by Shawn Jones
“No, thank you. I must ask you to leave, as we have government matters to discuss, Kimberly.”
“She stays,” Cort said cooly.
“I apologize for Lap’s rudeness, Kimberly,” Brbk said.
Cort pointed at a chair and said, “Sit down, Lap.” Looking at his flex pad, he read, JADE JONES(loc:SOLITUDE): Take a deep breath, Cort.
As he sat down, Lap said, “General, allowing the Cuplans into an alliance with you is not acceptable, nor is nullifying the peace treaty you signed with them. You must remedy this at once.”
“The last time you had this attitude with me was the first day I landed on Government World, Lap. Your ego failed you then, and it will do so now. The Ares Federation is not a regular member of your collaborative. In fact, we cannot even enter in regular agreements with Collaborative species. Which means you have no authority over us whatsoever. I’m going to correct you on one additional point as well. There is not a single living being in this galaxy that is a Cuplan. My agreements are with the H’uuman race.”
Bazal said, “Lap, you may not pick and choose when we work with or against the Ares Federation.”
He is hiding something, Cortland. But because he knows of my abilities he is masking his thoughts.
Cort said, “There is no reason for this, Lap. And you do not have any leverage to influence my decisions.”
“If necessary, General, the Collaborative Government will cancel all trade agreements with the Ares Federation. You will not join with the Cuplans.”
“Lap! You were not authorized such action,” Brbk said.
Cort tapped a message onto his pad and said, “Lap, I am going to say this once. If you call them Cuplans again, I will have you escorted off of my planet.”
In response to Cort’s message, two H’uumans entered the room. Cort stood and said, “Everyone, I would like to present our allies, Species Secondary Weela and Vagabond Queen Snirl, of the H’uuman Empire. They are here to finalize our merger with them into the Ares Federation of Species.”
The other humans in the room, as well as Brbk, collectively thought some form of, Oh fuck. JJ and Kate began furiously typing on their flexpads. Cort turned his upside down on the table and stood. Kim knew he was about to blow. She also knew there was nothing she could do about it.
CALM HIM BAZAL! Kim thought.
As Cort began to speak, Bazal replied, It is too late, Kimberly.
Pointing to the H’uumans, Cort said, “Lap, three weeks ago, over a million of their people stood beside mine in battle to rescue my son, and nearly half of them died in the effort. And that was after their First Queen and thousands of others laid down their lives to protect Dalek. With the exception of Bazal, not a single member of your collaboration was even there. But you begged us for help when your species were targeted by the Cuplans. Well let me tell you something, you worthless son of a bitch, I would lay down my entire empire to defend a single one of them before I would lift one gods damned finger to help a single member of your worthless fucking government change a flat tire!”
Turning to JJ, he ordered, “Recall every ship, Marine or diplomat on every Collaborative planet, right fucking now!”
“General…” JJ started.
“NOW Admiral!”
“Yes, sir.” JJ began tapping orders into her pad.
“Baby, settle down,” Kim said softly.
Looking at her, Cort finally took a deep breath. Turning back to Lap he calmly said, “Whether or not the trade agreements remain in place is up to you. But our military alliance is finished. Find another species to do your dirty work. And Lap, if a single human or H’uuman is harmed on any Collaborative planet, I will destroy that planet. Are we clear?”
“General, you cannot sever our agreements in favor of these monsters,” Lap protested.
Cort’s face was grim when he said, “I am the monster, Lap, not the H’uumans. My Marines will show you to your shuttle now.”
Lap strode toward the door as Brbk turned to Bazal and said, “We should go. Do you have things to gather?”
“I have already stated I am not leaving, Brbk. My place is here.”
Brbk’s voice was low when she replied, “Do you recall the day the General stood before us on Government World?”
“Yes,” Bazal replied.
“You said that day, as Speral’s ship took them back to their world, that he would forever change our Collaboration. Did you anticipate this?”
“Sadly, I did. I hoped to be wrong, though.”
Lap was out of the building when Bazal whispered, “What else, Brbk? What is Lap hiding?”
Brbk looked at the door, the humans, the other H’uumans, and then back to Bazal and Cort, who were together on one side of the table. Finally, she said, “General, please do not betray my trust. The Tapon have demanded compensation for the attack on their homeworld and are demanding the Nill turn over theirs. The Nill have left the Collaboration and are seeking a mercenary race to teach them to fight against anyone who invades their planet. My species remembers when the Nill knew how to make war, General, and we do not want to see that circumstance again.”
“If the Core is no longer operational and they contribute little else to the Collaborative Government, why do you care if the Tapons take it back?”
“I cannot answer why Lap wishes us to be involved, General. Nor can I determine what benefit the Tapon species would bring to the Collaboration.”
“Where do you fall in this, Brbk?” Cort asked.
“I do not know. My people are confused.”
“I appreciate your candor, and we will not betray your trust. Goodbye, Brbk,” Cort said.
“That could have gone much better, General,” JJ commented as the door closed behind the centipod.
“Lap is lucky it didn’t go way worse for him.” Turning to Bazal, Cort asked, “Was Brbk being truthful?”
