She stroked my hair and asked, “You okay, love?”
I took a deep breath but couldn’t answer.
“Never stop to worry about the opinion of a hater. They’re incapable of meaningful thought.”
“I know. Still hurts though.”
She gently turned my face toward hers. “Why? The man’s a bigot and a pompous fool. You can’t let him in your wheelhouse.”
“It…it what he said about…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“What? About me? Honey, don’t you see that’s where he was farthest off track? He’s heard about you and worked with you superficially. But his prejudice and his shortsightedness blinded him. You’re the most human person I know.” She hugged my head close. “Seriously. You mess things up more than anyone I’ve ever met. Toño would never be so incompetent to program an android to be so reckless. No, you’re human all right. We own you and are proud to do so.”
“I have to say it. If you ever, you know, have second thoughts, I want you to let me know. Promise?”
“No.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t promise because I could never have second thoughts.” She tapped the top of my head. “I know the kooky guy in there is just as alive as I am. More so, most likely. In all the time I’ve known you and loved you, I’ve never once thought of you as anything but a living, breathing hunk of a guy. You’re too damn cute to be anything else.”
Man, it was nice to be loved so intensely.
“I’m not good at this gushy stuff…”
She put a finger over my lips. “Gushy stuff? That’s what you call expressing genuine passion?”
“Yeah, it sort of condenses the verbiage. I’m a busy guy. Streamlining is my life.”
“Oh, it is? And here I thought your thing was to be the hotty in charge of saving humanity.”
“That too, of course. Kind of goes without saying. But efficiency, that’s kind of my new thing.”
“Then could you manage our time wisely and seal that wall? It’ll save us the trouble of waiting until we walk home.”
“You bet. A minute saved is…”
My last, lame words were thankfully muffled by her lips.
FIFTEEN
I have called this emergency council meeting to discuss the very serious and increasingly bizarre situation surrounding my niece.” JJ was trying his best to be restrained and professional. Inside, lava boiled. “I don’t want to be overly formal, so I’ll present the facts as we know them rather than call experts to tell them.”
“This is a departure from protocol, brother,” said Fashallana.
“Yes, and I will skip expedience if the council insists, but the situation is changing rapidly, and I want a detailed plan as quickly as possible.”
“Very well,” she responded. “We will only call experts if there is a disagreement or point of contention,” she replied.
“Thanks. As most of you know, Dolirca had her Toe throw her husband off the cliffs. Then she escaped from prison as if by magic, killing two guards in the process. Most recently, she disappeared completely while under intense observation.”
“Where would she have attained that level of skill?” asked Nmemton. “My aunt never seemed, I don’t know, talented at anything but being mean.”
“She couldn’t have done any of those things on her own, because you’re correct, she possesses no covert or martial talents. She used to be bright enough, but lately she’s just been deranged,” said JJ.
“What can we do?” asked Noresmel. “She’s not here, and we have no idea where to find her.”
“True. If she returns, however, we need a plan.”
“What do you propose, JJ?” asked General Tao.
JJ stared intently at him a few seconds. “Shoot on sight.”
A collective gasp rose from the crowd.
“That’s extrajudicial and without precedent,” said Fashallana. “How can you possibly justify such rash action?”
“It won’t be illegal if the council votes in favor of the action.”
“Most unusual, but technically your statement is correct,” responded Draldon. He was the legal advisor for the council.
“I move we vote on the issue…” JJ began to say.
“That won’t be necessary, uncle.” All eyes snapped around to see Dolirca calmly strolling down the aisle toward the dais. “I am here to lead my people. Voting will no longer burden you, my subjects.”
A beautiful butterfly wafted in the air above her, following her progress.
“Seize that woman,” yelled JJ pointing to Dolirca.
A crowd of people advanced and put hands on her but were abruptly thrown backward. A few crashed into chairs. Dolirca had not so much as swung an arm. A couple men surged forward a second time. They were rebuffed even harder. One slammed into a wall three meters away. Again, Dolirca didn’t strike at them. She just kept casually approaching the stage.
JJ drew a pistol from its holster and aimed it at Dolirca. Before he could fire, the weapon flew into the air, and he collapsed roughly into his seat. He tried to stand back up but was unable to. It was like he was glued to the chair.
“Dolirca, what the hell is going on here?” demanded JJ as best he could, given his restraints.
“Why, uncle, I’m here to rule.”
“Oh boy, you’re battier than I thought. You can’t rule. You’re not fit. I don’t know how you’re doing it, but release me at once.”
Callophrys flapped over to JJ and landed on his nose. He tried to strike it but had to settle for blowing violently at it. She flew to Dolirca and landed on her shoulder.
“How I do it is none of your concern. That I do it is where you should focus your limited mind.”
Dolirca walked onto the stage. She put a heel on JJ’s chair and pushed him to the floor sideways. She sat in the chair nearest to the podium.
“My people,” Dolirca said magisterially to the stunned audience, “please be at ease. Sit. I insist.”
Every man and women sat so fast it appeared their butts were attached to their chairs with an over-stretched spring. The room was as quiet as a tomb.
