Klextlan, his Nausicaan flag captain, turned his head. "If that is the figure for the system's population," he said, "it is, though unbelievable, correct."
"Six hundred and fifty billion?"
"At the last census. It is their social structure. There is an aristocratic class, ruling over a vast mass of labourers. The labourers have few outlets for recreation, save... reproduction. It does not help, I suppose, that the Siohonin females lack reproductive rights. Or, indeed, any rights."
Klin settled back in the command chair of the IKS MupwI ta', feeling the comforting power of the Negh'Var warship's engines rumbling beneath him. "How do they live, with such a mass of them in one system?"
"The third planet is their homeworld," said Klextlan. The Nausicaan was precise in his speech, punctilious and well-informed, an intellectual by his people's standards. "It is class M, though it has suffered some ecological degradation. However, planets one, two and four in the system are rich in minerals - especially planet four, which approaches the Horta homeworld of Janus VI for its supply of heavy metals. With plentiful materials to hand, the Siohonin have constructed many orbital habitats, and have even made terraforming experiments on the moons of their gas giants, planets five, six and seven in the system. The bulk of the population, now, lives in orbital cylinder colonies. Spaceborne arcologies."
"It still seems incredible," said Klin.
"They have benefited from contact with the Empire," said Klextlan. "We have introduced many modern techniques - mantle convection engines to improve the yield of their mines, modern terraforming devices and replicators - the taxation which the Empire imposes is quite modest, for the benefits it brings them in return. Their population has more than doubled since they were brought into the Imperial fold."
"And yet they are unhappy with us," said Klin thoughtfully.
"Efforts have been made at integration," said Klextlan. "The sheer size of the population makes for difficulties, though, as does the rigid social structure. The labouring caste is not permitted any changes to its circumstances. The aristocrats are divided into civilian administrators, a self-described military, and a quite baroque religious priesthood, devoted to a huge range of mythical gods. The civil administrators are of little use to us, the priests none at all. An attempt was made to include Siohonin military officers into KDF training. It did not end well. The Siohonin had a high opinion of themselves, were reluctant to take orders from other species... would not accept orders from females at all...."
Klin frowned. "Are Siohonin females unintelligent, then?"
"No more so than the males, " said Klextlan drily. "It appears to be an ingrained cultural prejudice. In my opinion, it handicaps them."
"They seem to have a number of cultural handicaps," growled Klin. "Well, we are not required to address them."
"They are capable of recognizing realities," said Klextlan.
And the MupwI ta' and her battle group constituted quite a significant reality, Klin mused. The Negh'Var warship was accompanied by three Vor'cha battle cruisers, each of those flanked by two raptors and two wings of Birds of Prey. It was a substantial force, substantial enough to show the Empire's power... substantial enough to become a very real punitive expedition, if the need were to arise.
Still... six hundred and fifty billion, Klin thought. Four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man... but how long and how far would a man have to run, to deal with so many?
He turned his attention back to the datapad. At least the opposition, however numerous, would be of poor quality.... Siohonin frigates were spindly things, a slender cylindrical body carrying deflector, armaments and warp drive, while the crew accommodations were in a ring encirling it. The design evidently dated back to the days before grav generators, when the ships would be spun to create an illusion of gravity in the living quarters. Feeble things.... But they have killed one cruiser with these feeble things, Klin reminded himself. Never underestimate one's opponent.
"Coming out of warp, sir," the helmsman announced. Klin looked up.
The warship shuddered briefly as she dropped back into normal space-time; the flying streaks on the viewscreen shrank and slowed back into stars. A single brilliant point of light glared in the centre of the screen. Klin's gaze dropped to the tactical display on his command console.
"It seems we have a reception committee," he said.
"Confirmed," said Klextlan. "We are reading... some seventy-five Siohonin frigates, and... one other vessel."
"Do we have a visual?"
"Coming up... and patching through scan data."
