by A. C. Katt
“You have to remember, Sarrans are a Warrior race, tasked with defending the galaxy. We are too few. Everyone must serve,” Bron stated bluntly. Meg blushed.
An alarm sounded. A ship was coming in through Sky Shield. It was the Starlight, Tarin’s former engineering command and one of the ships left to guard Earth. Garlance and Emot answered the door.
Captain Minneta teleported into Castle Air’s courtyard. Zaron shouted, “Bron, Juraens, Mark, Tarin, Jonal, Tonas, Sam—call the rest of the council. I have a feeling they are going to be necessary.”
Captain Minetta came into the dining room looking disheveled. “Report,” Zaron demanded.
* * * *
Earth, White House
John Morgan was getting frustrated. Getting these fuckers to see reason was like shoveling sand in a windstorm. His primary problem was the Middle East, who weren’t ready to give up their long standing attitude that anything suggested by the west had to be a bad thing.
“Madame President,” he said at their weekly progress report, “I have Europe, Russia, China, India, Asia, the Pacific Islands, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and all of Africa on board. The only holdouts are the Middle Eastern countries with the exception of Israel and Jordan. They need someone to provide them with a narrative that fits their world view, perhaps Jihad against the Zyptz.”
“For that they’d still have to accept a world government and that’s going to be difficult for them to do, but we have to do it. We can’t expect the Sarrans to protect us forever and I want that technology.” The President ate a piece of dry toast.
“We have to find a way to amend the U.N. charter to make its proclamations legally binding,” John said as he cracked open his soft-boiled egg. The President was still on a diet and nothing that tempted her to go off her strict diet was served at her table. Morgan was going to be hungry this morning.
“Tell the Middle East that we’ll nuke them into submission. I’ve talked to the Russian President, the French President, the Chinese President, and the British Prime Minister; they all agree that something has to be done. We want to meet the Sarran’s deadline in five years, not twenty-five,” the President told Morgan.
“I’m meeting with Ravenswald and Mihaylov, the new Russian Ambassador to the United Nations this rising in New York. I’m getting on a plane as soon as I leave here.” Morgan took a sip of his black coffee. Cream was not allowed.
* * * *
Starlight, In Orbit above Earth
“Nothing ever happens here. We’re in orbit around a planet that can’t seem to agree on anything and neither they, nor we, are making any progress toward getting rid of the Zyptz menace,” Ensign Ratac commented as he took the watch.
“The Zyptz know where they are and could decide to descend at any moment. They recently tried to breach Sarran’s defenses. Fortunately, they were unable to do so because of some new technology that Bron and Tarin designed. Earth is a soft target. If we want an ally, we have to protect them until they get their act together. WarriorPairs on shore leave say they are making progress. It’s the Caliphate that is giving them problems. They’re the ones who treat their fems badly,” Lieutenant Puter informed Ratac.
“From what I’ve heard treating fems badly isn’t something limited to the Caliphate,” Ratac rejoined with some sarcasm.
“That may be true, but the Caliphate is the only nation that codifies it into their laws.” Puter took a sip of his coffee, one of the few perks of this assignment. “We go home in ten phases. That’s not too long and there are Warriors and young fems waiting to be bonded. From what I understand, all of the bonded Earthen fems have given birth. Our population has increased by almost twenty-five percent.”
“It’s our job to make sure the bebes make it to puberty and they don’t get wiped out by the Zyptz because we couldn’t get Earth to cooperate. I hear Brightstar has returned for another group of fems. Who knows, we may even have Earthen bonded. Two of our Warriors have bonded to Earthen Warriors. Both were in what Earth calls the military. One was in their version of PsyOps, a clandestine Warrior, and the second one was up to be the leader of one of the great nations,” Puter said.
Commander Ostreo joined the Ensign and the Lieutenant on the Bridge. “You haven’t seen them fight—they’re fearless. Turning all that aggression, to say nothing of the sheer number of Earthen Warriors, against the Zyptz may finally send the Zyptz looking for another galaxy to torment.”
A loud horn blasted. “We’re under attack. Get the Captain. Get out the signaler. We have to notify Sarran.”
* * * *
United Nations Security Council
“I hereby call the Security Council into special session.” Rosseau of France had the chair.
Captain Minneta transported directly into the chamber. “We’re under attack. There are five Zyptz ships, one starship, and four lightslips. You need to unite now. I’m going to try to transport myself to Sarran to get some help. If you have any Earth satellite weapons, now is the time to use them. Here are the codes to recognize Sarran ships. Anything else out there right now is the enemy. Mobilize now! They may try to invade. I’m sending down one of my engineering commanders with weapons and a Warrior crew that know how to use them. Your people better be quick studies.”
The Captain transported himself out of the chamber.
“Fuck the Caliphate. We’ll put them under interdiction. Call your leaders. I’ll call the President.”
Commander Suzzo appeared in the chamber. “Captain Minetta sent me down. I’m Commander Suzzo, Chief Engineer of the Starlight. We have enough Warriors and laser cannons to put one in every capital. We have more cannons we can deploy after a short course in their use.”
All five permanent members of the council began to speak at once.
“How long do we need to hold until the Sarran fleet arrives?” asked Ravenswald.
