Over the years, thousands and thousands of brothers and sisters were sent racing across the plains, intent on casting the invaders from their walls. All had been taken from the Family. All had died without reaching the top of a single wall—without injuring a single enemy. The general and his people had taken the walls and overcome the defenders in a single attempt.
The true proof of the general’s greatness, however, was revealed during shiale. During the Gathering, the general had offered the Family a role in ridding Telgora of the remaining enemy.
The Family had pounced upon the offer with a speed and eagerness that Patahbay had never witnessed.
They would start digging right away.
* * *
“You continue to astound me, Little Man.” Titan and Grant had made their way out of the gathering chamber and were ascending back to the surface. “It only took twelve hours to get the Family to change their course of action against the Minith.”
“Only?” Grant asked. He had a difficult time keeping the sarcasm out of his voice. He was emotionally spent, mentally drained. He had lived through weeklong marches and day-long firefights that had left him with more energy.
“Ha!” Titan slapped him roughly on the back. The force of the strike propelled Grant forward a step. He had little strength with which to resist.
“Yes, only twelve hours. You don’t realize how quickly that went for them, Grant.”
“I was there, Titan,” Grant grumbled. “I think I know how quickly it went.”
Titan grabbed Grant’s right arm and jerked him to an abrupt halt.
“No, Grant, you don’t,” Titan explained. The words were biting and delivered a sharp cut. “You know how difficult it was for you, which I can appreciate. But you don’t know how difficult it was for them.
“I spent five years on this pitiful excuse of a planet. For the last four of those years, I argued, cajoled, begged, pleaded, and lied to the Family. Why? Because I saw that their attacks weren’t doing anything but getting them killed.
“And what did I get for my trouble, Grant? Nothing.”
Titan was angry. Grant was being lectured, and he knew the other man was right to do so. In his tired state, he had not considered what Titan had gone through during his time here. The ex-prisoner had watched these beings die time after time for no good reason except that it was their way.
Titan had argued with them for years. Yet, he had been unsuccessful at convincing them to change.
To Grant, if felt like twelve hours of clawing and fighting to finally gain their trust and their nod—their shiale—of his plan. When considering what Titan had had to endure, twelve hours seemed like a very small price to pay. Grant realized he had been whining.
“I’m sorry, Titan. You’re right,” Grant conceded. He placed his left hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Thanks for helping me get my head out of my ass.”
Titan tilted his head and glared at Grant. He was obviously trying to see if he was being placated. Something in Grant’s demeanor must have put his mind at ease, because Titan released his arm, turned, and continued walking up the tunnel to the surface.
Grant rushed to catch up. He silently thanked Avery and their six years of marriage for teaching him a very valuable lesson.
Know when you’re wrong.
And when you’re wrong, apologize.
Chapter 41
“We cannot lose the mining bases on Telgora, Soo,” Rala reminded the general. “The Zrthns pose no threat only as long as we continue to supply agsel.”
“I know,” Soo growled. Her insistence on ignoring his title was growing tiresome. “You have reminded me enough times.”
The agsel, and the need to continue delivering the precious ore to the Zrthns, were regular topics of conversation. The need to keep Governor Truk oblivious of the link between their powerful trading partner and the ore that came from the Telgoran mines was also a constant topic.
Knowledge was power. And he—or she—who has enough power, ultimately rules. It was the Minith way.
Soo and Rala had quietly joined forces years ago. Her ongoing relationship with the Zrthns, combined with his control of the remaining military forces, made them a powerful duo. Without ever speaking the words aloud, both knew their endgame was ultimate control of the Minith worlds. Truk was the governor for now, but they envisioned a point in the near future when he might be tossed aside or used as a pawn in their game of domination.
The pressing question was, who would rule and who would be second-in-command. Soo worried that he already knew the answer. Or, to be more accurate, he worried that Rala thought she already knew the answer.
His brother’s mate was a thick mass of complex layers and hidden motivations. Soo often found himself struggling to understand her, to identify her plans and guess her thoughts. His failure to comprehend her actions did not stop the effort, however. Instead, it led to increased attraction. As a result, he had a difficult time being around her. The desire to touch her… the need to taste her… the urge to smell her… threatened to overpower his senses. They certainly affected his concentration and increased the likelihood that he would never rule her.
When the time came to seize the reins of power, she would undoubtedly rule over him.
“Did you hear me, Soo?”
Soo retrieved his thoughts and gathered the remnants of his shattered concentration. She had asked him about the mothership. The one currently on Telgora or the one he was outfitting for an expedition to the planet, he did not know. He decided to answer both.
“The mothership on Telgora came from Earth, obviously. The attack on the mining base was carried out by humans,” he stated. The admission still sounded strange. Humans could not fight.
