Peace Talks (Adventures of the Starship Satori Book 12)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  It was extensive. The bomb had been every bit as effective as he'd worried. Some sort of shrapnel had been built into the thing. Fortunately most of the blast seemed to have been directed forward from the suicide vest Benson had worn. When Owen knocked him onto his back it had sent the worst of the blast skyward. That explained both the little pellets of debris Garul had felt raining down after the explosion and why he and Owen had both survived. He glanced down at Owen's still form again appreciatively. His quick thinking had saved them.

  “How are your people?” Garul asked Hereford, making his voice loud enough to hopefully be heard.

  “Mixed. But medics are on their way,” Hereford said. He was already picking his way toward one of his downed soldiers, calling out to medical staff who were just arriving on the scene.

  It wasn't just soldiers injured. As much as the crowd had attempted to back away, they'd been too packed in together to get very far. Hundreds of people were down. Most were conscious, though, and it appeared their wounds were minor. Some of those who'd been unfortunate enough to be closest to the blast were worse off, though. Hereford's medical teams rushed to treat them, too.

  Then Garul heard a choked cry from nearby. The girl - she was awake! The joy he felt that he'd been able to save her vanished in an instant when he saw what she was doing, though. The child was huddled on the ground next to her mother, who lay face up. Blood streamed from the woman's nose and ears. He'd knocked her over before the bomb went off, but she'd still been almost as exposed as Owen. Garul went to kneel beside the girl at her mother's side.

  “Can you help her? Mom won't wake up!” The small human stared up at Garul, eyes wide, voice plaintive.

  “I will do all I can,” Garul said.

  He checked his medical device. It still had some charge. Once the active nanite tank was empty, it would require time to replicate new ones before being usable again, but he still had a little left in the unit. And there were more medical units on the ship! Garul cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner. He radioed his battle cruiser in orbit. “I need a shuttle dropped on my location with a medical team. Yes, now! Bring every healing unit we have that’s set for human use.!”

  There were precious few Naga left aboard his ship, and pulling a team would halve the forces remaining aboard to keep the cruiser operational. But it might mean the difference between life and death for some of these people to get Naga medical attention quickly. He didn’t have enough nanites left to heal everyone injured, but maybe there were enough left in his kit to save this child’s mother...

  Garul laid the device on top of the woman’s still form and went to work.

  Thirty

  Hereford guided his medical teams in toward the blast victims. They didn’t require much direction. These folks were among the best combat medics the general could put his hands on, coming from every other branch of the military to fill out the USSF. They rushed in, immediately moving into triage mode and categorizing patients by severity of injury, then working to keep as many alive as possible.

  He made himself busy trying to help as best he could, but Hereford’s idea of battlefield medicine was slapping a bandage on a wound and tying it off tight. He felt more in the way than useful in a scenario like this

  What a nightmare! He rand his fingers through what was left of his hair. More medical teams were on their way from nearby civilian stations and the local hospitals were all getting ready for incoming patients. They had a lot of wounded on the scene. Most of the crowd had backed away enough to avoid serious injury, but there were scores of minor wounds. Not to mention a good many more seriously injured, including a couple of his soldiers.

  Hereford stalked over to where Garul was still tending to a downed woman. It wasn’t a person from the base. Just another protester who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The device was flashing red and amber lights as Garul moved it over her body. Hereford wasn’t sure just what those meant, but if he was reading the Naga’s expression right, it wasn’t a good sign.

  “Is she...?” Hereford began to ask. Before he could finish his question, a deafening roar drowned out his words. The Naga shuttle came in at combat-drop speed, falling as quickly as the atmosphere would allow and then firing all its engines at the last moment to keep it from splattering all over the ground. Hereford shook himself to clear his head as the shuttle set down a short distance away. He hurried over to greet the new arrivals.

