by T. L Smith
Even Gardner and Faraday submitted to the test. Gardner got a nod for having more ancient DNA than Faraday. As did a number of humans who were in long term relationships with EH. Not a huge surprise.
Based on DNA and species, the Orb adapted areas to accommodate everyone in this new Collective. The complex cubic structure seen from orbit continued throughout the Orb. The exterior cubes created docking bays, then layers of habitats, beneath lay operations, and in the deep core, the remnants of dying stars compressed into an unfathomable energy source. Faraday and his science crew went insane trying to figure out how the Elders did this.
But we were talking about a civilization capable of ripping the soul and essence out of a living being and sticking it into another. At this point, nothing seemed too complicated for them. Except remanifesting themselves into physical beings to fight the war they left undone. That was in our hands and we had to meet as a new Collective.
That meeting took place in the Orb. In a massive command post built seemingly overnight to accommodate all species. Many of our new allies arrived in person, while the rest reached the room through environmental tubes. They hovered behind transparent portals, separated from our atmosphere, safe in their own. Faraday and Everett flanked Huracid at the table, the friendly competitiveness of three strong men made them friends instead of enemies.
Gardner stood beside me as I greeted our allies. At touch, Sharmila analyzed their needs and how to best utilize them in this war. We passed her recommendations to Gardner’s EH colonel and the two of them made mission assignments.
When the last of our allies had passed through our ‘test’, I took my seat at the head of the table. Silence fell immediately. “Thank you for joining us.” I looked at each of them with a long sweep of the room. “I know we’re all busy getting settled into the Orb and finding our way around her, but we have more pressing matters. It’s time to take the next step in our mission.”
A general wave of agreement moved around the table.
“Success in this impending war will require the best from each of us. No task is too small or unimportant, as it involves our survival. None are so large as winning this war, but it will be won or lost, together.”
It was rhetoric, but Gardner and Everett swore it was necessary. Sharmila agreed with them. No support for me just telling everyone not to whine if they didn’t get to play with the big toys. So I did the required speech without the sarcasm.
“While I am sure some of us might prefer an offensive position, our assignments are based on our special abilities. We need everyone posted to provide the most critical of needs as they arise.” My aide posted the diagrams around the room’s screens. Eyes of every configuration turned to the information.
“Please familiarize yourselves with the duties requested of your people. Commander Gardner and her operations team is available after this briefing to answer questions.” I waved my hand towards the officers posted at workstations, a wide array of species able to work in our environment. “Commander?” I handed the meeting over to her.
Gardner stood gracefully, giving a polite smile. Huracid had coached her on some of our alien allies, who saw too many teeth as an aggressive expression. Some species couldn’t help it, but she was already good at the happy medium. “Thank you… Malant Ghiya.”
She looked to the boards. “Except for specialized crew positions, we’ve made our teams as diverse as possible, here and aboard our battleships. These new battleships.” She looked to the images outside the station. “As ships are being brought to life, we’re moving them into orbit with the Collective fleet.” It was a gesture to show unity.
“As Malant Ghiya already pointed out, no job is too small, and no large job can be accomplished by one being. This endeavor stretches between galaxies as support ships provide us with supplies and soldiers from every inhabited system.” She nodded to Huracid. “The EH are essential to the battle. Collective ships are needed to get us all here and the Elders have provided us with a fleet of battleships capable of standing up to our enemy as we head into war.”
With a wave of her hand the operations screens displayed images representing all the species working side-by-side around the Orb and on our ships. “Everything we do requires the abilities of the Collective.” She picked up a glass of water. “From this simple looking task, to the warriors who will stand toe-to-toe against the Punitraq.” She raised the glass to the room. “We are the Collective and we will fight this war as one.”
I stared up at her, having somehow managing not to jump up and start cheering us into war. She’d delivered my ‘shut up and do your job’ speech in a way that made everyone want to. I sensed their total acceptance of this human as mission commander.
She did too, leaning forward, placing her hands on the table and letting her eyes sweep the room. “Now, let us talk about this war.”
“She’s good!” Sharmila chirped in my head.
“Yeah, happy now?” Sharmila was used to being in charge, so having it in the hands of anyone else, including me, was tough for her to work through. But I needed her full focus for my specific role in this war.
The display boards changed to the last scans from the scout ships. Gardner made her way to the largest screen. “Recon confirms evidence of a sizeable force of enemy ships. Right now they are not heading for our galaxy, but we can assume, after Ceris M., they know where we are.” That information was for the human contingency still back at Ceris M. and IGF Headquarters.
“While scouting other galaxies, the Punitraq are currently fixated on worlds closer to their own territory. Our scout ships have located several intelligent species with limited or no defensive abilities. Certainly no way to evacuate.”
Gardner tapped the screen and images of the different species appeared. Another tap and living faces were replaced by views of planets already hit by the enemy. Destroyed cities. Smoldering continents. The pictures flipped from one to the other. “Based on the information we’re gathering these people are in the path of destruction. They can’t run from this. No one can.”
