by Richard Fox
“Let him finish. We’re in control. Let’s act like it,” he said.
Stacey jerked her hand away.
“We now have the means, thanks to our arrangement with the being known as Malal, to create our own Crucible jump gates. Once Malal finishes constructing his codex, we can access the entire Xaros network and strike at the heart of their leadership, this Apex of theirs.
“We have the path to victory beneath our feet, but defending Earth would be a mistake.” Murmurs spread through the ambassadors. Wexil raised a hand and a hologram of Abaddon appeared over the plateau. “This is what the Xaros sent to destroy Earth. A drone mass on par with the largest maniple ever to attack a world. The Xaros struck out from their gate around a nearby star and reached the Earth in a few years. A few years. If we commit lives and ships to stopping this attack, the Xaros will return again and in even greater numbers.
“I will mention that the Xaros’ arrival is earlier than the estimates we made when the decision to save humanity was made. A human ship, the Breitenfeld, against this council’s decision, went to the planet Takeni and there the Xaros saw that ship and then they knew—they knew—that something had gone awry on Earth. Our finely laid plans were ruined because of an impulsive human captain that could not see beyond the impact of his actions.”
Pa’lon smashed his palm against the broadcast button. Their pod shot into the air and came level with Wexil’s.
“That decision saved the last of the Dotok species, you vile bit of—” Stacey slapped Pa’lon’s hand away from the button before he could say more.
“Way to be magnanimous, Pa’lon, good job,” Stacey said.
“The Crucible near Earth is compromised,” Wexil said. “We have learned much from it, achieved great technological strides from its use, but now it is time to abandon it and Earth. With Malal, we can build another Crucible deep within Bastion space, far removed from the threat of the Xaros. We can take our time to carefully design a fleet to defeat the Xaros leadership and shore up defenses around that device.
“We cannot throw resources at defending Earth, not when the planet’s doom is assured when the third wave of the Xaros arrive. I will remind you all what happened to Jelben’s Star and the great defeat we suffered there,” Wexil said.
“What’s he talking about?” Stacey asked.
“Ancient history, one of the first attempts to fight the Xaros when they first arrived. A group of five species in a close star cluster combined their fleets at Jelben. Beat a small force of Xaros that arrived, then the Alliance sent every ship they could build and crew to beat the second wave. They kept up the same pattern for the next two hundred years, kept the crews in suspended animation and bled the planets white to fight the third wave. Third wave was…trillions of drones. Swept the fleet aside like it was nothing and wiped out the species that were in that alliance. Rest of the galaxy took a dim view of going toe to toe with the Xaros after that.”
“I propose an amendment to the motion before us,” Wexil said. “The humans and Dotok evacuate what they can to a member world and aid in the construction of a new jump gate. They scuttle their Crucible and let us trade space for time and confront the Xaros in a more deliberate fashion.
“How much do you want to bet that new jump gate will be well within Vishrakath space?” Stacey asked.
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Pa’lon said.
Text for Wexil’s motion came up on the dome wall.
Stacey cleared her throat and hit the broadcast button.
“To my fellow ambassadors.” Stacey felt butterflies in her stomach as she flicked a button and brought her pod higher than Wexil’s. “Earth is under siege. We did not join this Alliance to be shunted aside when it proved convenient for other members. We joined to fight, to beat the Xaros with your aid and fight beside you and save your worlds when the time came. Xaros maniples are a few years away from the Ruhaald and Naroosha Collective. Will this body decide to let them slip beneath the Xaros tide too? Will Wexil argue that your race should be left to their own devices for the greater good as well? When will we stop retreating and finally take a stand against the enemy?
“Defend Earth. You’ve all seen the projections from the data gathered from Malal’s vault. The Crucible on Earth can be completed within months. Then we can strike the Apex while it is still beyond our galaxy. If we wait too long, the whole of the Xaros leadership will arrive and we will be forced to deal with who knows how many Masters instead of the General that’s been encountered. The time to turn this war around is now.
