Bavara was the home of some of the most breathtaking mountains in all of human space. It was also home to a quaint little village, for which Diet’s family was named: Fürt. When discovering that fact, Noreen absolutely insisted on seeing this village and while sightseeing there, they discovered a charming little chapel, from right out of a fairytale. When seeing how taken Noreen was with the little chapel and with the entire village of Fürt, Diet secretly and quite romantically arranged for Noreen’s entire family and a short list of her closest friends to surreptitiously come to Bavara, so they could be married there in that little chapel she loved so much.
Needless to say, Noreen was shocked, but delighted when presented with the presence of her family and friends in a fait accompli. Hal stood up with Diet as best man and Noreen’s college roommate and best friend, Adelaide, from Socar, was maid of honor. A few more of Noreen’s old friends from her home world of Sylvania were happy to serve as her bridesmaids, but she had been stunned to discover that Diet truly had no friends, and he’d been forced to rent some… actually paying men from the village to act as his groomsmen.
Fortunately, Hal spoke German, so the language barrier wasn’t quite what it might have been. Knowing that Diet and the baron had grown up together, Noreen had initially been a bit disappointed at his conspicuous absence at his boyhood friend’s wedding, but he had graciously offered them use of his personal suite, in his ancient family castle there in Fürt. So Noreen and Diet enjoyed a magical wedding in a quaint fairytale mountain village, in the home of his ancestors of the same name, and spent their wedding night in a baron’s suite in a real castle. It had been the best day of Noreen’s entire life and the source of many joyous memories. The next day, however… eh, not so much.
* * * *
The Rak Planet Vnayrk
June, 3866
Raan’s attendance at Drix’ bonding ceremony provided the three region-masters a rare opportunity to confer personally. Harf felt an unfamiliar tingle of excitement. He had a unique opportunity to actually be included in the front-line planning and conduct of the war against the aliens, and thus directly contribute to the Raknii war effort. From his vantage point, located on the far side of the empire from these frontier events, the alien war had been little more than an abstraction to Harf, but here in the heart of the war-zone itself, the danger was immediate and pronounced.
When first apprised of the details included in recent reports of Raknii military setbacks and the loss of seven Rak worlds to these human enemies, Harf was shocked to discover just how ineffectual the military forces of the Rak Empire actually were, when pitted against the fantastic weapons these humans were employing against them. A mere five human fleets had decimated over 670 Rak warfleets at Golgathal nearly a cycle ago, and recently single human fleets managed the same against dozens of Rak fleets stationed at the other six worlds, which the Raknii lost just four sub-cycles ago. So much death and loss with little on the horizon, but the firm expectation of more of the same. As much as Harf wanted to deny it, the facts were incontrovertible. The glorious and arrogant Raknii Empire seemed as helpless as kits facing combat-masters, before the advance of these implacable aliens, and Harf was frightened right down to his toe claws, after discovering the horrifying truth.
Harf wasn’t known for his deep-seated personal courage. He’d lived much too pampered a life for that, but he was rather good at giving the appearance of such. Raan and Drix had already choreographed their impending discussion with Harf. As expected, when confronted with the horrifying two-fold realities of the unstoppable human onslaught in the face of Varq’s grim prophecy, their careful arrangement of their questions maneuvered Harf into being the first to suggest, that perhaps their people had truly bitten off more than they could swallow... and that a return to the old ways and a fundamental change in Raknii thinking, might truly represent the only salvation of their race. This ploy left Harf believing that it had all been his idea initially, and that Raan and Drix had both been convinced by the force of his logic — finally convinced to accede to his impeccable wisdom, as their best course of action. All of this left Harf feeling quite good, as he envisioned himself a leader who might eventually be hailed as the savior of their race. Harf always had been subject to delusions of grandeur.
