He looked over the carnage and said, “It is hard to say, but with their Sky eyes down, they might send out flyer patrols and it also depends if the soldiers here had time to use their radios. I am sure we have several hours, but who knows what they’ll do if they find the prisoners missing along with whatever your men did to the regional outpost.”
A rugged and strong-looking Ithe mountain man said, “I am of the Oote tribe, and I want to thank you for killing the Drak soldiers.”
The Togar growled at him. “Why did you attack out here, especially if you saw the convoy was much bigger than usual and had tanks with them?”
The Oote man lowered his stalk eyes and said, “The Drak convoy was larger this time because it was joined by those soldiers coming back from punishing our village for hiding a water source from the government.” He made a gesture behind him at perhaps 200 men. “This is what’s left of 1,200. They shot everyone else, and the Sky Punisher destroyed our homes. What else was there for us to do than fight and die?”
Shea swallowed hard. “They killed your wives and children, for water?”
“Water is precious and a water source like a mountain spring means wealth, power, and control.”
Ninety put his good hand on the Tribe leader’s shoulder. “Forgive me.”
The Dai warrior also joined us and said to me, “Your Thaa Gryther is badly wounded. Do you want to shoot it yourself as Gryther warriors do or should I do it?”
I walked a distance and found the creature on the ground, both its large wings in broken disarray. I noticed not only the burned wing but a second blaster wound to his muscular hind legs. Shea knelt next to it and put an auto-doc unit against the beast’s neck, while I patted it and said to Shea, “I rode it only twice and don’t really know it, but I sort of like it. I think it saved my life, by trying to land even after it was wounded.”
She checked the auto-doc readout and said, “No worries, the auto-doc is stabilizing it and Cateria will have that thing fixed in no time.”
It took no time for my friends and the marines they had brought along to clear the road, bury the bodies, and the scrap.
The Togar said the water trucks were valuable and would be taken back to the compound, especially since there were no Sky Eyes watching. The ones that came on flyers returned as they came. The now-homeless men of the Oote tribe sat on top of the water trucks and some sat on top of our landing tank. TheOther, Hans, and three marines carried wounded Grythers flying ahead.
Cateria had arrived and with her came several med-techs and five med-bots. Har-Hi had piloted the tank down and came over to where I was standing and smirked. “The next time I am going with you on an away mission, I’ll wear a helmet. That rock hammered me real good, you know.”
I squeezed his hand and put my other hand on his shoulder. “I am sorry, it was my fault. I should have listened to you.”
He chuckled. “No, it wasn’t your fault. We all picked a dangerous profession and getting out of bed is dangerous.”
I sighed and frowned at him. “I guess you will lecture me now that we should not get involved in local affairs, right?”
“No, captain, I won’t. I am your XO and must be the devil’s advocate, but once you make a decision, I support it to my last breath.” He crossed his arms. “I am just glad it isn’t me who has to write the log book entry or explain what we are doing to the admiral.”
We all arrived at the rebel hideout with the first rays of light of a new day, I had remained with the Togar and several marines to guard the trucks and make sure they arrived safe and unobserved.
There in the cavernous belly of the freighter wreck, industrious and well-organized, was Cateria, med-bots, and med-techs. They had triaged the wounded, set up treatment tents, and processed what looked like endless line of beings.
To the Togar, I said, “I was under the impression there were only a few wounded, where do they all come from?”
An Ithe woman came over and shook my hand with both of hers. “I can see again! I can see again! Dugos the benevolent spirit has heard my chants. Thank you!”
The Togar answered my question. “No one here has seen a doctor or gotten any medical aid in ages. The news of your miraculous med crew spread like a wildfire through this community of ours.” He looked to the floor and I sensed the big cat felt embarrassed. “I am sorry for us taking so shameless advantage of you.”
“I don’t think you need to be ashamed or embarrassed. I am glad we can help.” Pointing at his bandaged arm, I added, “You should have that checked out by my CMO as well.”
“I will be last, if there any supplies left.”