Scenes of shattered worlds silenced the room, the destruction absolute. Worse than Huracid’s colony world. The questions echoed in my head, before they were shouted around the war room. Why? Who are these Punitraq? What do they want with so many people? How could the Collective stop something with that destructive capacity?
I found the loss of whole civilizations distressing to the point of pain in my chest. They argued, while the tension built up in my spine and shoulders. Across the room I saw Everett staring at me, his eyebrows furrowing. His body stiffened, ready to come to my assistance, but I didn’t need him.
As Sharmila rose in my body, I stood up at the table. “Enough!” The com receiver on my collar made my voice boom. Her voice.
Everyone turned to look at me, or rather Sharmila as she assumed control. “This is not a new enemy and they have been defeated before.” She raised my hand up in front of me, looking at it, then rolling my fingers into a fist. “With our children as hosts, with the technology we left here for just this purpose, we will crush them again.”
Every EH in the room stood, their companions taking charge as she spoke. She banged the table with my hand. “This time they will not rise again.”
A shiver ran through the room and looking at my Everett, I could see why. When the EH are ready to face battle, their eyes go to the iciest cold silver imaginable, virtually glowing. Terrifying to anyone caught in that glare. His eyes stared at me with that lethal fury.
Sharmila approved. “I am not going to spend hours justifying my decisions. We’re launching immediately to intersect with the Punitraq and their prey. Prepare yourselves and report to the duties assigned to you.”
Faraday stood up as the words came out of my mouth. “There’s no way. We’re not ready. Our next wave has barely gotten here. We’re not organized. The pilots haven’t trained on their ships...” He threw up his hands in frustration. “…I can’t even begin to list all the thi
ngs needing to be completed before we can launch an offensive.”
Sharmila walked me to Gardner’s screens. Pointing to one of the species not represented at the table. “These people will die because no one is there to stop the Punitraq. Because even if we leave now, we can’t reach them in time.” She moved to another image, what looked like an agrarian society. “We can stop them here. Unless you’d rather tell these innocent victims why they have to die too.”
Stepping towards the conference table, she projected herself to the Collective leaders. “Who will be next?” She pointed to one. “Your world?” Then another. “Maybe yours.” Fear surged through them as she pushed images of families and friends into their minds. Terrified. Screaming, trying to escape as their world burned down around them.
She turned back to Faraday. “I’m not naïve. We won’t fly in and destroy their fleet in the first assault, or in a dozen. No, I intend to hit them hard enough to pull them off course, then keep them distracted until we are strong enough to fully engage them.”
Huracid and Gardner were her next focus. “We’ll get hit hard. We’ll need the best Collective ships on the front line. We’ll need to be able to move Med-Evac ships and support ships. We’ll need a supply line from here to the front line, food, medicine, supplies, and newly arriving EH.”
She looked to Everett. “As EH arrive here, they will be assigned to ships and dispatched.” She leaned on the table. “Once we’re strong enough, we’ll fully engage them. Then drive them back the way they came. It’s possible they migrated to other worlds, so we have to follow them back to their nest. We’ll find them and wipe their worlds bare of all life!”
Sharmila’s words violated the basic principles of the Collective’s and IGF’s beliefs. She felt everyone bristle at her ‘kill everything’ speech, but it didn’t stop her. “We showed mercy the first time around. We can’t repeat that mistake. We won’t.”
I shut out the reactions she was getting, aimed at me as they didn’t fully understand this duality inside my body. She felt it and ignored it. “Return to your OCs and proceed with preparations. We launch in four human cycles. Those are your orders!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Gardner, Huracid, Faraday and Everett silently followed as I headed for my quarters. Sharmila had let go of me but I didn’t have a lot of strength left. I needed to be somewhere safe when the backlash of sharing my body hit. It was something I was working on, my part in preparing for war. She’d need to be present and I had to willingly let her.
It wasn’t easy. With the EH and companions, the Elders already possessed an existence of their own. They showed no desire to take on physical lives again. It created a bond of trust between them and their hosts.
Sharmila had nowhere else to go. Nothing else to be. She was part of me now. I still had doubts about letting her take control. What if a day came when she refused to let me reassume control of my body?
Right now it wasn’t an issue. I could only physically bear her for so long, before she had to release me. This was the longest and most animated she’d been, and I struggled to hold myself together as we passed crew in the busy corridor. I barely heard the doors close behind me.
“Are you insane?” Gardner let loose on me. “You can’t demand we leave so soon. We are nowhere near ready.” Huracid and Faraday agreed with her. “We’re not adequately manned yet, supply runs are incomplete, and frankly, you can’t put me in charge, then undermine me like that. I needed to be consulted before making such insane announcements. So I can point out that it doesn’t work that way.” She fumed, stomping around the room. “You have no concept of the logistics of going to war”.
I made it to my desk and dropped into the chair.
“In all fairness, it wasn’t Kali making that demand.” Everett came around the desk to stand next to me, stroking my shoulder, lending me his energy.
“Yeah, right!” Gardner stopped, looking back and forth from Everett to me. “It wasn’t Kali, but Sharmila. I don’t totally get how the Elders managed to do this…” She gestured at me, her frustration clear. “…metamorphosis thing.”
