"You are not wrong," Munay said, although it was clear he still wasn't sold. "We also had not discussed rank and were working through a problem."
"Agreed," Marny said. "Which is why I haven't sought disciplinary action. It remains a fact that you were aboard a Loose Nuts ship, addressing the captain – someone I had just heard you refer to as Commodore."
Munay pursed his lips and nodded his head in acknowledgement. "That's a fair statement."
"Can you see why I was concerned?"
"Bringing in Masters with a blaster rifle and talking of mutiny was a bit over the top," Munay said. "Don't you agree?"
"I'll concede that I see your point," Marny answered. "I will also admit I was looking for an opportunity to publicly put you back in your seat. I need the Mars Protectorate officers to have no question about who is in charge."
Munay chuckled and for the first time a smile made it to his face. "I believe you have spent too much time in the presence of Admiral Buckshot Alderson. It is a confident person who exposes her plan so boldly. I appreciate your candor. I might have done the same in your position."
Audibly, I breathed a sigh of relief. The tension between Marny and Munay had me on edge.
"Now that we have that out of the way, what are we doing, Cap?" Marny asked.
For a moment, I felt hijacked. She'd told me we'd be doing a strategic session, but I hadn't realized it was up to me to come up with the agenda. My mind spun with possibilities as the people in the room stared at me.
"Sack up, Hoffen," Tabby whispered. "You got this."
I looked over to Tabby. Her cheeks had very light freckles that could only be seen in the right light. For whatever reason, seeing them always took me back to Colony-40 where we'd grown up. I could see the girl I'd fallen in love with and nearly lost to pirates. I could easily get lost in her green eyes, but I knew she'd beat me if I did.
"First things first," I said, moving past my split-second reverie. "Greg, I'd like to promote you to captain of Hornblower and task you with its repair and preparation to readiness. You will report to no one beyond Marny or myself and you will accept Marny's orders as if they were my own. To that end, we will transfer crew into and out of your command at our discretion, although with your foreknowledge and with discussion. Further, the rest of Loose Nuts falls outside of your command, including Gaylen Brighton, Fleet Afoot, Intrepid, and the Kroerak cruiser."
"I accept the commission with gratitude," Munay said. "I will endeavor to fulfill my duties with honor."
"We have limited access to capital and human resources," I said. "It's an impossible task."
"I have faith in the impossible."
"Second, we're taking on the mission Admiral Sterra gave to the brave men and women of the Hermes class sloops that were destroyed," I said. "Simply put, we endeavor to find the Kroerak home world and a mechanism in which to destroy it or them."
Sendrei raised his plastic cup from the table. "Hear, hear!"
He was joined by the rest of the command team with a salute.
"How will Liam Hoffen defeat the Kroerak?" Jester Ripples asked.
"I have absolutely no idea," I said. "I was hoping Jonathan and Sendrei learned something of value while aboard the Kroerak cruiser. Jonathan?"
"I do not believe everyone at this table is aware of what transpired. I will summarize. Ninety days previous, Loose Nuts discovered a Kroerak vessel buried beneath the soils of Zuri. As many of you know, the discovery was a significant surprise. While seated within the mobile unit humans refer to as a Stryker, Sendrei Buhari and I became aware of an open port along the side of this Kroerak vessel.
"It was an opportunity that ninety-eight percent of us decided could not be overlooked and we acted decisively to move from the Stryker vehicle to board the Kroerak vessel. We were surprised when we realized that Sendrei Buhari had followed us aboard, just as we were surprised when the vessel abruptly departed from the surface of Zuri.
"Initially, our concerns were solely for the survival of Sendrei. As we learned, the interior of a Kroerak cruiser is much different than that of a human ship. The systems are primarily biological and have very few mechanical parts. We identified that these systems are maintained by seven vastly different species, all of which have been enslaved by the Kroerak. Fortunately for Sendrei, there is little that resembles security within the vessel, although there were certainly predators. We quickly discovered that survival for Sendrei was simply a matter of finding an appropriate location to hide and a mechanism for extracting nutrients and water from the environment.”
