Alien Backlash

by Maxine Millar

  During this time, several groups of conspiracy theorists captured, stole, and borrowed some Cleaners. They were unable to take them apart, because if this was attempted the control box self-destructed. They made an enormous number of tests on what the Cleaners emitted, but found nothing intrinsically harmful, principally because there was nothing to find. Mostly. There was still the baseline, minuscule amount of cellular damage done, inherent in the use of a sonic cleaner. Especially on the more powerful cycles, the heavy clean. People knew about this and dismissed it just as people use cars and dismiss the chance of a crash. But there was a small difference: a car crash was a possibility; cellular damage was not. It accumulated in everyone who used the Cleaners. But the cellular damage was known about, not denied, and affected only the individual user. Not the next generation. And that was the difference.

  Cukudeopul then showed his true brilliance. He ordered medical teams and researchers to help the Niseyen. Officially, Cukudeopul stated this was to counter the claim that the Cleaners had caused this, since Cleaner sales had declined on Niseyen worlds. But he also said his researchers had asked to help because they saw it as a medical challenge they could help with — which was partly true. The researchers believed what Cukudeopul told the Niseyen, and genuinely wanted to help. Their perspectives varied. Some saw this as a challenge. Some saw it as a humanitarian cause. Some saw it as a puzzle they wanted to solve. Some saw it as a fast track to fame and recognition. Their attitudes were genuine and so they appeared genuine. But no genetics experts were included that were not “in the know,” no one who was at all likely to discover what was actually happening to the genes of the Niseyen and how this was being done.

  Initially, Cukudeopul ordered all this paid for by the Keulfyd. This was his tactic to undo some of the suspicion caused by his predecessor. Over the years, the charity teams gradually started to become commercially independent. Reproductive technology took off as the Niseyen were shown how to overcome some of these genetic problems. As far as the Niseyen were concerned, this was wonderful. Their birth rate rose, their hopes soared and it reduced the individual anguish. But it did nothing to help the basic problem, nor did it fix the problems of the Race. Children were born but steadily increasing numbers of them were infertile and the problems were combining, so each generation needed more help. And as the devastating anti-female gene spread through inheritance, each generation had fewer girls born.

  To deal with the problem of women who could not initiate a pregnancy, incubators were used. But their children, if female, inherited the same gene. So the problem was just perpetuated down to another generation. Nothing was cured, no problem was solved and the very high cost limited the numbers who could afford this option.

  Cukudeopul’s policy remained that charity cases were still taken, but his instructions were subtle. He encouraged the Keulfyd doctors to help those most afflicted, not those least. To strengthen and maintain the Race one should do the opposite; breed from healthy stock. Any stock breeder or horticulturist will tell you that. Cukudeopul’s policy deliberately weakened the Race by helping those with the most compromised genes. The patients were very grateful. This did a lot to counter the conspiracy theorists, as Cukudeopul intended, but it did not affect the master plan. It just slowed it down a little. The assistance reduced the numbers that thought the Keulfyd could be to blame. This was Cukudeopul’s main intention. But there was one other.

  The Niseyen got used to large numbers of Keulfyd on their planets, helping them. These Keulfyd had children who remained on the Niseyen planets. And as the Niseyen population declined, the Keulfyd population rose. The Keulfyd regarded themselves as an alpha race. Their children generally did not do menial tasks: they tended to be well educated and to get top jobs. They were granted scholarships at top universities on Keulfyd planets or specialist education planets like Torroxell. This was generally understood to be so they would not be disadvantaged by the altruistic work their parents were doing, nor by living on a non-Keulfyd world. They were Cukudeopul’s infiltrators who would eventually help take over the planet. And almost all of them didn’t have a clue that that was their purpose. They would do it for the best of motives.

