by Mike Luoma
“I begin to see that Al-Dolomé lied about many things. But I am only now seeing this all, far too late.”
“I have been trying to reason with them!” BC tells Al Salid, trying to reassure him a little.
“I have heard you. You have been broadcasting on every channel.”
“Yeah, that’s the only way I know of to get their attention. Let me try again,” BC says with reassurance.
“Thank you. I am sorry, BC,” Al Salid tells him.
“So am I.” BC shakes his head. “Leader of responsibility of this Eldred fleet, I Bernard Campion demand your attention!”
“You do not demand,” the Eldred voice says sharply.
Was that a hint of anger?
The Eldred ships still pound down at the ground, blasting away what’s left of the Martian colony.
“Eldred leader, please respond!”
There’s no answer. The bombardment continues.
Okay then. I asked nicely…
“Al Salid?”
“Yes BC?”
“Do you have any ships left?”
“Some. They’ve been hanging back, in a distant orbit out past your UTZ ships.”
“It looks like we’re going to have to fight this out with the Eldred. Bring your ships in, and join ours.”
“I will do this,” Al Salid agrees. There is a brief pause. “The ships are coming in. May Allah be with us all.”
BC looks at Anita and the pilot.
“Take us over there,” he says, nodding at the screen with the Eldred ships firing at the surface.
“And remember we want one of those Eldred ships as a souvenir to take home with us, so try not to blow them completely up.”
“Right,” the pilot humors BC. “You want all the Stinger and Project ships to go?”
“Yes I do! Lishnikov?”
“Here!”
“Follow us in, three-dee cone wedge formation. We’re targeting the group of ships actively firing at the surface. I need you to provide cover fire for us, to engage the rest of the Eldred ships in skirmishes.”
“Roger that.”
“Eldred ships in firing range!” the pilot cries out.
“Fire!”
BC watches the viewscreen. Bright laser fire flicks, flashes out at the five sleek Eldred ships in front of them. Advanced defense systems on the Eldred craft deflect most of the blasts, but a couple manage to strike and do damage.
Did you see that?” BC asks. “We can hit them! The blasts that actually hit scored near the engines. That may be a weak point!” BC leans over to shout at the com. “This is Campion! Focus your fire on their engines, on the area near the back of their ships! Nothing else is getting through!”
Their ship begins shaking.
“What’s that?” BC asks.
“Concussive waves,” the pilot says. “There are a lot of explosions going on over us.”
“Lishnikov! Report!”
“Her ship is gone, sir. This is Wang, on Green Seven. We’re shooting for their engines, but these aliens are doing heavy damage, sir!” the scared, young voice says over the com.
“Keep firing! Keep it up, Wang!”
Anita gives him a look.
“What?”
“Got one!” the pilot shouts. One of the first five Eldred ships they engaged is erupting into flame and molten metal in front of them on the view screen. “Hit ‘em right between the engines!”
Another Eldred ship explodes, followed rapidly by the last two of the first five. Nothing salvageable, dammit. When their ships go, they go!
“Alright, let’s go help green squadron,” BC says. But as they rise up away from the planet’s surface they find themselves dodging the ruins and wreckage of what’s left of most of the UTZ fighters. Shimmering clouds of fine debris mark the spaces where ships were vaporized.
“Are there any of them left? Green Squadron, anyone report!”
“Lucky Green Thirteen here, Commander, sir!”
“Roger, this is green twenty-five, we are enga…”
The signal is cut off abruptly. Another pilot comes on.
“Green Thirty-Eight. Confirm kill on twenty-five.”
“Roger.”
“Thirty-eight reporting. There are maybe three of us left, sir. Thirteen, myself and Twenty-Seven, but we haven’t seen her, so we aren’t sure. We’ve taken heavy casualties, but we took out a bunch of them first!”
The Stinger ships meet up with Green Thirty-Eight and Thirteen as they flank an action between UIN ships and a handful of remaining Eldred ships.
