*
Despite the need for weapons, in his spare time Helkmid continued his own research. He couldn’t miss this opportunity. The Niseyen were in deep trouble and getting close to extinction. Like other Okme, Helkmid was frustrated that he had not been able to find out how this had happened but he was certain it was Biological Warfare and just as certain of the delivery system. But what was the method? How were the genes being damaged? No Okme had yet found out. What had Dijina discovered? He so regretted her disappearance and his research request to her that had probably caused her death. It had shocked him. How far up did the rot go? But her loss had taught him a valuable lesson in security. He pulled his mind back to the task at hand.
Had it taken generations to weaken the Niseyen genes and the damage was still occurring or was the residual damage still worsening? Helkmid wondered if it was the former, was that was why nothing was detectable; if the actual method had stopped. Or could they just not detect it?
But this aside, he had an ideal situation here. He had two Niseyen who had presumably been damaged and a lot who hadn’t. Pity the damaged ones were both male though. Helkmid asked to see Az and Kaz and questioned them alone.
“Are you two Independently Fertile?” he asked Kaz who was the less reserved of the two.
“We wish!”
“What’s wrong?”
“A low count and inactive. We’re both the same.” Kaz looked at Az who was looking very embarrassed.
Helkmid thought. That put them in the second category of the about 26% of males who could reproduce with help. Only about 11% of males were independently fertile and 4% or less of females. So their genes determining sperm quantity and sperm activity were damaged, or missing bits, or switched off. There was no way these two could father children without a medical laboratory. There was no way the Machines could help either as all these specific Niseyen genes were damaged, some more than others. There were no undamaged genes for the Machines to work with. No perfect master copy. Until now.
“I’m working on something that may help with that. Would you care to help with my research?”
“It won’t further damage us?” asked Az.
“No definitely not! I would not ask you to harm yourselves! If it works as I expect, you will be Independently Fertile.”
“Yes we’ll help,” offered Kaz, ever trusting.
“Could you come back this time tomorrow? You’ll need to stay a few hours.”
The next day Az and Kaz turned up as requested to see Dan leaving. Helkmid was preparing two of his Healing Machines. After stripping off all clothing, they got into one each and lost consciousness as it closed. The Machines inserted the probes, needles, monitors and tubes and in less than four minutes were ready to start. Into the side chamber of each machine, Helkmid poured a small quantity of Dan’s sperm. Dan had assured him he was fertile and on examination Helkmid found the sperm were mobile, well tailed and so numerous!
The Machine examined the genetic code of Dan’s sperm and overlaid it over the sperm it had drawn from Az and Kaz. It looked for the expected defects and found them. Where it found them, it determined where the faults lay. It found a total of eight faulty genes; identical faults in both of them. Two genes were there but switched off. Five were missing essential pieces and one gene was mostly missing. The Healing Machines then used the blueprint provided by Dan to instruct the gonads in what was missing and thereby providing the blueprint to rebuild it. Treatment took 46 minutes, and the Machines opened.
Dazed, Az and Kaz slowly got up, both ruefully examining various needle marks and with one sore groin apiece making dressing a delicate and painful process.
“What has been done? Surely you can tell us now?”
“Yes Kaz. I didn’t want to delay in case the power failed yet again. The batteries aren’t full. I have used Terran sperm to provide the blueprint to repair yours. If it works and I believe it will, it will make you both Independently Fertile. I will need to retest in about three weeks. You should both be well repaired by then.
Az and Kaz looked at each other and then at Helkmid. If this worked and if they got back to a Niseyen world, they would be assured of being Chosen. If and if.
Council of War
The next day Mathew called another general meeting. He had been busy. His spies had been even busier. They took their new jobs very seriously. Mathew opened with, “I have called you here tonight because we need to firm up the schedule and The Plan.
Of the 132 cities, according to my spies (he smiled), 18 have so far been completed and emptied of all bodies.
Of the 15 towns, seven fishing villages and 2 of the 3 inland villages, all have fallen and been emptied.
Due to the lack of an internal road structure, there are no individual homesteads on this planet as there is no transport system except flying and apparently Ridianit are social, not solitary.
