Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth

by Dale C. Musser

  I looked back at Kala, her uniform top had been pulled up to expose her pregnant stomach and Yǎnjìngshé’s blade lay on the floor beside her where it had fallen when Jenira had struck. I looked back at Kala and noticed a small dart stuck in her neck. Quickly, I reached down and checked her pulse at her neck. She was still breathing. I lifted my wrist com to my mouth as I spoke, “A’Lappe, Kala has been shot with a poisoned dart and seems to be paralyzed. I’m taking her to the med unit; meet me there, and if you get there before me, notify Dr. Danjuma we are on our way.” By the time I finished my message, Marranalis and three of his men had entered our suite. They helped me pick up Kala, but I insisted on carrying her myself, and with her in my arms I rushed out the door and down the corridor toward the med unit. In my mind, I found myself praying, praying to a god I still was not sure I believed in, but was slowly coming to rely on more and more in my life. I was so distraught that I nearly passed the door to the med unit before I realized it. A’Lappe was there; he and Dr. Danjuma helped me place Kala on a bed. A’Lappe pulled the dart from Kala’s neck as I watched. I felt guilty that I had not thought to remove the dart myself. A’Lappe took the tiny object and placed it inside a little boxlike device he had in his hand. “It’s some sort of venom,” he said, “but I am not familiar with it. It must be something from your Earth.”

  “Let me see that,” Dr. Danjuma said. A’Lappe handed her the device, and she looked at the screen as I stood feeling helpless. I felt a hand reach out and take mine; I looked over to see Jenira standing there, she looked at me and then back at Kala.

  “I think this is spider venom,” Dr. Danjuma said as she reached for her vid pad. “I’ve downloaded all the records from Earth in here; let me check this composition of the data we have. “Yes, here it is.” She sighed. “We’re in luck-- the poison is not fatal, it only causes paralysis for a few hours without treatment; but if we can duplicate this compound," she said as she handed her vid pad to A’Lappe, “we can bring her around in just a few minutes. “A’Lappe looked at the information on the vid screen and then went over to a wall unit that looked much like the food synthesizers about the ship. He punched some data into a touch pad on the unit, and moments later a small vial with a light-green tint to it popped out of the machine. A’Lappe placed the vial in an injection gun, walked over to Kala, and placed it against her neck; there was a muffled sound as the pressurized liquid was released from the injection gun and into Kala’s veins. “She should be coming around real soon.” While he was saying this, Dr. Danjuma was passing another instrument over Kala’s abdomen,” The babies seem to be okay, the poison doesn’t seem to have harmed them.” I breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly found myself trembling. I felt Jenira squeeze my hand and I looked at her. She smiled and nodded toward Kala; I looked to see Kala’s eyes moving and looking at us and a faint smile on her face. I rushed forward and felt Jenira let go of my hand as I reached out for Kala.

  “Kala, I was terrified that Yǎnjìngshé had killed or harmed you. I got there just as she was about to… well…, but I couldn’t get to you without her seeing me and stabbing you. Jenira saved your life,” I said looking back at Jenira, who had now moved up beside me at Kala’s side.

  “I know,” Kala said slowly and softly, her voice almost a whisper. “I could hear everything, but I could not move or focus my eyes. I could hear what was happening.”

  “What did happen?” I asked. “I mean, how did she get you?”

  “I was in the room where you left me; the music had stopped when I heard a noise back in the bathroom. I got up to go check what it was; I entered the bedroom and felt something sting my neck, I reached up to see what it was and then suddenly I found myself falling to the floor. Yǎnjìngshé had already gotten into the bedroom and was hiding behind the wall when I entered the room, and she shot me using a small blow gun. Tibby, she was a wicked woman. She was going to take our babies for Ming to…” I pressed my fingers to her lips to stop her. I didn’t want to hear her say those horrid words.

  “I know Kala. I know. However, Jenira stopped her.”

  “How did you get there?” Kala asked Jenira.

