“How indeed?” replied Fractor. That was the most cautious observation in the history of responses. Fractor smiled inwardly.
“Indeed,” responded Xantrop. He clearly wasn’t going to make this easy for anyone. Perhaps one of his bitter rivals, who was everyone in the room except the king, would speak with too loose a tongue.
“I am inclined to attack them openly and without mercy,” shouted Anganctus. “Kill them properly. That’s my desire.”
The sentence beginning with Yes, lord, but had never been spoken by a cat presently alive. The ruler clearly overlooked the inconvenient fact that the alliance had them out-gunned by a ridiculous margin. The results of the last skirmish proved that to any but the dimmest. It was equally true that the sentence beginning with Lord, that is a stupid idea had never been uttered by a living cat.
“I say we fight them like males,” howled a young officer. The poor fellow probably meant what he said. He had not grasped the key to promotion in the service of the king. One did not advance due to merit but from longevity. Very bright young Faxel blundered into death with conspicuous frequency. High level positions were filled by those left simply because they were still breathing. Dead cats make poor generals was a saying as old as the Faxel themselves.
“But, fourth-carrier,” responded Fractor, as he hadn’t bothered to learn the young male’s name, “have you not hear the rumor? They say the cursed of Haldrob destroyed Havibibo’s fleet with the push of a button.”
Fractor referred to the well-documented annihilation of an entire invasion fleet as a rumor that they say to make it clear that he did not know it was true. Hence, Fractor could not possible be speaking an affront to his cruel master, who’d idiotically suggested an all-out attack.
“We hear all type of rumors these days, Second-Equal Fractor. Which shall we believe? It is not conceivable that a well-commanded fleet could be picked apart like birds in a nest,” responded the young male. “So, I think the enemies of Anganctus are bluffing. I always call a bluff.”
Perhaps this young cat was a bit too dull upstairs, reflected Fractor. It might be best to cull him out sooner than later. It was one thing to dance around an affront to the king. It was another thing entirely to believe that a crushing naval defeat could be viewed as a bluff. Fractor had to shake his massive head in disbelief. What was the War Academy sending them nowadays?
“We should believe no rumors,” said Xantrop. “We have skilled intelligence teams and cunning spies to sort fact from fiction, rumor from truth. I say our young fourth-carrier is deceiving the Lord of Berrill.”
That quieted the room suddenly and definitively. Someone was about to die. Everyone else was keen to keep that number at one. An ill-placed glance could implicate anyone in a conspiracy. The Faxel maxim for this type of situation was, Tie your tail to your front leg and sit on it, the English equivalent of cover your ass.
“I call First-Equal Xantrop a liar,” howled the young officer. Whether he knew it or not, he was free to say whatever he liked since he was already a dead cat. “There is no officer—no servant—of the mighty Lord Anganctus more fiercely loyal than me. I challenge the false Xantrop to single combat. Let the gods reveal who is the traitor.”
“I accept the fourth-carrier’s challenge and demand satisfaction immediately,” responded Xantrop. “We shall proceed to the Arena of Justice this very moment to see who has watery blood.”
Three guards surrounded the young officer and directed him out a large door. Xantrop sat and called a slave to refill his mug. When the girl was through, he whispered in her ear that a rare delicacy should be brought for the king and he to share.
Quickly, all the eyes that were on Xantrop found safer places to look. The young officer was already dead and tale of Xantrop’s harrowing yet glorious victory in the Arena was already being prepared for the next news cycle. Such were the wages of challenging the First-Equal. The system was rigged, everyone with a brain knew it, and those who didn’t succumbed to the fate of fools everywhere.
“Lord. I feel the plan that animal proclaimed was as bad an idea as he was an officer. To think that he declared we should face our enemies openly. Hah! I think I’ll order the remainder of his litter killed for the good of our gene pool.”
“There’s no idiot like an ignorant one, is there, old friend?” asked a subdued Anganctus.
“There certainly is not.”
The servant leaned in with the requested delicacy on a platter. The liver of the fourth-carrier was neatly sliced in half so each cat could share in the posthumous appeal for forgiveness. Steam wafted from it as it was still warm.
As Xantrop licked his claws, he spoke matter-of-factly to the king. “So, what is our plan to punish and destroy our enemies, lord?”
“Clearly we must continue our campaign of growth and annexation.”
“Naturally. Do you fancy our new allies will…er, allow such directed actions?”
“If they are fools they will.”
“And if they are, as we both suspect, not fools?”
“Then they’ll protest, posture, and ultimately pounce.”
“But in the meantime, we expand as rapidly and discreetly as we can?”
“Naturally.” The king smiled to his second. “And we must place warriors in hiding to wage secretive war against our foes.”
“Where possible. I don’t imagine many Berrill will volunteer to float in the atmosphere of Gollar like the Fenptodinians.”
They both chuckled at the comical image of huge cats trying to swim in oily air.
“Are our agents to engage in guerrilla tactics or lie in wait for a coordinated attack?”
“I don’t know,” responded the king. “What are your thoughts?”
“I think I want another officer to challenge me. That liver was delicious.”
The king slapped him on the back as he laughed raucously.
“In terms of our agents, as you know, they are difficult to conceal,” said Xantrop.
“As a horny cat in a whorehouse in heat,” guffawed Anganctus.
“Hence, I suggest we alert our trusted new friends that ill fortune has struck us like a tree limb in a hurricane. Several hundred criminally insane Berrillians overpowered their medical team and escaped with warships. We are, of course, confident we will capture them all before they can leave our space. There is a chance that they will err their way to foreign worlds, however. If they do, they should be shot on sight, as they are deranged.”