Five cities are showing resistance, including ours. We urgently need to figure out how to contact and unite those cities with us. This process is underway.
Az and Kaz tell me that the Keulfyd Plan is simple. First, they will have knocked out the satellite network both communication and power so the planet could not call for help. Then they launched possibly thousands of hunter/killer satellites, which also monitor and block all communication. This stops incoming or outgoing spaceships calling for help and shoots down all air and space traffic. They then try to gas all the cities, in as few days as possible, to limit resistance, limit all calls for help between the cities and thereby all attempts to unite the cities to fight. Apparently Terra, with its scattered small towns, isolated villages and single dwellings, is an exception to modern civilization. Most live in cities, as here. Some of these are supercities with billions living there. The main reasons are that the power, and all the modern facilities, including climate control, are in the cities only. Without power, they can’t live. Heck they can’t even clean themselves! Look how miserable Kaz and Az are every time the power goes off again.
The slaves empty all the cities of bodies, usually 3-5 cities a day. They start with the capital city as they did here. The capital is in the Northern Hemisphere and is empty. Any cities that put up a fight or have survivors are passed over and they continue with the others. That stops their momentum slowing. It also gave us precious time. Because we have not fought back, they will not consider us a threat. I don’t know whether they will try to wipe us out first or whether they will go for the resisting cities first. Kaz and Az couldn’t help me there. But what they did find out is another really practical consideration. The Southern Hemisphere was emptied first because it is summer here. The bodies would decay sooner resulting in a disease risk and slowing the job down. This also has helped to give us precious time. They are now concentrating on the Northern Hemisphere and ignoring us. There, the power is off, the climate control is off and the cities are very cold thus slowing the decay process of the bodies. This aids speed and reduces the likelihood of disease. It also makes the mess less smelly and easier to clean up. Kaz and Az also say the attacking force is usually a lot bigger than this one but because this planet’s development is recent, it has a very small population. They expected a walkover.
The reason for ignoring resistance at first is also so that when they start to fight, they have all their troops free and not otherwise committed. None guarding slaves. None helping with the dumping of bodies. Kaz and Az are expecting that the slaves will be dumped at around day 25-30 or whenever the cities are emptied. I understand all the Southern cities have been emptied. But the Cats tell us there is one village left to empty, on this continent, within range of here. It is probably our best hope. To deliver these pathogens, we need aircraft. We don’t have any we can use. Az and Kaz tell us they have all been disabled. They checked some. The equivalent of the throttle control is gone on all the ones they checked. We also need to capture two of the planes the Keulfyd use because we need the spraying device. Kaz tells me they are still attached on all the ones he’s seen.
We have only boats and ships. Only one ship has the range to get to the Northern Hemisphere in time. We will send that one tomorrow. Their task is to capture at least two aircraft and do it in such a way it looks like an accident. The Keulfyd are moving across the Northern Continent in a predictable pattern according to my spies. We will try to intercept them here,” he pointed to his map. “Tasha found some maps in a classroom and took them to the Priskya. They identified this as their planet.” Mathew looked up but saw he had their full attention. He carried on, gratified.
“At the same time, we will send one group here,” he pointed to the inland village, “in hopes of getting aircraft here too. We will send Kaz with one team and Az with another, giving us two chances, with our two pilots. Volunteers please.”
Li stood up. “I’ll go with Az.”
After a startled moment, “No you won’t young lady!” from Kelly.
Mathew smiled as Stella, Donny, Mahmoud, Steve and many others stood up. To the furious and frightened Kelly he said,
“Kelly they aren’t safe anywhere. The Keulfyd could come tomorrow with conventional weapons and wipe us all out. We all must fight. No exceptions. If we are to survive, we need to give everything.”
Kelly looked trapped. “Then I’m going with Stella,” she said.
“Agreed,” said Mathew. “You’ll probably be needed more there. And Sarah you sit down too. I need you more here.”
All was quickly organised. On the 13th day of the War, eight left by the largest ship for the Northern Hemisphere and eight headed first up the coast by boat, then inland up a river to hide near the village that had yet to be emptied. For both Teams, Mathew’s instructions were the same; don’t return until you have the planes or were unsuccessful.
