Reaper's Crossroad

by Timothy Ellis

  "Get it done," I ordered, and put the name BigMother in gold on mine.

  Twenty Seven

  "Well that’s something I never expected to see in my lifetime."

  The panther had walked in on all fours behind Arthur, stopped dead, and reared back up onto hind legs. In size, he was much the same as Hobbes was, who was sitting at the conference table with Roo beside him. I looked from him to the pair at the table, and back to the panther.

  "Technically," I said, "you're not seeing it now either. Please sit."

  We'd left a tiger sized seat free for him, and he sat in it, with Arthur beside him. Tanith and Syrinx were there as well, with Annabelle and Jane. Jane was wearing the same red version of the new uniform as I was, while Annabelle was already in the green, both using the single row of buttons version. There was a slight discord with the dull red pants, but my mind adjusted immediately. Jane had a single star on her shoulders, and Annabelle two. And I had to admit seeing the two different versions, they did now look like proper officers. Annabelle looked really happy with it, which made me think Walter probably was as well.

  "Explain?" asked the panther.

  "Everyone at this table," said Arthur, "is a temporal anomaly. Except us."

  The panther looked skeptical. I had Jane explain the situation. He still looked skeptical.

  "The plan," I said, "is to get the Keerah and Ralnor to the same table."

  He looked dumbfounded.

  "Good luck with that!"

  Arthur chuckled.

  "We've made a start with the human societies we know about, and a planet of Lufaflufs. We hope to have a formal alliance in place very shortly."

  "Which human groups?"

  Jane told him.

  "Two of the societies have been evacuated out of Trixone territory. One is in Ralnor space. The rest are either now in our space, or Keerah space."

  "I hear the Keerah are not at all happy with humanoids these days. What did you do to piss them off?"

  A wall screen came on, showing just the down jump lane in Redoubt. It was full of debris again.

  "We keep doing that every time they send a fleet through."

  "Oh." Now he looked shocked. "How are you doing that?"

  "We have a couple of tech advantages they don't know about. They're mainly defensive in nature, but we're working on our offensive game all the time."

  "Plus you have a way of bypassing the jump point system."

  "Yes. And they know that, although don't seem to realize it's more than an in-system jump ability. We think they think we have a set of jump points in our space which lead into their space somewhere they don’t know about. Actually I think all three species think this, and we’ve given them no reason to think otherwise. The real situation won't be a secret for long, but I'd prefer the reveal gets pushed off as long as possible. Hence we need to reach an agreement, before we let your ships return home."

  "Arthur inferred as much. What do you need?"

  "How do you exist within the Keerah Empire?"

  "Do you mean are we allies, members, conquered, or slaves?"

  "Yes."

  "It must be obvious to you we are cousins of a sort. So are the Lions, Cheetahs, and some other related species. We came to dominance on our own worlds, and in our own time, spread to other worlds. But for reasons no-one knows, the Keerah left their planet centuries before any others, with the exception of the Ralnor and Trixone, and had an empire established when the rest of us were barely off our homeworlds. By the time they discovered us, we had a dozen worlds colonized, were trading with a dozen more, but had nothing like the military we needed to keep the Keerah at bay."

  He paused, looking at all of us in turn.

  "The war was brutal. The only thing in our favour was we looked like them, only in a different colour. In time, they allowed us to become a semi-independent vassal. We supply crewed ships for their fleets, but in return we maintain our own militia. We can and do take on missions when someone makes a good case we should, but Arthur here is one of the few who merely need to ask, and we will answer. Which is how we were fighting with him when you arrived."

  I looked at Hobbes.

  "Not the way I remember the history books. The Bhockah," he indicated the panther, "were encountered by an exploratory fleet, recognized as cousins, and welcomed into the empire as members. Along with most other feline based species as well." He looked me in the eyes. "I guess we really screwed things up."

  I sighed.

  "No. What you remember was a carefully orchestrated galaxy the highers manipulated into being the best foil for the Darkness they could manage. The Keerah were always the last destroyed when the galaxy ended. But had they been at war with anyone, they couldn’t have lasted as long as they did. So the highers made sure they made allies instead of enemies. But without all that meddling, I guess things returned to how they once were. Three expansionist empires who didn’t get on."

  There was silence for a moment.

  "So," said the panther. "The Keerah see you as a threat, but not enough of one to respect. And you have the advantage here of the other two empires trying to get what you have as well. My ships must be returned home soon. Otherwise the Keerah will demand to know why we are not in our home systems where we're supposed to be, and our people will suffer. What do you need from me?"

  "Can you tell us anything about the Keerah leadership?"

  "They are a warrior people. But the whites are an elite, and they mainly rule, and command. They don’t consider themselves an empire, so there is no emperor as such. Civilians rule on planets, and the senior military officer rules in space. The two together rule the system, and the systems form a hierarchy, with the two who rule Keerah effectively ruling all. But the top leaders are the most ruthless, and have ritually killed to get where they are."

  "So all are warriors," said Annabelle, "but some choose battle, and others choose politics?"

