by Shawn Jones
“Let us hope the Ares Federation will destroy our planet before then, Weela. Seven queens in one night? Not since Supreme Maal has that been done,” Cupla said. The two males chuckled, but the truth of Cupla’s jest was tangible between them.
Government World
“How long will it be until you receive an answer, Heroc?”
“I do not know, General. Depending on the day cycle of whatever planet is now Homeworld, it could be up to eighteen of your hours.”
“Explain that, please,” Cort asked.
“When our supreme leader is replaced, the next Supreme must assert his position to the queens of that planet. After mating with all the planet’s queens, he assumes the role. Only then can he act on behalf of the whole. I do not know where our homeworld is now, so I cannot speculate on the time of assertion.”
Turning to Pence, Cort said, “Jeff, get the rest of them cleaned up and in cells. See to their needs, please.”
“Yes, sir.” Turning to Heroc, Pence asked, “Can I have anything brought to you, ma’am?”
Heroc was surprised by the question. In fact, by the entire exchange. “I would like some sweet-water please.”
“Jeff, we will be in the office. Will you bring me some coffee as well? I wouldn’t mind some carbs, either.”
“Yes, sir. Would donuts do?”
“Gods, yes. How the hell do you know about donuts?”
“Your recipes are famous, sir.”
As Pence left the room, Heroc spoke. “General, you confuse me. You have so little regard for life, yet you are courteous to a fault.”
“I have the utmost regard for life, Heroc. But I am warrior. I have no regard for my enemies. That does not mean I am not civilized.”
“Perhaps.”
“Heroc, why doesn’t your species simply convert uninhabited planets, instead attacking other species?”
“We colonize whatever planets are most suitable for our species. If a planet is occupied by a lower order, we cleanse it.”
“Is that what we are? Lower orders?”
“Yes, General. Even Blatterians are of a lower order to us. They do not have the resistance to radiation we have developed.”
“I see.”
A corporal arrived with sweet-water, coffee, and donuts. After setting the tray on a side table, he left the room, but took position as a sentry outside the door.
Cort spoke again, once the door was closed. “It’s a shame your people feel that way. I’m going to have to wipe you from existence unless you agree to my terms.”
“You act as if we have no say in the matter, General.”
“You do not, Heroc. Your Supreme will either agree to my terms or I will make your species extinct.”
Heroc sipped her sweet-water and regarded the human before her. He is so very confident. It is good there are not more like him. “General, are you so sure that there are none who can stand against you?”
“Many stand against me, Heroc. I used to hope for one who could prevail.” Cort bit into the donut and washed the warm bread down with coffee before he added, “Heroc, I have come to realize that it is not my time to fall.”
“Perhaps it will be soon, General.”
It was two hours before Heroc put her water down to respond to the activated transmitter. Cort quickly realized the drawn out conversation was coded. When she put the device down, Heroc said, “I am told to decline your offer. My species agrees to stop expanding, but we will not give up the territory we have gained.”
“That is not acceptable, Heroc. You cannot keep territory taken from Collaborative species.”
“May I speak bluntly, General?” Heroc did not wait for a reply before she said, “In negotiations, you must give an opponent a way to save pride, both to you, and to their own species.”
“I will only give you an opportunity to exist, Heroc. Your species deserves no more.” Cort picked up the transmitter before he stood and walked to the door. Turning back, he said, “You will be treated well. I will see you again if I need more messages sent.”
“General, shouldn’t I transmit your answer?”
“No. They will know soon enough.”
--
After seeing to the new prisoners, Jeff Pence was returning to his quarters when he ran into Speral. The alabaster skinned female was leaving Lap’s offices and greeted him happily.
“Jeff Pence, how are you?”
“I’m, well, I’m fine, Speral.” I’m not fine. And I do not know what is wrong.
“Jeff Pence, why are humans so deceptive?”
“What do you mean?” They had fallen into a casual walk, and Jeff didn’t even notice when they passed his quarters. The conversation distracted him, and he welcomed it.
“Jeff Pence, clearly you are upset. Yet you tell me you are fine. That is deceptive.”
“Yes, I suppose it is.” Not for the first time around Speral, Jeff had to battle the urge to stare at her. It wasn’t just her nudity, or the poison-laden spines that lay flaccid down the length of her back. In fact, while he did think of her erotically, he often found himself staring at her face. What is wrong with me? A beautiful alien is nude right next to me, and I stare into her eyes rather than at her body. Gods! But she is beautiful. “I do not normally share my woes, Speral.”
“Jeff Pence, it is not just you. I have noticed this trait in other humans, as well,” Speral said. “What is troubling you?”
