by Ava D. Dohn
The imperial frigate, Sharon, crawled through the debris field, searching for survivors. It had only been several hours since the battle ended and the enemy armada had departed toward MueoPoros. Having not been scavenged, as was often the case, there was great hope from the crew for finding several comrades alive. Already Captain GilleRing was hearing reports confirming that hope.
Leftenant Hanna was aboard a sculler some four hundred leagues Q-north, west of the Sharon. The boat’s pilot had just finished attaching a hook to a third drifter pod and was preparing to return to the ship. Hanna was exhausted. Sweat poured down her face, soaking the clothing inside her rescue suit, as she called over her shoulder the ‘all clear’. Laboriously, the sculler turned to port making its way back to mother.
The sculler was an outstanding machine for search and rescue. Its forward airlock chamber allowed for the pickup of individuals directly from space. As was often the case in the kinds of space combat fought at the time, people would be expelled from ruptured holds into space with only their emergency suits keeping them alive.
They had managed to pack over thirty survivors into the tiny boat designed for only twelve passengers. Three recent arrivals along with two Marines were holed up in the airlock, there being no room in the main cabin for them. Friend and foe alike had been picked up midst the grumbles of a few that the wicked should be allowed their day of judgment. Hanna would have no part of it - she being in charge and responsible for the rescue mission, refused to decide the issue of life or death when the captain had given no such directive.
The half dozen hostiles were stripped and bound but otherwise were left unharmed. One sailor complained, “This rabble deserve nothing but death! The lost souls of the Web are already damned. Keeping their bodies alive is doing no one any good.”
Hanna glared at the sailor. “Did you ever question Lowenah or wonder if her ways were really correct? Did you ever once think she might be wrong regarding Asotos? It has been said that judgment comes when the heart turns wicked, yet how many of us have not had heartfelt thoughts that very well should have declared us wicked and removed our minds from the Web?” She thumped her chest. “I, for one, have railed against God many times, even calling down evil upon her in my foolishness. Yet I live… and for what good reason I do not know.”
She shook her head. “No! No, I dare not call down evil upon the head of another, especially one born of Lowenah. Let no man judge the soul of another. The wicked will die, of that you can be sure. We cannot stop it. I fight this war not to kill but to bring about a cleansing of this universe, to preserve it alive. I kill for only that reason. Do not harm your brother unless you must.”
It took an hour to make the trip back to the Sharon. By that time other scullers and rescue boats had come and gone. There were also several escape boats surrounding the ship, their crews waiting to board. It was another hour before Hanna’s sculler could offload its living cargo and return to the search. By the time they got underway, three more ships had joined the rescue mission.
Hanna felt so sad as her boat carefully navigated its cluttered surroundings. There were hundreds upon hundreds of bodies drifting amongst the wreckage and they had no way of retrieving them this day or possibly ever. What made it so heartrending was that each suited body had to be caught and checked to see if the person was alive. If not, they would tag it with a signal device and send it on its way. Hanna believed it was the longest day of her life.
By midnight, Palace Time, the Sharon pulled away from the battle zone, setting a course for Stargaton. The going was frustratingly slow, what with the several dozen smaller craft it had in tow. Designed with a maximum capacity rating of three hundred, the ship was packed with over sixteen hundred, as well as the four hundred more aboard the tethered boats. It took the ship two days to reach the planet.
Among the survivors aboard the Sharon were two hundred enemy prisoners, thirty-four having been collected by the crew on Hanna’s sculler. It was evidently clear that everyone did not share Hanna’s feelings regarding the enemy. Reports came to her ears about gunships ripping apart escape pods filled with enemy combatants. Most often though, when enemy survivors were found they were just released to the sky, allowing nature to do as it pleased with them.
It saddened Hanna to think of such cruelty. Still, it was far less than what was meted out by the enemy. Torture, rape and starvation were the fates of many captured by Asotos’ warriors. Some of his more debased servants would even cannibalize their captives, eating them alive in ritual sacrifices to some favorite god or gods. And taking prisoners for the festivals was always appreciated. Games like those found in ancient Rome were greatly enjoyed, especially in times of war, when there were lots of playthings for different wild beasts to amuse blood-thirsty crowds with.
Hanna said nothing about her personal feelings. Lowenah made it clear at the Council of Eighty that those supporting Asotos in this war were not to be viewed as her children. Whether prisoners were taken or not was left up to the commander in charge. Captain GilleRing had remained silent, thus allowing each boatman to decide. Hanna carried no guilt for what she had done. If others later did, I have not been informed.
(Author’s note: The King’s War eventually encompassed the better part of the inhabited galaxy. Space debris from the countless engagements covered such a vast expanse it took literally many hundreds of years to clean the skies of it. Even to this day bits and pieces of the war are discovered, either drifting aimlessly in space or lodged in some tiny asteroid. The battles over Stargaton lasted the better part of five years. Not only were bodies from this aforementioned conflagration not gathered up, but thousands more were added. It took well into King’s Millennia to remove the dead from their resting places.
Hanna’s personal recollections of the previously mentioned events and her eyewitness account of the aftermath from the destruction at Mordem make most interesting reading. Garlock and Copeland’s The King’s War, A History devotes a chapter to this woman’s riveting memoirs, revealing details that other historians have not covered.
One such detail was the enemy’s use of poison gas. It was the first and last time Asotos allowed its use, fearing further repercussions from the Army’s field marshal, Trisha. When reports reached her, she ordered that the city of AstusWaies, the second largest city on MueoPoros be - according to Copeland - Dresdenized! Three missiles with a combined energy of sixty megatons of high explosives were delivered to the city proper, exterminating most life within two leagues of the city.
Trisha promised to do the same with every other city in Asotos’ realm if he ever allowed the use of poison gas again. Although decrying such deadly force and promising to repay with like, Asotos passed an edict declaring the use of poisonous explosives illegal, making it a crime to use it in offensive campaigns.
Some critics have cited the extermination of AstusWaies as evidence of Trisha’s undue harshness and have wondered if she should not have been limited in her military policy making.
The former field marshal made reply concerning this issue. ‘When war is practiced, it is the responsibility of the military commanders to protect the welfare of those within their charge. Whatever the cost may be to the protagonist is inconsequential, should the action save the lives of those under your command. If death is not one’s wish, or if destruction is not to one’s liking, then war should not be chosen as a means to an end. What one sows, one shall reap.’