“Yes. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to kill the Tapon. Every last one of them. That part hasn’t changed.”
“Has anything changed, General?” Kate Williams asked.
Looking at the H’uumans, Cort said, “I meant every word I said, I want us to form a full and equal alliance.”
“I believe H’uum wishes the same, General,” Weela clicked.
Turning back to Williams, Cort said, “What has changed is the ‘when’. I may wipe the Tapons out now, or I may wait until they have attacked the Collaboration.”
Bazal said, “Either way, Cortland, the Collaboration is dead. It will fall apart now. Without me to calm and tie them, they cannot remain peaceful toward each other.”
“My instinct is to let them fight each other, then wipe out the Tapon. But I’m open to wiping the apes out now. I will let Dar and his people make that decision for me. But let me be clear, I am going wipe them out. Either now or later, their extinction is not optional.”
“Sir,” Williams began.
Cort said, “Yes, Captain?”
“What is a flat tire?”
--
Cort was back at Bergh Station with Dalek looking for a new companion wolf for the boy, while Kim stayed at the isthmus with Bazal and JJ.
JJ said, “Kim, please do not be angry with me. I cannot imagine what you have been through the last few weeks, but we all know that if you had not been there, it would have gone way worse than it did.”
“But I was there,” Kim replied
“I could not calm Cortland, Kimberly. My only way to help was to keep Lap in check. He wanted to suggest that Cort’s love for Dalek was clouding his judgement.”
“That would have been bad,” JJ said.
“He would have killed Lap,” Kim admitted. “I might have tried to myself.”
“Lap’s people do not have the same bond to their young that humans do,” Bazal said.
“Neither do the H’uumans, but they are willing to die for my son.”
“That is not exactly true, Kimberly. They are willing to die for Heroc’s Law.”
JJ
said, “No, Bazal, you can’t read them, so I am not sure you get what Kim means. I’ve watched the vids. They were dying for Dalek, not a law. When Dalek lifted off on the shuttle, planet wide they cheered.”
“Perhaps. I hope that is true, because I believe Heroc truly loved him,” Bazal replied.
JJ said, “But about the General, Kim. What do you think is going on?”
Kim took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Cort was tense. No one could deny that. And he wasn’t even healthy yet. “I think it’s cumulative stress. The infection, then not being able to help rescue Dalek, then coming home and being bedridden because of Speral’s ‘cure’ is just too much stress and no relief.”
JJ smiled at Kim sideways and said, “Then you better start relieving him, honey, because that man is wound up so tight that his head is going to explode. Maybe you need to make that explosion happen, if you know what I mean.”
The humor broke the tension and Kim began laughing uncontrollably. Bazal decided to remain silent until the conversation was back on track. Once the women finally stopped giggling, he said, “So for now we are just going to monitor the situation, and if the problem becomes more serious, Kimberly will handle it. Is that correct?”
The humans burst into laughter again, so Bazal gave up and went to Doctor Tsao’s office to resume work with the synthetic being.
Bergh Station
Dar landed at Bergh two days later. Cort, Bane, Dalek and the new pup were waiting for him. After meeting the barely weaned pup and giving Dalek a gift from Earth, he turned to Cort and said, “You are looking better. How do you feel?”
They began walking across the base as Cort said, “I’m better every day. I got blood poisoning once back in my time. It’s about the same, but I am healing faster.”
Dar looked back at the little boy, who was playing with his new puppy. “He is doing well, too. I am always amazed at the resilience of youth.”
Cort said, “We have Bazal to thank for that. Dalek was never really alone the whole time. He cries over Heroc and Zandra some, but overall he seems good.”
“So which is worse, the Tapon infection, or Speral’s poison?”
“Speral’s poison. It wiped out the infection pretty quickly. But the cure is as painful and miserable as the disease was.”
“No it is not. The disease was killing you. The cure just makes you wish you were dead.”
“How would you know?” Cort laughed. “So I am assuming this is an official visit.”
“Nope. Sure, Lap is raising hell, but I have made it clear I have no authority in this matter except to negotiate new trade agreements. By the way, once the embassy on Government World is closed, it will take them days to get a message to us. Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Yep. They need to know the cost of crossing me. Let me ask you something, how many messages are we transmitting to other worlds for them on a daily basis right now?”
“Thousands I am sure,” Dar replied. “I see your point. We bring more to the table than we did to begin with.”
“Exactly. That’s why I told you and JJ to close all the embassies at the same time. Once our last shuttles lift off, they will be virtually in the dark. And if Brbk’s people pull out, which is a distinct possibility according to Bazal, they will be down to that slow warp system that the bipedal amphibians use.”
“Unless they make a deal with the Tapons.”
Cort thought about Dar’s words. Then he realized the reason for Dar’s visit. “Ah. That’s why you are here. You want me to act now.”
“Yes, I think it is best for us. If you don’t and they make a deal with the CG, the economic might of the Collaboration will be used against us, not to mention what will happen to the Nill. They have already left the CG, so Lap can throw them to the lions with a clear conscience.”
