The Vassal World (The First Exoplanet Book 2)

by T. J. Sedgwick

  “Do you live alone?” asked Defence Secretary Romero, ignoring the call to focus, letting curiosity get the better of him. A stray thought of his home and his own far-off family had fleetingly entered his consciousness.

  Adai’s synthetic surrogate answered. “We adults live alone, except when one of our jobs is to nurture young after the birthing season. Rafai and I no longer do that as we have critical leadership roles. Let us now talk about the struggle while we eat. General Rafai?”

  “You must be hungry,” said the synthesized voice of Rafai. “Please be seated and accept a meal.”

  He stepped over to the low, flat thing covered by the shroud and lifted the thin cloth to reveal a metal tray with eight meals laid out around the edges. A shiny metal cup of water sat next to each meal. General Rafai picked up the tray and placed it centrally on the rug. He stood silently until the visitors got the gist and sat around the large tray, opposite their meal.

  Powell and the other humans looked down at the strange ensemble of alien food. He was hungry but couldn't work out what it was. It consisted of three different things. One of the elements he'd seen before as he’d swam through the cave – five or six of what looked like the little eel-fish they’d seen in shoals outside. Lying next to the fish was a yellowy-brown loaf that looked like a natural bath sponge. Rounding off the less-than-appetising dish was something Powell guessed as being seaweed – long, flat, green and slimy.

  “It looks delicious,” Powell lied, accepting the challenge of enjoying the meal for the sake of interstellar relations. A few reluctant nods and words of agreement accompanied his endorsement. He found it amusing to see who would put their words into actions first and tuck in. He waited a few seconds and decided to do it himself. The taste was quite something in that it managed to be both bland and repulsive in equal measure. None of them were rude enough to say so. Powell surmised that the Outcasts, highly intelligent telepaths though they were, could not yet read human body language well enough to know that their guests’ feeling did not match their words. He was feeling most uncomfortable with the combination of sodden clothes, the hot, humid environment and the distasteful food.

  Powell let out a breath and stood up. “Do you mind if we remove some of our wet clothes? We’re not exactly dressed for your environment here.”

  “Yes, please go ahead if it makes you more comfortable,” replied the synthesized voice of Adai.

  Powell stripped down to his underwear and, feeling much the same discomfort, the other humans followed suit. In a way, that simple act in this simple abode had made Powell feel that they were forming a closer-knit team. Shared experiences do that, he thought.

  “So, to business...” started Powell, washing down the awful taste with a generous swig of pure water. He continued, “Things are very grave indeed for humanity – much as they are for your people. We have three-hundred and ten days until the asteroid the Korgax sent towards Earth will destroy most of the life there. We have looked at a number of strategies. General McIver will tell you about them. General?”

  “Thank you, Mr. President,” said McIver, his mind automatically switching back into formal meeting mode.

  “Let’s start with our objectives, which are three-fold. One: stop the asteroid strike. Two: maintain or, should I say, regain territorial integrity of the Solar system. Three: prevent future Korgax attacks. Let us make no mistake here, we are in a dire situation. Our space force is pretty much non-existent. They have wiped out our navy. Most of our Air Force is gone, and the Army is severely degraded. In terms of bases, we’ve lost virtually all of them to enemy action. Only Cheyenne, Groom Lake and a handful of others remain as per the last report we received. Our allies and other nations find themselves similarly affected,” explained McIver, clearly disheartened, but putting a brave face on it.

  At first, Romero felt uncomfortable with McIver mentioning the names of Cheyenne and Groom Lake to the aliens they’d only just met. Revealing missed targets could seal those facilities’ fates if it somehow got back to the Korgax. But he quickly dismissed the concern. They had little choice but to trust the Outcasts and, if they were going to be allies, they’d have to share far more sensitive details than this.

  “So we have very little to fight back with against a seemingly unassailable enemy,” reiterated Powell.

  “Since we can’t use conventional weapons to fight back with, we have started to consider NBC options…” continued McIver.

  “NBC – Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons,” clarified Defence Secretary Romero.

  “Yes, thanks, sir. So, NBC...we still have stocks of nuclear devices of various kinds. We have very little idea at the moment what biological or chemical agents would be effective against the Korgax. We have no live or dead specimen, and not even any DNA, or whatever the Korgax equivalent is…” said McIver as Romero chipped in again.

  “Although it’s unsavoury to be considering this, we feel we have to. The Korgax have already threatened our people with annihilation if they stay in the tropical zone. At the moment we have nothing to stop them.”

  General Rafai’s wide mouth opened, revealing his tiny white rows of teeth as he began to speak. The English translation came out a moment later. “We have Korgax prisoners that we can make available. However, we already know what chemicals will kill them. We developed them during the war. We have no means to make them here, but we can share the formulae with you.”

