by Marc Stevens
The roar of applause that came from the Grawl surprised even me. They have been known to get a little rowdy, but I had never experienced anything like the greeting they were giving us now. The Chaalt quickly moved aside and stood staring at the celebration. Standing in the front of the gathered crowd was Coonts. He had his hand held high and wanted to be the first to touch mine. The once frail looking Grawl was now a v-shaped wedge of muscle. Several of the Chaalt were pointing in disbelief at his new physique. The crew and I waded into them and made hand contact with everyone. They all inquired as to when they could see Tria. I told them Justice would give them a heads-up when she was ready. Coonts let me know that he wasn’t waiting for anyone’s permission and went aboard the Legacy with Graf, Jaran, and young Felix in tow. They returned shortly grim faced and angry. All I could do was nod and shake my head. Young Felix stepped close and put his hand on my shoulder.
“Commander, I will begin working on a new battle armor configuration for Tria. I should have a design specification within a day and will proof it with Justice when it is complete.”
The young Zaen made me smile. He was everything that we had ever hoped for in an engineer and then some.
“I take it you have already redesigned Coonts’s battle suit?”
“Yes, Commander, it is queued into the replicator behind the missile replenishment order.”
I told the young engineer to carry on. I turned back around and went to check on Tria’s status. When I got to my cabin, she was awake and alert. She held an arm out to me, and I could see the effort caused her pain.
“You look tired. You should rest with me.”
She hit that nail right on the head: I was beat.
“We will be leaving for your home worlds as soon as we load Sael’s shuttle and bring our weapon magazines back to capacity,” I said, then yawned. “You are right. I do need a small nap.”
I peeled off my uniform and gently crawled into bed with her. That was the last thing I would remember until Justice called to me more than two hours later. I woke with a start and frowned because Tria was no longer in my cabin.
“Commander, we are in orbit above the Chaalt home world of Athella. Tria is aboard the Principal Investigator’s shuttle and is about to conclude her meeting with the council. I want you to know it was by Tria’s orders you were not alerted to our departure.”
I wanted to be mad but felt one hundred percent better than I did a couple of hours ago. The headache I had been experiencing since to Hivemind used me as a flyswatter was gone. I got up and put on a fresh uniform then went to the hangar to see my guests off. Tria, Sael, and Chandra Maring were standing on the boarding ramp.
“You look much better, Commander Myers,” Maring said, stepping forward. “We are ready to depart, and I want you to know that you and you followers are now honorary members of the Chaalt military. The Legacy has been issued special IST transponder codes allowing you unrestricted access to the Chaalt exclusion zone. After the briefing from Tria, we now know all you have done to help the Chaalt people. The Principal Investigator has also explained in detail why it was necessary to destroy the research facility and end the Prule infection before it could spread to our home worlds. You have the endless gratitude of the Chaalt people.”
Apparently, a lot had taken place while I was napping. I turned and cast an inquiring eye to both Sael and Tria. The looks they gave me said shut up and go with the flow. I hoped my briefing was as idealistic as the one the Chaalt council must have gotten. I could think of no better course of action than to step up and give Chandra Maring a good old fashion Earth hug to seal the deal.
“Please call me Nathan. All my friends do,” I said, hugging her.
The look of shock ebbed from her face as she finally returned the gesture. What was surprising was how long it took for Maring to release me. When she did, she smiled as she turned and walked up the shuttle ramp.
“You scat stacking primate!” the Principal Investigator hissed under her breath as she walked by me with an incredulous look on her face. “It is forbidden to touch a council member!”
I scratched my forehead with my middle finger, and Sael’s frown grew darker. I hoped she wasn’t wearing a sword when she finally figured out what that meant to Earthlings. Tria promptly turned me around and not so gently nudged me in the opposite direction.
“Just because Sael calls you a primate does not mean that you should act like one.”
“I am glad you are healing quickly. I have some primal urges that need to be addressed.”
My comment got the desired effect, and Tria finally laughed. We turned and watched as Justice picked the Chaalt shuttle up and pushed it out of the hangar.
“Justice, I want you to fly close cover until they set down!”
“Affirmative, Commander.”
The Legacy flew alongside the shuttle as it landed on the military base. We sat stationary above it until a large contingent of troops encircled the shuttle. A transport rapidly approached and then waited until the council was aboard. It then made a hasty turnaround and disappeared into an underground revetment. Justice gave them a courtesy call alerting them that we were departing Chaalt space.