“I know I’m the newest ambassador here. I haven’t been around for centuries to watch the slow erosion of free space back to this little corner of the galaxy. I saw what the Xaros did to my world firsthand and I am not willing to let that happen to another planet if I can help it.”
Stacey paused. She looked over the ambassadors and saw many scrutinizing Wexil’s proposal.
I’m not going to fail again. I won’t let them throw us under the bus like they did with the Toth, she thought.
“Let me make something clear,” she said. “If the Alliance does not send ships to defend Earth, we will not part with Malal.” There was a pause before the implication of what she said registered with the ambassadors. “You will not make your own Crucibles or access the Xaros network without Malal. If you do not help us now…Earth will withdraw from the Alliance and you will be back where you started before that probe ever contacted my grandfather.”
Stacey stepped back and the pod sank slowly to become level with the rest of the Congress. Hundreds of vid screens popped up on the inside of the dome. Ambassadors attempted to speak directly to Stacey, stepping over themselves with anger, support and bewilderment.
A dark covering swept over the dome, isolating Stacey and Pa’lon.
“That could have gone better,” Pa’lon said.
“It’s time to play hardball, Pa’lon,” she said.
The long-haired Qa’Resh woman appeared against the dome.
“There is disquiet.” The Qa’Resh looked at the two ambassadors, her face emotionless.
“You don’t say,” Stacey said, shrugging slightly. “The decision comes from Earth. We’re not going to stuff our ships full of civilians and scurry off to another planet. Eventually, we will run out of places to hide. Humanity was born on Earth. We will die there.”
The Qa’Resh glanced at Pa’lon and then focused on Stacey and said, “We gave your species Terra Nova. A sanctuary world safe from the Xaros. Your species will survive there.”
“What’s she saying?” Pa’lon asked. “Her lips are moving but there’s no sound.”
“You didn’t hear that?” Stacey frowned.
“Now you’re not making any sound,” Pa’lon said.
“You did not share Terra Nova with the Dotok,” the Qa’Resh said. “Your species has few friends in the Alliance. We do not wish to see you lose another.”
“You gave us Terra Nova to survive the Toth, out of guilt for letting us fight those monsters on our own. We would have left the Alliance without that show of good faith from you, the Qa’Resh. We trust you, the Dotok, and the Karigole. Don’t expect us to bleed for anyone else unless they prove they’re in the fight with us.”
The Qa’Resh cocked her head slightly.
“They are ready for the vote,” she said and vanished.
“What’s going on? What was that all about?” Pa’lon asked.
“The system’s overloading with people screaming at me,” Stacey said. “She had to cut your audio to get through to me. The Qa’Resh wanted confirmation that I really would leave the Alliance. I told them as much. And it’s time to vote.”
“That’s suspiciously fast,” Pa’lon said. “Normally there would be hours between an amendment like Wexil’s and a vote.”
“Well, I doubt anyone’s ever threatened to take their ball and go home before. Look at me, Grandpa. I’m a trailblazer,” Stacey said.
“The Dotok council instructed me
to stay in the Alliance even if you leave. I trust we’ll still be welcome on Earth.”
“Your people are on Hawaii, some of the best real estate on the planet. If we leave, you’ll have to move someplace worse—like Antarctica or Siberia.”
“What? The place with that vile substance…snow, is it?”
“I’m just kidding,” Stacey said. The dark shell over the dome opened. The Congress was at peace, the ambassadors touching their screens to vote. Two choices popped up on the screen before Stacey, one for her proposal to send forces to Earth, the other for Wexil’s.
Stacey touched her bill, and Pa’lon did the same from the other side of the pod. The choices vanished from the screen.
“Where’s the tally?” Stacey asked. “Every other vote has had the count live as votes come in.”
“The circumstances are unusual. Voting against you is essentially a vote to have humanity out of the Alliance,” he said.
The two proposals reappeared on the screen, hers in blue, Wexil’s in red. Bar graphs formed beneath the two, and the blue column was decidedly larger.
“We did it?” Stacey asked. “We did it!”