Jeff sighed audibly and said, “Please don’t say anything to General Addison, Speral.” I cannot believe I am about to spill my guts to you, little one.
“Jeff Pence, I will not discuss what you say with Cortland Addison.”
“Thank you. I’m not sure that I am cut out to be a warrior. I mean, I can kill. And I would do so if necessary, but I would hope that it would be only defensively.”
“Jeff Pence, being a member of the Ares Federation makes that position tenuous, does it not?”
“Very much so, Speral. The General relies on me, and I am not sure that I can be who he needs me to be.”
“Jeff Pence, not all members of your federation are fighters. Are there other positions you would be suited to.”
“Perhaps.”
“Jeff Pence, you must talk to the General then. I believe he would rather have you succeed in a support capacity than fail in a primary one.”
Another sigh. You make it sound so simple.
--
“Begin your attacks again, JJ. Target only those planets that have no representative species remaining. Leave the ones we want for bases alone, too.”
“Yes, General. Admiral Book has two more Remington class ships coming on line in the next week. They were mothballed after the Solitude conference. When we lost the Ithaca, I ordered him to make them a priority. We will also have two more Peacemakers by then.”
“How many Marines do I have?”
“The first two-thousand boots will be ready for deployment in three more weeks. And they will be very green, sir.”
“According to Heroc, they have over a trillion people.”
“We’re slightly outnumbered then, General.”
“I prefer to look at it as we have a target-rich environment, Admiral.”
Eight
Solitude
Cort was working with the wolves when Kimberly walked up, iced tea and a basket in hand. Bane was trying to tear Cort’s armor covered neck, while Coke and Zandra were pulling at his equally protected groin and leg. Kimberly yelled, “Drop!” Zandra and Coke immediately released Cort. Only Bane hesitated. It took a repeat of the command from Kim to cause the big animal to let go. “He does not like letting go,” she said.
“He’s darker than the other wolves. I think he knows he is unique. He’s like me in that sense.” Cort called the big animal over and stroked its neck, while Kim laid out their lunch. “How was your morning?” he asked.
“Good. The training grounds are finished now. And JJ commed me this morning. I have three ships available to me for t
he next two weeks to bring in staff and gear. Recruits begin arriving in three. You won’t have the current class for an extra two weeks, because they are facilitating the move. For the time being, JJ is going to keep sending recruits through Mars, also.”
“That’s smart. We are going to be severely undermanned for at least another year. What about the wolfpacks?”
“Five weeks for them to start training. They won’t transfer here until they are screened for compatibility.”
“I don’t know of many forces in history that will be like that one.” Cort indicated the wolves and asked, “What do you have for them today?”
“I hate this part, baby. I understand it, but I hate it anyway. Today, it’s a raptor. It lost a foreleg in migration.” Kim stood and walked to a gate. After opening it, she said, “Hunt!” and watched all three wolves bound through the underbrush in search of their prey.”
“It’s necessary though. Now more than ever.”
Kim sat back down beside Cort and began eating the plate he had made for her. After a few bites, she said, “Will you be here when the baby is born?”
“Yeah, I will. I should be back with a week to spare. I’m taking Bane with me. It’s time for him to hunt the enemy.”
“Cort, he could get you caught.”
“He could also save me. Kimberly, you haven’t seen much in the way of ground combat. I have. The books about me in the family library only tell about the things Amber knew. But Sköll and I fought a lot of battles before I met Amber. He killed a lot of animals defending me, including humans.”
“Bane isn’t Sköll.”
“You’re right. He’s twice the wolf Sköll was. He’s meaner, he’s tougher, and he’s better trained. I always tried to protect Sköll. I don’t have to protect Bane. He’s a weapon.”
As if on cue, Bane backed into the clearing. In his jaws was a raptor that was easily three times as large as the wolf, and whether it had lost a foreleg or not, it had clearly fought well. Bane was covered with cuts and bite marks that were already healing. Zandra and Coke were blooded as well, though not to the extent that Bane was. They too, were healing. Like all of Cort’s warhounds, the two had been given the bio-synthetics that the Asian scientists had developed for Bane.
Bane dropped the dead dinosaur next to Cort and sat down. Once the other two sat near him, Cort stood up and, with his FALCON-enhanced strength, he picked up the raptor and began tearing pieces from it. After dividing the meat between the wolves, he sat again and wiped the blood from his gloved hands. Kim had watched the same scene play out dozens of times, and as with every other time, she felt both revulsion and desire as her warrior ruled their pack.
