The Eternal Enemy by Michael Berlyn

One.
    â€œI know it’s here someplace. They’ve got to be coming from somewhere in this sector,” he said, gesturing to take in several hundred stars.
    The Old One said nothing.
    â€œTell me what it is that’s bothering you. Please. After what’s happened to me, after what you and your race have done to me, I feel I’m owed an explanation.”
    The Haber flashed red. He then flashed a series of colors that meant nothing to Markos. He’d never seen them generated in a Haber before, but they managed to create a sad feeling, a failure; the feeling of a sentient, caring creature who knows no hope.
    Markos asked why he felt that way, flashing yellow tinged with blue.
    â€œI, I have failed. I, I have let down myself and my ancestors by extending my, my life longer than it was meant to be. Your appearance on Gandji made it necessary for me, me to live longer. When we, we get back to the homeworld, to Aurianta, my, my brothers will reject me, me, and I, I will become an outcast. I, I will meditate down in energy until I, I die at last. I, I long to become part of the home-world’s cycle. Even the cycle of Gandji would have been preferable to this life.”
    Markos nodded. He understood, and he realized there was nothing he could do. The Old One was practically in mourning for himself, and it seemed to be the Haber way.
    He expressed his sympathy and tried to take the Old One’s mind off his self-pity by getting him involved in locating the source of the alien expansion.
    They studied the angles and vectors, tracing them back as best they could without refined instruments, and located a star where five vectors intersected. The star was a K-type star, over thirty parsecs from Alpha Indi. The expansion appeared to be spreading out like a sound wave. From the front of the startank, the K-type star was a little above the relative position of Alpha Indi, but almost the same exact distance from the center of the tank to the front edge.
    It was Pi Hydra.
    By the time the ship left tau-space and began its deceleration, Markos had named the children and had named the enemy. The children were becoming more verbal as they understood more and more of what they were involved in. He established a chain of command, with Alpha as their leader.
    Alpha seemed to have the best grasp of what was expected of them. There were still some weak spots in Alpha’s understanding, but there was nothing Markos could do about that. The only way around those spots would have required Alpha to know something about at least three thousand years of Terran history. Markos gave Alpha what little insight he could.
    What they knew about their enemy was relatively clear-cut. There would be no negotiating. The crystals had shown quite clearly that the Hydrans were concerned about only one thing—taking over their target planet as quickly and efficiently as possible, with no regard for sentient life.
    They knew that at least five planets had suffered the Hydrans’ assault—these were probably owned by the Hydrans now. He was willing to ignore them for the time being and concentrate on whatever new invasions had taken place. He had no idea how many planets had been invaded, nor how long these assaults had been going on. For all he knew, they might be decelerating into a solar system held by the Hydrans.
    But whatever happened, he was glad he was there and not on Gandji, negotiating with the Terrans. From what he could surmise, the differences between the Hydrans and the Terrans were slight: The Terrans knew how to smile and lie before taking what they wanted; the Hydrans seemed a little more direct. Markos preferred the Hydrans’ approach.
    Markos wondered what kind of reception they would get when they landed on Aurianta. How many homeworld Habers could still speak? As a onetime xenobiologist, he knew that the Habers had once communicated through sound-speech and that after their culture had advanced to