  "Something like that, yes. Regional governor is a high rank for a civilian, and to get there, they will kill both those politicians in their way, and any warrior who fails them. Governors then seek to become a member of the homeworld high council, and ultimately, the leader of it."

  "Kill how?" asked Jane. "You said rituals were involved?"

  "Ritual. One on one combat to the death."

  "Weapons used?" I asked.

  "Normally just claws and teeth. Occasionally the honour of ritual disembowelment will be given as a final kill method. But it doesn’t happen very often. And only among whites."

  "So if you want to score points with the Keerah leadership?" I asked.

  "You do what one of our ancestors did. You fight a ruling or commanding white in ritual combat, and win."

  "Thanks. I doubt that helps us right now, but something to keep in mind. What do you think of the alliance we're trying to put together?"

  "Politically a good idea. I wish we could unite all the other feline based societies. But it's several centuries too late for that now. Militarily, as far as I can see, only you have real firepower, but as you said, it's defensive. In the long run, the only way to get the attention of the Keerah leadership will be to go on the offensive, and conquer a large enough area of their territory to make them pay attention."

  "I was afraid of that."

  "And that is why you are but an itch they feel the need to scratch. You have no idea the industrial capacity of a third of the galaxy all mustered to take down a single target. The only reason they've not overrun you already is the distance most of their major fleets are from here."

  I was well aware of this. But for now, it was a race between how long it took them to be able to jump in ten times the ships they were now, and our being able to kill ten times the ships they sent now, and still have lots of capacity left. It wasn’t a race which could really be won defensively. But defend was all we could do for the moment.

  "Would your people join us if given the chance?"

  "No. We gave an oath as a species to serve the Ke
erah. As much as we might wish to join something like your alliance, we cannot." He paused. "Unless the Keerah themselves did something to invalidate the oath."

  "And if they did?"

  "We would still not join you. Even if you do perfect a defense against them, our space is open on all sides, and literally all of our planets would need substantial defenses. I don’t believe it could be done. And the Keerah would crush us. Can you supply enough defense to stop that?"

  "Maybe not now, but give us time."

  I could think of several ways of reducing things down to a few choke points, now I knew what I could do with jump points. But as easy as that might sound, there were profound issues in messing with any of them. I mean I could stop the fighting in Crossroad immediately, simply by turning back the jump points. But I had no idea what planets would suffer from not being able to send traders through the system. Sure they were not able to travel now, but a few weeks wasn’t a major thing. Permanently though, planetary populations could die without essential trade. Otherwise I’d have done something already. In Thorn's space, the amount of trade going on even with border skirmishes made closing the jump points impossible.

  "What must I do in order to get my ships home?"

  "How about a good cover story?" suggested Jane, grinning.

  Twenty Eight

  It took several hours, but the panther left with a smug look on his face.

  They were going to tell part of the truth. They'd gone to a planet of Lufaflufs, after hearing rumours they'd developed a city wall capable of surviving Trixone heavy weapon fire. They'd joined up with Arthur's two ships along the way, and found a Trixone fleet in orbit, having already landed troops. The space battle was close, but they'd won. On the ground they'd found devastated cities, and only Trixone soldiers left alive. They'd killed them all, repaired as much of their battle damage as they could, and returned home.

  In the time it would take them to return home, we'd have the last of the dwarf dogs off the planet, and would leave the cities in ruins. If the Keerah went there to confirm it at all, assuming they knew the route Arthur had used, we all hoped they'd find a sizable Trixone presence there, and lose that fight.

  It meant I couldn’t just rift them back home, but they'd have to fly all of the Keerah space part of the distance to make sure they were seen, and at roughly the time they should be. It also meant Bob had to undo a few repairs, so they looked like rough work done in space.

  The panther also took away a suggested gambit. The last thing we wanted now was to have any of their ships enter our meat grinder. So we'd encouraged him to propose the idea of creating a fake minor civil war, necessitating all their ships returning to home space. Not big enough to warrant the Keerah joining in, but enough for them to okay a recall of ships. If not a fake civil war, then some other situation warranting a return of ships.

  We wouldn't know how either went for several weeks, but I was hoping we'd made a friend inside the Keerah empire. The longer I thought about it, the more sure I was we could protect them in the medium to long term. Just not now. And it would need a great deal of research, and diplomacy around their area of space. Not to mention contacting the other feline species. Jane had some work to do now, trying to piece together where key planets were, and what was needed to make them safe. For now though, all we could do was research and plan.

  Not long after the meeting broke up, Jane informed me there was going to be a meeting of diplomatic teams the following day, about formally forming some sort of alliance. At this meeting, the Solidarios were going to ask for another of Thorn's empty planets, so they would not be using one of ours, and could join the alliance as a member instead of our vassal.

  It meant the development of the planet they were on now would be largely wasted, but I thought the overall goal was the right one. Jane agreed, and I began to wonder if she'd suggested it.

  The Trixone won the latest battle in Crossroad, and Susan pulverized what was left of them. This had to stop, and I spent the remainder of the day thinking about how.