“…four, five, six. Wow, you guys have done well!” BC exclaims. “I didn’t realize you’d thinned their numbers so well!”
“Yeah, I know, you can’t really tell,” Green Thirty-Eight says. “A lot of their ships, they get damaged, they jump away. If they’re too damaged, they seem to self destruct, destroy themselves. I don’t think they want us to get our hands on them.”
Probably right. Damn it if they’re not reading my mind! I guess it’s maybe an obvious thing to their way of thinking.
“Don’t want us stealing their technology, huh?” BC asks his sudden soul mate.
“Ha!” Thirty-Eight laughs. “That’s a good idea, but I was thinking they don’t want our hands around their scrawny, fuzzy little necks! Ker-rack! Y’know!”
“Un huh,” BC grunts in response.
Maybe not such a soul mate.
“Anyways, there ain’t much left of them.”
“I still want one of their ships!” BC says to Anita.
“Well, looks like you’re not getting any of those,” Anita says, nodding at the viewscreen. Two of the six ships are rippling in the early stages of self destruction, as the last four flash out of sight. Twin suns erupt briefly and die as more Eldred ships keep themselves from BC’s grasp.
“Uh, commander?” Green Thirteen comes over the com. “Those UIN ships are targeting us now, sir. Shall I regard them as hostiles now?”
What the fuck?
“All channels open? Good. Hey! Al Salid! What are you doing? Why are your ships targeting us?
We just helped chase those aliens off! Come on, stand down! Please!!” BC yells over the com.
“UIN ships standing down,” they hear a UIN captain announce on an open channel. The UIN
ships break off from approaching the Stingers and UTZ regulars and head back down towards the surface of Mars.
Good! Back to their bases, I guess. If there’s anything left of them.
“See if Al Salid is still alive down there,” BC says to the pilot. The pilot complies with his order.
“Got him!”
“You stopped them, BC!” Al Salid sounds jubilant.
“We ran off a small force, and took heavy casualties doing it,” BC tells him, deflating his jubilation. “They’ll be back. And they have a lot more ships than what we just saw here. They’ll be back soon. Are your people in shelters?”
“Some. Some the shelters actually provided shelter from the ships’ blasts,” Al Salid says with a touch of sadness and sarcasm in his voice. “But, yes, some of us have survived.”
“I’ll have our ships take up defensive positions,” BC informs him. “Can we talk?”
“Yes. I would like to talk about these aliens. You seem to know them, even if you say they are not your allies. I would like to hear what you know,” Al Salid says cautiously.
“You know them, Al Salid. The Eldred were the aliens attacking you!”
“The Eldred?” Al Salid questions. “No, Al Dolomé called them Kaliknaga, said it meant
‘Servants’.”
“Servants? Yeah, I could see that. That was their old name.”
“Why would I know these, what did you call them, these ‘Eldred’? How would I know aliens?”
Al Salid sounds confused.
Damn, Al Salid… what did he do to you?
“Al Salid… I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but you have met the Eldred. You’ve even been to one o
f their planets, Eldray.”
“I have what? No,” he protests. “This is hard to… but there is something…” Al Salid is quiet for a moment. “I would like to meet with you,” he finally says.
“Where can we meet?” BC asks. “Can we pick you up? Can you give us some coordinates?”
“Yes and yes,” Al Salid says. “The coordinates are on their way on a sub channel. See you soon.”
“Com off,” BC commands. “Captain, how long until we can reach those coordinates?”
“Let’s see… ten minutes?” the pilot guesses.
“Good. Com on. We’ll be there for you in about ten minutes, Al Salid. See you then.”
“I will be waiting.”
“Com off.” BC finishes one conversation, and knows he has to start another. “Get me Wentworth, please,” BC asks the pilot.
“Wentworth here.”
“Campion here, Wentworth.”
“Campion! There are another ten Stingers on their way to you. The cavalry are on their way!”
“I’m tempted to tell you to call them back. We’re okay for now. But there’s not much left of us here, so let them come! Any sign of the Eldred?”