“Ninety, I see you are a good leader with the wellbeing of your people foremost on your mind, but as a leader, you are needed and you can do that best by being well. I am sure we can manage supply-wise.” I walked with him over to Cateria. “Sorry for putting all this on you, but I have one more.”
She actually smiled and said, “Captain, I know I am not always the most emotional person and I am well aware of my reputation, but I became a medic because I wanted to help. It was my idea to have those people checked, and I’ll tell you some of them really needed our help badly; lots of infected taser and whip burns, gouged eyes, and other wounds from torture.”
While she spoke, she scanned the arm of the Togar.
Just then, Jolaj, the white Togar girl, came out of the treatment tent carrying a small Ithe child and handed it to its waiting mother. “He is fine now; I treated his skin infection.”
The big Togar fell to his knees and buried his head between his arms. “My life is blessed. I was privileged to gaze upon the Goddess with the Innocent Fur.”
Jolaj said, “Get up, Togar. Perhaps once I was a Goddess, but that changed. I became an outcast and a wanted criminal by the decree of the queen and the high priestess. Now, however, I am Med-tech First Class Jolaj Grotha, Union citizen.” She actually raised her chin and her voice as she said that and she looked quite proud.
Ninety got up, but still bowed devoutly. “Neither jealous priestesses nor blind queens can change what all Togar kind knows. What joy and hope you’ll bring to the thousands of Togar slaves on the Smelter Moons if they hear the White Goddess, Child of Marmou, is alive!”
She waved her white paw. “I would not want to return if the queen herself offers me all the treasures and honors the Empire could bestow. I am a free Union citizen, have a purpose and friends.”
Cateria leaned over and whispered to me, “Her official CITI came over GalNet just a few days ago, and Lt. Har-Hi made her conscription official. She tells that to everyone at least three times a day.”
I watched as she pulled the big warrior with a resolute move inside the treatment tent. “I wonder what happens if she runs into Roghar.”
“That will happen any moment now.” Cateria pointed to our latest conscript, who’d just climbed out of one of our shuttles, carrying a big box of medical supplies, entering the tent.
I had a shower in one of the inflatable hygiene modules that were part of the medical equipment brought down from the Tigershark, and Shea had brought me a new leather suit. The greatest joy in days was to use a simple brush on my clean hair that had looked like an old floor mop. Feeling much more presentable, I checked with the ship to make sure everything was all right and then had a bite to eat.
The medical treatment of the rebels was still going on, but the line was short now.
Ninety intercepted me with Roghar at his side. “First, the All-White Goddess and now Roghar the Mighty among your crew. Who are you really?”
Roghar bowed. “She is my captain. I told you I am the Mighty no longer and have been reduced and humiliated, many periods ago. That the Goddess found shelter aboard her ship, surprised me not. She is indeed Jolaj the Goddess, but like me, she found greater purpose and a new home.” To me, he said, “Thank you for saving her and accepting me.”
One of the Ithe joined us. “Your Gryther is doing well, and the other wounded animals wil
l soon be fully recovered as well.”
I looked over to the stable boxes. “I am glad to hear that.”
Ninety said, “You will leave soon, I assume?”
“I am a little pressed for time and this is not what I am supposed to do, but seeing women and children executed and villages exterminated for water makes me think. So, I am not leaving just yet. However, I am pondering what we could do right now.”
Har-Hi came out of the landing tank and came over. “I set up perimeter guards; I am sure the local authorities will discover the destroyed regional headquarters soon.”
I looked at him from the side. “You completely destroyed it?”
He tried to make an innocent face. “I did have a few antimatter grenades left, and I was not in a good mood, captain. Besides, you should talk to your Narth friend. I never saw anything scarier than him turning loose his powers.”
“All the troops are dead?”
“We did leave a few alive, but after we freed the prisoners, they armed themselves and showed no mercy. Most of the soldiers were killed by the prisoners. A few escaped, I am sure some were secret sympathizers.”