He saw the question in her eyes—the one that wanted to know what that meant for Treel. Her mate. His brother. He chose to ignore the question until she asked him directly, and pressed on.
“The mothership just completed by the Waa will be ready to depart tomorrow. I will be on it.”
“You are going personally?” she asked.
He was pleased the information caught her off guard. She so rarely was. He wondered if she was asking because she worried about him, but promptly waved the thought away. She was still pining for her dead mate.
“Yes,” he replied. “I am tired of this mystery. I promise you, I will learn how the humans captured a mothership. I will also know their part in the destruction of the home world.”
“Good,” Rala said. “We can use that knowledge to our benefit.”
Soo gained a slim peek behind the mask of her thoughts. His desire to find out if the humans had destroyed their world was personal. For Rala, it was another tidbit of information to be used to her advantage.
“How long will it take you to reach the planet? I need to let the Zrthn minister know that we are taking action.”
“What? He knows about the attack?” Soo asked in shock. How could the foreigner know what happened on a Minith world?
Rala laughed.
“Of course he knows, Soo,” she jibed. “The Zrthns have spies everywhere.”
She removed a piece of lint from her purple sleeve and tossed it casually aside.
“The minister informed me of the human attack a full day before you decided to tell me.”
The accusation was implied. The reprimand was understood.
Soo struggled to contain his emotions, but he feared his ears would give him away. The fact that the Zrthn knew about the attack was distressing. The fact that Rala had learned about it from the off-worlder was also distressing.
The most distressing thing was Rala’s use of these facts to send Soo a message. The Zrthn’s spies were also her spies.
Another layer had been added.
* * *
Oiloo listened to the exchange with interest.
The female’s assertion that he had spies everywhere was mildly humorous. She was unaware of the extent or the manner of his eavesdropping.
The female, his contact
with the Minith for all trade arrangements, appeared to be toying with the male. Either that, or the male was too dim to understand how politics worked within his own race. As the head of the Minith military, Oiloo would have expected the male to be more astute.
Either way, it made little difference to Oiloo. As the Manager of Trade for the Zrthns, he only cared about one thing.
Agsel.
The male was taking actions to keep the agsel flowing. This was good. It meant Oiloo would not have to act.
Chapter 42
The twenty-four fighter carriers were loaded; their pilots were briefed and ready for flight. The ships were split into six sorties of four fighters each and named Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot. All the sorties except Foxtrot would soon be hitting one of the five remaining mining bases with bombs and strafing runs.
Because the bases were located around the equator of the planet, the sorties were scheduled to depart at staggered periods. All would fly east ward with the wind at their backs. Gee had calculated distances, wind speed, and flight paths to find ideal departure times. If everything went as planned, all fighters would arrive at their primary targets at the same time. This meant that Alpha, which would target the farthest base, number five, had the farthest to travel—approximately four hours—before making contact. Echo, the last sortie to depart, would have the shortest flight before reaching its designated target, base one.
After the attacks, each group would continue around the planet, with the wind pushing them along, until they reached the mining base they had already captured and were using as their staging base.
Foxtrot was not assigned a target. This had not gone over well with the pilots, who, like their counterparts in the other groups, were anxious to re-engage with the Minith. But the tactics were sound, and grumbling was kept to a minimum. Grant was holding that group back to provide cover for the mothership. It could also be used as a reserve force, should one be needed.
The pilots not assigned to Foxtrot were on edge and anxious to get off the ground.
The first sortie, Alpha, was scheduled to depart as soon as Grant received word from Titan that the Telgorans were ready.
* * *
The days after the Gathering were agonizing for Titan. He was ready to create some pain for the Minith hiding behind the stone walls of their bases. The knowledge that he was so close to the goal he had envisioned for years did not help. In fact, it had the opposite effect. He felt like a six-year-old boy waiting for his birthday to arrive. Time ticked slowly along, the minutes dragged, the hours lasted for days.
Grant’s defeat of the Family’s dindin champion had won their attention. The attack on the Minith base had won their hearts and their single, mass mind. Because of those successes, the Family was prepared to listen; they were ready to change their ways and follow the guidance of a human they had just met. If Titan had not been so elated at their acceptance of Grant’s plan, he might have resented the other man’s succeeding where he had failed. Or he might have gotten angry that the Family he had come to love and admire had spurned his guidance and readily accepted another’s.
But he could be neither resentful nor angry.
Titan had left Telgora because of his inability to influence to the mass mind of the Family. He had returned to Earth with the express goal of bringing Grant Justice back to this rocky, windy, hellish place.
And Grant had done exactly what he had hoped for, but never thought possible.
He had changed the Telgorans’ ways.
The time continued to drag, but Titan was content. The outcome would be worth the wait. What were a few extra days when the end was finally in sight?
