by Eric Flint
"How long?" Tully rose and looked from Aille to Yaut. "How long do we have before these murdering bastards attack our world?"
Yaut closed his eyes as though measuring something inside his head. "When the flow is complete."
"I goddam knew you were going to say that!" He sank back against the wall and crossed his arms.
"The flow here feels swift," Aille said. "I fear it will not be long, as humans measure time. A few solar cycles, at best."
Chapter 32
Oppuk swam. His advisors hovered nearby, discussing the current crisis, concocting foolish plans that would not work, but still he swam. The water was cool, the salts balanced just so, the scent wrapping him round with the memories of better days, when his future still held promise and he was not tethered to a world doomed by its own savagery.
This marvelous pool would not exist, once the Complete Harmony reduced this world to slag, so he might as well enjoy this small bit of luxury while he could. Nothing in the realm of possibility would save Terra and its inhabitants.
He had not foreseen this, though perhaps he should have. Flow eluded him more often than not, these days, and he found it difficult to judge the pace of events. But Terra was a worthless world, its dominant species treacherous and fractious. How could the Complete Harmony not have perceived that? Of course they would weed, rather than harvest. The Jao should have done the same, twenty years earlier.
Vithrik demanded that he defend this dismal outpost to the best of his ability, though, so he would. At least, if he survived, Narvo would be forced to give him another posting. Somewhere with better seas, he hoped, where he might have a chance to be of use; unlike here, where he had fought this endless holding action against human defiance and truculence.
At length, he emerged from the pool, water sluicing off his head and whiskers. His advisors, along with a few human officials and the members of his service, stared at him like stricken crechelings, waiting for a responsible adult to make sense out of unmitigated disaster.
"Governor." A jinau officer stepped forward. Major General Wilbourn, Kralik's counterpart in command of the Atlantic Division. "What are your orders?"
A trembling human servitor knelt before him, face averted, holding up his ceremonial bau. Oppuk accepted it, then examined the carvings for nicks and discolorations. "We will withdraw Jao ground forces into shielded enclaves. I had a number of them prepared after the conclusion of the conquest."
The general's face was peculiarly colorless. "I see. And your jinau troops?"
"There is no room," Oppuk said. "They will have to take their chances with the rest of the population."
"What about our dependents?" The jinau swallowed with what appeared to be difficulty. "I was hoping we could at least shelter them."
Oppuk let himself fall into the canted lines of bored-exasperation. "Can they fly spacecraft? Fight the Jao in vacuum?"
"Well, no, but—"
"Then what is the point of shielding them? We cannot waste limited facilities on those who cannot make themselves of use."
The general's eyes seemed much more white-rimmed than usual. "Governor, please! We're talking about our families, our children!"
Oppuk seized him by the throat so that the human dangled from one hand, choking, arms and legs thrashing. "I weary of you creatures. You are not worthy of serving the Jao." He motioned to Ullwa. "Take this beast outside and put it down."
Ullwa moved forward without so much as the flick of a whisker and accepted the writhing human, her own fist closing around the throat in imitation of Oppuk. The creature was able to emit only a single hoarse squawk before its air was once again cut off.
Oppuk's ears flattened with disgusted-impatience. "Any others wish to instruct me on my duties?"
The remaining human officials shuffled their feet and gave one another fleeting glances, most prudently not raising their eyes to his; which were, he was certain, fiery green with displeasure. The Jao watched him with carefully dampened eyes, each and every one waiting-to-be-of-use.
"Then," he said, accepting his shoulder harness from a cringing female human servant and speaking only to the Jao present, "go and organize the preparation of our flotilla, small as it is. We will remove ourselves to behind Terra's moon and wait until after the attack, when the Complete Harmony's ships have made themselves vulnerable. Though we cannot stop them, we can exact a high price for their targeting of this system."
The servitor edged back and forth, fastening his buckles, tugging strips of harness into place. "I will board my own vessel," Oppuk said, "and remain there until the situation is resolved."
