“Yes. I have a few questions.”
“I’ll do my best to answer them.”
“You had a chance to talk to the Gyssyc leader. Someone you named Lincoln. Did you get any impression of what he wants from us?”
“They want us to form an alliance with them. They want us to allow them to return to their home peacefully.”
“You must know we can’t side with them. The Ulliam are our allies and we will defend them.”
“I know,” Marjorie replied. “But we have some very strong evidence the Ulliam attacked first.”
“I saw that in your report. But the evidence, which could have been fabricated, isn’t enough.”
“I agree. My second sent a crew out to find the Milgard’s computer core. The records we were able to recover match the story that Lincoln gave.”
The news seemed to stun Payton for a moment before he recovered. “This changes my orders. Seems I’m on my own with this one.”
Marjorie felt a surge of victory. She rarely saw Payton hesitate when it came to a situation. He always had a backup plan. She was sure he had several thoughts about how to handle any circumstance. The situation she was about to explain to him was beyond his experience and, for once, she had the perfect plan. She couldn’t help the smile that formed on her lips when she said, “I believe there is a way for us to settle this peacefully.”
Folding his hands across the desk he leaned forward. “I’m listening.”
She took a deep breath. Here it was, her first official request to assassinate Merriam. “We have very strong evidence that Merriam is the only reason this war is taking place. Before he was awakened, the Ulliam wanted to greet their long lost ancestors in peace. That all changed after he was taken out of hibernation. I believe if we kill Merriam, we can get control of the situation and we can end this before it becomes a full-blown war.”
“Are you suggesting we assassinate the leader of a planet?”
“He’s not their leader. President Packard is. But he is pulling the strings on this.”
“I don’t know,” Payton replied. “If it fails we’d have to think about the people on the planet. They’re lives would be in serious danger.”
“I don’t think Merriam is going to let us stay after this. He hates humans and what we’ve done to his culture. He wants us to leave and I think the only reason he hasn’t attacked is because he wants to destroy the Gyssyc first.”
“Those are serious charges,” Payton said. “Are you sure?”
“I would bet my reputation on it.”
Payton put his hands on the desk and stood. “Well, that’s very noble of you, but I’ll need more. I think we should talk to everyone and get their opinions then I’ll decide what we should do.”
~*~
Lysis stood nervously in front of the humans who had accompanied him on the shuttle. His head lowered in respect and admiration. He didn’t care what Merriam said, the Earth people were greater than anything the old leader could wish to become.
Admiral Cook looked at him, awaiting an answer to what seemed like an easy question. Why did they revive Merriam? Lysis was one of a few who knew that answer. “I’m the one who revived Merriam.”
“Why did you do it?” he asked.
Lysis shrugged. To a human, the gesture was one of indifference, but on Ulliam it was a sign of embarrassment and shame. “There was a very small group who knew the casket was a hibernation chamber. That information had been passed to every science advisor and leader since Merriam put himself into hibernation. For thousands of years only three to four Ulliam knew the truth and they were sworn to secrecy. The only stipulation was that if the Gyssyc were to return, we were to awaken Merriam.”
“That’s amazing,” Professor Ricter said. “In our culture, stories that have been passed down thousands of years get distorted or worse, lost. How did you keep the information intact?”
“Before we could even become the official science advisor, we had to commit to memory the sequence we needed to revive Merriam. And, if we found out and we refused . . .” he lowered his head, “then that advisor would be killed for fear he would tell someone. Needless to say, when the information of him being alive is broadcast to the masses, there will be chaos.”
The captain spoke up next. “So, the general public doesn’t know yet?”
“Not at the time of my departure, no. Like I said; there would be chaos and I think Merriam wants to deal with one threat at a time. Right now his major threat is the Gyssyc.”
“Then where are the Ulliam getting their orders from?” Payton asked.
“Merriam tells President Packard what he wants and the president relays the orders to the fleet.”
“He does this willingly?”
“No,” Lysis replied firmly. “That is how we found out about the control Merriam has on us. The president came to me trying to understand why he was following Merriam’s commands even though he didn’t want to. I did some research and found an article by one of our scientist who was studying our DNA. He found a DNA chain he couldn’t identify. I realized that chain was the mutation that let Merriam control us. I went to Packard and told him what I thought. He told me to get that information to you and arranged travel for me. Merriam found out and sent the fighters to stop me. I was happy Captain Cook saved me.”
“Did Merriam know the president was helping you?” Admiral Cook asked.
“No, the president was very carefully to hide any evidence he helped.”
Payton turned to Professor Ricter. “Marjorie tells me you know your stuff, so tell me, what do you think of this theory that Merriam can control the Ulliam?”
“The idea appalls me,” Ricter replied. “But, when we look at how the Ulliam are behaving and when Lysis showed me and Doctor Mercury the evidence, I could not come up with any other explanation.”
“Thank you, Professor.” He turned to Mason who looked as if he were ready to fall asleep. “Ambassador Simpson?”
Mason snapped his eyes open. “Yes, Admiral?”
“Do you concur with this theory?”