"When we came aboard, the noble controlled our thoughts," Tabby said. "Is that why Sendrei took off his suit? So she couldn't find him?"
"Partially correct," Jonathan answered. "Sendrei's long exposure to the Kroerak while on the planet Cradle made him very difficult for the noble to control. The nobles have an inherent ability to track mechanical technology. By removing his suit, Sendrei became virtually invisible to the noble as long as he did not physically get too close."
"So, when Liam distracted the Kroerak by singing, Jonathan was able to get further into the system undetected," Tabby summarized. "I'd always wondered how that worked out."
"Quite correct, Tabby. It is ironic. The Kroerak noble was both afraid of and quite jealous of humanity. She had been separated from her peers for two human centuries and longed for intelligent discourse. Even as she sought to purge us from her control systems, she dialogued with us, asking a never-ending series of questions, curious of life outside the bounds of her mission. We found it significant that she had the capacity to communicate over galactic distances with other Kroerak nobles, but lacked the will to disobey the order to focus solely on mission."
"I'm having trouble feeling sorry for her," I said.
"She sleeps forever," Sendrei said. "I would send her to her grave a second time if given the chance."
"Any clues on where they're from or how we might defeat them?" Marny asked.
"Many clues," Jonathan said. "Very little information. We believe that if we were to track the slave species aboard the cruiser, we might discover where the Kroerak came from. It is not perfect, but the species were not likely born on the same planet or system as the Kroerak. Their location would teach us much."
"You have something else," I said. I'd played enough poker with Jonathan to sense when he was holding an ace. My ability to read them drove his fourteen-hundred-thirty-eight entities nutty trying to figure out what clues they were giving off. To be honest, I had no idea. "What is it? It's juicy, I can tell."
"You sense this?" Jonathan asked. "We wish to understand how you know we have withheld information."
I smiled, knowing it would drive them bat-shite crazy for a while. "And?" I raised my eyebrows.
"There is a species they fear more than humans," he said.
"Damn straight!" Munay said. "Who and where are they? We need to ally ourselves with this species."
"They are known as Piscivoru," Jonathan said. "From what I was able to learn from the noble, the Kroerak brought the Piscivoru civilization to complete ruin. Once numbering in the billions, the Kroerak believe only twenty thousand remain. The Piscivoru are an unremarkable reptilian, humanoid species of average intelligence, much like humanity."
"Except the reptilian thing," Tabby interjected.
"Yes, of course," Jonathan agreed. "Originally living peacefully in expansive cities on their home world, the civilization fell quickly when the Kroerak invaded. A small remnant escaped far underground, where they apparently discovered an ancient weapon called the Iskstar, something the Kroerak fear beyond all else."
I shrugged as Jonathan looked at me. "What's an Iskstar?"
He continued. "The noble did not describe the Iskstar. It is forbidden to even name the weapon, and she had already broken this rule. Fortunately for the Kroerak, the Piscivoru only discovered this Iskstar after their civilization had been ruined. It is a widely held belief within Kroerak that this Piscivoru remnant wi
ll be their ruin. The fear expressed by this noble bordered on terror."
My comm channel chimed and Mom's face appeared on my HUD. She was using a high priority channel to contact me.
"Hold on, it's Mom. Something's going on," I said and accepted her comm request. "Mom, I'm patching you into a meeting we're having. What's going on? "
On the wall, Mom and Katherine LeGrande appeared. They were both sitting in the station's command center.
"We have an incoming Abasi battleship, Thunder Awakes" she said. "They were polite, but insistent on a lockdown of local space within fifty kilometers of Petersburg Station and positive turret control of our defensive guns."
"Sorry," I said. "I should probably have warned you. Mshindi Prime contacted me about the Kroerak ship and Hornblower. She'll hold a prize court aboard Thunder Awakes when they arrive."
"We didn't talk with Prime, but rather with Mshindi Second," Katherine answered. "She also mentioned something about a challenge issued by Tabitha?"