“Besides on Mars?”
“They’re not here anymore…”
“Sorry, just making a small joke. No, so far they’ve just been out in the asteroids and on Mars. I was following what happened there. We lost a lot of ships.”
“Did you see what happened on the ground?”
“I know the Eldred started blasting once Dolomay broadcast his spiel.”
“They took out the communication center, and then began blasting out from the center methodically in expanding circles.”
“They lack imagination, these aliens,” Wentworth observes.
“They do!” BC laughs. “Maybe it’s because they’re a created race. They were made by the Ancient Enemy to be servants. Born to serve their creators… who they later turned on and killed. Well, all except for Dolomay.”
“Looks like they’re working pretty hard on that, though, now, doesn’t it?” Anita observes wryly.
“It’s been a million years, but they still pursue the Ancient Enemy,” BC says. “Now Dolomay raises that threat again, and here we are, the bastard children of the Ancient Enemy, ripe to follow a newly risen leader.”
“God, Campion, you sound almost poetic,” Wentworth chimes in with a laugh.
“Guess it feels kind of epic. The Eldred seemed to be fascinated by our religions, our imaginations, our ideas about love. Maybe they were truly interested in our ideas and concepts. Or maybe they were just studying us, looking for signs…”
“Our resident expert on the Eldred, ladies and gentlemen,” Wentworth cracks.
“We’re landing,” the pilot interrupts.
“Gotta go, Wentworth. We’re picking up Al Salid for a pow wow.”
“Oh really?” Wentworth sounds genuinely surprised. “And all it took was an alien bombardment. If only we’d known sooner! War makes strange bedfellows, eh, BC?”
“Wouldn’t know. I’m gonna talk to the guy, not sleep with him,” BC cracks back at Wentworth.
“Wentworth out.”
Chapter Six
BC’s ship bumps down with a soft thud. He waits on the bridge while Al Salid is brought on board. The ship is only on the ground for about thirty seconds, and then it surges up and away off the surface.
Al Salid appears on the bridge. His eyes are sunken, red-rimmed and underline with dark circles, as if he hasn’t slept in days. Deep creases now line his face, his skull sharply outlined underneath his weathered brown skin.
My god… he looks twenty years older!
“I am… beginning to remember things. I have not been myself. I must apologize.” Al Salid bows.
“Please,” BC says, “You were under the mental influence of Dolomay. He is not what he seems!”
“Yes. I see that now. I am beginning to see much that was not clear to me. It is as if… clouds are clearing, as if a darkness is lifting…”
“Dolomay is an alien, Al Salid, a very old and very powerful alien. He might look like us, but he’s not really us. His people lived a million years ago. The human race are somehow offspring of theirs, of his race, but we are not like them,” BC tries to explain.
“How do you know all this? And how do you know so much of these aliens, The Eldred, if you were not allied with them?” Al Salid presses.
“Damn, I wish you could remember,” BC says, shaking his head. “You used to know all this…
you met with them yourself! The Eldred were in contact with The Project for a couple of years, but they weren’t our allies. I’ve only heard of them in the recent past. I traveled to Eldray… like you did! I spoke to the eldest of the Eldred… just as you did!”
Frowning, Al Salid shakes his head. “I have no memory of that.”
“The Eldred were trying to figure us out. They had already sent the plague to cut our numbers. They wanted to understand these wars we fight. They called each of us out there to explain our religions, our ideas about God, stuff like that.”
“I think I would remember that,” Al Salid sniffs. “And why would they call you out to speak of religion?”
“I… I was the Pope,” BC explains.
My God, how much of his memory did Dolomay wipe away?
“Really?” Al Salid arches an eyebrow. “Not anymore?”
“Not anymore. I thought it would get in the way of the ‘war’ stuff, you know? But both you and I visited the Eldred. And then I was supposed to visit you on Mars. But when I did, you threw me in a cell!”
