by Clark Graham
Chapter Twelve
Country of Santeria
Mountains of Andrenees
It was a plain looking building. Acting Commodore Revlov had thought that the residence of the president of a country would be more ornate. These people lived simple compared to the kings of the other hemisphere. A very terrified commander stood in front of him.
“Your squadron had two airplanes shot down, one more damaged, three men killed, eight others wounded and six missing in actions. How could you let this happen?”
“I don’t know how the first ship got shot down but when we got there we did the standard attack and recover mission. We were shocked when our own weapons were turned on us. Then there was an enormous rate of fire that seemed to come from every rock and crack on that mountainside. I recovered what I could, Sir. The enemy is well entrenched.”
Revlov’s face turned beet red. “Peasants, that is who you were fighting, peasants. It wasn’t that long ago these people were in the Stone Age. You are relieved of command; now get out of my sight.”
“Yes, Sir ,” the commander said as he marched out.
Captain Pavvlek had been standing to the side watching the whole thing as he waited to talk to Revlov. His distaste for the man had only increased these few months he had been serving with him.
“Yes, Pavvlek, what do you want?”
The captain walked up to the commander’s chair. “Sir, we are still taking casualties every time we turn a corner. We clear the area of enemy combatants and more infiltrate the area we just cleared. It is some of the regular army, but irregulars also.”
“Excuses, excuses. Do I need to relieve you, too?”
Pavvlek bristled at that comment. “You can try. Zurken would never allow it.”
Revlov was shocked that Pavvlek would be so blunt. “I see, you do have a spine after all. Something I always suspected. Sooner than you expect, I will have total command of this planet and then you can plan on a long trip home in disgrace. I will see to it that you never command troops in combat again.”
“How are you able to take over Zurken’s command when you can’t subdue a bunch of peasants? Zurken has sunken mines deep in the planet and taken out ores and minerals. He has cut down vast forests for the wood and turned them into vast farmlands to feed the Empire. The things you have done have failure written all over it. The majority of the ores in this hemisphere are under those mountains and you can’t get to them.”
“Get out of my face. I may have to keep you as a commander, but you will never fight another battle for me. I will take those mountains, you will see, now go.” Revlov’s face was red again.
Pavvlek did not say another word, he just turned and left. He was satisfied with himself. He now knew his troops would not be the ones being slaughtered in a hopeless attack on the mountains.
Revlov waited to make sure that Pavvlek was gone before he turned his monitor on. “Get me the Commodore,” he commanded.
A few minutes later the face of Commodore Zurken came on the screen. “Yes, what is it?”
“Andri, I need more troops. Have those reinforcements arrived yet? Two more divisions would be wonderful.”
“I can’t give you any more troops. The Emperor has taken ill. Everyone is keeping their troops for the upcoming civil war. As a matter of fact, they are talking about pulling us out.”
Sheer horror seized Revlov’s heart. “Wait, why would they do that? Why won’t they send more men?”
“The king has still not named an heir. When he dies, some of his ten sons will want to claim the throne. Those are only the sons that his many wives had. Who knows how many lovers he had over the years that bore him sons? These will come out of the woodwork, I am sure, to claim the throne. Prince Yorgis is in charge of this operation and he is unhappy with how it’s going. He wants his troops back because he is one of those who will lay claim to the throne.”
“But, Andri, I have not subdued this half of the planet yet. My victory is incomplete.”
Zurken was smiling inside. He was making a fool out of the arrogant royal and he knew it. “You had better hurry then. I suspect the orders to withdraw very soon.”
“Do you have any more troops for me? Even a few regiments would help.”
“I don’t have any that I can spare.” Zurken paused. “Wait, there are two regiments of supposed Tricola volunteers from here. I do not trust them and I have not armed them because I suspect they have other motives than to help us. You can have them, if you want.”
“I will take them. They used to fight the people of this land, I am sure they would be willing to settle some old scores.”
“I will send them over right away. Good luck on your attack.” Zurken was happy to see Revlov so desperate.
“Yes, just a little while longer and I will have my victory.”
Chapter Thirteen
East Coast of Santeria
It was dark when Pethran woke up. He had been moved to the next town over in one of the enemy transportation vehicles. It had seated forty men and seemed to just glide over the landscape. The large wheeled vehicle was larger than any car or bus he had ever laid his eyes on. Still it fit on the road, which surprised him.
‘Re-education classes,’ is what the enemy called them. He sat in a room day after day and showed what the galaxy looked like and their place in it. They showed the class members how powerful the Empire was and how it was fruitless to waste time fighting it. “Victory was inevitable,” they were told. Day after day this went on. They even taught the simple galactic language. The enemy judged him and the other class members on their attitude at the end of the six week class, if they were still resistant, the enemy would force you to take it again and again.
Pethran was beat down by that point and graduated, which meant that he was allowed to go home. He was dropped off in the town and walked the distance to his house. He had no idea what it would look like after all that time away or even if it was still standing.
