by Shawn Jones
Cort smiled. “It’s an old movie. Keep the comm, though.”
Kim was touched by Cort’s desire to bond with Dalek. Somehow, she hadn’t expected him to put the baby before the rest of the galaxy. “I’m starved. What did you bring us?” she asked as Cort spread a blanket on the ground. While he began to get the food out of his pack, Kim exposed her breast and began to position her nipple for Dalek to latch to her.
“Bacon cheeseburgers and salad,” Cort replied. They ate and talked about their mornings for several minutes. As Kim switched Dalek to her other teat, a private walked by, turned to see Kim’s exposure, and stumbled into a tree. While the nursing mother fought the urge to laugh, Cort said, “Can I help you, son? Are you thirsty or something?”
“Uh...uh…no, sir. I’m sorry sir. I just...I uh…” the young man stammered.
“I need someone to spar with, Private. Are you volunteering, or you going to stop staring at my wife’s chest?” Cort asked. The boy turned and left as quickly as he could walk. Once he was out of earshot, Kim put her burger down and slapped Cort’s arm with her free hand.
“That was cruel,” she said. “Funny, but cruel.”
“It’s bad enough I have to share them with Dalek. I will not share them with my Marines.”
Kim’s voice softened. “You called me your wife.”
“You are my wife. We don’t have the paper, but you are my wife.” Cort watched her reaction. “Do you want the paper, Kimberly?”
Kim regarded Cort for several seconds, then looked down at Dalek. The contented child was swallowing peacefully. Coke’s head was on the edge of the blanket, and Zandra was laying at Kim’s feet. Kim looked past her to Bane, who was still watching in the direction the private had retreated, then her eyes went back to Cort. “Yes. Yes, I want the piece of paper. It’s the only thing missing, baby, and I want the whole package.”
“How do they do weddings these day?”
“What’s a wedding?” Kim asked.
“Seriously? They don’t have wedding ceremonies anymore?”
Kim laughed. “Gods, you are easy to mess with. Baby, as long as little girls dream of being princesses, there will be lavish weddings. It is how we are wired.”
Cort rolled his eyes and looked at their son as she broke Dalek’s seal with her index finger. “When is it my turn?”
“Want to go home, or back to my office?”
“We’d better go home. It’s been a while,” he said as he started refilling the backpack.
--
“It is good to have you back, General,” Lex said as he and Cort sat down in Cort’s office with fresh coffee a week later.
“It’s good to be back, Lex. What have I missed?”
“H’uum is consolidating the bugs well. He has ordered them all to stand down until he ‘assesses the state of the empire.’ There are still a few planets he hasn’t heard from yet. Mostly older colonies. I am of the opinion we have to assume those planets are still hostile. Admiral Jones agrees with me, and has a task force ready to go. We were waiting until we heard from you.”
“Never do that again, Lex. I wouldn’t have turned things over to the two of you unless I trusted your judgement.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you talked to H’uum about them yet?” Cort asked.
“Yes, sir. He is being very cooperative. He does not want to lose those people, but I think he also sees it as a bit of good luck.”
“How so?”
“He knows that he has to move everyone to one planet. So having a few billion that he doesn’t have to accommodate is almost a blessing to him,” Lex replied as he stood and walked to the coffee pot. “Want a refill, sir?”
“Yeah, thanks. We can’t force him to take them all on 641. I know that was our plan, but the structure of their society, and the cooperation we have gotten from H’uum and Heroc put me in a bind. I just can’t make them have a lottery. We need to find a different solution that will achieve the same effect.”
“To be honest, sir, we have been thinking the same thing. No solutions yet though. We cannot let them keep those planets, but we also cannot show weakness. Not on a stage this vast.”
“Agreed. Okay, when we are done here, I want you and JJ to follow through with your plans for the rogue planets.”
“Do you want to go over those plans, sir?”
“Do I need to, Lex?”
“The plans are straightforward sir. We are going to blow the planets one at a time until the others capitulate.”
“Sounds good to me, but that’s not what I asked.” Cort paused and sipped his coffee. “Lex, listen. You have two problems. Number one, you aren’t willing to go out on a limb. If you are going to command Marines, you have to be willing to do what you think is right. If men are willing to die for you, you have to be willing to accept the responsibility of ordering them to those deaths. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, sir,” Lex sighed. “But if I fuck up and people die, I have to carry that around forever. That is a heavy burden.”
Cort pulled a bottle of scotch from his desk and added a jigger’s worth to each of their cups. After taking a drink of his own, he said, “Lex, I am the sole survivor of the attack on 322. And I am the sole surviving ground defender from Atlantica’s attack on Mars. Three hundred years ago, I was the sole survivor of an attack that I led against a third world drug lord who thought he could stand against my country. There were others before that. So I understand what you are saying better than you understand it. But if you are more interested in covering your ass, than you are in doing what needs to be done, I don’t want you in my Marines.”
