by F. E. Arliss
The hardest thing about the mission on UZ627 had been seeing her parents again. As a Lieutenant in the Intergalactic Guard, her father was assigned to the Governor in his personal security detail. Winter had not been aware of his attachment to the Governor’s detail and almost fell when she saw him. Tate’s quick thinking had supported her and sheltered her expression for a few moments until she got herself under control.
When they’d stepped forward in unison, her father hadn’t recognized her at first. Winter couldn’t blame him she supposed. It had been over four years. She had no hair and was no longer the naive girl she had been.
Finally, after having to actually be introduced to her, his gaze had sharpened as it looked over her features and he’d gasped out, “Mae?”
“Hello, father,” she’d returned calmly. “It is good to see you well.”
“What the hell? Why are you here? Where have you been?” he burst out, completely forgetting himself in the heat of the moment.
Tate had stepped forward and firmly pushed him back. “Lieutenant Burridge, please do not approach the Viceroy or you may be harmed,” he stated authoritatively.
“Viceroy!” Her father practically shouted. “That’s no viceroy. That is my daughter Mae!”
“Governor, please relieve your Lieutenant of his duties,” Tate demanded. “I think it would be better if we meet with the Lieutenant after our meetings. We will explain all to you at the appropriate time,” he continued, a hard glint in his orange eyes. The Viceroy’s Guard had taken up protective positions around Winter and they appeared ready to take lethal force if Lieutenant Burridge didn’t back down.
The Governor quickly dismissed the Lieutenant and had him escorted out of the area. After the formal discussions were over, Winter requested an audience with her father. The Governor graciously granted it.
As she,Tate, and their mites waited in a conference room to meet her father, Winter couldn’t help but feel nervous. “I don’t know what I’m going to say,” she said desperately to Tate. “I’m not even sure that I want to see him.”
“Then don’t,” Tate said quickly. “I can meet with him and tell him what he needs to know. There is no need to put yourself through this if you don’t want to.”
Winter met his gaze slowly and said, “It sounds so chicken of me, doesn’t it?”
“Not really. No chicken could live through what you’ve been through. It’s not being chicken. It’s just realizing that that life is gone. This is your life now. You don’t need to explain yourself to him. He’s not going to understand it anyway. He’s never had anything like it happen to him and can’t imagine it in any way.”
Winter smiled slightly at Tate, “You’re quite wise for someone so young.”
“As are you,” he grinned back.
“I would like that, please,” Winter said slowly. “I don’t want to have to talk to him. They’ve moved on. They adopted twin boys. I looked it up on the datastream. They’ve got a beautiful new family and are successful here on Uzi. I’ve got a beautiful new family and am successful in the Idolum Alliance. I don’t want to have to justify it to them,” she added, feeling more confident now. “Please explain that to him and wish him all the best for me.” With that, she stood on tiptoe and brushed a kiss over Tate’s lower jaw, then exited regally with her mites in tow.
Lieutenant Burridge did not understand, just as Tate had forewarned. He kept insisting that since Mae had such a terrible event in her life, she must be completely broken and needed to come home to recuperate. No matter how much Tate explained that she was not broken, that she was fine as she was, her father could not accept it.
Tate did not give him the opportunity to continue to protest. “You will not contact the Viceroy in any way. You are no longer her family and she does not acknowledge you. That is final. Any attempt to contact the Viceroy will lead to serious charges of assault on her. Do you understand?” Tate drilled the Lieutenant. “I will also have the Governor order you to stand down. Are we clear?”
“Yes. Yes, we’re clear,” Lieutenant Burridge said hesitantly. “You swear she’s fine?” he asked, a slight look of relief passing over his face.
Tate had seen this before. Not with his family, thank Mother, but with others who realized that they’d just been relieved of an enormous responsibility and were free to go. “I promise she is fine. I swear it,” he affirmed glacially. “I will see no more of you. Ever,” he added, then turned and stalked away as his Guard followed smartly. The Lieutenant left, hurrying back to the safety and calm of his Uzi family.
Tate couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about the family Winter had come from. She was in his family now and that was all that mattered. She deserved better than those clueless chumps. Finally, towards morning, as Sister departed Uzi’s atmosphere, he slept.
So far, the Idolum Alliance’s steps out of the darkness of isolation and secrecy had been well received. That state of bliss seemed about to end. Tate had heard from the Queen of a species inhabiting something called the Magna Belt. It was less of a planetary system and more of a string of moons and asteroids that revolved around a burning ball of fire that turned anything entering its atmosphere into a flying piece of molten lava.
A scaled, bipedal species called the Gilarians lived on several of the moons. Little was known about the species except that they were highly aggressive and had taken to raiding newly terraformed worlds. The Intergalactic Guard had spent billions of credits readying those worlds for habitation and wanted to ensure that the new populations of those planets would not be in danger. Queen Altum Juls agreed. Hence the trip to the Magna Belt could no longer be put off. They were to arrive there tomorrow.
