but if there's an Evaluator here, that means that you're not going by scans. They only show up when someone is performing poorly, needing an audit of their skills and abilities, or when a theory has been proposed and the higher-ups want to know if it's panning out."

"You have an interesting sense of logic, Commodore."

"I know. But it can lead me into bigger problems."

"I imagine. You better hope that the Evaluator doesn't decide to look into you, next."

"I'm pretty sure he's already decided to."

"Hmmph, probably."

Rumiir rolled onto his back, leaning his head over the edge of his recliner. The wolf slaves that had been rubbing along his legs turned to his stomach and sheath, starting to play with them as well as oil them up. Klim took a deep breath, knowing that it was meant as a distraction, and he refused to let it work.

Even so, it was hard to ignore that big dragon cock slowly sliding free, running across the feral's stomach and gradually getting heavier and harder. He shook his head.

"Do you think to distract me?"

"Possibly. But they have their duties, and it feels good."

"You have no issue with showing off, it seems."

"I have it, so I flaunt it."

Klim nodded.

"Anyway, that leads me to believe that there is something in there, perhaps something that is only believed to be in the star. Yet, there's sufficient evidence for the theory that the Hierarchy was willing to dedicate a massive fleet to the task of finding it themselves...or denying it to the enemy. If the former, then it is a weapon that will help the Hierarchy in a massive way, or some other form of aid that you believe will turn the tide of the war.

"If the latter, you believe that the Federation will either destroy it, or wake it up, and if the latter in that case, then you believe that this is something that will prove dangerous to more than the Federation."

"That's a lot of supposition."

"It is, isn't it?"

A lot of supposition with very little evidence, but the way that Rumiir's face had continued to tighten and then relax, he had been able to narrow it down further. There was definitely something in the star, and from the way that the Commander had reacted, it was something that provoked at least moderate fear. The question was, what could do that?

Klim didn't know. He imagined that it might be something living, but what in the world would be living inside a star? There were no biological records of anything that had done that in the past or was capable of doing it in the present.

Then again...

The velociraptor knew that the Hierarchy had a small advantage over many other civilizations when it had come to exploring. The ancient dragons, the ones that the modern Starfliers were modeled after, had been able to fly from planet to planet. At least, according to legends. During their time, they had traveled the galaxy, mapping out the worlds and leaving records and information that no other person had ever been able to access.

Had one of the ancient dragons found something in the suns? Or was that just a legend that nobody really gave credence to?

The more he thought about it, the more possible it was.

"Do you have anything else you want to guess?"

Rumiir's question pulled him back out of his head, and he looked down at the feral. Rumiir was splayed out on his back, every wolf teasing the dragon's cock with tongues and hands. They were licking from base to tip, teasing a shaft that was bigger than the velociraptor's arm.

He shook his head.

"I don't think that I have anything else, though you've given me quite a bit to work with."

"Have I? I haven't said anything."

"And you didn't have to."

"Tell me, then. What did I tell you?"

Klim smiled.

"I don't feel I need to answer that. In any case, that should be plenty for me. What may I answer for you?"

"Why did you come back? Really?"

"I decided -"

"No."

Commander Rumiir fixed him with a solid stare, one that the velociraptor didn't feel good looking away from. The big blue feral slowly rolled over, never breaking eye contact, and the slaves moved with him, always licking and rubbing and nuzzling down between the feral's legs.

"I want to know the truth. The Klim Hexclaw that I know of would never come back to the Soaring Fleet. That Klim, that Hexclaw, the one that killed a hundred prisoners to stop a secret from getting out, the one that tortured two of the Starfliers to death, the one that fled the fleet a broken mind and a shattered soul, would never dare come back. What happened, Commodore? What? Happened?"

The velociraptor remained silent, simply staring straight at the feral dragon. He shifted position, but only to adjust the sleeves of his uniform as he considered his answer. Dresnath was staring at him from the side, he knew, but there wasn't much he could do about that. The audience was something he'd just have to deal with.

So much for trading on my name, he thought, shaking his head. And here I believed that he might have forgotten a few specifics, at least.

He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly through his nose in a semi-snort.

"I came back because I was needed."

"You think that the fleet is so short on personnel that they would take someone that broke?"

"I know that they are taking in people that they never wanted to, before. Torin should never have risen to the rank of admiral, and we both know that. You are here because you are brilliant, but low enough in the ranks to be expendable if it comes down to it. The Evaluator will have orders to kill you if this doesn't pan out, and then take command. You and I both know this."

"..."

"I am here. Because I am here. I don't need a reason."

"Everything has a reason."

"But not every reason is said. Good day, Rumiir."

He got up, and gestured for Dresnath to follow. His dragon 'assistant' did just that, jaw agape for a few seconds as they made their way over to the elevator. There was nothing said from the Commander, no calls for them to return. Not that he expected it. Considering the reputation of Klim Hexclaw...

They took the elevator down to the living quarters, and Klim kept his mouth shut for as long as he could. As soon as the door shut behind them, as soon as they were in private, he let out a long, slow breath.

"I can't believe that worked."

"What do you mean - wait..."

Dresnath blinked.

"You were..."

"That was one of the biggest bluffs I've pulled off in a long time."

"Captain..."

The dragon rubbed a hand down the back of his head.

"Geez, what if that hadn't worked?"

"It did, though. And that should keep the Commander off our backs for a while. Not to mention make him think that we might be in good with the Evaluator. If he thinks that, then he's not going to try and hinder us, nor talk about us with that guy."

"And that's...good?"

"It gives us more time before this whole thing comes crashing down around our heads, at least. This disguise is only going to last for so long. If someone gets a message out, back to the home systems, then we're fucked."

He shook his head, sitting down on the edge of the bed. He needed more information, so much more, but at least he had a place to start. Hopefully, one of the others would have picked something up either in the mines or in the slave training rooms.

Hopefully, it was something that he could work with.

The End