by M. R. Forbes
"Lieutenant Bale, take over for the Major and bring us back toward the Settlements. Gabriel, Mr. Mokri, you're with me. Colonel Choi, you have the bridge."
"Where are we going, sir?" Reza asked.
Theodore lifted himself on his arms and shifted himself over, coming down in his chair. He began rolling toward the exit.
"To the hangar," he replied. "We aren't about to land this thing down there."
"What about General Cave?" Gabriel asked.
"Alan? What about him?"
"He's going to blame us for leading the Dread here."
"We've got a war to win, son. He can either get on board, or he can get the hell out of the way."
FORTY-ONE
GABRIEL EASED THE BIS away from its position on the floor of the Ishur's hangar. The Magellan loomed beside him, a definitive work in progress as it underwent the transformation from starship to dropship.
The remaining nacelle had been removed, the damaged side also picked apart and reduced to a stub. The plasma damage along the hull was in the process of being repaired, with random bits of lek'shah affixed over the original armor where the cuts were too deep to heal.
Also new to the ship were a handful of ion cannons. They were smaller than even the smallest of the secondary batteries on the Ishur, rebuilt from as much material as they had been able to salvage. They wouldn't do much against a domo'shah or even the smaller ek'shah, but they would be effective against Dread starfighters and ground based weapons.
"Guy is installing the Dread zero-point reactors today," Reza said, a hint of pride in his voice. The two men had become unexpected friends after the whole ordeal with Guy's wife, Sarah, bonding over their shared desire to figure out and control the enemy tech.
"That means she'll be ready to fly soon," Theodore said.
"Yes, sir," Reza replied.
"The work your people have done is impressive, Dahm St. Martin," It'kek said from behind Gabriel.
"We couldn't have done it without you, Mr. It'kek," Theodore said.
Gabriel glanced back at the keeper. He had been hesitant to bring the reptilian bek'hai with them, but Theodore was insistent. According to him, it was important that the rest of the colonists understood what he had come to understand over the last few days.
That the bek'hai, the real bek'hai, weren't their enemies.
Instead, their enemy was the remnant of a once proud race, a descendent that had come about almost by accident, and who had been hugely responsible for destroying their world. It had started with the hunters, who had learned to kill the legri'shah with abandon for the value of their scales, their muscles, and their meat. It had ended with the loss of genetic diversity and the need to turn to the same creatures to save them. Millions of the animals had died in the civil conflict that had engulfed the bek'hai and transformed them into a more violent race. Hundreds more were still being slaughtered every cycle in order to provide resources to build more war machines, to repair the domo'shah, and to satiate the hunters desire to prove themselves against the creatures.
It'kek had told Gabriel about the competitions. The Circle of Honor was one thing. The legri'shah ring was another.
"This is Major Gabriel St. Martin," Gabriel said, opening a channel to Alpha Control. "Requesting permission to land."
There was a pause on the other side of the link. A woman replied a moment later.
"Roger, Major St. Martin. You have clearance for Bay C. General Cave has requested that you remain on board until he has arrived with a security detail."
"Ha," Theodore said. "Security detail? Who the hell does he think we are?"
"Traitors?" Reza said. "Deserters?"
"Bullshit. We didn't desert them. We're saving them."
"Affirmative, Control," Gabriel said. "Entering approach to Bay C."
He guided the BIS deftly toward the small opening in the structure outside of the central hub, noting how much more responsive the box in space was compared to the Ishur. While Reza had done a fantastic job getting it to interface with a human control system at all, the delays involved in the translation were still less than ideal.
"How does it feel to be home, son?" Theodore asked.
"Not like home," Gabriel replied. "I've seen Earth up close, remember?"
"We all have," Theodore said. "A little too up close."
He was referring to almost crashing the Magellan into the Pacific Ocean. At least they could laugh about it now.
"By the by, Mr. Mokri," Theodore said. "Any idea what happened with that Dread fortress up there?"
