With all the people gathered in the ships auditorium it reminded Janessa of the first day when they attended Kerrigan’s speech. Duron and his command and control team were there all dressed in white. Suchin and her intelligence team were also present in yellow. Janessa noticed Therazan Sajan and Roweth Sinclair in their green uniforms. Kerrigan was sitting up front and Anyantha was next to him. The rest of the seats were filled by the pilots in red. Prime squad was there along with all the other squads. Janessa and Junitha had on their red flight jackets. One last person came to attend. It was Dr. Winchester Faction. They waited a few minutes then Zai arrived. He went up on stage and activated a holographic display. The display cycled through images and models of Spectral Horde ships.
“You are humans,” said Zai, “One of the greatest strengths of your kind is that you are curious creatures. You like to ask questions. I am concerned that my presence may be distracting you from asking certain questions that could be crucial. I would like to share with you what I know about the Spectral Horde. The Spectral Horde’s weapons and propulsion systems are not unlike those on the Daedlus but they are not as advanced. In fact as far as I can tell in many ways your existing weapon systems are comparable to theirs.”
Zai stopped talking and waited. The question did not come from anyone giving it great thought. A member of the intelligence team just blurted out, “If our weapons systems are comparable then why have we been losing the war for the last few decades?”
“He’s right,” said Ryoko, “I’ve been examining our battles with the horde. The way their ships move. The way they attack. They are really no better at waging outer space warfare than we are. The only real difference I can see is that their ships can move faster. And they never seem to miss, unlike us.”
“Everyone misses sometimes,” said a pilot.
“Not as often as we do,” said Samal Hectorese, “I too have been examining our battle record. I have noticed that we miss our targets far too often. More than that too often we all miss at the same time. I know I am not the only one who has been convinced they have a target lock only to have the shot miss. It happens too often for it to be a coincidence. The only thing I can imagine that would account for it is that the Spectral Horde is somehow able to confuse our targeting systems in battle.”
“Well the horde do send out all kinds of disruption signals to cut off communications between our ships,” said a member of the command crew, “Until now we thought the Daedlus was immune to those signals. If what you’re saying is true it would mean that at the very least the horde can get into the kite fighters targeting system as well. Is that even possible Zai? I thought your technology was unstoppable.”
“I never claimed this ship or its technology was unstoppable,” said Zai, “I have only said that it is superior to yours and the Spectral Horde’s.”
“But if your technology is superior to the horde’s how can they tamper with the targeting system?” someone asked.
“It’s not like we know a lot about how Spectral Horde technology works,” said another voice, “half the signals they send out can not even be analyzed, they make no sense. We know next to nothing about them as life forms. We do not know anything about their culture or social structure. We do not even know the purpose of the specters that surround their ships that we named them for.”
“Great job listing what we don’t know,” said Raddy Volcane.
“Your crewmate has a point,” said Zai, “you have done remarkably well against an enemy you know so little about.”
Janessa was looking at the display of the Spectral Horde battle cruiser and said, “Why don’t they show up?”
It took Janessa a moment to realize that everyone was looking at her wondering what she meant.
“The specters around the horde ships,” she said, “I know this has been pointed out before but they don’t show up on recordings. You can only see them when you are looking directly at a horde ship. Everyone assumes they don’t show up on recordings because they are on some unknown wavelength or something. What if that’s wrong? What if the specters around the ships do serve some purpose? What if the reason they don’t show up on recordings is more important than anyone thought?”
“What kind of reason might that be?” asked Zemwell Tickbird.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
“Well why don’t you tell us the answer Zai?” said Raddy.
“I never said I had answers,” said Zai, “I am merely encouraging you to ask questions.”
“What the hell for?” someone demanded.
“I have not yet finished making my judgment of you,” said Zai, “in the event you prove to be unworthy and I must abandon you I would like to think I at least left you with a fighting chance. With that said I would like to ask you a question. How much do you really know about the Spectral Horde? What do you know about their biology? How many of you have actually seen one of them?”
“None of us have ever seen one,” someone spoke out, “almost no one has and lived. They have boarded ships and people fought them and a few got away sometimes. But all we have are survivor descriptions and drawings. No one has ever actually recorded an image of a horde alien before. And no one has ever been able to transmit images of them because of horde disruption signals.”
“You have many questions about the Spectral Horde life forms,” said Zai, “in this matter I may have some answers for you and I would like to share them. But the answers I have will lead to more questions. I have been acquiring samples from the wreckage of Spectral Horde ships.”
The holographic display changed. An image that they were familiar with came up. It was an image of what most believed to be one of the horde aliens. It looked like a big orange hairless gorilla with a blue dome for a head that everyone assumed was a helmet.
“These are what you know as the Spectral Horde,” said Zai, “however I do not believe they are your actual enemy. The samples I have studied lead me to believe that these creatures are merely drones. They are cybernetic constructs that are not truly alive. They are machines that have organic tissue grown over them. They are probably remote controlled by your actual enemy from with the battle cruisers. When a Spectral Horde battle cruiser explodes there is almost no organic matter left of whatever was on it. I managed to recover a single hair. However it is not any sort of hair that would be found on a life form like you or I. My analysis of its remaining DNA indicate it is most likely from some sort of highly evolved insect.”
“You think the Spectral Horde are insects,” said one person.
“I can not be sure unless I see one,” said Zai, “but yes that is my hypothesis.”
“I have a question,” said Dr. Winchester Faction, “It is not about that horde though. My question is what are you Zai? I mean biologically what are you? I am a doctor. I am curious about that sort of thing.”
“Different planets have different flora and fauna,” said Zai, “but on many you can find parallels between biological entities. You are highly advanced apes. You are mammals. You are primates. I too am a mammal and a primate. My people were the most advanced apes on our planet and the only intelligent life forms. However there is a key difference between your kind and mine. The apes you evolved from and most of the primates on your planet tend to be herbivores. The apes my people evolved from were carnivorous predators.”
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