  He checked. Keulfyd were now 12% of the population on Medala, 9% on Jaynar but less than 1% on Petislay. The Oriwikk were on Petislay, but not yet in great numbers, not even as many as the Keulfyd. They didn’t like the cold either. And as the Niseyen declined, the Keulfyd and the Oriwikk increased. As other Races had also moved in, this was not yet indicative of a takeover.

  Cukudeopul checked the statistics. Most of the population now had multiple problems. He read with satisfaction that less than 5% of pregnancies were unassisted. Such a huge threat to his people and well on the way to being eliminated. He had done well. When he reached the afterlife his accomplishments would be appreciated. His name would never be forgotten in the living memory of his People. One cannot achieve more. He was well satisfied with his life. It was time for sleep. He would contact the fleet on Torroxell tomorrow. The command to report had gone out. He nibbled the last of his meal before walking to his bag under his own power. His gravity unit was on 78% and he was reducing it by at least one percent a day under Kumenoprix’s instructions.

  Chapter Nine

  Six weeks after the ship left for Petislay, Kelly called up and told Sarah they had encountered more Niseyen and she had sent them to Torroxell. They were about four weeks away. Later, in private, Kelly expanded on that information. “They came on board armed. What a cheek!”

  “Az and Kaz say not. They keep telling me Niseyen are way less aggressive than us.”

  “Yes, but they are military.”

  “Most who have never been in a war. We have,” said Sarah.

  “Mmm. But there is another problem. We have unintentionally broken the Treaty.”

  “What? How?”

  “When you ordered all the Niseyen off the planet, all official ones, it legally cut them out of the Treaty.”

  Sarah was shocked. “That wasn’t my intention. Did Az and Kaz know that? They didn’t tell me.”

  “They didn’t realize it at the time. They were somewhat preoccupied, both having recently got married. Dai told them, but they had figured it out after they’d left. They say you ordered them to go and get help.”

  “I can’t dispute that. I did. What can I do?”

  “Helene suggests you add a codicil to the Treaty explaining that Az and Kaz were the only qualified and trustworthy people who could get help and that they left without intending to forfeit their obligations to the Treaty. And that you ordered them to go without intending the Niseyen to suffer any loss as a consequence. Get all the original signatories to agree and re-sign, and get Dai to sign for the Niseyen. That should do it. And let them land and help.”

  “Thank you. I’ll organize that. I’ll add it to the urgent list.”

  Kelly laughed. “How are you managing? How are you organizing to cope with the expected influx of refugees?”

  “That’s the top item on the ‘urgent’ list. How to allocate and organize villages for about twenty thousand. Think about it! And that’s just one ship.”

  Kelly laughed. “You’ll cope. They won’t expect a red carpet. Food and shelter will do, with all the rest of the services following. Think about asking Steve for people to recruit to help with this from each shipload and delegate the task.”

  “Good thinking. You’re right, I can’t do it all myself, but if I can organize a group from each ship… Anyway, that’s my problem. Good luck with the Niseyen your way.”

  Knowing that the Niseyen were coming cheered everyone up and they waited in keen anticipation as they went about their chores and the garden started to grow. Salad greens liked the soil, carrots, onions and parsnips did well, but the tomatoes and most other greens could not be planted until spring. Still, within forty days they had successive crops of greens. Sarah ensured large areas of each variety were left to go to seed to ensure a good supply of seeds. She ne
eded at least sixty-four plants of each species to ensure sufficient genetic variety.

  It was in the evening of the tenth week after the war that the Loridsyl reported a ship was incoming with Niseyen identification. Would Sarah like to come and communicate with it? She headed up quickly to the Air Traffic Control room. The atmosphere was relaxed. The Communicator screen showed the control room of a spaceship with a Niseyen crew. Ali was chatting happily with them. He stopped when he saw her. “Here is Sarah. She is our President.”

  Sarah looked up into the smiling face of a young Niseyen. “Greetings,” she said in Universal. “Coming our way?” He was tall, dark, handsome and furry, as the girls would say. A quick look suggested uniforms from what she could see behind him. Niseyen military?