  The ramp slid down and four Naga rushed out. They saw Hereford and recognized him, nodding as they dashed past toward Garul. Each of them carried a heavy backpack. When they reached Garul, he stood and began gesturing at them, speaking in a language Hereford couldn’t begin to understand. Damn it, Garul had picked up English in no time flat. Maybe it was time for an old dog to learn new tricks; if the Naga could learn English, surely Hereford could pick up at least a little basic Naga?

  Time for that later. Garul gave them all their marching orders and the Naga spread out, moving among the crowd of injured humans. They opened the packs and pulled out medical equipment.

  “Sir, what do we do about the Naga?” Captain Jenkins asked.

  “Do about them? Hereford asked, incredulous. “They’re here to help!”

  “Yes sir, I know. But a great many of the people in that crowd aren’t so sure. I’m worried they may begin to panic, seeing so many aliens in one place.”

  Hereford glanced toward what remained of the protesters and saw Jenkins was correct. One old woman slapped away the claw of a Naga who was trying to get a healing device into place on her broken leg. She looked terrified, and she wasn’t alone. As the aliens got close more people reacted with fear and anger. This was going to escalate quickly again if he didn’t get in there to stop it.

  “Noted. Thank you, Captain. Keep our medics organized. I’ve got this,” Hereford said.

  He took several quick steps into the mess. There was one way he knew to stop everyone cold in their tracks. Hereford cupped both his hands over his mouth and then shouted as loud as he could. “That is ENOUGH!”

  Everyone stopped moving. The humans froze in place, hearing the authority in the general’s voice. The Naga paused as well, looking curiously at him. Well, he had all their attention. Time to use it.

  “You people still don’t get it, do you? Even after everything you’ve just seen?” Hereford’s voice dripped scorn. “That video you saw was real. Those Bugs are real. They’re an actual threat. But you see a couple of unarmed Naga come in with medical gear, and you’re shying away from them?”

  He shook his head. “I have half a mind to send them back to their ship in orbit. They’re down here risking themselves to save humans from a bomb set off by another human. Saving us from our damned selves! The irony burns.”

  “Let them help you. Or not. I really don’t care. But if a single one of you raises one hand against even one of our guests while they are out there trying to patch you all up, I will fucking deal with you myself. Do I make myself clear?” Hereford made his last question a booming roar.

  Hey, years of practice yelling at people was good for something after all. Hereford hid a grin. The crowd looked suitably chagrined. The woman with the broken leg allowed the Naga trying to tend to her to use his medical gear. Most of the other protesters looked sheepish. Yeah, these same beings they were just yelling about were out there patching them up. It would serve them right if the Naga said the hell with them and left, but that wasn’t the way these aliens played ball.

  Garul’s words still rang in his ears. The old warlord saw humans coming to Naga aid as a sort of life-debt. Dan and Beth Wynn had risked their lives, their crews, and their ships to save an alien race that Earth was functionally at war with. Another commander might have just pulled back and let the two enemy forces wipe each other out. But not Dan. No, Hereford had read the logs of the Independence himself. He’d rushed right in, recognizing the Kkiktchikut as a threat to both Naga and Humans.

  Hereford shuddered to think what might hav
e happened if a lesser person had been in command of that mission.

  The situation felt a little more under control again, now that he’d worn his voice hoarse yelling at everyone. Hereford returned to Jenkins and asked for a report.

  “Miraculously, it looks like the only fatality was Benson,” Jenkins said. “We have three security soldiers injured, but they’ll be fine. A dozen civilians were critically wounded, but with the Naga healing devices I gather all of them are going to pull through. Most of the other injuries were pretty superficial. If McInness hadn’t stunned Benson when he did...”

  “It would have been a very different outcome, I know,” Hereford replied. The kid had done well. That blast he’d fired dropped Benson on his back, directing most of the blast up into the air instead of directly at Garul, Hereford, and the other soldiers. “Speaking of McInness, how’s our boy doing?”

  “Still unconscious, sir.”