“That’s the Nill’s problem, not mine. But I get your point about the economic might of the Collaboration supporting their war effort against us.”
“Cort, what if we let them continue to use our comms for now? If they make the deal with the monkeys, we shut it down. Lap would not even be able to let the other planets know about the agreement.”
“He would think I had settled down and thought better of my decision. That’s not a bad idea. And I am sure he has a code to send out that would tell the Collaboration planets about his decision.”
Cort thought about what Dar had suggested. In the end, he was too mentally exhausted to think through the potential ramifications of either option. Finally he said, “Okay, we can try it your way. The minute I activate the operation against the Tapons though, clear the embassies. I will have JJ keep a listening post in each system so we know what is going on.
“Just to make sure you see both sides of it though, the Tapons might not turn against us. They might really just want their homeworld back. If they get that, this might be over.”
“That doesn’t matter. If they had attacked the Nill and we fought them that way, I would feel differently. But their first play was to take my son and try to kill my wife and me. So they made it very personal.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“First, I’m going to comm H’uum. Why don’t you go spend some time with Kim? She’s at the base now, but she will be home in an hour for lunch. Take Dalek and Shart with you, and I’ll try to meet you all there.”
“Shart?”
“The pup. Because he shits a little every time he farts.”
“Oh gods! You actually named a wolf Shart?” Taking Dalek’s hand, Dar walked toward the residential area of the base as Cort went back to the headquarters building.
From his office, Cort activated his comm and waited several minutes for H’uum to appear on his screen. “General, how are you feeling?” H’uum asked.
Ignoring the question, Cort asked his own question. “How many agents do you still have on Government World, H’uum?”
Cort watched H’uum’s mandibles spread and flex into what he had come to recognize as a smile. The insectoid clicked, “How many do you need?”
I knew we didn’t have them all, you sly bastard. And thank the gods I didn’t push it back then. Cort returned the smile and laid out his needs.
“That should not be a problem, General,” H’uum clicked. “I will notify my agents that they should expect to hear from you. I will send you the comm times for each of the three. They will be instructed to supply you with any information you need.”
“Thank you, H’uum. When will I see you again?”
“We would be pleased if you would visit at your earliest convenience. And of course, it would be wonderful if you brought Dalek with you.”
“Of course. Once I have my personnel in place and ready to act, we will make the trip.”
“I look forward to it. Our entire planet looks forward to it. How is Speral handling her new circumstances?”
“I talked to her this morning. She seems to be doing well. I had called to get her opinion about the political situation on Nill, but she asked me to leave her out of those matters moving forward. She and her human mate seem very happy though, and their work shows it. Our botany domes on Mars are producing prolifically.”
“What will you do if the trade agreements with the Collaborative Government fall apart?”
“Dar is a great administrator. He has quite a few agreements with associate species that shouldn’t be affected by CG matters. And we can always convert to other production. As your species grows, the demand for our honey will increase.”
“Two hundred planets you said? Even at lower population levels, you will need many more agricultural planets to meet that demand.”
“Would you like to colonize Tapon?”
“I will look into that, but it does bring up a matter we must discuss, General. What about the treaty planets we still occupy?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Any planets where the original occupants are extinct, we will keep. We are still going to give back the ones that the origina
l species can use, and we are going to abandon any systems that are otherwise occupied, but there are still over two hundred additional planets and nearly that many systems that we will share. Kimberly also wants some for her sanctuaries, and we will establish military bases on them.”
“I recommend we establish at least one base on every planet we occupy, General. In doing so, both our peoples will be secure.”
“H’uum, have you not been paying attention? We are one people now.”
“Weela told me you feel that way. We have a come a long way since those days back on Government World.”
“Yes we have. And it was Heroc’s doing.”
“Yes. She is missed by all of us.”
“Especially Dalek. He asks me about her every day.”
“She loved him as well.” H’uum pushed back from his screen and said, “Dalek has changed my people, General. We have begun to value the individual as well as the whole, and it is mostly because of the bond that he shared with my First Queen.”
“I’ve seen changes here as well. I think we are all growing.
“H’uum,” Cort continued, “I cannot tell you how much your loyalty to Dalek means to me. I want your people to make up the bulk of his and Kim’s security teams.”
“Gladly. I will be able to provide you with millions of volunteers for that detail.”
“I would like the heads of both teams to be Vagabond Queens.”
H’uum clicked, “That is an unusual request, but it should not be a problem. May I ask why?”
Cort said, “I’ve seen them fight.”
AFS Mare’s Leg
“No, Lex. I appreciate what you are trying to do, but not this time. FALCONs only, for everyone. I want these people to know how much we trust them, not that we doubt their ability to protect my son. You can keep some heavy troops on alert, but they are not to drop without Kim’s say so or mine. Do you understand?”
“Yes, General.”
Cort could tell that Lex was still not satisfied, so he said, “Listen, Lex. I’m way more paranoid than you are, especially when it comes to my son, and that’s why we have the other security arrangements in place. But we wouldn’t have Dalek in armor back home and we aren’t going to here. Build him a CONDOR if you want for other worlds, but these people love him as much as we do. You saw that firsthand.”