The group was on their way back to the main compound when the defensive net activated. They ran the rest of the way to the command center, where Cort donned the latest incarnation of the CONDOR suit and Kimberly locked the compound down. Through his HUD, Cort saw a timer begin to flash. “Stand down, people. It’s a drill.” The random drills happened at least once a week, and not even Cort or Kimberly had any control over them.
Cort said, “Well done, everyone. It looks like that was the last short drill. From here on out, we will have to respond to incoming ships. Study up on dummy rounds and be sure you know the code to abort the exercise. They might not be charged, but even a dummy slug could wipe us out.”
“General,” a comm tech said. “I did not want to disturb your lunch, sir. Major Pence is inbound on the Taurus. He is due to arrive in thirty minutes, and asked us to clear your afternoon.”
“Okay, thanks for giving us a break, Sergeant. I truly appreciate that. Send him to my office when he arrives.”
--
“I hope this is going to be a pleasant surprise, Jeff.” Cort welcomed Pence into his office and poured them both coffee. Bane had never met Pence, and stayed alert even when Cort tried to calm him.
“Yes, sir. I think it…” Pence looked down at the massive wolf. “Sir, are you sure my FALCON is enough if he takes a lunge at me?”
“He hasn’t torn mine yet. Not even the neck.”
“Your neck, sir? Damn.” Pence started to reach down to the animal.
“I wouldn’t do that. The suits are only so good. He’s broken quite a few fingers.”
“Ah. Yes, sir.”
Cort sipped his coffee and put the cup down before saying, “What can I do for you, Major?”
“Are you religious, General?”
“Not in the least. I grew up that way, but then I, well, grew up.”
“Well, I am, sir. To a degree, anyway. More to the point though, are you familiar with the Septuagint?
“The Old Testament translation? I’ve heard of it.”
“Well, sir, legend says that Ptolemy II sequestered seventy scholars individually and had them translate the Old Testament word for word. They all wrote the same thing. Some think it was divine, some think it was because Ptolemy threatened them. Either way, they all said the same thing.”
“I use a similar technique in my interrogations, Jeff. Mythology aside, where are you going with this?”
“I interrogated all of the prisoners using the peaceful version. That is, I didn’t threaten them. Really I just had conversations with them, but I asked them all the same things. About their people, and the like.”
“Okay, what did you get?”
“I recorded hours of conversations for the intel people, but there was one key thing. Out of the forty-two prisoners we have, thirty-nine of them told me that Heroc is a queen.”
Cort sat upright. “A queen? How confident are you of that?”
“I never directly asked a single one of them. Over time, a lot of them just let it slip. I can’t imagine they all had that one piece of false information to share, or what they would hope to gain from it.”
“You did well, Jeff. Why did you befriend them?”
“Your old interrogation manuals. If you have enough time, being nice is much more fruitful.”
“If you have enough time.”
“Yes, sir, and I did.”
“So why didn’t you comm this, Jeff?”
“I have a question, General. And I need a straight answer.”
“Okay.”
“Do you really intend to wipe out the species?”
“No. They get one planet.”
“They will never agree to that, sir.”
“They don’t have a choice, Jeff,” Cort said. He leaned forward on his desk and pushed the coffee cut to the side. “Are you having second thoughts, Major?”
“I don’t know, sir. Well, that is not true. I am having second thoughts. I do not think I can kill them just because you order me to. I’m sorry, sir.”
“Could you kill them at all?” Fuck. This has to be Bazal. I can’t keep him around my fighters. Goddammit!
“I think I could defensively.”
“But not otherwise.” Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Pence looked down and said, “I’m sorry, sir.”
“I won’t lie, Jeff. I am disappointed. But part of this is my fault. I should have been clear and ordered you not to interact with the prisoners. It humanized them.” But how do I keep Bazal’s bodyguards sharp?
“So, what now?” Pence asked.
“What did you do before I popped up?”
“I have a doctorate in botany. I suppose I can go back to that.”
“I could ask Dar to put you in charge of the domes on Mars. Kim has more than she can do now, so I am sure she would welcome someone else being in charge of that. You won’t see other worlds, but you will still see their flora.”
“I would appreciate that, sir.”
“Okay, Jeff. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable around the compound. I need to order the changes. I will drop you at Mars later today when I am on my way to Government World. Before you take on your new role, you will be debriefed by the Admiralty.”
“General, John Glass would be a good man to take my job.”
“I appreciate the inp
ut Jeff, and I know you mean well, but I can’t include you in those decisions.”
More than a little dejectedly, Jeff said, “I understand.”
After Pence left his office, Cort began reorganizing his Table of Organization and Equipment. After he closed the TOE, Cort commed his Admirals and then Dar.
Government World
