Ragnarok: Colonization, intrigue and betrayal.

by Andrew Claymore

  “How the hells is that at thing?” Adelina blurted.

  “It works,” Dentrat told her, indignant and heavily accented. “Our crops have never failed us…”

  “Because the whole system is automated,” Adelina insisted.

  “You refer to the food of the gods?” he asked. “The food that gets harvested by their immortal servants?” He shook his head. “We dare not interfere!”

  “But…”

  “We’re not here to argue religion,” Luna interceded. “We gave Dentrat training in Imperial Standard so we could talk to him. It’s not for us to turn their entire society on its head.”

  “But…” Adelina sat back, frowning at her sister. “They’re killing each other over rain!”

  “They are,” Luna agreed. “And I once saw a man get killed in San Diego over a pair of headphones. Are we so superior?”

  Adelina threw up her hands and muttered something under her breath.

  “How many of you are there, Dentrat?” Gleb asked.

  “Perhaps four tens of hundreds?” The alien shrugged.

  Gleb nodded. “And the Mictan?”

  “A little less, we think,” Dentrat frowned. “We never give exact numbers at the Grand Council so we doubt the Mictan are any more forthcoming.”

  “The Grand Council?”

  Dentrat nodded. “Every four tens of days we hold a council between the Trellans, the Mictan and the Baupoco to coordinate things like trade prices and wars.”

  “So there’s another race involved?” Eth asked. “The… Baupoco?”

  “They look more like you or me,” Dentrat said. “Two arms but they also have short tails. They prefer to go unclothed as a matter of pride. It’s said they have... two tails...”

  “Yes,” Luna said hastily. “You meet regularly with your enemies?”

  “They aren’t our enemies,” Dentrat corrected her. “We send small war parties every four tens. The honor wars were devised many generations ago to provide a steady flow of honorably captured subjects for the gods.”

  He looked around the room at the armored people sitting at the table with him. “I beg you to return me to the Mictan,” he said earnestly. “Our gods will be jealous that new gods have come and taken their offering from them.”

  Adelina sat forward, putting her palms on the table. She opened her mouth but her sister was ahead of her.

  Luna held out a warning hand to Adelina and turned to Dentrat. “We’re not gods,” she told him gently but firmly. “We’re simply people like you that have access to more advanced equipment.”

  “You’re testing me,” he insisted, shaking his head. “You fly through the air so fast you make the sky roar in fear.”

  “I was the one who took you from the pyramid,” Gabriella told him. “I brought you inside my flying machine. You flew through the air to get here, just like me. Does that make you a god?”

  “The flying creature serves you, not me,” he countered. “I flew because you chose to convey me here.”

  “Hells,” Eth muttered, “he’s starting to convince me!”

  “Either way,” Gleb said with a note of finality, “we’re not in the business of kidnapping people and holding them against their will. If Dentrat wants to return to his fate at the hands of the Mictan, we have no right to stop him.

  “But we’ve learned that there are populations of three races living near us, found in the first few days of searching.” He tilted his head. “If the rest of the structure is similarly peopled, there could be Trillions of sentient beings living on Babilim.

  “We’ll send Dentrat back as he’s requested, but we should continue searching the station.” He looked at Eth.

  The military commander nodded. “This time, we found pre-technical societies. For all we know, there could be civilizations here that make our tech look like stone tools. We need to intensify the search.”

  “Agreed.” Gleb stood and the rest of the room stood as well, even Dentrat, who had the sense to copy the behavior around him.

  “Hotdog’s flight brought him,” Luna said, turning to Gabriella. “He can go back the way he came. Have him standing by at your fighter in one hour.”

  They filed out, leaving Gabriella with Dentrat.

  “Thank-you,” Dentrat said quietly. “I am ready to face my end.”

  Gabriella wanted to shake him. How could he stroll meekly back into the midst of those murdering savages, knowing what he knew now?

  She shot out of her chair. He doesn’t really know, does he? “Come with me,” she commanded.

  She led him to a nearby room set up for training. She opened a pod and gestured. “Get in here. It’s the same type of machine that taught you our language.”

  He gave her a nervous look but he stepped in and laid back against the inclined back surface. He said nothing, trusting in the will of the ‘goddess’.

  Time to make me a mortal. She gave him the same data-pack she’d received when she’d come aboard the Mouse in Earth orbit. He’d be free of the need to die on that pyramid.

  Nobody had given her any orders regarding the hour between the end of the meeting and the departure time in the hangar. Nobody had forbidden her to offer knowledge to this alien.

  The hum of the pod’s field generator died out and Dentrat’s eyes opened. He remained in place, looking straight out past her at the wall beyond. A single tear escaped his right eye and rolled down his cheek.

  She wasn’t ready for this. She’d expected him to bound out of the pod shouting ‘eureka’ or something like that. “Do you understand now?” she asked, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

  “I do,” he whispered. “I understand it all…”

  “So you see…” She hesitated, unsure. “You see there’s no need to return to the Mictan for the sacrifice?”

  He shook his head slowly. “There is still a need. The honor of my family is at stake. If I live on as a coward, they will be executed for my shame.”

  “That’s insane!”