The three Region-Masters further agreed that such a monumental undertaking could only succeed if a massive majority, if not a unanimous, plea by the region-masters was presented to Supreme-Master Xior. A united consensus of the highest of the High-Rak was vital, before such a fundamental change in Raknii attitudes and behavior would be accepted by the masses. Unbeknownst to Harf, Raan had already maneuvered young Region-Master Olin, of Region-5, into a similar mode of thinking and Drix had already received the unconditional support of Region-Master Glan, of Region-3. With Harf’s acquiescence, that left only Blug of Region-4 to convince… and Drix intended to let the humans deal with him.
* * * *
The Planet Bavara, Germanic Empire
June, 3866
The day after Noreen and Diet’s fairytale wedding, the local weather report said nothing of it raining Raknaa assault troops from the sky, but that’s what they got. The elements of the German Imperial Fleet stationed at Bavara savaged the 25,000 Rak warships that led the alien attack, but the response of their in-system fighter defense squadrons was slow and Raknii swarm tactics allowed their small warships to get in behind the German ships, where their puny 3-gigawatt pulse-lasers could be effective against the Germans' vulnerable drive tubes. Using tactics devised by Tzal at Minnos several cycles earlier, the surviving Rak warships ran the gauntlet of Bavara’s orbital forts and dived for the surface of the planet. Raknii assault troops blasted their way inside one of the Germans' orbital forts, to open a corridor where their assault ships could approach in the relative safety of the planet’s shadow, whose bulk protected them from attack by the other forts.
Rak warships largely ignored the attacking in-system fighters that finally got airborne, as their space-attack missiles were largely ineffective in atmosphere. Instead, they dueled with Bavara’s atmospheric fighters, while assault troop drop-ships rained down on Bavara’s cities. German ground forces tried to mobilize, but what little armor they had on hand fell victim to fire from the Rak warships overhead, and their infantry found themselves cut off by swarming Raknaa assault troops landing behind them. When the Germans' in-system fighters returned to their bases to rearm with atmospheric missiles, Rak warships followed them down and obliterated their bases.
Noreen and Diet followed the confused news coverage of the attack on the one English-language channel, from their master suite in the baron’s castle. They quickly decided that they’d best get out of there, as a large castle on a hill made an awfully inviting target to an airborne Rak warship. Diet’s communicator was still working in local mode, so he contacted Hal, who picked them up in a ground vehicle right outside the castle gates. Hal told them that Noreen’s family and friends were all right, and huddling in the basement of their hotel.
On their way to join Noreen’s family at the hotel, energy blasts began impacting on buildings on either side of the road they were on, and debris blocking the road eventually forced them to abandon their vehicle. They tried cutting between buildings to get to the side streets and away from the main thoroughfare, when suddenly they found themselves confronted by a squad of Raknaa assault troops, who appeared to be firing on anything that moved. They ducked quickly behind the edge of a building, before the aliens spotted them, and Diet and Hal quickly conferred in urgent whispers.
“Noreen, I need your engagement ring,” said Hal.
“What?” asked a startled Noreen.
“Sweetheart, give Hal your engagement ring,” whispered Diet.
“My ring? What does Hal need my ring for?” Noreen was obviously scared and confused.
“Just give it to him, sweetheart,” said Diet. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you another one even bigger, if we don’t get this one back.”
> Bewildered, Noreen slipped off the beautiful yellow diamond ring, with white diamond accents and handed it to Hal, who quickly slipped it onto the pinky finger of his right hand.
“You two hide behind those trash receptacles back there, and stay down,” Hal told them. “Don’t make a sound.”
Thoroughly frightened, Noreen didn’t argue for once, as she followed her new husband behind the big trash dumpsters and squatted down behind them, as Diet moved a couple of smaller bins to provide them with better concealment. With all the unaccustomed violence going on around her, Noreen was totally out of her element and more than happy to let Diet assume the lead, without offering suggestions of her own.
“What’s Hal going to do?” she whispered, when Diet finished maneuvering the last trash bin into position and squatted down beside her.