Ninety said, “It is hard to predict what they will do. They may retaliate against villages and small communities in the district. They may go into a full attack and round up everyone.”
The female Ithe commander had joined us and she said, “I think the regional commander will keep it quiet and simply replace the soldiers and rebuild. I know him, and he would not want to explain to the Magistrate how a military convoy and the regional HQ got destroyed. He will, however, terrorize the region even worse.”
I turned to her. “Thank you for keeping your word and freeing my friends and alerting my ship, commander.”
She declined her head. “I am a commander no more. To the world, I am dead like the rest, but I am free.”
Cateria joined our small group and said, “We are pretty much done here, captain. Everyone is treated. Jolaj and my staff are wrapping things up and then we can pack everything.”
Har-Hi made a snorting sound, looking at me from the side. “This concludes our involvement here, right?
Everything in me told me to stay and do something about the situation, but so far, I had no clear idea what to do that could have any effect on the local conditions.
A Karthanian, who was the only one of his kind among the rebels, had fought alongside the mountain Ithe, but had not spoken much so far. I only really noticed him standing near the Togar as he spoke.
He said to Har-Hi, “You are Dai Than and acts of mercy might not come as easy to you as to your female friend and captain. The medical help you provided has mended more than bones and healed more than wounds. It has raised hopes and reignited dreams, that we are not alone in this hopeless struggle after all. The fate of Itheamh and its people is closely linked to the conditions in the Karthanian Conglomerate and as long as the First Engineer is kept prisoner and asleep by the horrible Guild Masters, the Karthanian fist lays heavy on this world. Like the Ithe and the Drak, not all Karthanians are bad.”
The Togar rebel leader sighed. “My bone-faced friend speaks of the realization we all have to face, that our rebellion movement has no chance of ever succeeding and freeing our world. It is this hopelessness that keeps us from speaking with one voice. I am certain even many Drak would follow us if we could make some headway.”
While I listened to them, somewhere in my mind, a spark of an idea began to grow. I was not yet able to put it into thoughts or even words.
I said to the Karthanian, “Tell me more about the Karthanian situation.”
The rigid face of the Karthanian could not show emotions, at least none I could identify, but his voice was full of emotions I could understand. “I still have hope. One day, someone will break into the deep chamber underneath the Guild Hall and carry the lost key to awaken the First Engineer. He will wipe away all corruption and the filth that besmirches the noble and ancient halls of our trades. When this happens, the Smelter Moons will go cold and no sentient being be it Karthanian, Togar, or anyone else will be forced to work and die. We have been honest engineers and paid for labor. No slavery existed in the days the First Engineer guided us. When we are free once more, Itheamh will be free, too. The Drak Magistrate who bases his power on Karthanian masters will be swept away.”
The Karthanian turned once more to Har-Hi. “Even you would rejoice, as there are many thousand Dai slaving and dying on the Smelter Moons. There are species that adjust to slave labor better than others. I can tell you, your kind is not one of them; they suffer greatly as their pride is hard to crush. Yet we still call them brothers.”
Har-Hi said to him, “You misjudge me, Karthanian. Dai are as honorable and able to feel compassion as Humans, but I am the first officer of our ship first and foremost and in this capacity I must remind my captain of our primary mission. We have little time, and we are just a small ship, not a battleship with thousands of trained marines to simply topple the regime and then have the time to stay and make sure you do not start to fight among each other. When you remove one force, the vacuum that is created cannot stay empty. Nation building is a difficult business, not to mention that it is against Union regulations to interfere in such ways.”
The Togar nodded slowly. “I understand your dilemma, and we are not asking you to stay or fight with us. We merely hoped you would.”
Har-Hi again turned to the Karthanian. “You are correct, Dai Than do not do well in captivity, but I doubt there are thousands of Dai slaves. Where would they come from? The Karthanian and the Togar are formidable but they are not capable of overcoming Dai tribes and capturing thousands.”
The Karthanian snapped back, “Who said anything about capture? They are sold by their own peers.”
