Conflict!

by Dale Moorhouse

  Jacky’s parents George and Emily were there, it turned out her father was the Weasel Prime Minister while Emily was the chief economic advisor to the Emperor. They congratulated me on our latest victory and reiterated their support of the war.

  Wiley’s mate Sonja showed up about ten centas before we were to be seated for dinner and was in full uniform. I had no idea she was the actual head of the Weasel militia. Wiley smiled as he introduced us, saying, “I may be the titular head of our military, but Sonja is the real leader of our forces and the power behind the throne.”

  Sonja was as tall as Jacky and looked like a more muscular version of her. When I commented on the similarity of appearance, she laughed with the humour showing in her eyes and said, “I should hope so, I’m her older sister. Jacky is the one who should have climbed to the top of our military, but she opted for intelligence instead so our militia got me. Growing up, I was the stronger one physically, but she was the smart one of the family, plus she has her power, which has stood her in good stead.

  “I was going to change to my undress uniform, but our graduation ceremony went a little long, so I came straight here. If I were Jacky, I would have thought to bring the uniform with me and changed on the shuttle.”

  I could tell that while there was a lot of love between them, there was also some rivalry and that probably went back to early childhood. I wasn’t sure how the Weasels reared their children, I’d assumed in creches like the Mmrrreeowwn, but I could very easily be wrong. I promised myself I would ask.

  I introduced Elaine and Sonja, they bowed to each other with Elaine’s bow slightly lower. Sonja immediately grabbed Elaine’s hand and said, “Now the introductions are over, please let us sit and have a drink while we get to know one another,” and pulled her away towards the small bar in the corner of the room.

  Wiley smiled after them, “Sonja has been wanting to meet Elaine since she first heard of her. She has been keeping tabs on your mate’s accomplishments since you came up from Terra. She, like Jacky, has some power of foresight and believes Elaine may be as much a key to our race’s survival as you, particularly since she is working on some genetic issues with Svetlana and Vanilla. We have some genetic issues, our researchers would like to collaborate with Elaine’s team and start working on a cure if one is needed.

  “Our kind was nearly wiped out many kilocycles ago. All but a few hundred on our mothership perished, less than a million on our Ark survived. Since then, our population has been steadily rebuilding. Like the Mmrrreeowwn, my race is long-lived and hardy. We have a similar birth rate, which is keyed to our longevity treatments as well. That is both a blessing and a curse.

  “Because our gene-pool is so small, we are concerned about the effects of inbreeding and are as strict in our pairings as the Mmrrreeowwn, but we wish to know more and hope to gain insight into our actual genetic condition through joint studies with your wife’s team.

  “Ah, I see Jacky is moving us to the dining room. I promise this will be the last business talk from me this evening.”

  Wiley was right, the rest of the evening was pleasant, and before we broke up for the night, both Wiley and George extended invitations to us to visit them on Mother of Peril. The date was unspecified, but I figured it would be soon.

  When we got back to our suite, Edgar greeted us at the door. He’d spent his evening on the second floor with Sarge and a few of his warriors. They were all older cats and liked to spend their evenings in peace and quiet and reminisce. Most of them had been strays and loved hearing Edgar and Sarge talk about their lives before coming to Mother of Glory. He may have enjoyed himself, but he was thankful we were home so he could get in and sleep in his own bed. He’d heard we were almost home when our security detail came through the main doors to the lobby and had just beaten us to our suite.

  We said goodnight to Ginger and Tuxedo and went inside. Edgar made a beeline for his bed while Serena jumped on our bed and laid down. Elaine poured us a couple of nightcaps, and we sat and told me of her conversation with Sonja who we agreed to call Red Sonja privately, so we didn’t get confused with Sonja of the Three Musketeers.