He pointed back into the deep black, where the dead domo'shah was still floating. They had already discussed sending a team to search it and look for salvage and survivors, especially among the keepers and legri'shah, but it was a secondary concern to getting the ball rolling with their own people.
"Not really," Reza replied. "Sir."
"Take a wild guess."
"Hmm. If I had to guess? I would say the energy in the plasma cannon destabilized the phase modulation enough that we created a wormhole of sorts, which wound up spinning out of control and through the enemy ship."
"A wormhole spinning out of control?" Gabriel said. "That doesn't sound good."
"It isn't if you happen to be in its path," Reza said. "Fortunately, space is a big place, and it isn't going in Earth's direction."
Gabriel tried to wrap his mind around the idea of a rogue piece of matter crushing darkspace as he steered the BIS into Alpha Settlement's main landing bay. He guided the ship to Bay C and brought it down.
"I have to admit, General," Reza said. "I'd rather not have to do that again. The plasma cannon was at critical heat levels, and an overload would have had a high likelihood of cooking everyone inside the Ishur ."
"Duly noted," Theodore replied. "Figure out the modulator for the plasma, and we won't have to do that again."
"Yes, sir."
"Your architecture is very interesting, Dahm St. Martin," It'kek said. His head had been turning back and forth during the entire trip, taking in the sights of the human base. "Very simplistic, yet functional."
"Well, thank you, I guess," Theodore replied. "It isn't much, but it does the job."
"Or did," Gabriel said. "Delta Station was destroyed. How many people do you think were on it?"
"Judging by the number of ships in here, hopefully not too many," Theodore said.
Gabriel nodded. Bay C was one of the only landing bays available, the rest filled with starfighters and BIS that he knew were usually assigned to the station.
"That's our cue," Theodore said, as soon as the light in the cockpit turned green, indicating the bay was pressurized.
"General Cave ordered us to wait," Reza replied.
"Mr. Mokri, do you work for him or for me?"
"For you, sir."
"Then I repeat. That's our cue."
"Yes, sir."
They moved to the rear of the BIS and down the opening doors to the floor of the hangar. It felt weird to Gabriel to be back where he had started, back to the confines of the place he had once called home. After spending the last two weeks on the Ishur, it felt small and primitive and dirty. After having landed on Earth, it felt downright unacceptable.
They reached the bay door. Theodore tapped the control to open it.
General Cave was standing in front of it, flanked by four armed guards. Councilwoman Rouse was waiting a few meters away, her hands folded against her chest.
"Ah, Alan," Theodore said. "I guess you knew I wasn't going to listen to anything you said."
General Cave stared at Theodore for a moment, his expression grim. Then he glanced over at Gabriel, and then at Reza, and finally at It'kek. He couldn't hold back his surprise at the sight of the bek'hai.
"Ha. That one caught you off-guard, didn't it?" Theodore said in response.
General Cave returned his attention to Theodore, who raised his hand.
"Hold up, Alan. Before you say anything, I think you should know; we're w
inning this here war."
It was General Cave's turn to surprise them. His stern expression melted away, and he started to laugh.
"The Old Gator," he said through his smile. "You've always had a flair for the dramatic, haven't you?" He stepped forward, leaning down to put his arms around Theodore. "I thought it was over for us."
"General Cave," Rouse said, sounding unhappy with his reaction. "Excuse me, General."
Cave ignored her, releasing Theodore and approaching Gabriel. "Gabe. I'm sorry for doubting you. I'm sorry for doubting any of you."
"General Cave," Rouse repeated, joining them. "These people are traitors."
Cave ignored her again. "They hit Delta Station, Teddy. They killed eight hundred of our people."
"We'll avenge them," Theodore replied. "That's why we came back. To gather the troops and take them home."
"You aren't taking anyone, anywhere," Rouse said. "General, I thought we came to arrest them?"
"Are you mental, woman?" Theodore said. "We just saved your life."