“Are you asking me to resign, sir?” Lex couldn’t look at Cort while he waited for an answer. Instead he took a drink of his coffee and stared at the cup as he put it down on the general’s desk.
“No. I am telling you to get over your fear of failure and do what it takes to protect our allies. Dar told me what you did to protect our pack on Earth. He has no doubt that you are solely responsible for how many of our people survived that day. And guess what? You condemned several of your team to death that day, too. What’s the difference?”
Lex remained silent for several moments before answering, “They were family. I did what it took to save our family.”
“Okay, I accept that. But Lex, things are different now. Every human alive is a member of our pack now, and every enemy of the Collaborative is an enemy of the Ares Federation. That means you have to go out on a limb to protect our allies. If your plan is good, don’t wait for someone else to okay it. Just execute it. And as long as you were acting in a way that you believed was necessary to protect the pack or our allies, I will back you up, even if it goes wrong.”
“And what about the men and women I get killed?”
“They signed up for it. Every single one of the people in your command understand that they may have to fulfill their oath by laying down their lives. Remember I said there were two things? The other is this; If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t have given you Cuplan Prime for the assassination ops. And I wouldn’t have put you in command while I was out.” Cort pointed out his window in the general direction of the Marine academy and said, “I could have put any one of those people in command, but I chose you.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I assume your reluctance is why JJ didn’t blow the rogue planets on her own?”
“I asked her to wait. Yes, sir.”
“Don’t ever do that again.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What else do I need to know about my time off?”
Horticulture Dome Complex, Mars
“Thank you for coming, Speral," Jeff Pence met Speral’s ship at the landing pad. When she stepped into the dome, he added, “You do not need your tank in the dome. It matches your atmosphere, so we need to adjust. Your species does not.”
“Jeff Pence, thank you. I do not mind my breathing tank, but it is nice when I do not need to wear it.” Speral discon
nected the strap and removed the tank from under her breasts. After removing the tube from under her nose, she looked up at him and smiled. “I also think that without the tank, there is less effect on human males.”
“I can understand that, Speral.” But you still have the effect on me, little one. What the hell is wrong with me?
“Jeff Pence, I brought you many more samples of our flora. I am not sure how vital they are now that the threat from the Cup… H’uumans has been eliminated, but our people on Earth and here on Mars will benefit from them.”
“It will also ensure the plants are safe. If there were to be any kind of plague on your planet, our seeds would be used to restore them. And for us, they can be beneficial, too. We can use the samples to adjust our biosynthetics to make your plants edible to us.”
“Jeff Pence, that is a good idea. Our native plants are very poisonous to most members of the Collaborative.”
As several humans unloaded Speral’s ship, Jeff walked her into the dome. She watched as he donned a breathing apparatus that would alter the atmosphere inside the dome just enough to make it safe for him. As they continued on, she looked up at the top of the great dome and watched as wisps of clouds swirled and danced in the cap of the structure. Jeff found himself following her gaze, and remembered his own marvel the first time he had realized the dome was so large that it generated its own weather.
“Jeff Pence, how many botany domes does Mars have?”
“We have twenty domes this size, currently. Over the next Ares standard year, we expect to build double that number. Ultimately, I will have two hundred domes. May I ask you something Speral?”
“Jeff Pence, you may.”
“Why do you always say my name before you speak?”
“Jeff Pence, it is our custom to address those from outside our tribes or clans thusly.”
“You do not have to use that custom with me, Speral,” Jeff said almost bashfully. What the hell I am doing?
“Jeff Pence, we must use that custom with all outsiders. It is our way.” Speral stopped and touched a flower that was just opening with the coming dawn. She looked up and watched as the system’s sun appeared over the horizon, its warmth palpable, even through the multiple domes it had passed through to find her here.
“I see. That is too bad.” Why do I care?
“Jeff Pence, does the custom bother you?”
“No, Speral. Not at all. But I hope someday to move beyond it. I do not think of you as an outsider. What does your species call itself?”
“Jeff Pence, among ourselves we are known as Nill. Why do you ask?”
“Only because we have always called you ‘Speral’s people.’ I wondered what you called yourselves.” The two of them arrived at the airlock leading to the administrative area and passed through it as Jeff added, “The Nill. It has a beautiful sound to it.”
Twelve
Bergh Station
In the first two weeks that Cort was back on full duty, he found that Kim, Lex, JJ, and Dar had kept things well in hand. There were things Cort had to handle, but there were fewer of them than he expected. Among them was what to do with the H’uumans still living away from the only world they could legally occupy. Heroc was on Solitude to help Cort with that decision.