  Jenira began signing. “Tibby saw me in the corridor earlier and ask me to come and stay with you. I was delayed by one of the Chinese women I met in the corridor; she was all upset about Ming’s escape and terrified that Ming was coming for her. I took her to the lounge area where several of the other women were and left her with them before I went to your suite. When I got there I opened the door and entered; I didn’t see Kala anywhere’ but then I heard Yǎnjìngshé talking in the bedroom. I snuck up quietly and saw Yǎnjìngshé’ about to cut Kala; that’s when I killed her.”

  “Thank you, Jenira,” Kala said as she slowly moved her arm out and reached for Jenira’s hand.

  “But Tibby, how did you get there?”

  “I found Ming and Láng in the hangar by the ALI; Yǎnjìngshé thought she could fly it because she used the learning headbands, but she didn’t know the ships were secured and could only be opened by a few people. She left Ming and Láng to come for you, not knowing they could not get aboard the ALI. I overheard Láng mention that Yǎnjìngshé said she was going to do something that would hurt me to get even for Ming, and I suddenly realized she was coming after you.”

  “What about Ming and Láng?” Kala asked.

  “I shot Láng; he tried to shoot me and I got him first. Ming practically wet himself trying to surrender when he saw Láng go down.”

  Jenira tugged on my arm and I looked at her. “You should have killed him,” she signed.

  “Maybe so, but I think he will suffer more if he is a prisoner in the Federation for the rest of his life; killing him would be too easy on him.”

  Kala recovered quickly and within an hour, other than for a bad headache, she was back to normal.

  Early the next morning we received another message from Commander Wabussie. It was rather cryptic and only said that a lot of new information had been obtained by field operatives and that the data was being correlated. A picture was forming that didn’t look good. He inquired about our estimated time of arrival and said that at the first opportunity he needed to meet with me and Admiral Regeny to go over the information. By now, we were only a day away from Megelleon, so I had Verona convey the information to the commander that I would be able to meet with him and the Admiral in two days. By now we were close enough that we were beginning to pick up broadcasts from various Federation worlds, and even though we were receiving them a day or two late, it was giving us an opportunity to catch up on the news.

  Kala and I were relaxing in our suite when we received a message from the Commodore to check the Federation news broadcast; Leader Roritat was being interviewed, and he was talking about me. Kala quickly activated the vid screen and the image of well-groomed man with snow-white hair and a toothy, gleaming white smile appeared on the screen. He had piercing blue eyes and reminded me of the evangelists and ministers that used to be seen on TV back on Earth.

  “…no Cleainsta, what I am saying is that I think the Federation has placed too much stock in this Tibby fellow. We’ve given him immense wealth and power, and I personally think it was a big mistake. Look at all the problems he is causing.” The camera view changed to the face of Cleainsta; I recognized her as having been a news reporter on the DUSTEN at the time when the Brotherhood of Light had captured the ship. She had apparently gotten a promotion and was now working at the news station in the capital.

  “Excuse me Leader Roritat, but with all due respect, you weren’t here when the DUSTEN was taken by the Brotherhood and when they attacked the capital. Thousands died and more would have died had it not been for First Citizen Tibby.”

  “Cleainsta, Cleainsta, Cleainsta,” Leader Roritat began in a condescending tone as the view switched showing him leaning back in his chair with a huge grin on his face. "That incident on the DUSTEN was the random act of a mad man and a few of his followers and had nothing to do with the Brot
herhood, I am sure. That a few of them happened to have been members of the Brotherhood is hardly a reason to place the guilt of what happened on millions of other peaceful Brotherhood of Light members throughout the universe. This Tibby fellow has made it a vendetta to go about attacking and disrupting the life’s of innocent members of the Brotherhood based solely on the acts of a madman and a few of his twisted followers who happened to have once been in the Brotherhood.”

  “Begging your pardon, Leader Roritat,” Cleainsta interrupted, “but I personally was aboard the DUSTEN when the event happened, and it was not simply the work of one madman and a few of his followers; how do you explain the attacks that have gone on since then, where the Brotherhood captured Federation ships and attacked a few outlying planets of the Federation? We have reports that a number of planets have been captured as well as Federation military ships.”