* * *
Patahbay received the knowledge with the rest of the Family. The digger, a male named Pratalo, stopped digging, quietly placed his digging tool on the ground, and stepped back from the hole he had created. This was the last of the five tunnels they had been asked to dig by the general.
Patahbay consented to the direction of the mass mind and set out to find the human called Titan.
It was almost time to eliminate the invaders. The Family felt elation.
* * *
The mothership left interstellar mode and settled into a rhythm of steady hum as it approached Telgora.
“I want a clear view of the planet surface,” General Soo informed the team of warriors operating the controls of the large ship. “No closer than that for now.”
“Yes, General.” He received quick, crisp replies from all of those in the room. He nodded his approval. This was a new crew, and order had been instilled early. He had made it clear from the start of the journey that full and immediate acceptance of his orders was required. Less would not be tolerated.
Soo had not risen to the rank of general by luck, personal relationships, or even military genius. No, he climbed to the top by demanding strict allegiance and displaying a brutal hand to subordinates who displayed anything less. He was known within the Minith army as a vicious taskmaster who ruled with an iron fist and a cutting tongue. When Soo ordered his soldiers to jump, they jumped. When he ordered his troops to jump higher, they did not bother asking, “How high?” They already knew the answer and jumped as high as they could.
As Soo waited for his orders to be carried out, he considered his position. No further attacks had been carried out against the bases on Telgora, but they had hunkered down and assumed defensive positions. If an attack came, they would be ready. It did not take a military genius to know the first attack was a fluke. Its success was based on surprise and a superior number of fighters at the point of attack. If the humans attempted a second attack, they would find the walls of the mining bases heavily defended. All hands, military and nonmilitary alike, had been ordered to stand watch atop the walls in rotating shifts. Half of all personnel were manning the walls while the other half slept and rested. Every eight hours, they switched positions. At any time, roughly a thousand armed Minith were stationed atop the walls of each base.
Mining for agsel had been temporarily abandoned until the danger was dealt with, and that’s what Soo planned to do—deal with the humans on Telgora. The mothership was loaded with more than a thousand troops, advanced weapons, and attack craft. With the ten thousand troops civilians already on the ground, Soo felt his forces would be more than adequate to destroy a mothership full of humans.
The three other motherships Soo had ordered to Telgora from other, further planets, were overkill. The first of the three was due to arrive in five days, but by the time it reached the planet, the fighting would be over.
The Telgoran natives were a minor concern. General Soo had to keep his men from confronting them directly. Hand-to-hand combat with the stronger Telgorans would be dangerous. However, as long as his forces stayed in their fighting craft or inside the bases, the dim-witted natives should pose no threat. The stones and clubs the natives wielded were no match for the pulse weapons the Minith employed.
Chapter 43
Titan relayed the information regarding the Telgoran’s breach of the final tunnel to Grant.
Grant was seated in the command center of the mothership with Gee when he received the word. The ability to communicate with the key players—the pilots, Titan, and the forces at the mining base—could only be done from the ship. He felt disconnected from the action, but he had no choice. Adequate, prompt communication and his ability to coordinate the efforts of the players were vital to their success.
“Very good, Titan. How long do the Telgorans need before they are ready?”
Grant heard Titan speaking the native language and realized he was asking one of the Telgorans, probably Patahbay.
“The Family will be ready in two hours, Little Man.”
“Excellent. I will let you know when they can start.”
“You got it,” Titan replied.
* * *
“General, we have reached orbit.” Soo was pulled back from his thoughts of the coming attack. “The view of the primar
y base is coming online now.”
Soo turned toward the screens on the far wall of the command center. He had been inside a mothership dozens of times, but this was the first time the screens had ever been used. He was amazed at the scene that came into focus and wondered why he or his people had never considered these visual cues important.
The view was remarkable. It was if he were looking straight down into the interior of the mining base from a height of several hundred feet. He could see the details of the base, and the human forces stationed there, clearly. Defenders were stationed at regular points along the walls. They were armed and facing outward, clearly alert for approaching forces or craft. Inside the walls, the normally clear area was filled with human vehicles and carriers. He could not tell their purpose, but he knew they were designed for war.
Activity appeared along the western wall of the base and Soo watched as a group of weak-looking humans ran to several of the vehicles. Within sixty seconds, the vehicles, four in all, were airborne and streaking to the east.
“Follow those craft on a different screen,” he ordered. Seconds later, the wall broke into separate video feeds. One was still focused on the base, the other tracked the aircraft.
The craft were very fast—faster than the fighting ships Soo had in the bay of his mothership. A finger of doubt crept up his spine. He flung it roughly away.
These are just humans, he reminded himself. They may be capable of building faster aircraft, but they will never be fighters.
“How far are the human ships from the next base?”
“At their current speed, they will arrive at the next base within fifteen minutes, General.”
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