We jumped back to Alpha Base an hour later. Tria and I were both fast asleep and did not wake for more than nine hours. After my morning routine, I went with Tria to the med bay. Justice inspected his surgical work and replaced her medical wraps. The scarring was evident, but other than that, the wounds were healing at an advanced rate. Justice cleared her for more intensive physical therapy. She also started training on Oolaran two-handed fighting techniques. She absorbed the imprinting like a sponge because it was what she was born to do. Tria insisted on training at least five hours a day. As her training partner, I suffered more than a few bruises as she achieved higher levels of proficiency.
It had been a week since our return, and we had taken note that no one on the base has asked anything of us. Everyone greeted us warmly but made it a point to give us a wide berth. I knew Justice and my crew could handle the day-to-day operations, but Tria and I were both ready to get back to kicking ass and taking names. Felix made it a point to let me know Tria’s new armor was ready and waiting. We waited until the cafeteria was mostly full and called everyone to attention.
“Tria and I would like to thank you for the time you have given us to heal,” I said. “We are officially declaring our rehabilitation over with. I know there is a great deal we need to do, so please submit a priority list to Justice so we can get on with the business of fighting the enemies of all.”
This netted us both a rousing cheer. It quickly spread throughout the base that we were ready for offensive operations. Justice would be the metering valve for our plans and gave us our first briefing.
“Commander, the Prule biomass is now at critical levels of life support for the surviving entities. The containment vessel is now down to fifty-two life signals and diminishing. With your permission, I would like to open communications between the remaining Prule and the Overseer. We still have encoded information recovered from the Prule lifeboat that we have been unable to decipher. We also know the Prule entities that still survive are the oldest and most senior inhabitants of the Hivemind. The rest have sacrificed themselves so that the few that remain may live a little longer. Now would be a good time to ransom information necessary for us to counter any unknown Prule activity.”
“Are you absolutely sure that our firewall can contain any active machine viruses?”
“Yes, Commander,” Justice assured me. “The containment vessel is completely isolated and cannot be accessed without direct input from me. The Overseer is protected by multiple firewalls, and voice comms is the only allowed interaction.”
“I take it the Overseer is ready to go?”
“Yes, Commander, he has taken this on as a personal crusade against the Prule. He is elated that he can be of service to his people once more.”
“Okay, I give you my blessing but also want you to know
that I have no reservations about letting them all die, whether we gain information or not.”
“I believe that is the consensus of all, Commander. The Overseer has already determined that it will eventually be the outcome of our manipulations, regardless of the intel revealed by the bio machines.”
“Proceed, Justice, and keep me updated to your findings.”
Xul, Coonts, Jaran, and Graf were next to approach our table and sit down. I was still having a hard time adjusting to Coonts’s new physique. It wasn’t natural to see a muscle-bound Grawl. He quickly noticed Tria and I eyeballing his new build. The overcooked ham started flexing his muscles. The not-so-subtle moves made the other three Grawl turn their heads and grimace in annoyance.
“Coonts, is there something you would like to report?” Tria asked, annoyed.
The Grawl looked like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He cleared his throat.
“Yes, Tria,” Coonts replied. “Xul, Jaran, and Graf have made a detailed study of the data recorded on the high-energy beam weapon that the Quill have on their habitat ship. They have brought their findings to my attention. We have come to the consensus that the weapon is very similar to our own ship’s mounted beam weapons. There is some speculation among the scientists, the crits may have reverse engineered the tech from Oolaran salvage. We already know they achieve the destructive power output by shunting all available power sources to the weapon and then directing the collected energy through a large focusing point. We have run simulations that show our new Oolaran power supply can surpass the demonstrated power levels of the combined generated capacity of the Quill habitat ship.”
I found this tidbit of information a little hard to swallow. The sheer size of the Quill habitat ship was massive, and the amount of power sources aboard that ship had to be considerable. The looks on my scientists’ and engineers’ faces said they knew with absolute confidence they had their facts right.
“So, you are telling me a single Oolaran power generator can produce more energy output than an entire Quill habitat ship?”
“Yes, Commander,” Coonts said. “The energy required to form the anomaly discharged by our main weapon is a magnitude greater than a discharge from the Quill weapon. It appears that the Quill systems are so inefficient that they are forced to make a collective transfer of energy to achieve such a high level of destructive force.”
“Okay, I take it you have found a way for us to use that information to our advantage?”
All four of the Grawl bobbed their heads, smiling.
“Your assumption is correct, Commander. With the proper modifications to our beam accumulators and a newly designed focusing aperture, we can surpass the destructive capabilities of the Quill weapon,” Coonts said. “The previous modifications that were made to our transfer switches will easily accommodate the necessary power requirements. We will need to have Justice go over our data, but it is believed we can develop a superior weapon based on our existing designs. Since our specifications will be based on the smaller diameter focus points of our current weapons, we will be able to produce a more concentrated energy beam. All of our simulations point to a forty-six percent faster recovery rate and twenty-one percent better range than the Quill weapon can achieve.”