In just over an hour, they would be stopping at one of the outposts, Grapa II, that had been raided. They would meet with a small human contingency, all that was left of a once thriving wine market outpost. The special soil on some of the nearby planets hosted productive vineyards. The outpost was where product was brought to be stored once it was bottled. Grapa II kept a year-round temperature of ten degrees Celsius, enabling wine to be stored without special equipment. It meant a very low cost for stockpiling wine before transport.
Out of a population of one-hundred-twenty workers that had inhabited the outpost, only eighteen remained. The rest had been killed or kidnapped by the Gilarians during the raid. It was a sad sight indeed, as Sister set down amongst the burned out remains of large wine vats.
The outpost was not large, and had only two large rotating guns for protection. Winter had already caught glimpses of the anger the survivors felt for being so ill-prepared and for relying so heavily on the aid of nearby planets. The Gilarians had been upon them before they could even get off a request for help.
Small in stature, the Gilarians had small ships as well. The relatively tiny fighters had darted in, slaughtered those who fought, and dragged those who did not aboard their ships. Only one person to a ship, as the Gilardian vessels held insufficient space for more than that. What did they want with live survivors? That was the question of the moment. Slaves? Food? No one knew for sure. Winter doubted they would know until they reached Magna Belt and asked the Gilarians themselves.
After assuring the surviving colonists that the Alliance was sending advanced security systems and would install them, and that they would investigate the attack, Sister lifted off and fold-warped towards the Magna Belt. The killing on Grapa II had been vicious and cold-blooded. The purpose of the attack remained obscure.
They spent twenty-four hours reconnoitering the Magna Belt before they opened a hail to the Gilarians. The Magna Belt was rife with oxygen and hydrogen. So vast jungles covered many of the moons and the planets that clumped there. What they’d found so far, was certainly disturbing. Probes had been sent out and when they returned, the images had most of the ship growing silent, unable to find anything constructive to say about the vid the drones had taken.
Vids from each drone showed roughly the same thing. The small ships that had
attacked Grapa II had landed in clearings adjoining what looked like mud tunnel mouths. The adult Gilarians seemed to be an insect eating species and the heat from the roiling, molton sun that the system revolved around kept insects in all forms living happily among the heavy vegetation on the ground.
Many of the asteroids were composed of ice debris. When they impacted the area around the moon the Gilarians inhabited, the moisture made for a thriving, nutrient-rich loam that kept the colony happy. As far as Winter could see, there were no mammals or larger animals. Just the Gilarians and insects. It was an odd set of circumstances.
It had taken several hours of communication to talk the Gilarians into a meeting. They were defensive about the attacks attributed to them on Grapa II and felt threatened by the Idolum. When Winter showed them live vid of herself, as a representative of the Idolum, coupled with Fats Domino at her side, the Gilarians finally agreed. These small people they could handle, seemed to be the consensus. Winter had to smirk. She couldn’t think of two more dangerous people in small packages than her and Fats.
“Tell me when they’re on the platform, Tate,” Winter said quietly, cueing Fats to the fact that they were not going to travel in traditional style. “I think a grand entrance is better. They certainly aren’t very afraid of us and I think we need to give them something to think about,” she added. “I find them quite annoying, so far.”
“They’ve arrived,” Tate said calmly. “Be safe. We’ll see you back here.”
Winter nodded to him, grasped Fats’ small, knobby hand firmly, and was gone. Seconds later when they materialized out of thin air over the platform where the Gilarians had arranged the meet, their sudden appearance caused a mad scramble among the small lizard-like species.
Allowing her and Fats to drift slowly onto the platform, Winter swept a shallow bow to the regrouping greeting party and said with a smile, “A wonderful spot for a meeting. Such a lovely view,” she added with a sweeping gesture towards the jungle canopy stretched out for miles in any direction. “Your moon teams with life,” she said, a complimentary tone assuring them that it was a positive comment.
A rapid series of clicks was translated by her ‘universal data-chip’ into an intelligible language. “We greet you. Your presence on Gilaria honors us,” lisped one of the larger reptiles. “I am Gep. Clan elder.”
Winter almost laughed, then gasped as the full reason for the thefts of live captives was illuminated in her mind. Crap! That blew diplomacy all to hell, she thought. Cueing her mind to Tate’s she let him know what she’d discovered and outlined a thought of a plan. That was all it was. Just a thought. She’d have to work the rest out as they went.
Smiling, Winter said, “Be that as it may, we will not allow our bodies to be used as incubators for your children,” she stated firmly. “We understand your need for insect breeding grounds for your hatchlings, but sentient mammals are restricted from serving that purpose by the Empire.”
Small jaws full of ragged teeth fell open. “We protest!” Squeaked Gep. “Our clan’s needs are not your concern.”
“Of course they are,” Winter negated his statement crisply. “You’ve taken humans from an Empire ally. This will not do. Those people are my Queen’s people. Therefore they are not yours to use,” she said simply. “That is law. That is fact. Nothing you can do will change that.”
Her absolute certainty, confounded the little lizards. “You can not tell us what to do!” declared a defiant Gep.
“You are correct,” Winter acknowledged calmly. “I would never tell you what to do. I can only tell you what you can not do.”
A long silence met this serenely delivered statement.