The humans parted as he stalked out, their silence following him down the corridor as he headed for his personal ground transport. His nap was still damp and he regretted that the rapid flow of the situation denied him the opportunity to go back and swim one more time. Really, it had been a most exceptional pool.
Outside, he saw Ullwa dragging Wilbourn's body toward the disposal unit. By the angle of the jinau general's head, Ullwa had put him down by the simple expedient of snapping his neck.
Oppuk approved. It would have been absurd to give the human the dignified ending a Jao received when the offer of life was accepted. For a moment, Oppuk fingered the ceremonial dagger attached to his harness, imagining the distasteful task of cleaning human ichor from the blade.
His ears flattened with harsh amusement. Fitting, really, that the humans even had an expression for this situation as well.
Shooting's too good for him.
* * *
Aille was relieved to touch down in Oklahoma City. There was so much to be done, he hardly knew where to start.
Rafe Aguilera and Willard Belk, who had flown in from Pascagoula along with Tamt, Wrot and Nath, met the ship out on the tarmac. Yaut had squirted a datastream back to Aguilera and Nath at the refit facility for evaluation. Caitlin, Tully, and Kralik fell into their accustomed places before him as naturally as breathing.
Despite the unusual composition of the group—much more variegated than normal in terms of kochan, as well as of mixed species—they were a fine start on assembling a useful service. But they were too few to do what needed to be done. Some of his kochan-parents had kept services of over a hundred.
If only the flow of the situation were less demanding. Desperation tried to insinuate itself into the line of his shoulders and he had to concentrate to amend it to aggressive-concern.
As always at this location, the sunlight was blazing down and the sky was a hard blue bowl devoid of clouds. Aille narrowed his eyes against the unwelcome glare.
"What happened to the hatch?" Aguilera, pale, but walking unassisted, gazed over Aille's shoulder as the cooling metal popped.
"The Ekhat," Tully said. "They liked the damn thing so much, they kept it for a souvenir."
Tamt stepped forward, her big-boned body full of eagerness-to-serve, which no longer seemed forced. "Governor Oppuk has ordered the Jao flotilla into hiding. He will attack the Ekhat ships after they penetrate the atmosphere, as is normal procedure in this situation. Shall I have your courier ship repaired and refueled, or would you prefer to observe the operation from one of the shielded enclaves down here on the planet?"
Aille's mind whirled. The Narvo was just abandoning this world to an inevitable destruction, not even trying to make the available defenses work? "I will consider both options," he said, attempting to make sense of the situation.
"Sir?" Aguilera held out a folder stuffed with papers. "We've been studying the intel you sent back and have some ideas to discuss with you, a few things that have never been tried before."
"Oppuk will only do what has been done in the past," Yaut said quietly. "It is his strength, to follow procedure as closely as possible. Then no one can say he turned away from vithrik. He will be protected in a fortress of custom, from which you can only pry him by widening outward yet again. It is always so, with advance-by-oscillation."
Never, since leaving Pluthrak's comfortable, mist-swathed koc
han-house on Marit An, had Aille felt so young, so utterly out of his depth. It was as though unsuspected deep water had closed over his head and he no longer knew in which direction the surface lay.
Wrot flattened his battered ears. His stance was enigmatic, not wholly one thing or the other, though Aille thought he glimpsed an element of exasperation.
"What has been done in the past has never worked!" The old combat veteran's whiskers quivered. "I have had enough of Narvo's famous strength. Here, at least, that strength is false. Rigidity masquerading as rigor. Look elsewhere, Pluthrak. Humans excel at ollnat, thinking up things-that-might-be. They see beyond the limitations of what-has-always-worked to what-could-work. It is their genius—often also their weakness—but their ability to innovate is the single biggest cause of our long struggle to control this world. Which will never end until we associate with it. Properly!"
There must be a course of action here that satisfied the vithrik of all, human and Jao alike. "Does the Governor have orders for me?"