Har-Hi pulled his swords, both of them, and almost killed the Karthanian. “Do not insult my people, Boneface. We are not Karthanians. No Dai has ever enslaved another Dai. No Dai has ever sold another Dai!”
The Karthanian was braver than he looked and raised his head and presented his throat to the hovering blades. “Then strike and kill me. My death does not change the fact that it is done; you can ask two of your kind right here. Where do you think they came from?”
I did not interfere, as Har-Hi’s swords hovered less than a hair’s width from the thin rigid throat of the Karthanian.
Har-Hi was taking a deep breath, and I knew he performed a mental exercise to calm down. I trusted he would make the right decision.
Har-Hi returned his swords into their scabbards and said between pressed teeth, “What do you know about Dai Than being sold into slavery?”
The Karthanian said, “It is going on for over 20 years now and used to be a great secret. It is done by a Dai tribe leader and his name is Cam Elf-Na. This clan leader made a deal with the Guild Masters of the Chamber. In exchange for slaves, he would receive raw materials and the right to hide his clan fleets in Karthanian space. I know all this from my Dai slave brothers and it is from that source I know that this Cam Elf-Na dreams of uniting all Dai clans under his rule. Anyone not accepting his rule, he declares Okthi-Dai.”
I could see in my friend’s face that he believed the Karthanian and he clenched his fists. “What has become of my race? Is this the true legacy of my father’s decision? If my father would have stayed, maybe he could have uncovered this atrocity.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “He said 20 years; that was long before your father made his decision. The history of your people has just begun; the Dai will emerge from this even stronger than they are now.”
He said to the Karthanian, “You said there are two Dai. Can I meet them?”
The Togar answered instead and said, “They are right here, mighty Dai.”
Ninety had a truly booming voice as he roared loudly and called the Dai.
The Dai I had met before and a second even younger-looking Dai came moments later down the ramp and walked closer, staring at Har-Hi with wide eyes.
&nbs
p; Both had the characteristic red skin of Dai Than and were tall and muscular, but they had their hair cropped short, unlike the long hair of my friend, who always wore it carefully oiled and combed it back. Both wore a conglomerate of uniforms and armor pieces.
The older Dai wore his crudely made Clan glyph attached to a homemade crisscrossing across the chest like the broad armor-plated straps all Dai warriors wore.
He bowed before Har-Hi, his fists crossed before his chest. The gesture I knew was called the Urst-Thanar and only done if a Dai warrior accepted the supremacy of another and declared himself a servant.
While I watched them, I realized how much I already knew about the Dai culture. The older slapped the younger one and he, too, then bowed in the same fashion.
Har-Hi removed the cover of his clan glyph and almost visibly he straightened his stance even more; his eyebrows rose a little over his now half-closed eyelids as he mustered the boys. I was certain not even the grand wizard of the Kermac himself could have possibly look more arrogant. Yet Har-Hi added a flair of princely grace somehow. He said to them, “You may identify yourselves now.”
The older one said, “I am Mar-For of the For-Ka-Ti tribe and this is Mar-Ta. He was born on the Smelter Moons so I made him my brother.”
Har-Hi said, “I am the first son of Tar-Ka-Hi, Champion of Thana Shoo, High Warrior of the Crimson Order, and bearer of all seven honor blades.”
I knew he did not do that to brag; it was his way to instill a little racial pride in the two young Dai Than.
It did not fail; their yellow eyes glimmered, and their faces lit up with awe. The older furrowed his brow. “The Clan of Kar-Hi declared Okthi by Cam Elf-Na?”
Har-Hi’s right hand went for his upper honor knife and he said with an ice-cold tone in his voice, “I stand and deal death to anyone dishonoring my father and my tribe. As it appears that blinded fool Cam Elf-Na is doing more damage to the Dai and covers all that is Dai Than with shame. Crawling and taking orders from the Shiss and now I hear he is selling Dai into bondage. No such crimes have been committed since the evil Ortha Okthi was defeated by the Sentient Sprit warriors in the time before time and sent to the darkest pits!”
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 140