The first thing he noticed when he got close was there were no crops in the field. They had all been harvested, but not replanted. As he neared it, he saw the destroyed barn. His heart sunk. It had been there since the days of his grandfather and he had taken a lot of time to maintain the building. His house was still standing so he walked in. Nothing seemed to have been touched, except the front door had been kicked in and there were dried muddy footprints all over the house.
He wondered where his wife had died. He had half expected to find Zedra there; he even called out his name to see if he was. He was not surprised that no one answered back, but he was disappointed.
The ice box contents had all rotted, so he threw it out. He then went outside to check on the chickens. The coop had been raided of both chickens and eggs. There was nothing left but empty nests. He knew it wasn’t wild animals that had gotten in there, but men.
‘Those monsters,’ he thought to himself. He wanted some answers and he wanted them now. He was able to fire up the old tractor for a drive into town. He went to the dance hall that had been set up as a local command center.
As he approached the town he noticed that things had changed. New buildings had been built. White ones that seemed to have no walls or roof. It was like it was a pile of cream with windows and doors cut into them. They were domed shaped. He was stopped at the edge of town by two soldiers. “State your business,” one of them said rudely.
“I am trying to find my sons.”
“Where is your badge?”
Pethran handed him the identification chip that he had been given upon graduation.
The guard scanned it on the scanner around his wrist. When the guard looked at it his tone changed. “We are having a lot of rebels fighting us in this area so I have to check. You will have to leave your tractor here and proceed on foot.”
Pethran climbed down and walked to the old dance hall. When he entered, he saw computer monitors everywhere. The secretary at the desk in front greeted him with “how may I help you?”
> “I am looking for my sons. I don’t know where they are since the invasion.”
“What are their names?”
“Greten and Zedra.”
“Are they from here in town?”
“Yes, they both grew up here.”
She did some clicking in the computer.
“I do have a Zedra, but I don’t have a Greten. I will let you talk to our administrator.” She pressed a button and a few minutes later the same man that Pethran had talked to weeks earlier came up.
“Sir, this man is looking for his sons. I have a Zedra, but I do not have a Greten.”
The man motioned to Pethran, “Come with me.”
He was led to a desk and the man sat down behind it. “Let’s see. I can let you talk to Zedra, but I suspect the other one is part of the army or part of the armed rebellion that we are fighting. If you hear from him, you should convince him to give himself up. The war against us is futile and he will just get himself killed in the end.”
“I will try. How can I talk to Zedra?”
“Just a minute and I will patch you in.” The man put on a microphone and started talking in another language. To Pethran’s surprise, he understood it. After a few minutes he looked up and smiled at Pethran. “Here is your son.” He turned the monitor around and there was Zedra on the screen. He was in the uniform of the invaders.
“Dad, you’re okay! You survived! How are things down there?”
“Things are bad; your mother is dead and your brother is missing. Where are you? Will they let you come home?”
“I’m sorry about Mother. She got real frightened when the ships were overhead. Her heart stopped. I tried to save her but she was dead. I’m sorry. They have taken me and forced me to become a soldier. I am deep into space and a long way out. I am to become part of the engine crew on a spaceship. I don’t think I will ever be able to come back home.”
Pethran was deeply saddened at the news. “What has become of my family? The world is falling apart.” His despair showed on his face.
The supervisor cut the broadcast. “I’m sorry, maybe you can talk to him at a later date. He is wrong, you know. His enlistment is only ten years. He will be able to come home after that.”
“Ten years? I am to be alone for the next ten years?”
The supervisor said in a low tone, “keep your voice down. If they think you are angry they will send you back to re-education.”
Pethran sat down on the chair next to the supervisor’s desk and put his face in his hands.
The supervisor put a hand on his shoulder. “It is the way of things. The Empire is a cruel and heartless beast that takes and never gives back. They took over my planet, too, just as they did the planets of every person in here. If you fight them, it will be bad for you. You can just do the best that you can to go along with it.”
“I’ve lost everything; my wife, my sons, my barn and all of my chickens and crops. How am I going to live through this?”
“Just a minute, I can help.” The supervisor started typing in his computer. “It says here that you are entitled to the two farms north and south of you. We will get you more chickens; I will put a requisition in for you since you are cooperating. I can get you a refrigerator and a new tractor too. I will see what I can do about your barn.”
“What about my neighbors? I can’t just take their land.”
“Your neighbor to the north was killed along with his son. The one to the south shot and killed one of our soldiers and has been arrested. He will be sent to trial on a different planet. He will never come back. The Empire does not want that land to sit idle, so it is now yours.”
Pethran looked up. “I don’t know what to say.” He had mixed emotions. Gifts from the enemy would be seen poorly to his neighbors, but in the end if the Empire was going to win anyway, it wouldn’t matter.