"Not specific ones," Tamt said. Her posture faded into abashed-regret. "He has not mentioned you by name, since your report arrived. However, he has ordered the fleet prepared and Jao ground forces sequestered in prepared shelters on the surface. As one of his officers, you are included in that command."
"I must speak with him, after I study Aguilera and Nath's proposals."
"You cannot," Wrot said. His tattered ear gave him a comical aspect Aille had not noticed before. "Oppuk krinnu ava Narvo has already boarded his personal transport and left to join his flotilla, which he's apparently positioning behind this planet's moon."
"Then I will speak to his service," Aille said, though the news left him even more off balance. "They can set up a vid conference."
"I will arrange it," Tamt said. "As soon as possible."
Caitlin shook her head and walked toward the groundcars suddenly. Aille was surprised, as he had given her none of the subtle body clues indicating his readiness for such an action. Ah, well, perhaps Yaut had. Or perhaps she simply misread the situation. She was human, after all, and young. Though she was the most accomplished of her species when it came to bodyspeech, she could hardly be expected to be as proficient as a Jao.
He had Aguilera and Nath ride in the back with him while Yaut took the front, and the others squeezed into the second vehicle. It was undignified, true, but time was short. "Now," he said to Aguilera as the car began to move, "explain your new ideas on how to fight the Ekhat."
Aguilera shuffled through his folder, then held up a picture of the Ekhat vessel, generated during the previous encounter. "Nath and I have studied the specs on this ship in the Jao records. It's surprisingly flimsy, for all its fire power."
Aille leaned his head back against the cushioned seat and closed his eyes, trying to picture all he had learned back in the Pluthrak kochanata. "Yes." Weariness pulled at him like an outgoing tide. It had been overlong since his last dormancy period.
"What about ramming them?"
Aille's eyes opened. "Ramming? With what?"
"Another ship, sir." Aguilera was sitting bolt-upright, his body rigid with clearly recognizable anticipation.
Yaut turned around from the front seat. "Narvo would never waste one of his ships on such an unproven action."
"Not Narvo's ships, sir." Aguilera straightened the edges of the papers in the file. "Ours."
"Are you speaking of Pluthrak?" Aille waggled an ear in desultory consideration. "I brought only one ship with me, upon my assignment to this world, and it is hardly suitable for ramming."
Aguilera's eyes were strangely bright for a human. Aille could almost see the thought patterns dancing across them. "No, the ships in Pascagoula, the ones we've been refitting!"
"The submersibles?" Yaut sat back, his snout wrinkled in unalloyed bafflement.
"They're as big as any of our Jao spacecraft, and much more massive," Nath pointed out. "They were built to resist tons of pressure from without. Even if they didn't survive the ramming, I am certain they would inflict a great deal of damage."
Aille thought of the ships cradled like children-yet-to-be-born in their berths back in the refit facility. They were indeed heavily armored and of amazingly stout construction.
"And I bet the Ekhat wouldn't be expecting that kind of attack either," Aguilera added. "From what I can tell, neither you nor the Ekhat ever fight inside the sun, because your lasers won't work there. Fancy missiles wouldn't either. But it takes them time to form that plasma shell around their ships, according to the reports. You could bring in a whole squadron of refitted submarines and attack from a number of angles. If your people provide us with their opinion on where the most vulnerable areas lie, we might even be able to take them out before they make a run at Earth."
Aille turned the concept over in his mind, trying to view it as his instructors back in the kochanata would have, or even the fabled tacticians and strategists of the Ebezon Harriers. Would they perceive this as opportunity, a chance to make one's self of use, or dereliction of duty and the purest folly?
"The idea has merits," he said at length. "We will examine it further."
* * *
When Aille and his service arrived at the Governor's palace, a blustery wind was blowing out of the direction called "west," scattering twigs and dust and debris, and whistling around the overhang's supports. He stepped out of the groundcar into the blaring sun. There was change in that wind, a subtle lessening of the intense heat of this region, and the promise that hai tau, life-in-motion, flow, was making itself known even here in this alien landscape. Balances were altering, that wind said, priorities shifting. It was up to him to decipher how and where.
