2952-11-06 – Tales from the Service: The Plea of the Kyaroh, Pt. 2 

This week we conclude this transcript of the interview I did a few weeks ago with Advisor Lved of the Kyaroh delegation. I have nothing more to add to the record than what is presented below. 

D.L.C. - Duncan Chaudhri is a junior editor and wartime head field reporter for Cosmic Background.     

S.A.L. – Senior Advisor Lved is a close associate of the chief of the Kyaroh delegation to the Sagittarius Gate system, and speaks in this interview as a private individual of his people, not as an official representative of his government. Lved’s grasp of Anglo-Terran is quite good, but not perfect; in this transcript his words will be presented verbatim, without correction. 

T.B.M. – Commander Tory B. Monaghan is the outgoing Alien Sapient Welfare Officer for Kyaroh on the Sprawl. She has learned the language of her charges and in this interview will act mainly as an interpreter to smooth over language and cultural differences. 

[T.B.M.] – The situation must be dire for your government to have changed its mind so quickly. You said the Incarnation is storming your underground settlements with ground troops; surely that must be prohibitively expensive to them. They can’t sustain a war of attrition like that for long. 

[S.A.L.] – We do not think so either, but they could destroy a sizable portion of our people and fully dominate several less-populous worlds. Perhaps they hope to capture the mines and industry of conquered cities to turn them against you, as they have turned our shipyards to their own ends, but in this they are unlikely to succeed. 

[D.L.C.] – Your shipyards? 

[S.A.L.] – Commander Monaghan, is it permitted to discuss this matter further? 

[T.B.M.] – I believe it is. 

[S.A.L.] – The Incarnation uses captured Kyaroh shipyards to build their troop transport vessels. These yards were built to fabricate colonist transports, not warships, so they were well suited to this purpose. As far as your government or mine can determine, every troop ship observed operating with their fleet is a modified Kyaroh design. 

[D.L.C.] – Strange. Why wouldn’t they build their own? 

[S.A.L.] – You are aware their primary warship design is also captured technology? 

[D.L.C.] – I’d certainly suspected it. We’ve seen several accounts of how easily it is to mistake Grand Journey starships for Incarnation cruisers. 

[S.A.L.] – We do not know the full story of this, but we are certain the Incarnation has not conquered Grand Journey worlds. Perhaps there was once friendship between the two. We have asked the Gilhedat but they do not provide answers. 

[T.B.M.] – If they did have peace with the Incarnation at one time, and barter technology with them, they might not want that to be well known. 

[D.L.C.] – Maybe the Incarnation’s earlier leaders were less militaristic. 

[S.A.L.] – We have seen no sign of regime changes in the decades we have interacted with the Incarnation humans. Their policy toward us has been consistent and increasing subjugation from our first contact. But it seems a certainty that the Grand Journey contacted them much earlier. 

[D.L.C.] – That is an additional objective in your space, then. The shipyards. If they can’t build those troop transports, they can’t invade worlds. 

[S.A.L.] – Yes. And it is these yards that give a relief squadron some hope of being repaired without returning to Sagittarius Gate. There are repair facilities there too. If a surplus of engineer and technician labor is shipped, one of these yards might be recaptured and configured to service the Seventh Admiral’s vessels. 

[D.L.C.] – That sounds like a nightmare project. Rigging Kyaroh civilian liner yards to repair and refit Confederated vessels on short notice? I shudder to think. 

[S.A.L.] – You forget that the Incarnation has been using these facilities to service its own vessels. Some of the work is likely already done. 

[D.L.C.] – Should we scrub this from the transcript, Advisor Lved? If the Incarnation realized they should expect a strike against the yards- 

[S.A.L.] – Publish this exchange without alteration. We have taken this into account. 

[T.B.M.] – You want them to know someone’s coming? 

[S.A.L.] – Perhaps better to say that we think it advantageous to make them react to this news, whether the Seventh Admiral sends ships or no. Perhaps it will immediately slow their offensive. Perhaps it will make them push too rapidly. 

[D.L.C.] – My head hurts just thinking about what it would take to make that your preference. But as long as our Naval Intelligence has no objection, I will not redact anything from the record. 

[S.A.L.] – If your Seventh Admiral sends the ships, we will do what we can to supply and repair them. We have no need of troops; all that is needed is the interdiction of the flow of new enemy forces to our worlds. 

[D.L.C.] – Which requires fighting the Incarnation navy, or at least chasing them off. 

[S.A.L.] – Correct. I do not foresee this to be an easy task, though again the Kyaroh are not entirely without aid for those who attempt it. 

[D.L.C.] – What size of force would be required to improve your peoples’ prospects? 

[S.A.L.] – Any force that can arrive swiftly would be welcome. Even a few smaller warships would force our enemies to change their plans. A larger force would by necessity have greater effect on their campaign, but it would do us no good for your fleet to tarry many of your months organizing a crushing blow. 

[D.L.C.] – Is there anything else you wish to tell our audience? 

[S.A.L.] – Only this. The Kyaroh do not wish to be a client people, even a well-cared-for client. We will honor our pacts. But we will not accept human dominion over our worlds, whichever humans set out to achieve it, and by whichever means. We do not seek to commit our people or yours to an alliance. This is a request for mutual benefit for this conflict, and if it should fail, you lose only what was risked. 

[T.B.M.] – I remember our past conversations. This at least hasn’t changed.