“You don’t need to say anything, just have a good day.”
“Thank you,” Pethran said as he left.
Chapter Fourteen
Deep Space
As he walked back to his bunk, Zedra pondered the massive technology these people had. To be able to see and talk to his father in deep space after all the distance they had traveled was incredible. He wondered how the armies of Andaria could possibly stand up to these invaders. He looked down at his uniform and realized that he was one of the enemy. There was nothing to do about it, because to rebel meant death.
His father was at least cooperating with them; otherwise they wouldn’t have let his father talk to him. The victory of the invasion seemed inevitable. He only hoped that his brother Greten survived it.
Tedric and Zedra had both been assigned to an old star destroyer. The ship smelled of grease and hydraulic fluid and vibrated badly when brought up to full speed. It was headed to a remote outpost of the Empire. Zedra had heard some of the crew describe it as very remote, far from any of the major prosperous planets of the Empire.
When Zedra arrived at the bunk room, Tedric was waiting for him. “Well, what did they want? Did you get zapped again?”
“No, they let me talk to my father. He did not tell me how the war was going, but he looked well.”
Tedric was amazed. “They have a machine that lets you talk to someone that far away?”
“Yes, and I saw his face too.”
“Wow, incredible! Is the war over then?”
“He didn’t talk about the war; only that my brother was missing. I don’t know.”
“I wonder if I can talk to my family. I will ask as soon as I see the engine room master the next time I see him.”
They had both been learning a lot from the engine room master on how to care for the old power plants that the starship had. The engines were cantankerous and difficult to maintain because they had been run for so many years. On the books the engines were brand new. The admiral listed them as having been replaced every five years, but in reality they were over thirty years old.
Every time some new engines arrived, the admiral sold them off and pocked the money. He did this with the wages of the men also. He had released a lot of his crew from service early and the money sent to him to pay for them was pocketed.
On the books he had a star battleship, three star cruisers, and six star destroyers. In reality, only an old cruiser and two destroyers patrolled the area of space the admiral was assigned to.
The other ships sat idle at the admiral’s star base. It was one of the advantages of being so far from any major trading routes; he could get away with it. The only problem would be, that if the emperor died, Prince Rignar, who was over the admiral, would need the starships to back up his claim to his share of the kingdom and they wouldn’t be there.
For the admiral, that was something to worry about when the time came. For now, he was living like a king with all of his ill gotten wealth.
The next time Tedric was on duty in the engine room he approached the master. “Zedra was able to talk to his father on a monitor. Is there any way that I can talk to my father or my brother?”
The master smiled. He liked Tedric. Unlike Zedra, he wasn’t a discipline problem. “I’ll see what I can do.”
He got on his computer while the young men worked. He came up to Tedric a few minutes later. He was no longer smiling. “I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, Tedric, but your father and your brother both joined the rebellion against the Empire. They were both killed in battle when they tried to ambush a patrol of our soldiers.”
Tedric was in shock and just stood there without saying anything at all.
“Take the rest of the week off. I will give you extra spirit rations; go get drunk.” It was the best the master could do in deep space.
Tedric just walked away without saying anything.
That night when Tedric staggered into the bunkroom after having been drinking the whole day, he told Zedra what had happened. It only made an angry Zedra angrier.
Chapter Fifteen
Andrenees Mountains
In a detentio
n center deep in the mountains sat three defeated soldiers from the Empire. As they were being led down, the soldiers had noted how extensive the fortifications were.
Their captors separated them into different cells so they had no communication with each other. They were brought up one by one to be interviewed.
The problem with the Empire’s soldiers was that very few volunteered for the position. The Empire liked sixteen year olds to be trained and every year would do random sweeps on the outlying planets for men in that age group. Those who could hide well enough were safe; those who could not were soldiers.
Gaffe Leuds was one of those who didn’t hide well enough. He had been in the army for five years now. He thought he was safe by being a computer technician on an airplane. All that changed when the plane was hit point blank by that cannon. The pilot struggled to get it airborne enough to get them out of there but the engines were too damaged and the ship went down. The copilot tried to fight his way out but he didn’t make it two steps before he was gunned down.
Three days in solitary confinement was enough for Gaffe. He was claustrophobic and climbing the walls by the time his captors came and got him. To prevent being put back down in the cell, he would tell them everything they wanted to know.
He was put into a room with a small table and across from him sat a general and an intelligence officer. Both were expressionless.
“Name, rank, and serial number,” the intelligence officer demanded. It sounded trite, but he had to start somewhere.
Gaffe could tell right away that he had been the first to be questioned. “The name is Gaffe Leuds, the rank is master’s mate and we have no serial numbers, just identification chips they run through their computers.”
The intelligence officer looked confused so the general started in. “What was your mission?”
“I will talk on one condition. I do not ever want to go back to that horrible cell you put me in. I want to be able to see sunlight.”