  “Phah! Those are just rumors that only justify the hostile actions of this Tibby and his band of thugs. Look at what they did at Alle Bamma, a planet not even a part of the Federation. The Brotherhood had a peaceful operation going on there, producing pharmaceuticals needed to treat various diseases throughout the universe. Tibby went in and destroyed their operation and took over the planet, kept the place for himself and won’t allow anyone to set foot there!” Leader Roritat stated with his brows furrowed and a look of indignation on his face.

  “Leader, I hate to disagree with you, but the evidence brought back by the Federation legal team which went to Alle Bamma clearly stated that the Brotherhood was producing the illegal drug God’s Sweat on Alle Bamma, and they had enslaved the inhabitants there, forcing them to harvest and manufacture the drug. The native population there now recognizes First Citizen Tibby as their representative spokesman.”

  “That’s more rubbish generated by this Tibby character. Where is the evidence for this? Has the flow of this God’s Sweat drug ceased since Tibby took over the planet? No! And I’ll bet if you investigate, the amount of God’s Sweat on the street has probably increased, and Tibby is the one behind it all. He’s a warring barbarian from a crude non-aligned world. He just happened to stumble on the TRITYTE and the stolen Solbidyum, and for this, we make him a wealthy hero; he repays us by attacking innocent people and trying to achieve even more glory and wealth.

  “Just look at his last exploits; we hear he flew to Gaimse, a non-aligned world, mind you, and he attacked a shipyard there, apparently while trying to steal a ship. When the Gaimseian’s military fought back, he blew up their shipyard and fled like the true coward he is. Then where does he go? To another non-aligned world, Goo’Waddle, where he joins up with Ruwallie Rasson pirates and surviving renegade androids, sworn enemies of the Federation I might add, and overthrew the legal government and took over that planet as well. No, Cleainsta, this man clearly is no hero; he is a menacing thug. Anyone can see the pattern here, three planets, and all non-aligned worlds with weak defenses. He’s doing exactly what he claims the Brotherhood is doing, trying to create his own empire. And just where is he, anyway? No one has heard of or seen him for months. I’ll tell you this, when he does return, I fully plan to have him before a senate hearing. If I have my way, he will lose his First Citizen title and his wealth will be confiscated and distributed among those he has offended, the Brotherhood, the Gaimseian’s and the people of Goo’Waddle.” The Leader sat back in his chair once more with a satisfied look on his face.

  The view switched back to Cleainsta, who displayed a displeased look on her face, “Well, Leader Roritat, I personally disagree with your assessment of things, but I’m afraid we are out of time. However, we have a video archive of all the events surrounding the DUSTEN, as well as documentation about attacks on other ships by the Brotherhood. We also have archives on the activities of First Citizen Tibby and his crew that I think you should have a look at; they paint a far different image of First Citizen Tibby than the one you present.”

  “Oh I will look at them; in fact, I will probably subpoena them for use at Tibby’s Senate hearing, that is, if he ever comes back.”

  “Well, thank you, Leader Roritat, for being here today; I wish I could say it was a pleasure, but unfortunately we see things quite differently.” Cleainsta said looking once more into the camera.

  “I’m only trying to set the record straight.” Leader Roritat said from off the screen.

  “By the stars, Tibby,” Kala exclaimed when the show was over, “that man clearly is being spoon fed by the Brotherhood. It certainly has a Brotherhood slant on it.”

  “I’ll have to agree with you, Kala. It makes me wonder just how the Brotherhood is getting to him and influencing him. I wonder if any of his staff are Brotherhood members and manipulating his thoughts. He came here from the outer regions of the Federation. I’m betting none of his staff have been tested for their loyalty to the Federation.”

  While we were talking, the programing on the vid screen had switched over to the news of the day. Kala and I were so engrossed in our conversation that I almost missed hearing the commentator say, “And in other news, the Senate today began debate on whether to cut military spending by nearly 40% and to downsize the Federation fleet.”

  “WHAT?” I exclaimed as I stared at the screen. “That would be suicide! With the Brotherhood planning their attacks, the entire Federation would be at their disposal. We’ve got to do something to stop this.”