“Yes, I do. I was on the planet before Merriam was awakened. The Ulliam were happy to be welcoming back a long lost race. Well, maybe not every Ulliam was happy, but President Packard decided to welcome them. He felt confident they wouldn’t try anything with the Corps fleet protecting the planet. It wasn’t until a few days later that things changed, and I suspect they changed after Merriam was revived.”
“This is true,” Lysis said.
“So, it all comes back to Merriam,” Payton sat in his chair, deep in thought. He looked up, his face impossible to read. “Thank you. Captain Cook, would you please stay, the rest of you thank you for your time. I’ll have the shuttle return you to the Arwen. Lysis, I’d like you stay here as well.”
“I would like that,” Lysis replied.
Everyone except for Lysis and Captain Cook left. Payton opened his computer and started to read. “Captain, I’ve been looking through Commander Lipton’s plan for the assassination of Merriam. Before I even consider it, I need to ask Lysis something,” he looked at the Ulliam. “Lysis, will President Packard help us if we ask?”
Lysis felt a confidence he rarely felt when answering a question asked by an Earth person. He had this conversation with Packard; he knew what the president thought. “Admiral, when I brought my finding to the president, he seemed angry. He told me if there was a way to destroy Merriam we should look into it. Obviously, we cannot attack him ourselves; his control is much too powerful. Hearing you might want to kill him will make all these problems go away.”
“I have to agree,” Captain Cook said. “Since the general public doesn’t know he’s alive, killing him won’t cause a widespread panic or rebellion.”
“In that case, let’s make this happen,” Payton replied. “Captain, I want you to return to the Arwen and send Commander Lipton over here.”
“You’re not going to let him do it, are you?” she asked.
“I
t’s his plan. The fewest people who know about this the better.”
“This is a huge fleet,” Captain Cook said, her voice getting louder. “Surely you can find someone with more skill than my commander.”
“You’re probably right, but I don’t have time to look through the records to figure that out. I know Kel well enough to know he’s more than qualified for this mission. Now, unless you can tell me some other reason, it will be him.”
“Sir,” Captain Cook’s voice sounded uncomfortable calling her ex-husband sir. “Kel’s sister was killed in the first attack. Now that the evidence shows it was Merriam who started that attack, Commander Lipton might think of this as a chance to fulfill a personal vendetta. He’s too close.”
“Thank you, Captain. I’ll take it into consideration. Now, please head back to the Arwen and send your second over here. We have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it.”
Lysis always had a hard time reading Earth people. Captain Cook’s red face, the wrinkled brow, and the tightly clinched fist was an unmistakable show of anger. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said, then turned and stormed out of the office.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kel nervously adjusted his backpack as he sat in the back of a shuttle. The events of the past few hours blended in a jumble of memories he only now had time to sort out.
When he arrived on the Aragorn, he was quickly whisked away to see the admiral and Lysis. Admiral Cook told him he thought his plan was nearly perfect and Lysis would provide him with the information he needed to contact President Packard. Packard would grant him entrance into the fortress and, under the disguise of a diplomat, access to Merriam himself. It would then be up to Kel to kill him.
The escape plan was even more risky and he tried to focus on the first step of the mission, landing on Ulliam without detection.
“Sir,” the pilot said, “we’ve parked the shuttle at the set coordinates.”
“Thank you. Give me a few minutes to get myself ready.”
Captain Cook, Admiral Cook, Lysis, President Packard, and himself were the only ones who knew about the plan. Lysis used some of his friends to send an encrypted message to the president telling him of the plan. The president replied with coordinates and Kel was supposed to land at that spot. It was impossible to fly a shuttle through the atmosphere without being detected. The only solution was to have Kel glide in riding a force field suit. In theory it should work. In practice it had only been tried a few times with mixed results. Kel checked his power pack one last time. He had about fifteen minutes of power for his personal force field. It should be more than enough time to get into the upper atmosphere where a parachute would open.
Placing a pair of dark goggles over his eyes, Kel activated his personal force field. The cargo hold shimmered as he looked through it. The field distorted light by a fraction but it was enough to cause a sense of disorientation that would take a few moments to get used too. He felt a tingle in his skin and heard a low hum in his ears as he slowly added power to it. Personal force fields were only supposed to be used when going into space or into an unfriendly environment, so, before he left, he had his engineering crew make some modifications.
He twisted his right wrist a fraction of an inch to the left and the field in front of him curved, forming a concave lenses. He turned his wrist another way and the lenses moved from his left to his back and, as he continued to twist, back to his front again. That should give him the kind of control he needed when entering the atmosphere.
There was no more time to wait. His heart raced and he felt his nervous perspiration dampen his suit. He closed his eyes and thought about his sister. He had to do this for her. Merriam was the reason she died.
“Open the back of the shuttle,” Kel ordered as he walked toward the large door.
The door opened and slowly revealed the dark side of Ulliam. The lights from Ulliam City, the largest city on the planet, stood out amongst the pitch blackness of the plains that surrounded it. Ulliam had no oceans but it was dotted with hundreds of lakes. Some small, some three times larger than Ulliam City. Kel couldn’t distinguish between what was a lake, a mountain, or the flat surface where he needed to land.