Aille bounded up the steps, hoping at least a rudimentary staff had been left in place to attend to urgent matters. But the building seemed to be deserted. Several groundcars had been left in the drive, abandoned, while the massive native-style wooden doors stood open.
Apparently, as Tamt had reported, Oppuk had posted both staff and service to his flagship, while dispersing the rest to safe areas and dismissing the unneeded human servants. Across the entire planet, the remaining occupying forces must also have received orders to either flee the surface or conceal themselves in bunkers constructed and supplied against just this possibility.
Aille entered the puzzling gray stone chamber just beyond the doors and closed his eyes, assessing the situation. The artificial temperature controls had been turned off. Within, the heat had already built to an oppressive level, even to Jao senses.
Flow was still fast, events and discoveries occurring at an ever accelerating rate. He could feel the need to act decisively rising like a restless tide in his blood.
He tightened his timesense to slow his perception somewhat. "We need to locate the command center," he told Yaut.
The fraghta's body was stiff with worried-doubt. "Think this through before you act. Your orders are clear. Narvo holds oudh here. Pluthrak has no official status beyond your assigned rank. If you disregard Oppuk's orders, he will petition the Naukra to have you declared kroudh."
Outlawed. Aille's whiskers straightened. Individuals were pronounced kroudh from time to time for outlandish behavior and refusal to honor association, but he had never actually known anyone so designated.
"I hear you," he told Yaut, though he knew the possibility would make no difference. He would do what he had to do as the current flow played out. He knew where his own vithrik lay, no matter how someone else might view it. He could do no less than make himself of the fullest use in this situation—and that was not to hide, lying in wait while the Ekhat laid waste to this world, when there were viable alternatives available.
Yaut flicked an ear, willing for the moment to wait and see what might be shaped from this difficult dilemma. He motioned Aille's service into the empty building, then followed.
Silently, the four humans and two Jao threaded through the massive residence. They lost their way in the labyrinth of halls more than once
and had to double back. The power was still on and Terra's garish sunlight flooded through the many skylights and windows as they searched, but the emptiness was eerie.
When they finally stumbled upon the command center, Aille was startled to find a tattered-looking human male slumped in the central chair. The man was staring blankly at gleaming real-time tactical displays that had been left running.
"Dr. Kinsey!" Caitlin hurried over to him. "What are you doing here?"
Kinsey's flushed face turned slowly, as though he were a device tracking a faint signal from some other galaxy. His eyes narrowed. "Caitlin?"
She took his hand awkwardly in her left one, her blue-gray gaze probing. "Did Oppuk strand you here?"
"No." He shook his head. The age-grooves in his face were much more pronounced than Aille had ever seen them. "I was told to leave, just like everyone else," he said, passing his free hand over facial skin rough with that peculiar hairy stubble human males were prone to exhibit. "They ordered all the humans in residence back to their homes to wait for instructions. I guess when one of the jinau generals objected—not even that, just pleaded—Oppuk had him killed. But—" He broke off and stared at the display over the strategy table. "I was hoping you might come here, so I decided to stay. I was worried about you. And if I understand the situation properly, it doesn't seem to matter where anyone is, when the Ekhat come. Unless you're in a specially designed underground shelter, you're dead anyway."
Yaut took the human by the arm and levered him onto his feet, then had to support his weight as the man swayed in his grasp. "We must contact the ranking Jao officer left on the planet's surface," he said over his shoulder to Aille. "I will use Oppuk's database to ascertain who that might be."
"Come over here, Dr. Kinsey," Caitlin said, taking the man's arm from the fraghta. "Everything's going to be all right."
"No, it's not," Kinsey said wearily. His lips twisted into a half-smile, half-grimace. "I'm absentminded, Caitlin, I'll admit. But that's not the same thing as absence of mind. So it turns out the Ekhat are not just some myth to frighten recalcitrant children, they're actually coming—and from what I can gather, they're going roast the Earth to cinders."
