"Meet the Selshans"

[Col. C.E. Harper 0]

(Author's note: This was one of the set of three that I intended to post during our first mission in the Perseus Arm. Obviously that didn't happen -- so here it is, updated and finished. The others may be found in this folder: "Meet the Umbara" and "Meet the Soltans")

 

 

"Meet the Selshans"

 

Lord-Commander Solin of the Imperium ship Oath contemplated the small ship hanging at the far end of the Hevereon Passage. It was somewhat different than the last time he had seen it; for one thing, when last he had seen it there had been two of it. the shape of it was odd -- hard, angular, and shaped too much like a beak or a blade for him to be entirely easy in his mind -- but he thought he could see where one might stack on the other, like those wooden puzzles his father had bought for him as a child. The part with the... runners? pods? was new; it must be the "friends" they had been searching for at the time.

 

So they had survived. He'd had his doubts at the time -- lost, unaware of the danger posed by the Umbara's vicious war machine, and clearly a species with little understanding of Order. So his engineers said, reporting back after assisting the ships' repairs. The accounts they gave of the lack of discipline aboard those vessels had been frankly appalling; he counted it a miracle the thing flew at all. From the sound of it, they were only a step away from mutiny all the time.

 

He shuddered at the very idea. Mutiny -- the concept was strangely fascinating even as it was terrifying. It had given him nightmares when he'd first understood what it was, this concept so foreign their own tongue didn't even possess a word for it. At first he had believed it must refer to some terrible kind of mental disease, for what else could cause a crew to turn against their Vested Leader? The truth of it was even more horrifying.

 

Even now, he found himself glancing around his directorial at his crew, assuring himself that they had not changed into the monsterous agents of Chaos that had inhabited those nightmares. No, they were the same crew, the good crew of Oath that had served him and taken his direction for a thousand turnings. They went on about their duties, knowing by now what must be done and when, the young ones tagging after the old so they could learn the way of things out here, where Chaos was a common foe and sometimes you must needs borrow its own weapons to use against it, so that the training was no help at all.

 

He had seen countless new-commanded lose all reason in such situations, sitting paralyzed in the face of something their well-Ordered lives had never before shown them. Some never learned to cope with it, this great mystery: that those who would give and protect Order must know Chaos. Why else would so few be fitted to lead? That touch of Chaos sent lesser beings running mad; they must be protected from it by those of sterner stuff. Sometimes Solin envied them their peaceful lives of ignorance.... but he was one of the few who could stand the Chaos-touch. It was his duty to bear it for those who could not.

 

Now here was a vessel of the barbarian races, those who had not Ordered their lives, facing him down. So much the agents of Chaos, these, that they even welcomed those of many kinds aboard their vessels in all services. How could anything be accomplished that way? Each race had its own place in the universe; each being its own place in its race. Yet here were these Federationers cheerfully mixing parts. As well sow fields by scattering all crops on the winds from the center!

 

It galled Solin to request their aid, but perhaps they might have more success with the Umbara, being alike in Chaos. Perhaps it might even set them on the path to Order, though he doubted it. Imagine, that they should compare the just containment of a war criminal for an Orderly trial to the succoring of a Chaos-agent! Traitor, and spy -- more words they'd had no need of until they had ventured out into the darkness of the void where Chaos reigned supreme. Solin frowned. No, the Federationers would never understand the ways of Order, but they might serve it all the same.