“My people, there have been a great many lies and untruths spoken about me. I am here to proclaim that all those lies are untrue and all the untruths are false.” She smiled like an idiot. “I am your loving empress. I stress the word loving. I only want the best for you, each and every one of you little gems. Naturally to that exclusive end, I may perform acts that seem, on their surface, to be arbitrary and cruel. Know that this is not the case. Never. I only act to better your small lives, your insignificant existences. Loving. Keep that word in your tiny brains always. In fact, my first act as your empress queen is to proclaim that the word Dolirca will replace the word formerly known as loving. Those caught using the outmoded term will be executed. Is that clear, my Dolirca subjects?”
Not a single soul in the assembly as much as breathed.
“Fine. Now, in the adjustment period, yours to my reign and me to your petty lives, be assured I will be kind and tolerant. However, after this brief interlude is over, I will brook no dissent and tolerate no subterfuge. Any and all words, acts, or deeds against me will be punishable by death. I like to keep the rules simple. If you would all be so kind as to leave my uncle and me alone, I would thank you.”
The rush for an exit was chaotic. It was a miracle no one was injured or killed. At a certain level of panic, animal instincts, not insane young women, rule.
“Dory, let me go,” demanded JJ with his cheek pressed against the floor.
She lifted an arm in his direction, and said, “Rise, court jester.”
JJ slumped to the floor but shot to his feet and rushed at Dolirca. Before he closed any distance, he levitated from the floor, his legs whipping in what might otherwise have been a comical image.
“I did not give you permission to approach the throne, jester. I hate to hold you in suspense, so allow me to list quickly several rules that might just allow yo
u to live a little longer.”
“You…”
“Silence.”
JJ kept yelling, but he produced no sound. It was like his voice had been removed.
“Better. Now, first, as to your name. JJ is short for Jon Junior, as in Jonathan Ryan II. It will never do to have the machine’s name mentioned again. Henceforth, your name will reflect your job. Urpentor, the jester, is your name. Second, never speak unless I give you leave. Third, I now rule Azsuram. Defy me, Brathos, just annoy me, and you will wish, as I always have, that you’d never been born. Those are the rules. If you differ with any, please just say so, and I’ll change them to your liking.”
She cupped a hand to her ear.
JJ continued to scream for all he was worth, but still he could produce no sound. He still kicked wildly, floating in the air.
“Very well. Thank you for accepting my decrees, Urpentor. You may go.”
She flicked the back of her hand toward the door, and JJ flew thought it. Fortunately, it had been left open by the rushing mob. He rolled on the ground several times. When he tentatively sat up, he found he could speak again. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what to say.
SIXTEEN
“I have to apologize again for the horrible behavior of former admiral Matsumoto.” Alexis blushed deeply, and she couldn’t bring her eyes to meet mine.
“Not a problem. He acted like a spoiled monkey, not you,” I said reassuringly.
“Still, I was his CIC. Technically, I guess I still am. His court martial is pending. I demoted him to seaman, so I’m still his commander.” She grunted a grim laugh.
“Make sure he swabs the deck while waiting. Navy folk, they love swabbed decks.”
“I’ll see that he’s provided a suicide-watch approved mop as soon as I can.” She giggled at that one. “Seriously, I don’t know what got into him. He always seemed like a model officer.”
“I’ll tell you what got into him: prejudice, pride, and a hefty helping of stupid. And they’ve all been scrambling around in his head for a very long time. I never thought he was a model officer, just a humorless one. To see the faults in a person, you need to put them under powerful stress. Then you see the defects. The man was simply never tested by fire. One look at the flame, and his dark side couldn’t be contained.”
“Wow. Warrior, savior, and philosopher. I’m continually more impressed.” She winked at me.
“Don’t kid yourself. I’m a fighter pilot. Our brains are incapable of philosophy. It would gum up the works. No, I’ve just seen a lot of people. Non-people too, for that matter. Haven’t met a species yet that’s difficult to read.”
“Well, I’m still mortified by what he said.”
“Me, I had a different take. Here we are, humans trying against all odds to survive, and some asshole still feels perfectly comfortable drawing a line in the sand demarcating his idiotic thought process. It’s so damn discouraging. Same thing with Stuart Marshall. He would nuke us all to have his way. It kills me, really it does. I’m not Pollyanna enough to think we should all get along and love one another. But to work actively against your own survival because of your prejudice or quest for power? It totally blows me away. I mean, the Berrillians want to cook our children and put them in cans. But he’d rather let them eat his grandkids as a quick snack rather than see someone who disgusts him save their butts. Crazy.”
“And depressing.”
“But what is one to do?”
“Press ahead, Jon. As always, we move on.”
“I know. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it’s getting harder.”
“I can only imagine. Sorry, my friend,” Alexis said with intense empathy. “So, you haven’t asked what we’re going to do to Katashi in the long run. You have to be curious.”
“Nope. I’ll forget about him as soon as I can. If you asked for my suggestion, I’d say send him to the Berrillian flagship to begin negotiations for their surrender.” I winked at her.
“I’ll make certain that’s on the table.” She relaxed back in her chair. “So, what was your plan to test the Berrillian code’s reliability?”