“Heroc, I have to follow through with it. Your people cannot remain on the planets they invaded.”
“I understand, General. But our new homeworld cannot support that many, even with your support and the necessary infrastructure, which does not exist.”
“I don’t want to kill them all, but I may have to.”
Heroc considered her next words carefully. The man in front of her had killed trillions. She herself had witnessed him killing and torturing members of her own team on Government World. She was surprised that he was even discussion the matter with her. “General Addison, may I be blunt with you?”
“You may. That is why you are here. I want your help in resolving the matter.”
“I watched you dismember one of my friends. I have every reason to trust your claim that you have killed trillions of my species. You destroyed Speral’s entire fleet.”
Cort interrupted her, saying, “Heroc, I also returned all of your queens to you. I could easily have destroyed them and let the war drag on for years.”
“I suppose, sir. Had you done that, we would have died off in ten of your years anyway,” Heroc said. “The war would have been costly to both sides, but ultimately, only the planet you have ceded to us would remain.”
“Why is that?”
“Only our queens lay young. As it is, the queens are all on our homeworld now. If you do not allow them to lay, their origin planets will die off anyway.”
“What is your lifespan, Heroc?” Cort was suddenly very interested in what the former Cuplan had to say. An idea was forming that might help resolve the matter without more death.
“The very old live to be perhaps twelve of your years, General. Why do you ask?”
“I don’t understand. The Blatterians have a lifespan of thirty to forty human, uh, my years. Why is your lifespan so much shorter? Aren’t you closely related?”
Heroc was hesitant to satisfy the question fully. She knew the answer, but to divulge it would admit that her own kind could be just as gruesomely brutal as the humans could be. Even toward their distant cousins, the Blatterians. “General, based on what I know of the differences between our species, I believe it is because of our prolonged exposure to radiation. Our species is more robust, but shorter lived. When we lost contact with Lap’s people, we were...left to our own devices. We made do with what we were afforded by our home planet, but it was a hard fought life.”
“I want to revisit that, but let’s finish our first topic. Are you telling me that there is no way for your species to reproduce without queens?”
“That is correct.”
“Other females cannot have young, then?”
“All females are queens, General.” Heroc was surprised that the Cort knew so little about her species. From what she had learned during her time with Kim, General Addison was the type to know his enemy. “All eggs are male. One egg from each brood is treated with additional secretions from the queen. It will then develop into a female, and become a queen in her own right if she is chosen. If she is not chosen, she may not be asserted to, but she is still a queen.”
“LIke royal jelly, then.”
“I don’t understand that term.”
“Nevermind,” Cort said. “About the queens. Are there more of them out there that can be used to repopulate the species?”
“I cannot be sure, but it is my understanding that all queens were gathered by Cupla. Had I not been taken into custody, I too would have been in the group that you captured.”
“Of course. You are a vagabond queen, aren’t you? What does that term mean?”
“Vagabond queens are queens who leave their homeworlds, either to another empire world, or in my case, to a non-empire world.”
“I think I am beginning to understand. Are there other vagabond queens?”
Again, Heroc was unsure how to answer. If she told Cort the truth, she would be condemning more planets to death. If she did not, she may be condemning her entire species to the same fate. Ultimately, the species had to come first, though. “There are,” she said, looking down.
“That’s a problem, Heroc. I thought I had a solution to the problem, but if there are other queens out there, I cannot take a peaceful step. Where are they?”
“What are you going to do to them?”
“Heroc, we are back to square one. I want to know where every queen in your species is. If I do not, I will be forced to destroy the H’uuman Empire. If I can bring them to your new homeworld, I will. If they resist, I will kill them.” Cort leaned forward on his elbows and stared at the bug-like creature before him. “This is your last chance, Heroc. If I find out later that you hid one single female from me, egg, juvenile, or adult, I will have to destroy your entire s
pecies.”
“May I communicate with H’uum?”
“Of course. After that, please join me in our home for supper. Kimberly knows you are here and wants to spend time with you.”
What is wrong with this species? He promises to destroy my entire race, then invites me to dine with his family. “I would be delighted, General.”
--
Kim answered the door and put her arms around Heroc in a brief hug. “Heroc, I’m so glad you are here. Wait until you see little Dalek! He’s growing so much.”
Bane and Coke sniffed Heroc’s body and nuzzled against two of her thighs. “Hello, Kimberly. I have missed our walks. I hope we have time to take one while I am here.” She looked around and saw that Cort was not in the room and added, “I have a thousand more questions about your mate. I do not understand him.”