Gep gazed at Winter intensely, then with a sweep of his hand, and a guttural cry, a wave of Gilarian warriors raced up the platform and began to swarm towards Fats and Winter.
Winter simply levitated her and Fats out of their reach and was gone. The confused warriors milled aimlessly about, searching desperately for any sign of the intruders. Soon fear began to set in as Gep realized that he may have made a mistake. Before the squad of elite Gilarian troops could reform and retreat back down the platform’s main tower, they were surrounded by the Idolum Guard of the Viceroy.
Winter stood at the apex of one corner of the platform. “I see you do not understand the full might of the Empire of Queen Altum Juls,” she said kindly. “Let me help you to comprehend her powers. What I have done here, is but a mere blip upon the powers of the Queen. She may kill you with a thought. Or I can simply order my Guard to kill you. We prefer that force not be necessary. On the other hand, I am not at all afraid to use it.”
Gep, swallowed hard, as each of his warriors was covered from behind by Guards of the Empire. Two of them dangled over the edge of the platform, held from the long talons of General Kor’s fingernails.
“As you can see, we are a far superior force and we have the ability to simply annihilate your race should we choose to do so,” Winter said, as though in a pleasant conversation with a friend. “We hope it won’t come to that, as we’d like to have the Gilarians as friends and allies.” Gep gaped at her.
“Your stealth and fleet of ships is very impressive in its ability to fly long distances without being detected. That would be useful to the Alliance and the Empire. Why not join the Alliance and swear faith to the Empire. Then we will be friends. You will be compensated for any business you do on our behalf, and, of course, we will happily arrange for habitats for the birthing of your eggs to be filled with organic matter that will have the same nutrients and result as the humans you’ve been using. We will all be happy,” she added smiling openly at the gaping reptile. “What do you say?”
“Ummm,” Gep dithered, glancing wildly about for any other solution. “We have always raised our hatchlings in human bags,” he whined.
“Humans are not ‘bags’ for the breeding of your species,” Winter snapped. “They are highly evolved sentient beings.”
“No they’re not,” Gep rattled back briskly. “They fight among themselves, kill each other, rob and cheat and steal. They are not honorable as a whole and are far from highly evolved,” he ground out, clearly a firm believer in this treatise on human behavior.
Honestly, Winter thought, rolling her eyes internally. She agreed with him. On the other hand, another species couldn’t just go around using humans as feed bags. On the other hand, it was simply the food chain. Okay, so Idolum fed on mammalian energy. The Alliance Idolum nests revered life and would never kill ‘a life giver’. Arachnians actually ate humans too. So it wasn’t like the Gilarians were alone in the galaxy. Didn’t matter. Her job was to stop them from stealing humans from operating colonies.
“So, for the sake of tradition, you would allow your clan to become extinct?” Winter asked sadly. No, she could feel that he was just trying to save face and not look like someone who caved in easily to the enemy.
“What sort of prize do you demand of us in return for this favor?” she asked, changing tack.
Straightening, Gep gazed at her calculatingly. ‘Seriously?’ Winter thought. ‘Always, it’s just what they can get in exchange.’
“We demand a look at the ‘nutrient bags’ you will be bringing before we agree to this. In the meantime, we will desist from taking any more humans,” Gep stated magnanimously. “Payment for services will be in Intergalactic credits and stored on the Intergalactic Database. We will charge the same rate as the Vanguardians.”
“Excellent,” Winter said graciously. “The new habitats will be here in ten days. I am happy that we have been able to come to an agreement on this. We will retreat to Grapa II on that agreement and await the habitats for your approval.”
“Very well,” Gep stated regally now that his honor as a bargainer had been restored. “We will reconvene in ten days.” Then turned and scuttled down the platform and disappeared with his warriors into the foliage.
“Honestly,” Winter grumped. “You’d think he’d condescended to give us an agree
ment, when he knew good and well I was just going to kill the little runt if he didn’t.” Accompanied by a chuckle from General Kor, the warriors clasped hands in a daisy-chain of Idolum-might, allowing Winter to blink them all aboard Sister in a few seconds.
“Well, that was our first resistor. I’m sure more will follow,” Tate ventured quietly, later that evening. “What will you do when it’s not so easily maneuvered?” he asked, searching Winter’s countenance.
“I have no idea,” Winter replied gravely. “I suppose I’ll allow my internal ‘Viceroy’ to tell me what to do.”
“And if that means killing an entire species?” Tate returned, his face serious.
“I’ll do it,” Winter said simply. “I’ll hope that it isn’t necessary. But sometimes, beings just need killing. Sounds awful, but it’s the truth,” she added solemnly. “Not all beings are redeemable.” Tate nodded agreement.
Chapter Eleven
Baby Factory
Now that the negotiations with the Gilarians were finished, the crew of Sister was off to confront a colony of Arachnians. They were attacking and pillaging cargo haulers that were bringing Soclaued ore from the outer rings of Talurau II, an ugly planet filled with nothing but a heavy mineral ore that was used as a binder in the plexalon used for building houses and habitats on low-gravity worlds. The ore had a property that allowed it to become an effective, yet inexpensive, grav barrier.