She went to give Pa’lon a hug and was rebuffed by a force field.
“Contact not authorized,” Chuck said.
“Where’s Wexil? I want to rub his nose in this,” she said.
“Magnanimous, Stacey. Be the bigger person. The war is far from over and we’ll need the Vishrakath in the future,” Pa’lon said.
Stacey caught sight of Wexil as his pod lifted over the rest and sped toward an exit. The alien inside gave Stacey a hard look, but betrayed no other emotion.
Two vid screens popped up on the inside of the dome: Darcy, the Ruhaald ambassador, and a man with sandy blond hair and freckles, the Naroosha representative.
“Darcy, good to see you, and…” She’d never dealt with the Naroosha before. As best she knew, no one on Bastion had much contact with the reclusive species.
“My approved designation is Tamir,” the Naroosha said.
“The word is given,” Darcy said. “Our fleet will begin shuttling to Earth as soon as I return to Ruhaald Prime. We’ve only one functioning jump engine, but it can get a sizeable force through the Crucible in one go. Just remember to come lend us a hand when the Xaros hit our system in twenty years.”
“If there’s a blood debt between Earth and Ruhaald Prime, it will be honored,” Stacey said. “The same for the Naroosha, though your people will be in danger sooner than the Ruhaald, I believe.”
“5,299 Earth rotations until expected encounter with the Xaros,” Tamir said. Stacey couldn’t help but notice that his mouth didn’t move when he spoke. Some of the species represented on Bastion were a good deal more exotic than their forced human appearance. Stacey knew the Ruhaald’s true form. Anyone on Earth expecting aid from a race similar to the Dotok or Karigole were in for a shock.
“I will return to Earth right away with the gate codes for your arrival,” Stacey said. “Come as fast as you can.”
Their screens snapped away.
Stacey crossed her arms over her chest and tugged at the bottom of her lip.
“Pa’lon…what do you think?”
“When obstacles suddenly vanish from my path, I believe a trap lies ahead,” the Dotok said.
“The Ruhaald I trust because of their ambassador. She’s always been for us. The Naroosha…but what are we supposed to do? We’re beggars right now, can’t afford to be choosey with who comes to save the day,” she said.
Worry nagged at the back of her mind and would dog her thoughts until she went back to Earth.
CHAPTER 16
Torni’s stalks plied over a thin sheet of clear crystal, then froze suddenly. Her stalks quivered and smashed together, breaking the crystal into shards that flew across the workshop. Her body shifted to her human form and she fell onto her hands and knees.
Torni’s mouth opened to scream, but there was no sound. She pounded against the deck, denting the metal plates. Steam rose off her back and shoulders as embers burned across her surface.
“Torni, what’s wrong?” Lafayette asked. He edged toward the door, his eyes locked on her.
Discordant noise came out of Torni’s mouth then she inhaled deeply.
“It was him.” The words were tinny, disjointed. The embers faded away, leaving Torni’s body looking like a fire-ravaged tree trunk. “The General, he…he’s here. Angry. Felt him through the gestalt.”
Torni slapped a palm against the omnium cube and her body restored itself.
Lafayette’s arm beeped. He twisted his hand over and Ibarra’s hologram appeared.
“What happened?” Ibarra asked.
“The General. His presence is…affecting me,” Torni said. “I can finish the device—don’t worry. Just give me a minute.”
“If he is here, we can kill him,” Lafayette said.
“Do you know how to kill a photonic being, Mr. Karigole? According to Torni, that thing’s been around since the Xaros first hit the galaxy thousands of years ago and survived the passage from their home galaxy,” Ibarra said.
Torni tapped the base of her palm against the side of her head.
“If only we knew someone who was an expert in immortality,” she deadpanned.
Ibarra and Lafayette glanced at each other. Ibarra pointed to an empty bench and waved his hand. A hologram of Malal appeared. The ancient being sat with his head lolled to the side, like he’d been turned off.
“Malal,” Ibarra said, “when you spoke with Stacey, you mentioned you rejected the photonic form used by the General. Why?”