I held up my hands. “We would have to do some extensive testing before I would take a working weapon system off the Legacy.”
I could tell Xul wanted to say something but was deferring to Coonts. I gave him the nod before Coonts could say anything else. “Is there something you would like to add Xul?”
“Commander, since Alpha Base makes use of the same weapon, we can use it for our testing. We have already calculated and formulated the design specifications. Felix has agreed to allot the replicator time required. The work will not begin until we have fabricated all of the necessary components. If we dedicate seventy percent of the scientific and engineering staff to the project, the base’s defensive weapon will be down no more than sixteen hours for the retrofit.”
I had to hand it to the Grawl: it sounded like they had all the bases covered. The Earth boy in me always did love guns with a bigger boom.
“Justice, what is the status of the Chaalt picket ships?” I asked.
“I have the scanned locations of one hundred and twenty Chaalt warships actively patrolling the systems surrounding Alpha Base. Their defensive posture has not changed.”
“What is your recommendation on the weapons modifications?”
“I am still processing the information but can already conclude it is a noteworthy and viable modification. I recommend we proceed. If testing yields the predicted results, I will dedicate additional processing time to altering the Legacy’s weapons to conform to the new specifications.”
I gave the Grawl the go-ahead on the new weapon design, and they quickly departed. Klutch was quietly sitting at the end of the table. I guess he was waiting for everyone else to clear the room before he approached.
“Klutch, is there a problem?”
“No, Commander, I guess not. Justice informed me he has made you aware that I was not knowingly caring for the Prule. I might have implied that I would take responsibility for their survival, but it was not my intention. It is my understanding that the majority died because of the manner in which I treated them. I wanted you to know that I was not honoring Tria’s orders to the best of my abilities. I want to apologize.”
Tria and I both stopped him before he could say another word. I looked at Tria and let her take the lead on clearing up the Tibor’s indiscretion.
“Klutch, given the circumstances associated with my order to preserve the Prule sample, we will overlook what you have decided is dereliction of duty,” Tria said. “While Justice may not have informed you of the outcome of your actions, you did in fact help prolong the lives of the entities.”
The final part of Tria’s statement netted us tears. The once pristine scent of the cafeteria’s atmosphere took a turn for the worse. I needed to pacify the Troop Master before he contaminated any more of it.
“Klutch! A lot of people have to eat in here! Would you please calm yourself? The small number of Prule that managed to survive are going to die unless they give up information on their activities in our galaxy. The Overseer is interrogating them as we speak. If they do not give us what we want, I will happily join you, and we can piss on their biomass until they drown.”
That seemed to mollify the Tibor. He slammed his fist down on the table. “Yes!”
With that said, he nodded to the two of us and got up to see if he could aid the engineers in any way. I was glad that his warrior’s scent for the most part went with him. The next order of business was something that I thought Justice would have already given us a sitrep on. Since he was apparently avoiding the subject, I was going to have to ask.
“Justice, why have we not been able to track down the Fury?”
“They have disabled all IST and BS equipment in an attempt to elude capture by Chaalt forces. I have no means to reach out to my subsystems without an active data link. There is a small possibility we may obtain information on the Fury’s whereabouts from the surviving Prule entities. I have directed the Overseer to start his inquiries about biologicals and not Prule assets. It appears this strategy may be the correct one. The Overseer has informed me he has an open dialogue with three of the remaining entities. All are presently making unveiled attempts to coerce our negotiations to their advantage. Both the Overseer and I find their offers of ruling this galaxy comical.”
I could find nothing comical about the Prule’s continued stance of superiority. Even when confronted with the loss of reality, they still believed they had some sort of bargaining position. I hoped that their blind ambitions would one day be their ultimate demise. There were a lot of things on my plate that I could have occupied my time with, but one kept brushing the rest aside. I wanted to know exactly want intel Sael Nalen had on the whereabouts of that no-good piece of shit Eiger.
“Justice
, I want a secure IST link to the Operative.”
This got me a small frown from Tria. She got up and walked off without comment. I don’t know if she was cued in on my thoughts or not, but this was one itch that I needed to scratch.
“Comm link is open, Commander.”
“Nathan, I thought it would take a much longer time period before you would want to communicate with me again,” Sael said, not mincing any words. “Have you uncovered any intel that will help us locate the Fury?”
“No, Sael, nothing yet. How are things on your end?”