“We’re going to try to transport the fleet, if we can’t, it will be one tide,” Suzzo told them.
“How long is a tide?” Rosseau asked.
“Ten risings. Give us the coordinates for the sites where you want us to place the cannons. We have a new defensive weapon. Two of our Elders will come to put it up. It’s a Sky Shield. It will prevent them from coming in from space and leave the battle up in the sky. We have to fight a holding action. The Zyptz are what you would call roaches. But they are six foot tall. They have a hive mentality. Generally, if you cut down the leader of a force, the others will be in disarray. Close up you can use your poison chemical DDT. Stockpile supplies of it. Even though it’s a poison, it’s better than the Zyptz.”
“Get out the GPS and give the Warrior the coordinates for the capitals. Call the world leaders to the U.N. we are getting a united planet within the next twenty-four hours. I will not leave the defense of Earth to aliens,” Morgan snapped. “We’ll see how the Caliphate responds when they are the only spot on Earth not protected.”
* * * *
Sarran, Castle Air
“You transported through space?” Zoran asked in amazement.
“I did what I had to do. Most Sarran Warriors have been to Earth. If we try to transport us and the Brightstar in masse, we may get there in time. Can we put up Sky Shield on Earth?”
“Yes. Both the hardware and the software can be fabricated. I’ll bring it with us.” Zaron turned to the rest of the council who had answered Zaron’s call. “We go to Earth. Is there anyone unwilling to make the journey?”
No one spoke. “Transport to Brightstar. We leave immediately.”
“Poppie!”
“Not now, Naffer.”
“Yes, now. Michael and I can transport the Brightstar. Michael knows where Earth is and I can help him lift.”
Zaron looked at Naffie in amazement.
“We’ve been practicing. Michael knows how to get us all to his Grandpa’s house with the Brightstar overhead.”
Syn and Sara looked aghast.
“Syn, Sara?”
“The Warriors
will protect them?”
::We will too,:: Aloysius said. ::I put out a call for all of our Warriors to get to the fleet. The kits will stay here and guard the fem and bebes. Find a fem who is a chemist and have a Warrior help her fabricate DDT. We’ll send it after you.::
“Michael and I have the highest psy power on the planet. We must do this, no one else can,” Naffie stated impatiently.
Michael turned to Anya, “TaAnya, tell Mary we love her and we’ll be back.”
“We go. There is no time for goodbyes,” Bron told the fems.
The council transported en masse to Brightstar. Naffie and Michael had told the truth. They put the Brightstar in orbit to join the battle and then transported the council to Sam’s Washington D.C. home.
“Michael, Naffie, transport back to the Brightstar and stay in Quarters. You did well.” Zaron watched them until they disappeared.
::Captain Minetta, did the offspring arrive?::
::Yes, TeZaron, they’re here on the bridge. They claim they can help our Warriors target the lightslips.::
Zaron regarded Bron, Mark, and Juraens.
::Let them, they’ll do it anyway.:: Zaron could see Juraens’ whole body vibrated with tension.
“We need to go to the United Nations Security Council. Minetta said they were meeting there,” Sam said.
“Get a Warrior to the capitol of each country and have him transport the leaders to the United Nations. Have the ambassadors contact their superiors and tell them to expect us.”
Within thirty minutes the leaders were in the General Assembly. The Warriors placed a translator chip behind each leader’s ear. Zaron and Bron got up on the podium. “You need a world government now. The Zyptz are about to invade and we have to give you the technology to defend yourselves and later to fight them off. We are the eight WarriorPairs who are the heads of state for the planet Saran.”
Sam approached the podium. “Most of you know me. It is now necessary to do what should have been done after the first Zyptz attack. Until you have elected delegates and they have elected a council, we will deal with the five permanent members. But this is only a reprieve. The Zyptz will come again and you need to be united and ready. We don’t have the Warriors to guard both planets and it will take two phases to install the Sky Shield and train your Warriors in its use.”
The battle raged above. Sam transported insecticide to every ship in the fleet to guard against boarding, along with masks to prevent them from breathing the air. When it was finally over, the Sarrans with the help of Earthen soldiers armed with DDT destroyed all the invaders.
Earthen media and citizens demanded that their governments support a United Earth. After the Caliphate got no help against the Zyptz, they capitulated and joined the rest in the General Assembly.
Earth had yet to pound out an agreement. But they made a start. The Sarrans now had allies…
THE END
* * * *
ABOUT A.C. KATT
A.C. Katt was born in New York City’s Greenwich Village. She remembers sitting at the fountain in Washington Square Park listening to folk music while they passed the hat. At nine, her parents dragged her to New Jersey where she grew up, married, raised four children, and became a voracious reader of romantic fiction. At one time she owned over 2,000 novels, until she and her husband took themselves and the cat to New Mexico for their health and its great beauty.
Now most of her books are electronic (although she still keeps six bookcases of hardcovers), so she never has to give away another book. She is new to both GLBT and to writing, being—as she claims—a late bloomer; however, she has found her niche writing GLBT romance. This is a very opinionated kitty, and on her website at ackatt.com, you may find snippets of her current releases, as well as some from works in progress.
ABOUT JMS BOOKS LLC
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