  We were one step closer though, as the three under construction battlestations all came online during the afternoon. Four second ones were begun immediately.

  The Keerah found out about the battlestations in Thorn's space very soon after, presumably from traders who observed the firing tests on their way out of the systems. The activity around the station in the next system became frantic, and the fleets docked there headed for the jump point.

  I wasn’t sure why. Stations don’t usually jump in and attack you. They are by nature defensive, and all they said was, Thorn's space had upgraded its defense capability. Of course, they may have been thinking with fixed defenses in place, we could go on the offensive. Which was of course the whole idea, but not with a single station in place.

  I joined the team in the spa before heading for the evening meal, and we ended up having a team dinner at one of the restaurants on Haven. I’d not seen any of them much since getting back from the last mission, and it turned out they'd all been doing drill instructor duties. They all shifted into the new green uniform after showering, and we drew looks as we walked to dinner. I noticed on Amanda's belt buckle, there was a pulse rifle, which was as good a way of any of showing they were combat troops. They all had one, even Annabelle. But while the team had Alpha Team above the rifle, and BigMother below, Annabelle had Marine Corp and BigMother.

  I was regaled with stories of how the raw troops were being turned into marines. At least, some of them would be. The rest would remain better trained infantry. Grace had been doing the same with pilot recruits, some of which were now on fighter training, with a few trying out dropships. Apparently some of them had been even worse than me on their first drops. And the land on the roof mission which was my first drop was being used as a training scenario. I'd come within a whisker of smashing the top ten floors into one floor, but apparently all the recruits so far had in fact crashed, and most of them had collapsed the entire building as a result. I suddenly felt a lot better about having narrowly missed.

  We talked late into the evening, and they all scattered to where they were meeting up with their Arthur squeeze, who'd apparently been having their own night out somewhere else. Aline and I found Angel asleep on her kitty castle in the living area, and we carefully didn’t disturb her.

  Some of the awkwardness seemed to have gone now, and she kept me up a lot longer than I’d expected. Sleep was uneventful, and if I dreamed, I didn't remember anything.

  When I woke, Aline was still asleep, so I showered alone, shifted to 'slinky red', and was there when BA turned up for her morning run. For once, she had to actually tell me when we finished. I hadn't noticed the time pass, other people joining us, or the end of the last lap coming up. I'd been on automatic the whole time.

  Jane sidetracked me before I went into the courses, which was probably just as well. My mind just wasn’t focused enough. I went back to my suite's office, watched the recordings of the overnight battles in Crossroad, and studied the continued buildup of Keerah forces in three systems. I was expecting to have to go defend Kelewan sometime soon, but so far, the approaches were clear. Likely as not though, there was a buildup going on beyond where we could see there too.

  For a while I seemed to just lose myself in thought, pondering what to do next.

  "Jon!" said Amanda. "Get a grip, will you?"

  Twenty Nine

  I jumped.

  I hadn't noticed them come in. Amanda, Aleesha, and Annabelle were sitting in front of me. They all had wet hair, and were in 'slinky red'. For a moment I wondered if I was dreaming again.

  "Oh. Hi."

  "We need to talk," said Annabelle.

  "What about?"

  "Changes to Team One."

  "What changes?"

  "George seems to have left us for good," said Amanda.

  "You replaced him with Grace," said Aleesha, "but she's mostly gone too. At least if she's captaining Custer, she can't be flying a dropship for us."<
br />
  "True I guess."

  "So we need a new dropship pilot," said Amanda. "That's the first thing."

  "Why bring it up with me?"

  "Courtesy mostly," said Annabelle. "It was your place in the team. We didn’t want to just fill it without you having a say."

  "That’s…" I was going to say stupid, but I could see they were serious. I shrugged. "Team leader's call. You need a new pilot, find one."

  "Any suggestions?" asked Aleesha.

  "No. I don’t think I know anyone well enough now to be able to make any suggestion. Are there any marines interested in pilot training? Or any of the troops who maybe don’t make a good marine, but could make a good dropship pilot with some retraining?"

  "You don’t have a problem with either of those options?" asked Annabelle.

  "Hell no. The teams are yours, fill them how you like. Jane can fly the dropships if you can't find a pilot."

  "Ah, yeah," said Amanda. "No offense to Jane, but she's not nuts enough for a dropship pilot."

  "No offense taken," said Jane, through room coms.

  "Not nuts enough?"

  "Good dropship pilots have to have a certain disregard for practical reality," said Amanda.

  "Practical reality?"

  "Things like fear, splat, and," she turned to her twin, "what was the other one?"

  "Mortality," said Aleesha. "Or put it another way, they have to be somewhat mad."

  "Like me you mean?"

  "Jon," said Amanda, "the Americans didn’t call you Maniac for no reason."

  "Is that why you recruited me. I was mad enough?"

  They laughed.

  "No Jon. That was just a bonus."

  Annabelle was laughing hard, but being dead serious at the same time.

  "Okay. Whatever."

  The laughing stopped, and they looked at each other with serious faces on.

  "We need to replace Aline as well," said Amanda.