  “Thank you, General Rafai. That is something we need to think about. However, it makes no difference how potent our nukes, nerve agents or pathogens are if we lack the means to deliver them. The bottom line is we need to take out their war machine. Even if we could knock out the escorting destroyer and then divert the asteroid, they could just send reinforcements and repeat the same trick. We could wipe out their fleet around Earth, but again, they could just jump in another fleet,” said McIver, becoming more animated the more he spoke. Drips of sweat rolled down his forehead in the clammy alien cave-house.

  “Our objectives and our problems are very similar and you have raised the most pressing problem. We want to take our rightful place on our homeworld of Gaia and live peacefully alongside the Alphas as we did before the Korgax faction seized power. We cannot win while the Korgax war machine is at full strength against us. That means we must either destroy the war machine or remove the Korgax regime. Or we can try to do both,” said General Rafai.

  “Good, we are aligned. So the big question is how?” said McIver. “So getting back onto strategies, I’m sorry to say none of them are great, although they’re what we worked on prior to coming here. There are a lot of things we didn’t know when we worked these plans. We’re hoping you can help fill in some of our assumptions about Korgax capabilities, your own and the sit-rep here in the Avendano system, to name a few.”

  “We will listen,” said General Rafai, sitting completely still, gazing straight into McIver’s eyes as if trying to read his thoughts.

  “The highest ranked strategy involves developing a pathogen and introducing it to Korgax society using Special Forces. The pathogen would be asymptomatic for a period long enough for it to spread globally. Once the first symptoms show, death would come quickly and they’d have little chance to develop a vaccine. That is, assuming diseases work in a similar way with them as they do with us. If we can insert our teams onto Gaia and develop or acquire a suitable pathogen, then we feel this has the highest chance of success. You have just helped answer the latter of those two unknowns – at least partially. Downsides to this plan....” said McIver, as Rafai started speaking loudly, interrupting him.

  “We cannot support this plan, General. We already have such a pathogen and could deliver it ourselves. We have not done so because it will not just kill the Korgax faction. We must remember that they are a clan that took the reins of power and subjugated, not only us Outcasts, but other Alphas too. There can be no long-lasting peace if we commit genocide against other Alphas, many of which support us and want rid of t
he Korgax too. Collateral damage will be inevitable, but knowingly exposing all Alphas to such a weapon is something we cannot allow. I must also tell you, General McIver, that we learned from our spies a long time ago that should we use biological weapons then the Korgax would respond in kind. Your nuclear attack on their base has angered them greatly, so we have learned. You do not consider yourselves fortunate, I know, but you are. They could have launched an all-out attack on your planet far worse than you have described. They want your planet, and long-term, they do not want to share it with you. You will see in time.”

  McIver looked taken-aback by the forcefulness of the previously calm merman. Nevertheless, he understood the argument and had to agree with his logic. He looked at the President, who nodded his agreement before he, McIver, continued, “We respect your position, General Rafai and Leader Adai. We can agree to follow a different plan. Which brings us nicely to strategy number two – to feign cooperation with the enemy, while launching an insurgency against them on Earth and Gaia. Combined with this would be a campaign of sedition. It’d be a longer-term strategy to form links with militant Alphas on Gaia, infiltrate their leadership and insert teams for direct action strikes. A coordinated series of attacks on facilities, assassinations and a coup d’état would be the culmination. We have had to make a lot of assumptions about how their systems of government, command and control works. It’s a broad strategy with a lot of details still to fill in, obviously. We would not be able to execute this strategy without your help and the spies you have.”

  Rafai turned to look at Adai, locking eyes with the leader for a few moments. Are they having a private conversation? thought McIver, as he awaited the reply then the translation of Rafai’s response. “You do not know the Korgax in the way that we know them. We have been trying to bring down their regime since the war started. You may have techniques that we can learn from, but this is not a new strategy – it is a continuation, or perhaps, an improvement of what we are already doing. But what we are currently doing is not enough and they are steadily eroding our already limited capability. The base on Demeter's moon of Arlon, near here, was established the equivalent of just one Earth-year ago. Since then our conventional forces have been restricted to fighting them only in the Demeter system. What we need is something that turns the tide of war. We need something new. We need you humans to bring something new to our alliance.”

  It was news to Powell that an alliance had even been agreed formally. But it was clear to them all that a de-facto alliance was already in the making. So Powell and his team went along with it. The President appreciating the pragmatism and wisdom these beings had so-far shown. If only the other powers on Earth – the Russians being the prime example – could be this way, he thought.

  Although the rational McIver did not believe they could read human minds, he found it strange how the Outcasts had managed to lead so seamlessly onto his next point again. He concluded it was merely a logical train of thought about their common challenge.