  “Tib, what do you think you can do?” Kala asked with concern.

  “Well I don’t know… maybe fund more military ships myself and let Admiral Regeny have them for the military. Make the ships smaller but more powerful so a reduced military could handle them until the Senate realizes how badly they need a strong military and not a decreased one.”

  Kala responded, “Oh I’m sure Leader Roritat would have a field day with you building up a fleet of war ships. In fact, I am surprised he didn’t mention in his diatribe about your Mirage Fighters.”

  “I think I need to make contact with the Admiral. I’m going to the bridge to prepare a DSC call to him right now.”

  As soon as I was outside of our suite, I used my wrist com to call Jenira. I knew she would not respond, but I knew she would listen. “Jenira, this is Tibby. I need to go to the bridge, but I don’t want Kala being left alone. She is in our suite, would you go and be with her until I get back?” I know it sounded silly, but after Yǎnjìngshé’s attack on Kala, I didn’t want her being alone; at least not until Ming was off the ship, and the babies were delivered, and Kala was back into fighting shape again-- or maybe never. I wasn’t sure, but I certainly didn’t feel right about leaving her alone and unprotected at the moment.

  Instead of going to the bridge, I went to the monitoring center that A’Lappe had set up specifically for intercepting and monitoring Brotherhood communications. I wasn’t expecting him to be there, as I felt he would most likely be working in the lab with Cantolla; but when I arrived, he was seated at the central command console busily monitoring activities.

  “First Citizen,” he said when I entered. I noted that A’Lappe always called me Tibby when we were alone but in the presence of others he tended to address me as First Citizen. “What brings you to our busy center this day?”

  “I was wondering if you have picked up any interesting chatter from Brotherhood ships recently.”

  A’Lappe blinked his large eyes in that typical mannerism that he had and said, “Actually, there has been some increased activity the last few days and references to Shydak being at Megelleon to meet with their number-one man in the Brotherhood. But nothing that is very useful, I fear. No names, dates, times or locations. We don’t know if Shydak is meeting him on the surface or in a spaceship in orbit around the planet.”

  “I wonder if their leader might be the same person spoon feeding Leader Roritat the ideas that I am a barbarian thug.” I said.

  “Ahh, you heard that. I was wondering if you saw that on the Federation broadcast.” A’Lappe added.

  “Unfortunately I did. I
get the distinct impression that Leader Roritat is not in my fan-club”

  A’Lappe chuckled, “I’m sure that once the great leader gets to meet you in person, his mind will change.”

  “The way he sounds he would like to see me in prison.” I replied.

  “A’Lappe, I want you to see if you can contact Admiral Regeny for me on the DSC system. I need to talk to him about several issues.”

  “Certainly, Tibby, but may I ask why you aren’t going through Verona on the bridge?”

  “That’s a reasonable question, and to be honest, I’m asking myself the same question. I have the highest confidence in Verona, but for some reason, I feel more comfortable with you making the connection.”

  It took nearly 15 minutes for A’Lappe to contact the DSC operator at Admiral Regeny’s headquarters and for the Admiral to get to the operator, but at last A’Lappe gave me the go ahead.

  “Admiral,” I began, “the news just reached us today about the Senate hearings to discuss reducing the size of the Federation military budget and its men and equipment as well. What’s the status with that, and where is this coming from?” I had to wait a few minutes for the information to be transferred from A’Lappe to the operator at the Admiral’s end and then for the Admiral to respond.

  “It’s not looking good, Tibby,” A’Lappe relayed the Admirals message, “the effort is being aggressively pushed by Leader Roritat and about two dozen senators. Right now the senate is split about 50/50 on the issue, but with the recent comments that the Admiral has been making about you, and his push to defame you as well as the military, it could sway the balance and the Senate could go along with Roritat on this.”

  “Admiral, you can’t let that happen; everything we are seeing and hearing out here indicates that the Brotherhood is preparing for huge attacks, and they have allies with weapons we don’t know how to defeat. Even as it is, the Federation may not have enough power to stop them; we need more ships, not less, and more manpower as well.”