  Hereford walked over to where Owen lay. Garul had bundled some cloth and placed it under his head. Eyes closed, bruises dotting his face, Owen looked half dead as he lay there. But Hereford knew Garul would never have left the young man to treat other people if he wasn’t already on the road to recovery. He knelt beside McInness and rubbed the kid’s shoulder.

  “You’re going to be all right. And then we’re going to have a little chat about revealing classified information to the press,” Hereford grumbled.

  Not that he minded much. Oh, he was sure to get some flak for it from others in the government. But McInness had been right. It was time to begin letting humanity know precisely what it was up against. The threat was too big, the stakes too high, for the general population to be left in the dark any longer. Now they would understand why the USSF had invited Naga delegates to Earth, why the two former enemies were working together. That news broadcast was already replaying over and over on every network, he was sure. There’d be a little hell to pay for letting this cat out of the bag, but it was the right thing to do.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir. I would never break security protocols without permission,” Owen’s voice was thin and tired, but the small grin he wore showed he hadn’t entirely burned through all his spunk yet.

  “Aha! Awake at last!” Hereford poked him in the chest. Owen winced. “Hey Garul, your patient is still alive and kicking.”

  Garul came over and smiled down at them both. “That is the point, no?”

  Hereford rolled his eyes. “Kid, the last bit the news carried was probably you at ground zero for a bomb going off. You got anyone you want me to call to let them know you’re alive?”

  Owen’s eyes grew sad. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. He had lost his most direct family, casualties to a war which never should have happened in the first place. But then the kid’s face cleared and he shook his head.

  “No sir,” Owen said. “The family that matters to me most is all right here.”

  Thirty-One

  “Sir, Base One called. They said they need you there ASAP,” Jenkins said.

  Hereford glanced over at him. Like he didn't already have enough going on? “Tell them they can wait a damned minute. I can’t imagine anything they need being more important than the mess out here.”

  Jenkins was pale, though. He looked...frightened. Hereford had never seen that look on him before. He froze in place, then drawled. “What is the nature of their emergency?”

  “Long range radar picked up a wormhole arrival, sir,” Jenkins said.

  For a moment Hereford thought that might be good news. “The Satori?”

  “No sir. Something else.”

  Well, shit. That explained the fear in the man’s eyes. Far as they knew, only one species out there had wormhole tech. The human ships with the devices were all stolen or salvaged from that race: the Kkiktchikut. They’d finally arrived in Earth’s system.

  “I’m on my way,” Hereford told him. “Take charge here, Jenkins. Keep the peace. Get our people back to the base hospital and the civilians loaded into ambulances when they arrive.”

  Hereford rose from Owen’s side to return to the car he’d arrived in. That would be the fastest way back. His mind raced with ideas for setting up a defense, but they were incredibly short handed, what with the Satori and Independence both gone. They had damned few ships left to stop an invading force.

  Owen snagged his hand as he was rising. “Give me a hand up, sir?”

  “Should you be moving at all?” Hereford asked.

  “No, he should not,” Garul answered.

  Owen shrugged and pulled himself up to a sitting position with a groan. “I’m getting up with or without your help, but it would hurt a lot less with it.”

  Hereford sighed and pulled the young man to his feet. “You are an insubordinate prick sometimes, McInness.”

  “So I’ve been told, sir.”

  “At least you’re not my problem anymore. You’re his,” Hereford said, jerking his thumb in Garul’s direction. “I’m taking your haklek for a ride back to Base One. Meet us there as soon as you can. I think we’re about to be up to our ears in crap.”

  Garul stood and went to Hereford’s side, helping McInness walk to the car. “My people can take care of the remaining wounded. I will come with you so we can face whatever threat this is together.”

  A short ride in the armored car later and they'd retraced their steps to the base’s central building. Guards snapped to attention and allowed them to pass rapidly to an elevator set in the structure’s armored core. None of them spoke during the short voyage. As terrible as the past hour had been, as sore and tired as all three of them were, the news they'd received was even more dire.