  Their conversation was mainly along the line mine with Wiley had taken. Elaine recapped it and said, “I will mention it to Svetlana and pass the contact info on to her. I explained I would be going with you to the next battle and would have my hands full dealing with broken minds and bodies. Her intelligence on me wasn’t that good—she didn’t know I was a fully qualified Med-Tech I with a psychiatric certification for Terrans, Mmrrreeowwn and Weasels.

  I replied, “By the timing, I would guess Jacky stopped reporting on us when we became friends—Jacky is the Emperor’s spymaster. We had the six most powerful Weasels in the Confederation at dinner with us tonight. I’ve suspected for some time Jacky was in intelligence but had no idea she was the top of the pyramid. I also don’t think she would be thrilled with her sister outing her like that unless she wanted me to know and didn’t want to tell me directly. I’ll be watching her for a few days now to see if she thinks I know.

  “If our positions were reversed I would have done it a bit differently but I’m not a Weasel, and I’m not sure how I would have done it if I were. I’m not going to second guess it, but I am going to draw her out and get it in the open, I’m just going to let her tell me instead of asking.”

  “I know you lived in that world for several years, but I never considered that you would be that devious, Jase.”

  “Not devious, love, careful. You have known from the start the world I came from. You even know why I left, but I’ve never felt the need to give you every detail and to be honest, you have no need to know. Some of the events in my life are locked away because I would be breaking an oath to tell you of them. Others are simply things I will have to live with and have no desire to share, you know this.”

  She came over to me and sat in my lap and nuzzled my neck and then kissed me. We sat silently for a few minutes and then I told her of my conversation with Wiley.

  32

  THE FOLLOWING CYCLE WAS DOWNTIME for us both, and we decided to pack a picnic lunch and go out to a small park on one of the agricultural decks in the starboard “wing” of Mother of Glory. We decided to walk and take the cats with us so a little after 0400 we picked up our lunch from cook and headed out with Bebe and our security detail.

  As we walked through a small series of fields, I heard someone call our names, when we looked down a path that divided a couple of them, we saw Freddie and Piotr waving to us. They were accompanied by a pair of servals that had to be the largest I’ve ever seen. They weren’t as large as Serena, but they were definitely larger than average. When the couple reached us, there were hugs and handshakes all around then they introduced us to their two companions Helen and Paris. They were brother and sister and were third generation enhanced.

  “They are mostly grown now and are visiting us from the WTC where they are training for scout and security duty,” Freddie told us.

  We introduced them to Serena and Edgar, the two servals immediately dropped to a bow and greeted them. Paris said, “We are honoured to meet you, Serena, we have heard tales of you, first of the first.”

  I looked at Freddie quizzically, and she elaborated, “Serena, Shadow and Stealth are seen by the later enhanced as almost god-like because they were the first of the first generation of cats who got the nanite treatments. They are considered as pioneers and heroes who were the first to work with Terrans and Mmrrreeowwn to elevate the felid species. Most of the cats we train speak of them and Edgar in hushed voices as though to say their names aloud would bring down calamity. We try to explain the facts to them, but legends are legends.”

  Piotr spoke up, “We were heading for the park a little farther out. Would you like to join us?”

  Elaine and I both nodded, and Serena said, “Yes, we would love to.”

  Serena and the servals bounded up the path ahead of us chattering away. Edgar asked if he could ride on my shoulder
a while since he was getting footsore. I hoisted him up to his pad on my left shoulder, he gripped on with his claws as he lay with his tail around the back of my neck.

  When we got to the park, we were the only ones there, so we let the cats romp freely while we set out a blanket and broke out our lunch. Freddie and Piotr quickly spread out their picnic then we laid back and talked while watching the cats play.

  “Serena has sure grown up nicely and filled out well,” Piotr said. “I remember when I met her, she was quite small even for a Canadian Lynx. Is she still smaller than her siblings?”

  “She is,” Elaine said, “although not by much now. She and Shadow are almost the same height and Shadow is a kilo or two heavier, but from a distance, it is not noticeable. Serena is still the sharpest of the three and always has been, even before the nanites.”