Mathew agonized over this decision and the choice of people to go. He had to get things right. There were so few of them to accomplish so much that had to be done. And so many barriers. He would have liked to have sent both Julia and Karl. Both were competent, level headed and tough enough for the purpose. Both could talk to the Cats. Both assured him they thought they could handle killing. But both could not go; small problem of their three children. He also had to allow for accidents or fatalities on the way. Here, the power kept going out and Helkmid, Nial, Con and Akira seemed to be the best fixers. All four were competent handyman types, Akira for the complex technical stuff. He had confessed to an aptitude for retro-engineering…
But foremost in Mathew’s mind was that he couldn’t see how he could win this war without planes. They were essential. He decided to send four pilots with each group to allow for casualties or dropouts. And to send as good a group as he could. It was so frustrating! So many planes they needed so badly right in front of them in this city; all disabled. But militarily it was an essential and logical thing to do. To leave them functional would be stupid and it would increase the surveillance need as escaping planes would have to be shot down. Mathew realised how well organised this operation was. These Keulfyd were professionals and very good at what they did. They had done this before, he guessed and they were far from stupid. Mathew could admire the military organisation though he doubted anyone else would!
Donny wanted desperately to go but was unsure if he could kill. Also his leg, which had been badly broken a year ago, was still causing pain. Steve doubted he would be up to it physically considering the amount of walking that would be needed. He advised against it. Mathew interviewed everyone he considered, rejecting several due to unfitness, unwillingness to kill, they couldn’t be spared etc. Those going with Az would all have to be strong swimmers. Finally, the decision was made.
Tomorrow, with Az would go Mayling, Helene and Jolene who were all pilots and Li, Karl, Tue, and Dan. They were going to the village. It looked like a longer and more difficult trip. They would have to be fit.
With Kaz, would go Kelly, Akira, and Miyuki as pilots and Ali, Mohammed, Stella and Steve. They were going to the Northern Hemisphere. Both groups were armed with all Mathew could spare. There were some anticipated problems; they had no idea what Race(s) the pilots would belong to and therefore they all would have to decide how to kill them ‘on the spot.’
Mathew addressed both Teams. “At least one Team has to succeed. I can’t see how else to accomplish this properly. And we need you all to survive and return to help. Especially Az and Kaz. May I suggest that they not fight. We can’t spare them. They are unique. You will have to plan as you go. At least you will have some time to do that. The Priskya will be trailing you and the Cats will help too. Another thing I needed to consider! We know Stella, Li and Karl can ‘talk’ to the Cats. We don’t know if anyone else among you can. So Stella or Li had to go with you so at least one in each Team could communicate with them. Helkmid says he thinks it is a rare ability and genetic. Maybe Kelly can talk to them too.”
He sighed and paused to think. “The slaves cannot know who we are or that we are fighting back. They cannot join us. The security risk is too great. I suggest you could let them go but I’ll leave that decision to you jointly. I have left you as much leeway as possible as to how you accomplish this. Do your very best. We must get at least two planes. Oh and Helkmid said my idea you use the blowguns to hunt food was a very bad one. The meat will be poisoned. Just as well I mentioned it to him.” He looked a bit embarrassed. “Everyone has contributed to provision you. Thank Nanelle for the tents, your sleeping bags and your backpacks. Food, you’ll have to catch on the way or eat the dehydrated stuff. Try fishing. Take great care if you light cooking fires. Make sure they don’t smoke and keep them small. You have a blowgun each which hopefully will solve the Alien pilot problem. And all you pilots, no macho stuff. You’re there as pilots not mercenaries. If you’re dead or injured who’s going to fly everyone out?”
Az’s group, heading for the village, left first. Everyone stowed their gear away then some explored while some settled down to enjoy the trip. Az, of course, knew nothing about boats so watched, apprehensively, as Tue gave tuition to anyone wanting to know. Tue explained his family were amateur fishermen but he found the controls a little tricky unless he kept his mind on the job. He kept missing the wheel!
The Priskya trailed both Teams and maintained communications through their relay system, using their children as ‘runners’.
Alien Alliance Page 27