  Elevator doors snapped open, revealing the heart of Base One’s operations area: a massive control room. A huge screen dominated the wall opposite the elevator. Hereford strode forward, taking in the images playing across the monitor. It was every bit as bad as he’d feared.

  “Situation report!” Hereford barked.

  “Sir! You’re back!” Lieutenant Sanders practically whirled from his seat and stood. “Thank god.”

  “What’ve we got?” Hereford asked again, still taking in what information he could from the scene.

  It wasn’t good. He knew the ship class they’d spotted. It was a Kkiktchikut ship, of course. It couldn't have been anything else, given that it had jumped into Sol space via a wormhole. But he’d been holding out hope that perhaps it was a scout vessel, that maybe their enemy was merely checking out Earth’s meager defenses. That would have been dire enough.

  No, this was much worse.

  “It’s a planet-killer, sir. One of their big ships,” Sanders said. “Jumped in about eight light hours distant. We’re just getting the readings now, so everything you’re seeing is eight hours old.”

  “Why so far away?” Hereford rubbed his chin. “What are they up to?”

  Sanders shrugged. “I don’t know, sir. They’ve been accelerating toward us ever since arriving. Speed is climbing fast, too. They’re moving fast.”

  Garul came to stand beside Hereford. “I believe I know what they have in mind.”

  The image on the screen was grainy, the details difficult to make out because of the vast distance. But to Hereford it looked like it was splintering, little fragments breaking away from the main vessel. Smaller ships departing from the planet-killer?

  “Don’t keep me in suspense, Garul. What are we seeing?” Hereford asked.

  “I cannot say for certain,” Garul said slowly. “I’m relying on stories here. Legends, really, passed down by the Naga through the generations since we broke free from the Kkiktchikut. But we were once a servant race, remember?”

  “I do,” Hereford replied. He had a bad feeling he already knew what the Naga was going to tell him, but he held out some hope that perhaps he was wrong. That he’d misjudged what was playing on the screen in front of him.

  Garul went on. “They used us as warriors, as a fighting force to wage their wars a
gainst other star-faring races. Cannon fodder, I believe you would have called us. Sent in to soften up a foe and soak casualties so the Kkiktchikut didn't have to die.”

  The Naga warrior pointed at the screen. “According to those legends, they would do precisely what we are seeing. Drop the Naga off in ships and send them hurtling toward their enemies.”

  A bright flash appeared on the screen — another wormhole! More ships arriving? But no, it wasn’t that at all. Instead the massive Kkiktchikut vessel flitted forward into the radiant wormhole and vanished. But while it had left the Sol system, the smaller fragments he’d noticed breaking off from it had remained behind. A small swarm of objects all hurtling toward Earth at incredible speed.

  Those wouldn’t be missiles or kinetic strikes. No, such an attack wouldn’t be difficult for Earth to repel, not now that they had several wormhole vessels of their own, captured from the Bugs. Hereford felt it in his bones that Garul had it right. Those were troop carriers.

  “Could they still have captive Naga?” Owen asked.

  Garul shook his head. “I do not believe so. Supposedly when we beat them back, all captive Naga were freed. But I can’t say for sure. They never attacked us with our own people, but they might not have, if they thought we would turn them to our side.”

  “If they know Naga and Human are working together, I doubt they’d use Naga against us for the same reason,” Hereford said. “They wouldn’t use a blade against us if there were even a chance we could turn it back against them. No, I think we’re seeing something new. A new servant race they’ve recruited to help them in their war against us.”

  “They’ve begun the same story all over again, with a new species,” Garul breathed.

  A new alien race was rocketing toward them on a collision course with Earth. It was a foe they knew nothing about. No concept of what its weaknesses or strengths might be. They would be fighting blind. Which was precisely the reason the damned Bugs had done this, of course.