“It’s not a metamorphosis. I’m still me.”
“You sure?” She leaned on the other side of the desk. “Have you even looked at yourself lately or read the medical reports, because I have. What they did to you is changing you into something else. Someone else.”
It was hard to argue that point. Since being injected I’d taken on some of Sharmila’s physical characteristics. Silver strands were growing around the edge of my face, streaking back into my dark hair. My skin was lighter and picking up her luminescence. Skin cells showed faster cell regeneration. Medical scans verified my bone density was lighter, but stronger. The lighter gravity felt more natural for me. Blood tests indicated a higher immunity. My five senses became more defined, sometimes to revulsion.
I was changing inside and outside. And staring into her eyes, Gardner was concerned. For me. “It’s not something I can stop, even if I wanted to. My destiny was set in stone when Sharmila sacrificed herself to this mission. And it’s the mission that we need to concentrate on. She made the announcement, we leave in four days, so we need to make it happen.” I looked to Huracid. “This is what she and the Elders want. Our friend will tell you the Collective will do as they demand.”
Huracid bowed to me. “I agree that we are not ready, but the Collective has survived for as long as it has, because we follow the guidance of the Elders. This will be no exception.”
“Really?” Gardner spun around to face Huracid. “Just like that? Ready or not?” She really didn’t get an answer, or expect one. She let out a huge sigh. “Who am I to argue the Collective’s conviction?” She turned back to me. “There’s a lot to do.”
They all sat down and they poured out all the reasons they couldn’t be ready in four days. I remained quiet, but not because I was too weak to defend myself. I remained quiet because the more they ranted about what they couldn’t do, the more they worked out the issues. By the time they wore themselves out, they’d put together an operational plan.
When they left, Everett remained. He’d been quiet through most of the meeting, but I could feel his resentment. “What’s wrong? They figured it out.”
“I don’t like being ambushed by your… her decisions.” He leaned over me. “I don’t want you on the front-lines.”
“Not exactly my choice. I have to be there. Sharmila has to be there.”
“Why?” His cheek ticked as his companion tried to intervene. “You’ve done everything asked of you. I don’t understand why your life has to be further jeopardized.” His stare looked inwards to the Elders. “Show us what needs done to win, without Kali.”
“They can’t.” I’d known this since my integration. “Sharmila has to be there. She will link our pilots into one massive weapon. No one else can do that.”
Everett understood more than he wanted to. He understood, but didn’t accept it.
“Sharmila fought these Punitraq. She knows them, their strategies.” I slouched deeper in the chair, under the weight of his emotions. It was all crashing in on me. Everett refusing to grasp what needed to be done. Sharmila’s tirade in the war room, and her little DNAbots still wreaking havoc on my system. Now I was fighting with Everett. I needed him to shield me from the stress of this day, not add to it.
Everett picked up my wounded thoughts and stood up. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to fight either.” He offered me his hand, then thought better of it as he felt how exhausted I really was. He scooped me out of the chair. He lowered me down into the big bed that had once been hers. He stroked my cheek. “I just don’t know how I’m supposed to protect you if I don’t know what to expect next.”
“Life doesn’t tell us what to expect. We’re soldiers. All we can do is fight to win.” I took down the barriers I’d held in place for our meeting. “You don’t need to protect me here.”
He exchanged the weight of his emotions for the weight of his bo
dy as he leaned over me. His fingers caught a strand of hair, slipping it through his fingers. The silver streak. “You’re changing too fast. It scares me. The doctors are worried that your natural cells can’t take the stress. There’s a limit to what anyone’s body can take. Even mixed with Elder DNA.”
I pulled the strand from his fingers, glancing at it. I couldn’t swear to it, but it looked like it had spread at least another inch lower into my nearly jet-black hair. “I have no control over this and I doubt Sharmila does either.”
“Maybe not, but you refuse to let the doctors monitor you anymore.”
“Because they can’t do anything, but poke at me and worry everyone.” I let the hair go, catching his hand and pulling it to my heart. “I don’t want to talk about what this is doing to me, or the meeting, or the war. I’m still here. Me!”
Everett’s hand tightened around mine as he leaned closer and kissed me. His fingers untangled from mine, slipping to the first button of my jacket. It came open easily, more easily since designed for me. The changes in my body had made me thinner as well, making it possible to breathe in the uniform. His hand tugged at the undershirt until he could slip his hand beneath.
His touch sent a spark of life back into my tired body. I kissed him harder, arching my back as his hand reached my breast. Yeah, I wasn’t too tired for this. I caught my leg around his and pushed at his shoulder. He read my mind, pulling me with him as he rolled over and sat up. His hands pulled me on top him. I twisted to feel him hard already. Two layers of uniform wasn’t hiding that fact at all.
His hands let go of my hips, sliding my shirt up as I hurried to get the jacket off. The tight undershirt was over my head, his lips waiting as I kissed him again. His jacket and shirt came off a lot easier and I ran my hands down his massive arms. His lips moved down the side of my neck. I let out a moan as his mouth reached my breast, as his hand gripped my hip, guiding my body against his.