  “Greetings. I am the Captain, Dai Ineffid. We are the military crew that met Kelly and de Ark on route to Petislay.

  “Are they managing OK?”

  “They were having a few problems with the ship but we fixed it.”

  “What was wrong?” Kelly hadn’t mentioned that!

  “The heating wasn’t going properly and life support was turned off. It’s all fixed. I knew that model. They asked me to come and help you. Kelly was concerned about some prisoners.”

  “The Loridsyl have taken care of that problem,” said Sarah. “They gassed them unconscious, loaded them all up, and they are on their way to another world to be handed over to their various embassies. I gather the Loridsyl intend to be well paid for this by the individuals as well as by their governments. Small problem of piracy. They bought one of the smaller spaceships off us. They had it fixed in minutes. We are so relieved they’re gone! How many of you are there?”

  “Fifty-one. Several of my crew went with Kelly. Her flight was not legal. It is now.”

  “We can certainly do with the help. We have contacted some survivors and have more with us but they seem suspicious and disinclined to trust us. If you turn up and land in a military ship, that might at least get the Niseyen and Zeobani out of hiding, plus whatever other Races trust you. The ones we are most concerned with are about five hundred in number — too many for us to handle. And we don’t look right. They don’t know what we are. How soon will you arrive?”

  “About another three days. And there is another ship on the way and possibly a third.”

  “OK. You are invited for dinner the night you arrive. The menu is fish and fruit and some greens. Anything else you want you’d better bring with you. You’ll be very popular if you turn up with something we don’t have. The menu is somewhat limited. If you don’t like fish you have to pick a packet, add water and stir. We’re a bit primitive here, and critically short of staff.”

  Dai laughed. “Kelly told me what they were living on in her ship. I gave her some edible food.”

  “Yes, well we Terrans are tough. We can eat anything.” Sarah thought Dai looked pretty yummy but a bit young for her.

  Dai was interested in how normal Sarah looked. She could pass for Niseyen.

  As the Niseyen ship got closer, Alan sought out Sarah. “It might be an idea if we were armed. They outnumber us — they might try to take over. They walked into Kelly’s ship armed.”

  Sarah thought it through. “In a shootout, the Niseyen would get a shock. Az and Kaz were lousy shots compared to us Terrans. There are only twenty-three of us but at least we are all now mobile. Con, Akira and Nial have recovered much faster than Bert estimated, thanks to the Healing Machines. We badly need them. Con and Nial are now busy teaching others. The medical staff are consequently redundant and all happily learning other trades. Bert and Ludmilla are training to be pilots and communicators, while Sally and Pieter are now the cooks. Leave it to me, I have an idea.” Sarah hoped she would still be trying new things when she was Ludmilla’s age. At nearly seventy-seven, Ludmilla was doing well.

  At last the much-anticipated day arrived and the Niseyen ship landed. Several people were waiting for them with vehicles and drove them to the mess hall. As Dai and his crew entered, he immediately noticed four things: the huge welcoming smiles, the bewildering variety of different colors Terrans came in, the small size of so many of them, and the fact that every one of them was armed, even the children. Wisely, he did not comment. His crew were armed, but discreetly this time: Dai was a very fast learner.

  Sarah was startled at how alike the Niseyen were, and how tall. Most looked to be between six foot to six foot six or so. And with their fur coats, they looked stocky. She could see why Kelly had taken umbrage at them turning up armed on her ship. She decided to deal with business first. She welcomed them all, then decided she had better deal with the Treaty. “First, I have an apology to make to the Niseyen. I am informed I have inadvertently broken the Treaty by ordering Az and Kaz — sorry, Aswin and Kaswa Celon — to leave the planet to get help. So I was advised by one of our lawyers to do this.” The Treaty was spread out on the table and she showed Dai the codicil she had added and gotten every Race to sign. Painstakingly, and with the Translator, she had written it in Universal.