  “Yes, I remember her scores after we were able to develop intelligence tests for the cats, her scores were always the highest by a considerable margin. There is a jaguar that came through training about three-hundred cycles ago that came pretty close, but that is the only one we have seen that came within a few points of her,” Freddie said.

  “She’s loyal as the dickens too,” I said, “she goes with me on every mission and helps keep me sane when Elaine isn’t around. There are times when she has saved our bacon with the Plague too. She, Edgar and Silky, Rusty’s little orange kitten, were the first to discover the Plague drones were talking to each other on a frequency our implants couldn’t hear. All of the cats could hear it, but it was Serena who figured out where it was coming from and what it meant. We almost lost the war before it was fought.”

  “I remember Rusty and Silky, Piotr and I used to think it was cute how much alike they looked. There were times I thought he looked like a proud father taking his cub out for her first look at the world. How has she matured?” Freddie asked.

  “She still watches out for him and still guards him. They are inseparable, I never see one without the other. Both have grown considerably, Rusty is at least six centimetres taller than when he first started working for me and Silky is almost as big as Edgar, they have both filled out nicely too.”

  We ate our lunches and shared out the cats’ food. The four of them ate with gusto and then laid with us for another half deca or so before we decided to head back to our quarters.

  When we got to the intersection where we first encountered Freddie and Piotr, we said our goodbyes. When we got to our suite, I thanked Elaine and the cats for the fantastic company they had been. Elaine hugged me and gave me a kiss then hugged me again.

  ◆◆◆

  I was at my workstation in the command centre reviewing our production numbers trying to determine if we had enough munitions to go up against the swarm with the five trios. They were well under a light-kilocycle away, and I wanted to get that monkey off my back before going after the swarms that were much farther away. There was something about this swarm that was really bothering me, and it had to do with why the last swarm had put up so little fight.

  Being paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you and my spidey sense was tingling overtime. As if in answer Rusty, Silent and Winston came into my office with their assessment of the encounter with the second swarm. Silent apologized, “I regret that the analysis took so long Ser, we had to go over everything several times before we were sure we had all of the records. We flew out to the vicinity of the third swarm and found the swarm scouts who’s records we didn’t have and collected them.

  “We believe the swarm didn’t fight back like it had been because the leader drones fled and left the defence to the worker drones. We think they sneaked a Swift Fang clone by the scout pickets you had set to watch the swarm. There is evidence that this occurred a few cycles after our withdrawal and the interval was long enough for the fleeing ship to reach the third swarm.

  “Our conclusion is the remainder of swarm two was left behind to occupy us and take our attention away from the third swarm. While we were at swarm three, we took a look around and noticed an additional trio had joined. I find it curious that something so large could enter the surveillance zone and not be seen or reported. When we tried to get the logs from two of the Swift Fangs, we were refused entry, the Swift Fangs were crewed by Squids. We could tell because the heat exchangers were working constantly and spectrographic analysis of the slight atmosphere that leaked from the hatches showed high traces of methane.

  “Rather than confront them then and there we decided to come back immediately and report. We believe that at least two of the surveilling Swift Fangs have been either taken over by Squids or replaced by them. The original crews are either dead or have been tricked away possibly with counterfeit orders or perhaps a bogus call for aid by a vessel in ‘distress’.”

  I stared at them long and hard then finally said, “The crews are probably dead. Any other possibility would have eventually led them back here with a report. Those were experienced crew members and knew our protocols and procedures. With the time that has gone by, we can bet that the rebel Squids are tied up in this and possibly the ‘friendly’ Squids as well.

  “Winston, do you have access to one of those sweet little shuttles your folks use?”

  “Yes, Ser, I do.”