The only thing Packard’s contact told him was to try and land near the Illus Mountains which was about twenty miles east of Ulliam City. He said once he landed they would find him and all he needed to worry about was making it there safely. That was easier said than done.
Kel continued to take deep calming breaths. “I’m departing the shuttle now,” he said as calmly as he could. His heart was pumping so hard he thought he might have a heart attack.
He stepped out from the shuttle and away from the artificial gravity field that surrounded it. At first he felt nothing, then the planet’s gravity grabbed him and he started to fall. It felt so gentle and calm he had to look up at the shuttle to see he was falling rapidly. The shuttle, at one point large and real, was now a tiny white dot, looking more like one of the models he made as a child and less like a large spacecraft.
He turned around again and looked at the planet. Everything about his reentry started out slow. His force field went from transparent to a sunset orange to a bright red then a white hot. He could barely hear the wind but, like the color of his field, it grew in intensity until it roared.
He felt the heat through the shields. His outfit provided him an extra layer of protection but it was still painful enough to cause him to grit his teeth. His breathing became labored and he heard several involuntary grunts escape from his mouth. He had to close his eyes from the intense brightness. Lightning flashes threatened the blind him even through his dark goggles and closed eyes. Each flash produced another primal grunt of fear.
The feeling of an endless fall would haunt his nightmares for years. With another flash came a scream as the heat, the light, the sound became his entire existence. His scream came from deep within the animal part of his mind. He felt the blackness surrounding his vision. He felt his body start to tumble as he lost control of his limbs. Kel’s head went limp as he let the darkness take over.
When he awoke he felt himself floating gently. His legs were pointed to the rapidly approaching ground. His throat was sore and his mouth dry. He looked up to see a large, black parachute barely visible against the pitch black sky. It took him a few moments to realize he was alive and the auto chute had opened.
Looking down, he saw the mountains he was supposed to land at. Near them he saw one tiny point of light flashing in his direction.
He heard the jets before he saw them. Two contrails of white steam appeared near the horizon and headed toward him. If they passed close enough they might see his parachute and all would be lost. He had at least another twenty minutes of falling before he reached the ground. The jets could spot him, report his location, and then attack him. He pictured his lifeless body floating to the ground. He only had a few seconds to make a choice, stay with the parachute and hope he’s not spotted, or ditch the parachute and use his personal force field to try and glide to the ground.
He pulled the release on the parachute. Without his weight, it fluttered in the wind away from him. He adjusted the field into a concave shape, pointing the bowl toward his fall. He slowed but found it nearly impossible to ride the wind. The constant shifting of his weight tired him out and he felt fatigue ache to his bone.
He adjusted the force field again, pushing, trying to create a force field parachute. It did not seem as if he was slowing down and he plummeted, the ground rapidly approaching.
An alarm from his suit sounded. “Terminal velocity will be reached in ten seconds.”
He cursed and expanded the field as much as he dared. The more he expanded, the more power it would take, and he knew he didn’t have much power left. He would fall at some point and hit the ground hard. He only hoped he would fall from a survivable height.
Looking down, he found he was approaching the beacon rapidly. He was able to see two Ulliam pointing u
p at him. He’d been spotted and he could only hope they were friendly.
He heard another alarm from his suit, power for the force field was down to ten percent. A minute later, eight percent. The ground was close enough now he felt he could touch it. The two Ulliam ran toward the area he was most likely to land. They moved quickly enough to kick up dust behind them.
The alarm sounded one more time. The force field had failed. He estimated he was about fifty feet off the ground. When the force field snapped off, he instinctively waved his arms and legs as if trying to gain some balance while in the air. He managed to turn himself around at the last second and landed with an ungraceful thud onto the soft ground. He was thankful Ulliam had slightly lighter gravity than Earth. That difference was what saved his life.
The two Ulliam stood over him. He looked up and tried to move. His legs and arms felt sore but otherwise unbroken. His head was pounding but he doubted he had a concussion. His back would be bruised and sore, but it would heal.
He sat up then looked at the Ulliam. “I’m from the Arwen,” he said. “Take me to your leader.”
After he had gathered himself and checked his pack, the two silent Ulliam led him to a cave in the side of the mountain. They walked over some rough terrain and Kel felt his ankles twist a few times. The Ulliam, however, didn’t seem bothered by the uneven ground.
They walked into the cave to see a vehicle parked, idle. One of them motioned for Kel to sit in the backseat and he did as he was told. The other two walked into the front and sat. The truck drove out of the cave and onto a bumpy road.
The Ulliam in the passenger seat turned and handed Kel a small computer. “That has the security information you will need to get an audience with President Packard. In the trunk is a change of clothes. We are going to drop you off at a safe shelter outside the city. We have another vehicle parked there. This truck will be yours in the morning.”
“Thank you,” Kel replied, looking over the papers in the folder.
The Arwen Book one: Defender Page 21