"She did?" Tabby perked up, not normally one for meetings. "Are they fielding a team?"
"Mshindi Tertiary asked me to carefully convey the following – 'your ears will lay flat in shame at your defeat beneath her paws.'"
"She did not!" Tabby squealed in delight.
"I believe she was rather agitated – her tail was twitching," Katherine said. "Now we've got to go. Apparently, we have dignitaries inbound."
Chapter 4
Star Fire
Sklisk twisted as he fell, pushing against the rocks. It was at least a twelve-count fall and neither he nor Jaelisk could survive that impact. He smelled Jaelisk's fear and confusion on the wind and recognized she must be hurt to be emitting those warnings. It was a simple matter to orient on her. He flattened his narrow body into the wind and ran across the rocks that fell with him.
Falling was a natural part of Piscivoru life, just as was using their flat-sided tails to propel against the winds. Sklisk ran into Jaelisk's tumbling body and grabbed onto her. Where they touched, her body was wet, smelling of her life essence. Subconsciously he recognized she had received great injury, but he knew better than to focus on anything beyond survival, as no injury would compete with the impact received on the rocks below.
Jaelisk thrashed against his grasp and Sklisk flicked his tongue across his mate's nose to calm her. With powerful legs, he turned her back toward the mountain and flicked his tail. In confusion, Jaelisk snapped her head back into his chest and for a moment they separated. Sklisk grabbed her once again and bit into her shoulder as he pushed them toward the mountain's face.
Having successfully separated from the tumbling boulders, Sklisk pushed Jaelisk toward a bluff they were falling past. Just missing the outcropping, Sklisk continued to fall as Jaelisk contacted the edge. Her sudden impact on the rock pulled her from him and he turned his focus to his own survival.
Falling faster than ever before, Sklisk knew he'd given up his opportunity for a safe landing to Jaelisk. It was a worthy objective, but he would need to use all the skills he'd learned as a broodling to survive, especially without the pools of the Iskstar grotto to provide a safety net.
Desperately, he scanned the mountainside that rushed to greet him while spreading his limbs to slow his fall. A plan hatched as he located the flattened face of massive rocks that nestled into the mountain just out of reach. To land against the gently sloping vertical face of the flattened rocks would slow him in a not-so-controlled slide, but first he had to reach them. Knowing the cost he was about to pay, he swished his tail, pushing himself into the mountain and colliding with an overhang. Pain as he had never felt before blossomed in every fiber of his being and he felt his life energy ebb. Ricocheting, he impacted the mountain a second time, this time a cruel twist to his body snapped clarity back to his focus.
The twin impacts, while planned, hadn't slowed him greatly, but instead tossed him toward the flat-iron boulders lying against the mountain. Mentally, he braced for a third impact and groaned in agony even as he flattened his stomach wide and held his limbs to his sides, assuring that the energy of his landing would spread to as much of his body as possible.
Upon contact, he dug claws into the rock surface. His side and leg were injured, but the inertia of his fall lessened. Dull rock points dug at his underbelly as he slid. A poorly placed rock caught him perfectly at his knee, breaking his contact with the rock. Scrabbling wildly in the air, he reached for the mountain.
An unfamiliar smell reached his nose as what felt like thousands of cloths whipped across his body. Turning, he discovered he’d fallen into a massive plant. It slowed his momentum as he snapped stalks which grew thicker the closer he got to its center. Grabbing at the thin outer stalks, he was unable to find purchase until his stomach violently struck a stalk that was thicker than his arm. The stalk did not snap but bent as it absorbed the remainder of his fall's energy.
His trip, however, was not finished. The flexible stalk reversed its path and flung him off. Falling once again, Sklisk grabbed for purchase as he cartwheeled through the plant's structure. Finally, as if it were annoyed with him, the plant ejected him entirely, depositing him into the heavy, low growing vegetation beneath its broad canopy.