“Shh… just watch and stay quiet, sweetheart,” Diet advised. “Everything will be all right as long as the aliens don’t spot us, and the building next to us doesn’t get blown to hell.”
“That’s certainly a comforting thought,” whispered Noreen. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time, I’ll give you that.”
* * * *
The Rak Planet Vnayrk
June, 3866
It took all four of the big Raknaa females to hold N’raal down, while Drix personally affixed a collar, removed from a watch-beast, around her neck. The collar had been fitted with a radio transmitter and a locking mechanism, ensuring that she couldn’t take it off unassisted. N’raal spit an amazing number of vilifying invectives at Drix during her collaring, several of which brought Drix’ parentage into serious question. When he finished attaching the collar, Drix signaled to the Raknaa that they could release N’raal, and they scurried from the room to avoid her next verbal assault. N’raal took a moment to run to the mirror and examine the collar around her neck before she rounded on Drix.
“A watch-beast collar?” she shrieked indignantly. “You put an animal collar on me? HOW DARE YOU?”
“As long as you insist on acting like an animal, then I will treat you like one,” Drix assured her. “If, and when, you can begin behaving like a civilized Rak female, then you’ll be treated accordingly.”
“Agh! I HATE you,” screamed a thoroughly indignant N’raal.
“With the collar on, at least you’ll be free to leave your room,” answered Drix civilly. “The radio transmitter embedded in it will enable us to find you, when you try escaping into the forest.
“I really wouldn’t suggest that you do that, though. There isn’t another Rak facility within several hundred thousand body-lengths from here, and there are some relatively large and dangerous indigenous predators out there... who might find a tender Raknii female delicious.”
Amazingly, N’raal found herself all out of poisonous words, so she just spit at Drix’ retreating back as he turned and left the room, leaving the door open behind him. N’raal sulked on her bed for several turns, before finally adventuring out of her former prison in search of food. Obviously, the monster her father had shamelessly given her to, had left instructions for the servants to cease bringing meals to her room.
She tried refusing to eat, but frustratingly that tactic seemed to have no effect whatsoever on her captors and just made her belly hurt. N’raal finally admitted to herself that she really had few options if she wanted to survive, and cursed her feminine weaknesses, in finding herself lacking the personal will and physical discipline to sustain her hunger-strike. Even if she had, they were evidently content to let her starve, if that was truly what she wished.
N’raal felt the beginnings of despair encroaching upon her, as she found herself thwarted at every turn. Her family had totally abandoned her here, leaving her at the mercy of this… this damned alpha! Her father had disposed of her — sold her like a herd-beast at market. She’d never heard tell of any other bonding ceremony where the bride was trussed, gagged and bonded, totally against her will. Of course, she never considered that in all of recorded history, there’d never quite been another Raknii female in such blatant, open rebellion against a bonding arranged by her family.
Virtually all bondings were prearranged among her people. Few, if any, really had any personal say in the selecting of their bond-mate. It was merely the way of her people. Her family had technically done nothing wrong in arranging a bonding for her… except in NOT asking for her opinion beforehand, nor heeding her wishes afterwards.
What was it that possessed my father to actually do something like this to me?
N’raal had always been able to browbeat her family in general, and her father in particular, into always giving her, her own way. What had changed so suddenly and turned her life upside-down?
Drix... it was that damned alpha!
The monster himself hadn’t even given her the satisfaction of returning her taunts... remaining frustratingly polite and respectful — whenever he wasn’t actively laying-down-the-law to her, that is. Even when he was, he remained so maddeningly civil about the whole thing. He was just so damned matter-of-fact about it all. N’raal had never been dominated by anyone before, and she didn’t like the feeling, even a little bit. Dealing with Drix felt like pounding her head against a piece of sheet steel. He was just so incredibly… unbending.
Damn him!
