Star Force: Resurrection (SF84) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-ki Jyr

that old Alliance puzzle and it felt very good finding them
here.
    He worked his way away from the glass and around to
the access point for the chamber. The lizards couldn’t go in there without
equipment, for the average temperature was 160 F, but that wasn’t something
that was going to bother Paul’s armor and he could breathe the air thanks to a
chilling function on his helmet. He didn’t expect any of these Kvash would
recognize his armor or even know what an Archon was, given the fact that it had
been some 700 years since their civilization had fallen and their ancestors had
been brought here as captives.
    Paul passed through an energy shield once the doors
opened, walking into the oven that was ‘mild’ temperature for the Kvash. When
he approached one of the short, standing rock piles they didn’t move. None of
them did. Rather than scatter it seemed they were just impassive, though he
could still sense their fear. They had nowhere to run, so these prisoners had
taken to a sedate existence. That was a true pity, for it meant their lives
would be even shorter without even accidental training effect from moving
around in a panic.
    Then again, in a place like this, a shorter life might
be a good thing…save for the fact that there were less of them here to save
now.
    Let’s see if
these guys still know how to talk , Paul thought, activating the translation
program for the Kvash language rather than the trade language the Alliance had
used. He doubted these Kvash would have learned two here, so he was guessing
they would have preserved their default, though it could have altered over all
these years without any standards in place to keep it rigid and ward against
linguistic evolution.
    Paul walked up less than a meter in front of one and
looked down on the Kvash’s flat head. Its eyes not
staring back, and it having no other features on its face save for some small
slits in the rock-like exoskeletal skin that it used to produce sounds.
    “You do not remember me, but I am an ally of your
ancestors that were brought here as prisoners when your civilization was
conquered. We have come here to destroy the Cajdital. You are no longer
prisoners.”
    A few rocky heads that resembled tabletops shifted,
but a far cry from what was triggering in their minds that Paul could sense.
Each race behaved differently, but there were some similarities. Hope, relief,
disbelief…they were all there, but in different forms. The Kvash thought
quickly, and if it hadn’t been for their stagnation here they could also move
fairly quick despite their sluggish appearance.
    “What are you?” one of them asked, but not the one
directly in front of him.
    “I am Human. There was once an Alliance between the
Kvash, the Hycre, the Nestafar, the Calavari, and the Bsidd. We were an
associate of the Hycre and joined the Alliance as a junior member. We have
grown to dominance over the Hycre and all others, and are now finishing the
fight that the Alliance began and reclaiming the worlds that the Cajdital took
from you. The Hycre are our allies and the Calavari, Nestafar, and Bsidd are
now part of our empire. We thought you were totally wiped out, and though I do
not pretend that your living conditions here are anything but deplorable, I am
very relieved to find some of you alive.”
    “Show us your face. Prove you are not a Cajdital,” one
of them said from further off as it slowly walked towards him.
    “The heat is not good for us, but I can stand it for a
brief time,” he said, forming a bioshield over his head and extending it out a
bit to catch some air when his helmet retracted. His face blushed with heat
from the spill through, but he was alright. He looked at the Kvash, twisting
his head back and forth, then resealed his helmet before he ran out of air.
    “I am not one of your tormentors,” he promised. “They
are being killed as we speak and you will not be seeing them again. You will
have to remain in this chamber until we get a