“That I remember,” Al Salid admits. His forehead scrunches up. “I don’t remember much before that. The plague, of course. Al Dolomé said it was the Kaliknaga, your ‘Eldred’… But these Eldred were curious about us humans, were they?”
“They were. We were different enough from the Ancient Enemy that they didn’t know what to expect from us. We kept them curious and off guard, I guess. Until Dolomay arrived. Then it all changed. They seem to have decided that despite our curiosities we now pose an inherent danger that they can no longer suffer to live!”
Al Salid shakes his head. “I feel… pieces… missing, in my memory. And… so… I believe you!
Ibn Al-Dolomé has done something to me! I did not think such things were possible! If these are the ways of the Ancient Enemy…
“I do not believe we are like the Ancient Enemy, Campion. The mistakes of the past should not be repeated. But we must stand up to these aliens, Kaliknaga or Eldred, whatever they are called. Look at what they’ve done! They will destroy us ‘for our own good’ I’m sure – I know this line of thinking!”
“Sir? We’ve got company. On the display.”
BC sees ten new green dots appear.
“Must be the ships Wentworth sent.”
“Uh oh… we’ve got more company coming in, sir,” the pilot says.
The heads up display begins to fill with small light blue dots. The Eldred are returning in force.
“Alright, begin transmitting and loop it when I tell you to,” BC says. “Attention Eldred craft! This is Bernard Campion! I am in command of the fleet you see in front of you. Mars is now under my protection! Dolomay has left this planet and its orbit. Your war is with him! Not us! Do not fire on these targets or there will be no turning back! We will be at war. All you could learn from us, all we could share will be lost!”
BC watches the display continue to fill with light blue dots. “Loop it and keep sending it on all channels.”
There are so many light blue dots BC can’t count them anymore. More continue to appear.
“Are you repeating that message?” BC asks the pilot.
“Yes sir. No response yet.”
“What’s happening with their ships?”
“They’re hanging just beyond our weapons range.”
Interesting.
“Any response?”
“No sir, not yet.”
<
br /> BC turns from the graphic heads up display and looks at another view screen that shows a distant close up on the Eldred ships, countless sleek silvery slivers shimmering on a field of stars. Even as he looks back over at the heads up, more light blue dots blip in.
“Bernard Campion,” a quiet, measured Eldred voice says over the com.
“Here!” he replies.
Reminds me of an old school teacher!
“We know Dolomay has gone. We have dispatched our forces to try and track down his ship. But this place, and these people, have been tainted. Contaminated by the Ancient Enemy. Our inclination is to finish destroying all the holdings left on this planet. But we are not unreasonable. And we know you, Bernard Campion. If you will speak for Mars, we will listen.”
“Look, I can’t speak for Mars, but their leader is right he…”
Several Eldred ships open fire, blasting energy beams down toward the Martian surface.
“Christ! Cut that out right now! No firing on the planet or this is total war!”
“If you cannot speak for the planet, you cannot do as we ask. Do we misunderstand you?”
“Yes! No – I mean… look. The leader of Mars is Al Salid, he’s right here, and I’m sure he’ll be willing to…”
“He has the Taint of Dolomay,” the Eldred says in a matter-of-fact tone. “He also abdicated in favor of Dolomay. Therefore, he is not the leader. And so I ask again, are you, Bernard Campion, their leader?”
BC looks around. Al Salid is dejected, looking at the floor, his right hand massaging his forehead as he struggles to retrieve his stolen memories. Everyone else in the room is looking right back at BC. Al Salid looks up at BC. “I’ll sign something that says you’re in charge, Campion, if that helps,”
Al Salid says. “They at least seem to listen to you.”
Anita clears her throat, and then pulls out a document sheet from a nearby printer tray. She hands it to BC.
“Here, I just wrote this up. It basically cedes Mars to the emergency powers of one Bernard Campion, signed Al Salid.”
“That was fast,” BC says, impressed.
“I kinda saw this coming,” Anta says.
“Hey captain, can we send a visual and audio signal to the Eldred?”