  “It is,” he agreed. “I understand that now but it’s no less necessary for its insanity. I must die so my relatives can avoid reprisals. The only difference now is that my death will have no other meaning.” He stepped out of the pod and brushed past her. “I’ll wait for you in the hangar,” he said sadly.

  She watched him leave, stunned.

  She thought she’d just give him knowledge and he’d be saved. Now he’s still dying but he knows it’s meaningless. He has me to thank for that.

  Without warning, her stomach rebelled. She lurched over to the side of the pod, placing a hand on its side as she leaned over a trash-collection chute.

  She convulsed a few times and then her breakfast came rushing up. She retched into the chute, the sour smell of bile in her sinuses.

  You’d think I’d learn. She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. I need to stop making decisions about other people’s lives.

  She drank some water from her suit’s reserves to wash out the taste in her mouth.

  Then she left the room to go end Dentrat’s life.

  She took a meandering route, not wanting to spend any extra time with the victim. My victim. I thought I was saving him, though it’s hard to imagine just watching him die.

  But that was exactly what she’d have to do now. She stopped wandering and headed for the hangar. The squadron was standing there, waiting for her. She wasn’t late, so she offered no excuses.

  Still, having them waiting just made things seem worse. She found Dentrat waiting by her fighter. He clambered aboard with more familiarity than he’d shown previously.

  The flight back to the pyramid took less time than she’d expected. She brought her fighter down to hover at the top of the pyramid again, while the rest of the squadron floated about menacingly.

  She opened the canopy and started to get up but Dentrat put a hand on her shoulder.

  “I should go alone,” he told her.

  “But I caused this mess,” she said. “Maybe I can�
�” She stopped, not sure what she was about to say but pretty sure it wouldn’t have helped. Her shoulders slumped.

  He gave her a sad smile. “You were just trying to help and I do appreciate that. It’s not so bad, really.” He nodded his head toward the plaza below, where a crowd was gathering.

  “None of them have any idea of the things I know now,” he said. “I’m not sure why but that gives me a certain sense of smug satisfaction. I’ll die smarter than them and save my family.”

  He swiveled his legs over the side and slid down the sponson to land on the ground. She stood and watched as he descended the front of the pyramid, its steps still stained with the blood of his friends.

  The people at the base shrank away from him as he neared the bottom.

  She sat and closed up her canopy again. A hard turn to port brought the scene below back into view and she used the fighter’s optics to zoom in.

  A Mictan approached in an ornate headdress but he’d clearly come in a rush because he wasn’t wearing his robe. His posture was bent and uncertain.

  “Time to go,” Luna ordered.

  With a sigh, Gabriella started swinging around to follow but she caught sight of Dentrat knocking off the Mictan’s headdress as she turned. Maybe something will come of this, after all?

  Lockdown

  Ragnarok

  Hennessy had adjusted his shower to work out the knots in his muscles automatically. He’d known the waterproof cubicle had scanners but he hadn’t realized how useful that could be until one of the pilots from the republic had explained why he was a little late to a briefing.

  It was like having a highly trained masseuse on call.

  They’d just finished their third practice session and, though his body was getting better at dealing with the demands put on it, there were still a few aches.

  A buzz startled him. It was a chime but the thousands of water droplets had an impact on the way the ship applied energy waves to the air to create sound.

  He sighed. “This is Hennessy.”

  “Sir, we have a transmission for you from the surface,” the comms officer said. “It’s the garrison commander.”

  “Put him through,” Bill said. “Audio only.”

  “Commander, this is…” He’d nearly identified himself to a ground-pounder as just the captain of the Kuphar. “Commodore Hennessy,” he finished. “What can I do for you?”

  No sense in abdicating his authority to Mal. You never knew when you might have push ‘pay a visit’ to shove between the two military leaders and Bill wanted to ensure he had the higher ground over his republic counterpart, figuratively and literally.

  “I’m getting a lot of interference in your signal, Commodore,” Mal said. “Are you having comms issues?”

  “No, I’m having a shower.”

  “Ah.” Mal sounded completely unfazed at catching Bill in a private moment but, then, he was from the republic, where Human interaction had been very… 60’s, until recently. He’d probably been in more than a few orgies, so catching someone in the shower was no biggie.

  “We’ve been having some strange occurrences down here. A few colonists working up in the northern highlands reported missing an hour or two of time and some sort of psychic interference.”

  Bill opened his eyes, though there was nothing but a moving line chart tracking Mal’s voice tones. “Really?” he asked. “And we’re sure this isn’t alcohol related?”

  Mal laughed. “I doubt it. We’re talking about two of our council members, as well as members of their families. They don’t seem like substance abusers to me.”

  “What’s your take on this, Commander? Do we have a security threat? Do we need to consider relocation?”

  He could almost hear the grimace in Mal’s response.

  “This is a new one for us,” Mal admitted, “but the colonists who’ve been affected seem to feel the phenomenon isn’t hostile.”

  “And what’s your take on ‘seem to feel’ as a reassurance?” Bill asked.

  Mal grunted. “My take is that we need to run a lock-down drill or two, just in case there’s something dangerous down here that might wake up with an appetite.