  “And finally, strategy number three: a real game-changer if we can pull it off. We’d developed a tentative plan called Plan Shotgun. The idea was that we’d use FTL gates to carpet bomb the area of space containing the invading Korgax fleet. The plan would never have worked since the FTL technology we have is simply not accurate enough to send objects to exact coordinates. We are hoping that you have managed to solve this problem since you’ve had the technology at least two decades longer than we have. The closer the final destination is, the better the accuracy seems to be. But even sending things into low-Earth orbit gives a +/- 5 km sphere-of-uncertainty at the ninety-five percent confidence level. We also find that the FTL gates and drives fail after a while, wrecking them completely. We just don’t have enough nukes or FTL gates to use this plan against their fleet. Using it against their planet and assets around Gaia is out of the question…” explained McIver, as Christina jumped in.

  “What you say is correct, but just to clarify: the accuracy reduction isn’t a linear relationship with distance. We’ve not yet figured out exactly how it varies with jump distance, but we’re hoping you can tell us.”

  “Okay, if I can just finish what I was saying...” continued McIver, mildly irritated by the untimely interjection by his scientist colleague, “...We’re currently redoubling our research efforts to improve the precision of FTL jumps. This would be a real game-changer, although Christina tells me that they’ve suffered a severe setback with the destruction of Seattle HQ.”

  Both Adai’s and Rafai’s teal, dappled spots seemed to alter shade, lightening slightly. They locked eyes again and silently communicated, seeming to prefer this mode. Perhaps it is more efficient than speaking, or perhaps they want to omit some detail that the translator might divulge, thought Powell, as he observed the two slippery-skinned amphibians. He had no reason to distrust them, but silently cautioned himself against allowing total trust before actions supported it. He knew they’d have to take some risks since trust would normally take time to build. But time was something in limited supply, he knew. Powell looked around, as he tasted some of the ‘seaweed’ on his plate. Wilke had wolfed down his meal, the giant bodyguard quite taken with the strange cuisine. Sorensen, Christina and Romero had eaten little and had played with their food, turning it over like a fussy kid with a dish of boiled cabbage. McIver had been too busy talking to sample much of it.

  The reply came from General Rafai. “I am sorry to say that our research has not progressed well since we sent the technology to Earth. The war has disrupted our efforts and our research centres have been lost. We managed to improve its accuracy on what you seem to have managed, but it is far from perfect. We do agree that this is a plan with some merit. Let us work on this, as well as the offensive we have in mind. We need to explain this to you now. We need to find out if you can assist in this plan for it is our primary hope – and it could be yours too.”

  “Please, go ahead,” invited McIver, motioning the same with his opening palm.

  Rafai spoke for some time, pausing occasionally to think and at other times to communicate silently with Adai. He finally did something to the translation cylinder to broadcast the English version. “The Korgax’s strengths are many: space superiority, a far greater industrial might, dominance of the air and land on Gaia. Our strengths are that we have established an extensive network of spies and sympathizers amongst the Alphas. We also know that in the seas of Gaia we will now be relatively safe. We have not been a significant naval force for many years now so, with no enemy in the seas, the Korgax have disbanded most of their navy to divert resources elsewhere. We have been covertly building up our forces in hidden locations around the coasts and at our one underwater outpost that has remained undiscovered. We have built up weapons caches and the support of some Alpha rebel groups. However, our plan cannot succeed as it stands. We can attack from the sea and the coast and establish beachheads, but we lack the heavy weapons and strategic delivery systems to take the vast continents that the enemy control. Their armies are strong and their most important command and control centres are far away from the coast. Even with the rebel Alphas and spies, it is not enough. Our forces cannot stay hidden forever and we will need to use them before long. What can you do to help us?”

  McIver understood the problem, but had no immediate solution. Even though the US and her allies still had access to hundreds of nuclear weapons, most of the man-portable ones had already been used. The partially successful attack with battledroids and backpack nukes – Operation Stellar Shield – destroyed only part of the Korgax fleet around Gaia. They’d neutralized over half of their destroyers and a gargantuan carrier, but the remaining ships had jumped to Earth and laid waste to humanity’s forces. Remnants of that fleet still bore down on Earth, the orbiting sentinels maintaining the ultimate high ground like an eagle watching its prey far below. The future looked grim, but McIver knew that defeatism could be corrosive, and he would do his best to clamp down on it if it arose. He chose his word
s carefully.

  “We also lack suitable nuclear devices, but we will do our best to secure more and help the offensive. We will also look at what troops, battledroids and other systems we can commit. This needs to be a joint strategy that we build together.”

  They continued to talk strategy. Sitting there in Rafai’s home for so long, the humans started to become accustomed to the heat and humidity. So many things to do, not much time to do them in. Still, the two-pronged approach had been agreed. Work on FTL accuracy and try to supply the planned offensive to liberate Gaia with man-portable nukes, troops and weapons systems.

  After what seemed like hours they left the fruitful meeting in the sparse red-rock cave. They swam through the underwater cave kingdom, past the curious Outcasts and the imported sea life and back to the water hole they’d entered through. As a scientist, Christina, in particular, wanted to further explore the depths of the aquatic world. However, she would satisfy herself in the knowledge that she’d have time in the weeks to come. For now, they needed to return to their Earth-air quarters and catch up on some sleep.