Afraid that any movement on his part would result in a fresh round of insults to his battered body, Sklisk lay still. As his thoughts settled, he took stock of his multitude of injuries. Blood was on his long tongue; he'd bitten into it at some point, clipping a chunk off the tip. Moving the long digits of his fingers and toes, he discovered several badly damaged joints making movement difficult.
He rolled onto his stomach and checked for the Iskstar staff, not surprised that it had become dislodged. He remembered falling against it when pinging off the rocks along the mountainside. He crawled slowly through the debris and undergrowth, his confidence growing with each stride. Unfortunately, the pain in his digits also grew with each step. He would have to ignore the pain as finding and helping Jaelisk was paramount.
Moving more quickly, Sklisk startled a rodent which skittered underfoot. It had been a long time since he'd seen another living species and he mentally chastised himself for being startled. Of course there would be life on the surface of their home world. The bug warriors only sought to destroy Piscivoru and had little care for small native animals.
Sklisk reached the base of the mountain and began climbing. Flicking his tongue, he tasted the wind for Jaelisk and found nothing. He'd had little time to survey the mountain while careening down its side, but retracing his path wasn't difficult. Falling was mostly a vertical affair and it was easy to make out the tall flat-iron boulders that soared above. He wasn’t far from where Jaelisk should be. The dry earth and rock felt strange beneath his claws as he climbed. Why it should feel so foreign, he wasn’t sure, for his home was actually within this same mountain. His people had always talked about 'the above,' but no story could come close to what he was experiencing.
The familiar smell of Iskstar caught in his nose as he skittered across a ledge and discovered the location of his staff. Relieved, Sklisk recovered the Iskstar, placed it back in his pouch and continued to climb, ignoring the complaints of his injured joints.
The smell of Jaelisk's blood on the wind was worrying as he closed in on her location. The smell became so strong, Sklisk began to fear his mate had not survived. He raced into the plume of heady scents, discovering a thick trail of blood and his mate’s body lying precariously at the edge of a cliff, unconscious. He panicked. Jaelisk’s arm had been severed at the joint and was still oozing blood. Without hesitation, he pulled a cloth from his pouch and wrapped it tightly around the wound.
Pulling her to a more comfortable position, Sklisk flicked his tongue across her face. While she’d lost a lot of blood, her hearts beat a strong vibration within her torso. He'd lost most of his pack during the fall, but Jaelisk’s items had been strewn along the blood trail. Knowing she would not recover without water, he laid her gently against the rocks and went about
gathering her possessions.
When he pushed a water skin to her mouth and dribbled water along the thick inner jawbone, his hearts thrilled as her tongue moved in response. After giving her a long drink, he searched her pack and found the salve used on wounds. Carefully, he rewrapped her stub, this time applying the medicine first.
"What has happened?" Jaelisk's voice caught him off guard and he moved so he was close to her face. He peered into her glowing blue eyes, attempting to determine her level of alertness. She had always been strong, and Sklisk felt he could see this strength through the pain.
"We were attacked and fell from the mountain," he said. "Your arm is removed."
"My Iskstar staff?" she asked.
"It is recovered," he said. "I have not found Engirisk's machine."
"It is good you did not venture without me," she said, reaching into the pouch at her neck with her uninjured arm and extracting the machine.
Sklisk accepted the machine from her and inspected it. It had taken substantial damage from the fall, its transparent surface spiderwebbed with cracks. He didn't dare power it up.
"I smell bug warriors below," Jaelisk said. "Can you not?"
"I bit my tongue," Sklisk admitted, shaking his head. In normal circumstances, biting off one's tongue was simply embarrassing; the flesh was soft and easily severed. Unlike Jaelisk's arm, his tongue would regrow.
"What a sorry pair of heroes we turned out to be," Jaelisk said. "I have no arm and you no tongue."
"We are alive, dear mate. I am pleased to be a sorry hero if I am allowed life," Sklisk said, flicking his damaged tongue out and catching the scent of bug warriors. "I will return in a moment."
"Be careful. You have never fought a real bug warrior before. They are dangerous," she said.
Pursuit of the Bold Page 4