"You put us in danger in the first place. You stole our only means to travel away from this place, our only chance of finding a new home. You left the people here frightened and struggling to cope. You-"
"If I do remember correctly, Councilwoman, you were planning on sacrificing half the people in this colony so that you could head out to the stars in hopes of finding your new home. By my count, my way has only cost us approximately seven percent. I know that sounds harsh, but you can't argue the numbers. Furthermore, we came back. Oh, and if that weren't good enough for you, we brought you a big fat spaceship that can take every last resident of this here colony to their new home back on Earth as soon as we finish retaking it."
Theodore stared at Rouse, who tightened her hands against her chest, sighed, and moved back a few meters to her original position.
"I'm sorry for every soul we lost," Theodore said. "And I'm sorry I took Maggie. But it had to be done, Alan. You were wrong."
"Maybe I was. It doesn't matter now. I'm certainly not going to arrest you. What good would that do? You say we're winning this war? Then I say, what can I do to help?"
FORTY-TWO
"AND THAT'S HOW IT all happened, in a nutshell," Gabriel said.
General Cave leaned back in his chair, a look of focused interest replaced by something more contemplative. Gabriel had spent the last two hours debriefing the General and his immediate staff on the situation back on Earth, and on their pressing need to rally the New Earth Alliance military to join the fight.
"And you are one of the, what did you call them again, Major? Bek'hai?"
The question was posed by Colonel Janet Ames, who had taken over Colonel Choi's position after she had left with Theodore. She was looking pointedly at It'kek, a hint of disgust mixing with fascination, mixing with anger.
"That is correct," It'kek replied. "We are some of the few original bek'hai that remain."
"Interesting. What I'm not clear about is why you're helping us, instead of your own kind?"
"We are helping our own kind, Colonel. The Domo'dahm does not understand that his path of resistance to complete genetic splicing with the humans will continue the extinction vector our kind has been on for many generations. He will not accept that the only way we survive as a species is to work with the humans, not fight against them. These bek'hai are not what we once were, or what we have the potential to be. But the keepers and the legri'shah are few in number. We are powerless to stop them, or we would have already."
"But you are betraying your people."
"Is it a betrayal to sacrifice what you must to save them? For us, it is not about helping the humans defeat the bek'hai. It is about helping the humans and the bek'hai coexist."
"And why would we want to coexist with you?" one of General Cave's other staffers, Captain Huang asked. "You took our planet. You killed billions."
"Because that is the only way either of us ever knows peace. Your kind on Earth have resisted bek'hai rule for fifty of your years. If you depose the Domo'shah, do you suppose there will be immediate peace? Do you think the remaining bek'hai will simply accept the loss of the planet and the death of their kind?"
"General," Huang said. "We can't seriously be considering trying to make peace with the Dread. Especially now, when we have the means to fight back." He looked at Theodore. "General St. Martin, surely you can't be in favor of this."
Theodore shook his head. "In favor of requesting an audience with the Domo'dahm? It'll be a cold day in hell. But here's the rub, Captain. There are thousands and thousands of prisoners living among the rest of the Dread. A lot of them are clones of one kind of another, each with a job that they're programmed to do. They're slaves of a fashion, locked into what they have always known, but they have individual personalities as well, and some of them can be influenced. Then there are the keepers like It'kek here. They want to change course for their people, but don't have the power to do it on their own." He smiled. "And then we have the un'hai."
"Un'hai?" General Cave said. "Oh, right, the clones of Juliet."
"We don't know how many there are, but they're already embedded deep inside the Dread system. Some of them, when they hear my name, it trips something in their minds, and they get access to Juliet's memories. They begin to think that they're her, and they start to act on those beliefs."
"Like spies?" Colonel Ames asked.
"Better than spies," Theodore replied. "Juliets. Heh. For all we know, there are drumhr in the Domo'dahm's circle that are opposed to what he's doing as well. The un'hai creator, Tuhrik, was one of them. Good old Juliet. She got to them all. She showed them the light of forgiveness and peace. I know it."