  “Just letting you know, so you don’t end up putting the fleet on alert when you see what we’re doing down here.” He ended the call.

  Hennessy killed the shower and activated the air-curtain. Screw that! he thought. Give up a chance for a drill? He must be probing to see how lazy we wild Humans are.

  A ping sounded as he was putting on a fresh under-armor suit. “Sir, we’re getting a notice from the planet. The colony is going into a lock-down drill.”

  “And we’re doing a corresponding drill up here,” Hennessy replied. “Set full combat alert throughout the fleet with a drill caveat and then launch both alert flights. I’ll join you on the bridge right away.”

  Frank and the other councilors had left Mal’s office just before he contacted the fleet. Frank had reached his house just as the gut-wrenching alarm sounded.

  It had a deep, throbbing buzz to it, like a wrench dragged up a braided steel support cable. There was no ignoring it, even if you were deaf because it was tuned to make a person’s muscle tissue tingle from the harmonic resonance.

  Every street-lamp in town was displaying a holographic notice indicating that it was a lock-down drill. It also provided a map showing the closest access-points for the bunker. Every colonist with one of the ubiquitous Earth-built phone implants also got direct information as well.

  He reached his house just as Trisha appeared at the entrance, holding Vikram by the hand and trying not to look alarmed. Terry emerged behind her, looking like he was having the time of his life.

  They headed for the transport-pod at a brisk walk. The instinct, with the alarm rumbling in their guts, was to run for all they were worth but they were testing the system. If they could walk to the pod and reach it in time for evac, they would probably make it during a real emergency.

  Frank was pretty sure folks would run if it weren’t a drill. It was already all he could do to keep to a walking pace.

  They reached a major intersection in their neighborhood and approached the pod. It increased the sense of urgency to see that its sides were now open.

  Ordinarily, it was closed off, just a tower-like structure with a hexagonal cross-section that sat in the center of the intersection. It looked more decorative than utilitarian, a staple of all imperial design.

  Six columns rose up at each corner and supported ornate street-lamps, each of which now presented a count-down to the deadline. An ornate dome, clad in fresh copper scales, added another third to its height.

  They stepped inside with more than a minute to spare. A few stragglers arrived in the remaining time, one of them sheepishly wearing a bathrobe and wrapping a towel around her hair once she was inside.

  The Naidus were the last, thanks to Rohan’s back. Terry stepped forward to look up at the countdown. “Not gonna make it,” he said, sticking his foot onto the pod’s threshold with the street.

  The counter hit zero while the Naidus were still ten feet away but the pod remained where it was. The pod’s other five gates sealed but the opening with Terry’s foot didn’t close.

  It was now filled with a sheet of orange light that pulsed in time with a blaring alarm. “Remove all living tissue from the doorway or initiate emergency safety override!” a synthesized voice commanded from a ceiling projector.

  Rohan and his family passed through the orange haze. He gave Terry a nod of thanks as he stood there, gasping.

  Terry withdrew his foot and the opening snapped shut. Everyone looked around and at each other. “Are we moving?” one of them asked.

  “Listen,” another said.

  Though there was no sense of motion, there was a sound coming through the walls. It sounded like a cross between ripping linen and someone whistling a single note.

  “I think… that’s… the air rushing… past our capsule…,” Rohan wheezed.

 
His wife patted him absently on the back. Kiara put a hand on his shoulder.

  Frank noticed how, in the crush of colonists, Terry and Kiara had managed to stand shoulder to shoulder but they were acting like they hadn’t even noticed each other.

  The nonchalance was a dead giveaway. He looked down to see they were holding hands behind her back. Frank wished he hadn’t looked because that was the moment that their hands parted and Terry’s came to rest on her backside.

  Frank looked up again quickly, seeing Kiara lean her head slightly toward Terry. He turned to Trisha, only to find an amused smile on her face.

  She leaned in and whispered in his ear. “It’s quite crowded in here. I doubt anyone will catch them.”

  Her eyes widened when he let his own hand graze over her bottom. It was just his fingertips but slowly enough to make it clear that they were there on vacation and not just a chance impact. “Please tell me that was you just now,” she whispered.

  “Me what?” he asked innocently, then laughed as she jabbed him in the ribs.

  By that time, they’d reached the bunker and the noise stopped. The sides opened and they found themselves in a large room, forty meters in diameter.

  Everyone exited the pod.

  “Hard to believe we’re nearly a kilometer under the mountains!” Terry said, squinting up at the distant light fixtures overhead.

  “Alright,” Mal’s voice boomed, “we have almost everyone but there are still a little more than thirty colonists still in Unity. We want to see a better turnout next time. We still have a few minutes before the pods come in from the fields but I see no reason why we shouldn’t carry on.

  “If you can all follow your holo-icons, we’ll show you to the shelter.”

  “You mean this isn’t it?” a colonist shouted from the back of the crowd.

  “You’re in the debarkation chamber,” Mal said, sounding surprised at the question. “We built this place to keep you all alive for several years. If a war happened to find its way out here, we might have to live down here for a long time before rescue comes. We wouldn’t just build a big room filled with bunk-beds...”