  Dai read it in astonishment. He had been ordered to first try to negotiate this and she had just presented it to him. Quickly he read it. Perfect! He produced what was obviously a type of pen, and promptly signed it, dated it, scanned it and sent it. Dai was stunned. He had just signed a Planetary Treaty, one of only eleven in existence that he knew of and the only one the Niseyen were included in. He turned a dazzling smile on Sarah. “Thank you. That is a relief. Our people were a little concerned.”

  “Put it down to ignorance. It was not intended. I did not realize the significance of asking Az and Kaz to leave the planet to get help, and also there was no one else we trusted who could go for help. None of us can fly spaceships. Oh, and the planes and spaceships here are all disabled, except the Flying Fortresses. Perhaps some of your crew would show us how to fix them tomorrow, although we will leave most of them disabled for now. We didn’t know whether you want to remain living on your ship or with us but you are welcome to do either. And although I have no right to, I entreat you all to help us with the rescue effort for now.”

  “My orders were to get the Treaty sorted, assist where needed and then sort out with you areas we can colonize.” He didn’t mention his unofficial orders. Both sets.

  “We were hopeful you might like the colder and inland areas,” said Sarah, “while we like to be next to water and in warmer weather. According to what I understand from Az and Kaz, we like slightly different real estate.”

  “And the cities?”

  “Half and half? Or by population basis or need? Our population is increasing rapidly and we badly need the real estate.” Sarah decided not to be a pushover here. “But also we would really like the few fishing villages and we think you won’t want them.”

  Dai internally winced as he took in her comment about population increase, but he was a natural negotiator. “I understood from Az that you were prepared to throw it open.”

  “I was not intending to be too pedantic. If you want to be, it was two Niseyen, thirty-eight Okme and four hundred and sixteen Terrans.”

  “You can’t count children, though.”

  Oh, would he regret that remark! He had fallen straight into it. Sarah could hear the indignation in the room. “Bea, Bella, come and help educate this man.”

  Dai realized something was wrong. What now? He looked in astonishment as two little girls with cross expressions came and stood in front of him. The younger one was about four years old and all black except for her white teeth: long beautiful black hair, black eyes, black skin. The second was equally stunning with cream hair, blue eyes and golden, pale-brown skin. She looked about five. Both were armed with standard field weapons.

  The large door was open in the warm evening. Sarah pointed. “See that log you were sitting on earlier? Hit it.”

  Both girls drew their weapons and hit it within seconds. Dai doubted he could do better. In fact he doubted he could do as well. He stood there with his mouth open
in shock. If someone had told him this, he would not have believed it. His men were likewise in shock. But they all got the message.

  “These two girls were part of our first-strike force,” said Sarah. “First, they were each smuggled into an occupied city. They were small enough to get past the scanners and released some bugs that infested two of the Races and made them so sick they couldn’t fly or fight. Then, along with the other children, they were smuggled into the cities on the day of the war and were our first-strike weapons there. They hit the inhabitants with toxic pellets as they got up. They had to hit bits of bare skin. As you can see, they are fast and accurate.”

  Dai wondered when he would learn to shut up around these Terrans. He couldn’t say he hadn’t been warned. Aswin and Kaswa had tried to tell him.

  “All those under sixteen, stand up,” ordered Sarah. All the children stood, including the pilot who had flown Dai here from the spaceport. “Ali, Alia, and Harsha, hands up. Dai, these children also sneaked into the cities to plant bugs. Then they and two others sneaked into cities in the early morning and targeted the Yakkidimux and the Relogs, plus anyone else who came within range of our home-made guns. Most of those they targeted were hit and removed from the fight before it started. Mahmoud,” she pointed, “and everyone else in this room older than him then fought openly, hand to hand, except for one sick old man. That includes all the women. If your intention is to try to take over from us, you will be sorely disappointed. And outgunned. I notice you are again armed.”