The starfield in the viewer blurred, shifted, steadied again. In the centre now was a ship, a massive cylinder flanked by four warp engine nacelles in an unusual cruciform arrangement. The front of the ship - a full quarter of its overall length, in fact - consisted of a huge domed structure with a shallow depression at its centre. A hugely oversized deflector dish? Klin looked at the raw data feed on his console.
"Power utilization curves... deflector field densities... that thing is a warship, no question of it," he said. "And that is a clear treaty violation. So. All ships to battle stations!"
Alarms shrilled across the bridge. "I have the Siohonin on hailing frequencies," the communications officer announced.
Klin bared his teeth. "So, then, we will hear what they have to say... before we chastise them. On screen."
A face appeared on the viewer; horned, bearded, with a worrying smile on the thin lips. "I am Klin, son of Turogh, of the House of Turogh," Klin announced before the other could speak. "I am here to require that treaty provisions are honoured. Explain yourself, Siohonin."
"I am the Grand Marshal Gamariden Tal." The thin-lipped smile widened. "We no longer recognize the provisions of the treaty which your Empire forced on us, Klingon. You are ordered to depart this system, immediately - or face the wrath of the Siohonin people, and the true god Sebreac Tharr, whose devotee I am."
"You challenge us, then." Klin found his pulse racing at the closeness of battle.
"Challenge you?" said Tal. "In the name of Sebreac Tharr, we rebuke you."
On the tactical display, the closest wing of Birds of Prey to the Siohonin fleet... winked out, their icons replaced after a fraction of a second with the symbols for debris and explosions.
Klin cursed. "Close channel! All ships, evasion pattern seven! Battle cloak and return fire!"
The MupwI ta' slewed around, unleashing a volley of torpedoes from her launchers. Birds of Prey and raptors scattered and vanished into cloak.
Damage warning symbols were sparking around one of the Vor'cha cruisers. The tac board was not displaying whatever was hitting that ship - "Get me Captain Kh'tal on comms!" Klin shouted.
The cruiser captain's face appeared on screen, image riven with interference, fires burning on the bridge behind him. "They have some kind of pure kinetic lance," he snarled. "It went right through our shields - I am cycling shield frequencies, they will not catch us like that again -"
The image dissolved into static, then blankness. On the tac board, the cruiser's icon blinked out.
"Engage from battle cloak, interdiction pattern nine," Klin ordered. "Strafe those frigates from all directions until they are out of my sky!" It was a risk - as the Birds of Prey and the raptors fired, they would reveal their positions, and attract return fire from those kinetic lances. But the Siohonin ships were individually weak and flimsy, and with suppressing fire from MupwI ta' and her surviving cruiser consorts, the Klingon ships would show their superiority -
Then Klin saw three Siohonin frigates move together on the screen, holding a steady triangular formation... and something came out of the centre of the triangle, something that showed on the scans only as a line of sparkling interference.
And, when it had passed, one of Klin's remaining cruisers was gone, without even debris icons to mark its passing.
"Harass and interdict those frigates!" Klin shouted with a curse. "Prevent them from taking that formation!"
But that made it hopeless, he realized in horror. His few ships were trying to do too many things at once - oh, yes, if one slipped out of cloak and fired, it most likely blew a Siohonin ship to flinders - but the return fire from the enemy's consorts turned his ships to wreckage. He was trading almost equally, vessel for vessel, in deaths with the Siohonin... and the enemy had more ships to start with.
There was only one chance. "Cut off the head and the body dies," Klin snarled. "Helmsman! Weapons officer! Bring me in close to that flagship! We will give Grand Marshal Tal a taste of Klingon firepower!"
His pulse was pounding hard in his temples, now, as his ship turned to face the enemy. "Close as you can! All weapons to maximum power!"
"Firing solution locked," the weapons officer reported. "Ready at your command."
The Siohonin warship loomed large, filling the viewscreen.
"Fire!"
The MupwI ta' shivered as her weapons discharged... and then the bridge was filled, for just an instant, with an intolerable burning brightness that destroyed all it fell upon. Klin did not even have time to be astonished, before he died.
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