  “Good, I want you to fly to Lab Rat on the moon and have a chat with Livid and the other two Squids and see what they know. Our refugees are vulnerable right now because they have lost everything they ever had unless they are using their exile as a cover to spy. Keep that in mind, when you question them and use whatever means necessary to get answers you feel confident in. I’ll comm ahead and make sure someone is there to meet you at the landing zone. Rusty has all of the clearances you need so you can get them from him as you go to the shuttle.

  “A word of caution to all of you: I want this kept off the network, hand written notes only and face-to-face conversations only, you know the protocol.”

  “Rusty, I want you back here as soon as Winston is on his way, and Silent no longer needs you, we have much to discuss.”

  Rusty looked at Silent who shook his head “no”.

  He said, “Silent has the codes and doesn’t need me for anything right now so I can stay.”

  Silent nodded to me and made a few facial twitches to bid me good day and left.

  I commed Ginger and asked her to come to my office and bring Tuxedo. When they arrived a few centas later, I briefed them on what had happened, and I heard Tux snort in disgust. “As much as I admire the Squids for what they did to help us, I’ve never been entirely sure they were truly allies. To them, we were convenient dupes or errand boys maybe, but definitely not equals.”

  Ginger didn’t say anything but stared at the report on my desk then asked if she could read it. When she was done, she turned to me and said, “The scouts left to watch both swarms were my people, I would trust them with my life, with my cub’s life. If they had gotten orders relieving them of their duty, they would have reported back to me right away for a new assignment or a few cycles of downtime. Since they didn’t, I concur with your assessment, they are most likely dead and their bodies dumped in space.”

  “Tuxedo, do you have anyone in mind who would like to practice a possibly hostile boarding mission? With your permission, of course, Warlord.”

  I chuckled and said, “Well, answer your superior officer, Warrior Immunus.”

  He shook his head as if to clear it and replied, “Ewan McFarrel and Thornfang would be the two I would pick. You will have at least four ships to board and both Centuries are well practised in long suited space flights. I would deliver them to their drop-off points with our stealthiest Swift Fangs and have them jet in on suit packs. They would need additional atmosphere mix and laser comms. Our latest armour is very stealthy and should help them avoid discovery.

  “Either way those two Centurions are the best I’ve ever seen besides Bebe and she is needed here. I would go, but I think my mate would have my guts for garters if I volunteered,” he
said with a slight bow to Ginger who started laughing.

  Ginger said, “I’d like to borrow Thermopylae and carry the Swift Fangs and their boarding crews to Swarm three. The fewer involved, the less chance of a leak and the less likely the Squids will find out about this mission, either faction. I will take my leave and ready the ships. It will take half a deca without using comms, but that is the only way I can be sure nothing will leak out on my end.”

  “I’ll get Thornfang and McFarrel up to speed and get them to Thermopylae as quietly as possible. There is enough traffic of warriors moving past the hangars and boarding tubes these days I don’t think anyone will catch on any time soon.

  “Oh, for what it is worth, all of the Squid spaces on board Mother of Glory have been purged and refilled with oxy/nitrogen mix. The cats have been all through every nook and cranny killing bugs where ever they found them. This may be a big vessel, but the small warriors have had a lot of experience recently, and there were several thousand volunteers from the civilian cat population to help them. They paid particular attention to places the warriors frequent and routinely repeat their sweeps.”

  “Thanks, Tux, keep me updated.”

  They both scurried off, leaving me alone with Rusty. He said nothing for a while. When he did, he sounded somewhat frightened. “Why would they, why would the Squids do this, Jase?”

  “Rusty, that is the question of the hour. The short answer is, I don’t know. The longer answer is I suspect because they are so much older a race than the rest of us they have gotten it in their heads that it makes them superior. I don’t care how old and experienced a group may be there is always something to learn. On Terra, there was a time, when the white race, people who look like me, looked down on the graces whose skin was of a different colour, whose eyes and hair were different and spoke languages different from ours. At one point in time, some groups even enslaved others. You have read our histories, so I’m sure you have read of this.