The Vargut Emnas

1

Roik's standing orders were to kill all Mantari inferiors and destroy their urkams, but now he was worried. Sard's specific instructions demanded he find the seventh Ta-Buhn-Shar urkam. After fighting the Ta-Buhn-Shar leaders long ago in the Proximity Battles and the final battle of Golga, six of the nine Mantari urkams were decimated and the inferiors vaporized from existence. But the Ta-Buhn-Shar vanished and were never found.

Now his nakitam screen flashed the same fluctuating pequa readings, although lower in intensity, seen on all the conquered urkams. Huge clear monoliths, probably left by the Ta-Buhn-Shar, were the source of these readings. Repeated attacks and attempts to enter the monoliths were usually unsuccessful. Mantari genetic scans were evident on the fourth blue urkam of the uncharted system ahead. It was likely another offshoot urkam, but the possibility existed he had stumbled upon the ancestral home and hiding place of the Ta-Buhn-Shar. He crossed the dark iacin and leaned over the glowing nakitam screen. Like all the other Mantari worlds vast oceans enveloped the urkam and thin clouds traced the brown continents. He longed for his home urkam's heavy hanging mist and darkened swamps.

" Hueta, bring the azicar over the central city."

" Yes, Proaska."

Roik held the nakitam. " Is this a stagnant civilization?"

" With the exception of the power readings, no sign of progress, Proaska. It would appear they use animals for labor and transport," answered Hueta.

" Good," he growled. " Easy targets for the cluster azicars. All the inferiors will be taught the supreme lesson and they will suffer for the sins of their Ta-Buhn-Shar leaders!"

Roik leaned back in his chair as Hueta brought the vessel across the brilliant aqua horizon line. At seventy acros units above the surface Roik still could not determine the extent of this urkam's civilization. His thin lip vibrated as he contemplated placing the azicar shooters against inferiors, whose only defense was probably rocks and sticks.

He hoped, as he soared through the blue skies below, they might see his cluster azicar in the sky. Incomprehensible fear would spread throughout the villages before the attack. He would not decimate the urkam directly, but institute a slow gradual destruction and allow the inferiors to suffer slowly. On the forward nakitam the azicar swooped over the ocean and skimmed the surface. The populated city formed complex tactical patterns on all nakitams. Unlike his home urkam's lofty towers above the clouds, the city's ground buildings were the work of fools.

Roik moved across the azicar's iacin to the larger forward nakitam. The little wooden structures along the shore annoyed him.

" Situate the azicar near the city. Let them fear the wrath of the Realm."

" Yes, Proaska," answered Hueta from his station.

The inferiors scattered on the roads and alleys as the azicar moved into position over the buildings. Roik's long pink fangs emerged along his thin lips. He hated the Mantari and took great pride in their fright. They moved like insects behind the shelter of buildings and into underground tunnels. " Miserable creatures. Look at them running in fear. Would a Creod turn away from battle?"

" No, Proaska," said Hueta. " They are inferior."

Roik waited until they had hidden. " Let us continue the battle. Bring the azicar outside the city for embarkation."

" Yes, Proaska."

Less than an acros unit from the settled area, Hueta guided the azicar over a wide green meadow, surrounded by trees and a river wandering into the countryside. Roik strutted across the iacin and watched the forward nakitam as the azicar slowly descended. He then ordered two sevelts to accompany him to the outside portal. Inferiors deserved death, he thought, as he personally retrieved their fully charged shooters from the arsenal and tucked his own shooter in his side sheath. " Let them suffer the transgressions of the Ta-Buhn-Shar." He checked the outside readings on the nakitam. Then he led them toward the portal. " The same disturbing atmosphere as all the inferior urkams."

" No cloud formations, Proaska," said the senior sevelt.

" We will not have to be exposed to their azoz's harsh light for too long."

" How do they exist in direct azoz light?" asked the other sevelt.

" They are miserable creatures," replied Roik as they reached the portal. He glanced at the trees through the transparency.

" What would you expect from creatures who do not have the capacity to reproduce spontaneously as we do?"

" Inferiors," they answered.

Roik's upper lip vibrated. " They and most of their urkam life forms must merge and join their genetic material." He pushed the portal lock sequence on the tiny nakitam. " Of course there are exceptions, but not many, and surely no intelligent forms of life on this miserable urkam."

" Crude beings," said the senior sevelt.

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