Another source of despair for N’raal was the fact that her family had left her behind when they returned home. Now, for the first time in her life, she was totally alone — and horribly frightened. Her damnable heat-cycle was almost upon her, and she was horrified at the prospect of her body preparing itself to be penetrated by a male’s… thing.
The prospect of her hormones compelling her to lay forward with her tail up, with her naked sex exposed and presented for a male’s pleasure, terrified her. The prospect of being mounted and having her body penetrated by a male had always petrified N’raal. The very idea of a male’s long, thick sexual organ thrusting in and out of her body, both disgusted and frightened her. She knew that it just had to be excruciatingly painful. She didn’t care what kind of lies the females in her father’s household told her… she knew better.
How could being penetrated and repeatedly stabbed by anything, not be painful?
And soon, when her heat cycle reached full potency and she could no longer hide the scent of her condition any longer, Drix would come for her. Large, powerful, unbending Drix would come for her, and he would take what he wanted from her… and she was totally powerless to stop him. N’raal hated feeling helpless most of all.
* * * *
The Planet Bavara, Germanic Empire
June, 3866
Hal peered around the edge of the building periodically, to see exactly where the alien ground troops were. If allowed to search this area without distraction, the aliens would find, and very probably kill, Diet and Noreen. Hal couldn’t allow that to happen. Hal had access to every piece of information that had ever been obtained about these aliens, including details concerning their rank-stone system, which triggered subconscious, hypnotically-induced behavioral restrictions within the Rak psyches. He hoped the unexpected sight of the large yellow diamond, with white diamond accents on the edges of Noreen’s ring, might trigger enough of a hypnotic prohibition to induce confusion in their minds, so the aliens didn’t just kill him outright when they first saw him. He had to buy himself enough time to actually get one of the aliens talking to him.
As he’d broken the Raknii/English translator problem… well, his other self on Minnos had actually. But when he’d finally been able to interface with the local version of himself there on Massa, through a miniature comm port hidden in his hair, he’d uploaded all of his experiences within this human body to it, and in return, received an update, which gave him a working knowledge of the Raknii language.
Hal wasn’t particularly fearful of death per se, as he knew that other versions of himself existed, and would survive on a number of different planets. But he’d worked long and hard getting this body, and was, adm
ittedly, reluctant to give it up anytime soon. An ancient author named Isaac Asimov once said, "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome." On reflection, Hal found that he really wasn’t really in any great hurry to experience it for himself.
Hal watched as a single Raknaa trooper approached, weapon at the ready, and his eyes sweeping both sides of the street. The trooper wore no clothing other than close-fitting, region identifying colored shorts (brown, for Region-5, in this trooper’s case) that covered his loins, and crossed equipment belts across his chest. Even these Raknaa assault troops, while the largest specimens of their race, were only two-thirds Hal’s height, so he had to remember to reach down when he made his move. He just hoped that his muscle tone had improved enough with all those exercises in the hospital all those months, to pull off what it was that he intended to do.
Hal took one last peek around the corner and realized the trooper was close and looking right at him. Hal reached out with his left hand and grabbed one of the trooper’s belts near to where they crossed on his chest and putting his weight into it, jerked as hard as he could, bringing the alien completely around the corner, where he was momentarily out of sight of his companions. Hal immediately stuck Noreen’s ring directly in front of the startled Raknaa’s eyes and growled in the alien's language as best he could approximate:
“Take me to your highest ranking superior in this vicinity... immediately.”
A human speaking in a passable version of his own language startled the Raknaa even more, giving Noreen’s ring, having the appearance of an approximation of High-Rak or Mid-Rak rank-stones, an extra second to introduce confusion into the trooper's mind... but the weapon did not move towards Hal, which was about the best that anyone could have possibly expected.
“How is it that you speak our language, human?” asked the astonished trooper.
“Badly, and with great difficulty… Take me to your highest ranking superior in this vicinity.”
Wrath of an Angry God: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 3) Page 8