“Is, not was. With your permission, I’m ready to move on it.”
“Since that fiasco of a meeting, our best minds have been unable to come up with a great plan. Hell, a doable plan. I’m thinking of cutting their pay. They’re so close to useless I might as well save the public some coin. What’ve you got?”
“Preliminary thoughts for now. Basically, I go to a Berrillian-held world, pretend to be a local with a juicy secret, and if they report it, we know they don’t suspect us.”
“And you said it was preliminary. That sounds so easy. You appear there, and they don’t detect you, though Lord knows they’re good at it. You blend in to an alien society even though you’ve never been there and aren’t even remotely related, and you put a top-secret message in, what, a bottle? Then you escape without being dismembered or them suspecting you’re a spy. Did I mention they’re really good at that stuff, by the way?”
“The way you say it, sure, it sounds ridiculous. But I’m sure in reality it’ll be much less impossible.”
“The fate of humanity rests on a mission being less impossible. The fact that the words are grammatically incorrect seems prophetically apropos.”
“I’ve faced longer odds. I think.” I scratched my head. “I’m pretty sure I have. And look at me.”
“If you insist. Okay, you realize that if any one thing goes wrong, you don’t come back, and we don’t have your magic cube we’re all lunchmeat, right?”
“Sure. Maybe snacks too. Don’t underestimate the importance of a tasty, nutritious snack in the middle of a long conquest.”
“Maybe we should surrender now, you know, help a tiger out?”
“I agree. I’ll drop off Katashi right now to begin negotiating our surrender.”
“In your dreams, cowboy. Look, firm up your plan, run it by my military eggheads, and we’ll see. I have to say I’m probably going to nix any plan where we might lose you, but I’m willing to listen to whatever you come up with.”
“Sounds fair. I’ll get back to you in a couple days.”
“And, Jon, if they chop me up into dinner, I’m coming to haunt you forever.”
“Get in line. There’s a lot of ghosts ahead of you.”
Over the next two days I honed my sketchy plan into a loose one, poorly structured, vague on key points, and incredibly unlikely to succeed. A typical Jon plan. When I presented it, Alexis turned beet red a medically alarming number of times, screamed at me three times, and threatened me with physical violence twice. Yup, a trademark Ryan scheme. But in the end, lacking any other viable option, she gave me the green light. I’ve discovered over time that the only thing scarier than listening to one of my own crazy stratagems out loud is when someone in authority approves one. It means they’re beyond desperate and that I’m a goner. Same monkey, same circus, just a new town. I was in my comfort zone.
To help establish a convincing cover and to have someone watching my back, my plan called for a woman to play the role of my wife. And boy, did the powers that be ever come up with a doozy. Commander Kendra Aubrey Hatcher, Navy Seal, black ops specialist, three-time all-Navy tae kwon do champion, and tighthead props on the present women’s championship rugby team. Because she was a consummate overachiever, she was a fighter pilot too and went by the handle of Echo. Of course, the fighters she flew were Corsair Class spaceships. No one needed fixed-wing fighters anymore, not on an epic space journey. Kendra was one tough gal. She wasn’t what I called a looker, but she was solidly put together. She was nearly six feet tall, probably one hundred and fifty pounds, and her muscles looked like a sculptor crafted them.
I went through the planet options with Wrath. His detailed charts and records included a good portion of the space currently held by the Berrillians. I chose a planet with a historically humanoid population so we’d blend in. I also wanted to land directly without new reconnaissance. I
f we spent any time in orbit, we’d certainly be detected. Wrath’s maps were forty-thousand years out of date, but they would have to do. There was a perfect valley cut deeply between soaring cliffs. Assuming it was still there, it was extremely unlikely we be observable.
Language, culture, weapons, and money were all other issues I’d have. The weapons part was easy. We reconfigured captured Berrillian laser rifles to fit our hands. That was something a local resistance could easily do. Money, if it was still relevant in a destroyed society, was impossible to predict. I elected to bring a large number of one-hundred-gram gold ingots. The language would be trivial for me and totally challenging for Kendra. Culture would be tricky for both, but easily played by ear.
She insisted on spending the better part of a week training with the modified weapons. In the end, she was impressive. She could fire rapidly on the run and accurately while diving to the ground. She also memorized the old maps Wrath had. I was impressed with her thoroughness.
Finally, it was time to take the plunge. Kayla brought the kids, and the six of us dined on Wrath. It was the last chance I’d have to see my family for a long time, assuming I survived. It also gave Kayla an opportunity to chat with Kendra. They’d met twice before, but only in passing. The women got along well, if formally. I guessed it didn’t matter much. They didn’t have to be friends for our mission to succeed.
When it was time to say goodbye, Kayla and I slipped away. “So,” I asked mischievously, “you gonna be jealous, what with me spending a lot of time in the company of a gorgeous woman?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“Why, because you trust me so perfectly?” I batted my eyes.
“Ah, yeah. I trust you about as far as I can throw you. Jon, you know she’s a lesbian, right?”
“Huh?”
“Honey, I know you can be insensitive and self-absorbed, but really? She practically wears a sign.”
Forever Series 5: The Forever Alliance Page 7