"That's all well and good, Teddy," General Cave said. "How do we use this to our advantage?"
"We're gonna have to fight on the ground. We're gonna have to fight in space. There're no two ways about it. And, even with our crews mixed with the rebels on the ground, we're still going to be heavily outnumbered and outgunned. But, if we can get through to these other groups behind the scenes? We may just have ourselves a chance."
"It seems like quite a long shot," Captain Huang said. "General Cave, we have other options, and I think we should at least discuss them."
"Like?" Gabriel said. He had a feeling he knew what the Captain was going to say.
"The Dread fortress, the domo'shah, is capable of slipstream travel. It's also larger than all of our settlements combined and built for longevity. We can take it to the New Earth. We can settle there. Let the bek'hai keep the old Earth. Let them run themselves into the ground. We shouldn't risk our chance at freedom on a fight whose odds are so against us."
Gabriel sighed. It was the same old argument as before, framed and updated to match current events. Never mind the sacrifices people had made to get them here. Never mind the people on the ground who were going to die. Earth wasn't home to billions anymore, but there were still a few million people under the Domo'dahm's thumb.
"Alan," Theodore said calmly. "Would you like to court-martial this coward, or do you want me to do it?" He glanced at Captain Huang. "By the by, you aren't related to Councilwoman Rouse, are you?"
Huang opened his mouth to speak. General Cave put up a hand to silence him. "Hold on. Both of you. Teddy, I appreciate your decision to stay relatively calm. It's not like you. I want to make this clear to everyone gathered here right now, and to the entire colony once we leave this room. Under no circumstances are we abandoning Earth or the people on it. Just like the bek'hai nearly destroyed themselves with their own ignorance, if we run away now we'll be doing the same thing, and probably to the same result. Maybe we'll lose. Maybe we'll die. If we go out there and try to forget about what happened here? It will change who we are for the worse, forever."
"With all due respect, sir," Captain Huang said. "You used to be in favor of leaving Earth behind."
"You're right. I was. And I would have allowed the death of half this colony to make it happen. I'm
embarrassed to admit that now. I'm embarrassed to know I never would have been embarrassed if Theodore hadn't come back and saved my life, and all of our lives. I thought running was the answer and the only option. I hurt a lot of people because of that. I regret those decisions."
Captain Huang stood up. He didn't look happy. "You don't need to court-martial me, sir. Either one of you. I resign." He pulled his rank insignia from his chest, dropping it on the table and storming toward the door.
Theodore cut him off, rolling his chair in front of him.
"Get out of my way," Huang said.
"No I will not get out of your way," Theodore said. "You listen to me, boy. For starters, you're in the military. You don't get to resign. For another, you're an officer in that same military, which makes you too valuable just to walk away. Third, I'd sooner kill you with my bare hands than let you disrespect me, General Cave, Major St. Martin, or even Mr. It'kek over there. What do you think we've been doing these last few weeks, twiddling our thumbs? Or maybe sticking them up our asses? Good men and women have been dying, down there on Earth, on my ship, and right here in our backyard. Those are our people, Captain. Not some other alien race that's no concern of ours. Now, why don't you go sit down? Take a minute to think about something other than yourself. We win through unity. We die with division."
Captain Huang stood in front of Theodore, glaring down at him. Theodore met his gaze, his expression so condescending that Gabriel expected Huang to punch him.
Instead, he retreated, taking a few steps back and then returning to his seat.
"That's better," Theodore said. "Alan, I promised the rebels back on Earth that we'd be in Mexico in eight days. That leaves us forty-eight to get as organized as possible. My thinking was to load up all of our troops and consolidate the civvies to Alpha. Once this thing is done, we can come back for them."
"I think that can work," Cave replied. "Although forty-eight hours isn't a lot of time."
"Excuse me," Captain Huang said.
Theodore shot a nasty look over at him.