Malal’s head cranked upright and locked in place.
“Irrelevant to my purpose here,” Malal said.
“If the Xaros manage to overrun Earth, you’ll be the General’s problem, not ours,” Ibarra said, “so you tell us how to kill it and maybe we’ll survive long enough to get to your bigger picture.”
One side of Malal’s mouth pulled aside, distending and revealing sharp teeth of an impossibly wide jawline.
“The conversion to photonic existence is simple,” Malal said. “A consciousness can be maintained for eons with minimal degradation, so long as the containment vessel is stable. I rejected that path. The possibility of death means the certainty of death. My peers were jealous of my work and accomplishments. They would have found a way to destroy me. I opted for godhood, not immortality.”
“That’s not helping us,” Torni said.
“You can disrupt his photonic matrix, dissolve his consciousness,” Malal said. “It won’t be so simple as broadcasting an interference pattern. You’ll have to break through his armor and broadcast a discordant—”
“How!” Ibarra shouted.
“With this.” Malal’s chest morphed into a diagram of a blade with inlaid circuitry. Torni looked over the schematics. She could fabricate the weapon from omnium easily enough.
“Or…you can release me,” Malal said. “I’m weak now, but with enough strength I—”
Ibarra drew a hand across his throat and Malal’s hologram vanished.
“Not no, but hell no,” Ibarra said.
“And why not?” Lafayette asked. “When the Karigole plan operations, all viable options must be discussed and decided on. Not rejected out of hand. I am aware of the impact Malal had against the Xaros when Stacey released him during the operation to his vault. He has the potential to turn the tide of this battle.”
“Let me tell you a children’s story,” Ibarra said. “Once upon a time there was a scorpion sitting on a riverbank that wanted to cross the river. He went to a frog and asked to stand on the frog’s back while it swam to the other end.
“The frog said, ‘No, scorpions sting frogs. I can’t trust you.’
“‘But Mr. Frog,’ the scorpion said, ‘if I sting you, then I’ll drown. I’d never do that.’
“So the frog agrees and takes the scorpion onto his back. Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog.
“‘Why?’ asked the frog. ‘I am poisoned and you will surely drown. We’re both dead.’
“‘Because I am a scorpion. Scorpions sting frogs. It is our nature.’
“Right now,” Ibarra’s tone changed as the story ended, “Malal is weak, still running off the fumes from the Shanishol he consumed I don’t even know how long ago. He needs to be stronger to fight the General and the entire armada of drones. He thrives on sentient life. Where do you think he’s going to get that strength?”
“Earth,” Torni said, “all the people we’ve got down there.”
“And what do you think he’ll do once he’s back to his godlike strength after draining the life out of hundreds of millions of people? Even if he does beat the Xaros for us, he won’t stop there,” Ibarra said. “He’ll keep the proccie tubes on full production until he’s ready to go after the ‘peers’ that left him behind. Malal is a tiger, and we’ve got him by the tail. We cannot let go.”
“What is a tiger?” Lafayette asked. “I assume a frog is some manner of—”
“We are not going to let him loose,” Ibarra said. “We didn’t take the Toth’s offer of handing over our people in exchange for some of us surviving. I sure as hell am not going to trust Malal more than the Toth. I sacrificed billions for a chance at survival once before. The Xaros were inevitable, already on the way to Earth. What I did was the only path forward. Now…we can still win this fight without having to put our trust in some alien savior.”
Lafayette frowned.
“Not you, Lafayette,” Ibarra said. “I mean, yes, you’re an alien that we’re trusting. But the whole kit and caboodle doesn’t depend on you alone. We trust Malal and we might as well leave the fox in charge of the hen house.”
“I agree with you,” Lafayette said. “I was on the vessel that brought the Shanishol to Anthalas. I did not see the carnage on the surface, but I saw the results of Malal’s plans.”
“Then why did you even suggest letting him loose?” Torni asked.
“Discussing a plan does not mean I endorse it. Allow me some Karigole foibles. I can’t help who I am,” Lafayette said.