“And hungry,” added the king.
“Well, if we had prisons for the criminally insane, we’d certainly feed the residents poorly.”
“Only each other, I imagine.” He king chuckled softly at his superb wit.
“Undoubtedly. So, we try and conceal as many as possible, but they will be free to act if discovered.”
“How numerous will the several hundred be?” asked Anganctus.
“Perhaps a million. More if we can spare the ships.”
“Excellent. With those numbers, many will infiltrate those pitiful worlds. Between their supplies and what they can eat on the sly, a goodly number should be ready to strike when we encounter a clear opening.”
“It will be the Throngian Coalition all over again, master.”
“Yes,” he replied, peening his whiskers. “That took awhile, but we certainly showed them who the superior species was.”
“A few generations is nothing in the larger picture of our final conquest of the galaxy. In the end, our victory is unavoidable. We are destined to rule all we can seize.”
“We are destined to rule all I seize. My reign will have no end, my power no limit, and my cruelty no boundary.”
“I will drink to that, lord,” said the faithful friend.
THIRTY-SIX
My butt was parked in its old happy spot. In the far-left corner under the broken Coors Light sign in Peg’s Bar Nobody. When I was in a mood, that was where I went. The fact that it was 8:30 a.m. reflected the extent of my contemplative
musings. Fortunately, Kayla understood. In fact, it was her suggestion that I go spend a few days on Granger, which meant, naturally, Peg’s. She had her hands full with kid maintenance and didn’t need an android moping around and demanding attention.
So, there I sat with Peg herself. Yeah, a rare honor. I had the grandame herself to commiserate with. If I said life didn’t get any better, I’d be the most pathetic human ever. But it was nice, familiar, and comforting. A shot and a beer with someone who understood life was just what the doctor ordered, if, of course, the doctor was an incompetent drunkard.
“You sure your old lady didn’t finally get a pair of glasses, take one look at you, and kick your bony ass out the door?” asked my empathetic drinking partner.
“Pretty sure that’s not how it went down. But, if it’ll make you happy, sure. You outed me. How ’bout a free round for this bony-assed, broken-hearted loser?”
“In your dreams, flyboy. You play, you pay.” She tapped the whiskey bottle with one knuckle. “This stuff ain’t free, you know?”
“No, they give it to anyone desperate enough to take the cleaning solvent off their hands.”
“There’s plenty of bars here on Granger. If this one ain’t up to your lofty standards, I’d be happy to kick said bony ass in the direction of any number of options.”
“Nah, this one has a certain je ne sais quoi that can’t be duplicated.”
“I think I’ve just been insulted by a sewing machine. If I knew what the fuck you just said, I likely rip you a new one.”
“I’ll drink to that.” I belted back a shot and slammed down my beer without waiting for her to join.
She did endeavor to catch up quickly, bless her heart.
“Hey, alchie,” she asked, “what has three legs and is even uglier than you?”
“This doesn’t sound like it’s heading in a very funny direction, but I give. What has three legs and is uglier then you?”
She scowled, probably contemplating whacking me or not, but her anger passed quickly.
“No fucking idea, but it’s walking this way, so I assume it’s looking for you. Probably wants to mate with your hairdo.”
“Okay. Could you dim the lights and make sure we’re not disturbed? Hey, is there a booth in this dump?”
“No. The dump next door has one, but the benches are pretty sticky. I’d avoid it, personally.”
She slid her chair back with her stumpy legs as she stood. “I’ll check back after your head’s pregnant, see if your it-friend wants anything refreshing to assimilate.”
I turned to watch her leave and saw that Kymee was approaching my table. I stood and bumped shoulders with him.
“You, my friend, are positively the last person I’d expect to walk through those doors,” I said, hugging him.
Even the open-minded Kymee wasn’t one hundred percent down with hugs yet, but I was working on him. He stiffly patted my back.
“And I, in my extensive travel history, never thought to stoop so low as to visit an institution such as this.”
“I heard that,” came a shout from the kitchen.
“I certainly hope she did,” said Kymee with a cute grin.
“So, you in the neighborhood and just stopping by?”
“Ah, no and no chance. I’ve sought you out. Kayla told me not only where to find you but drew a sketch of that broken sign to guide my way.” He pointed with disapproval at the Coors sign. Man had no taste, no sense of history.
“So, you’re back from the Neverwhere? Was it nice? You buy some land and plan to move the family there?”
“Hardly.” He shuddered. “Vile place if ever there was one. We split up and investigated it quite extensively. Do you know what we found?”
I shrugged.
“Not one damn thing.”
“Kymee. Such language from a man of your years and stature. Shame on you.”
“It was amazing, really. No structures, no bones, no ships. Nothing. I reconstructed the data points to see if there was structure in the frame of reference of a non-corporeal. Still nothing. The Last Nightmare were the most boring creatures I’ve ever encountered.”
“Maybe they sang folk songs all the time. I bet that’d be fun.”
He shook his head gently.
“But at least they’re all dead, right?”
“I’m almost certain. I located traces of Des-al’s essence. I retraced the trajectories they followed and confirmed he was a smallish ball of electrochemical ooze.”
“A bunch of snot caused all that trouble? No way.”
“There are advantages to not having a body. They were free to use most of their energy to think and reason.”
“Did you find traces of the female he claimed to have killed?”
“No. I was hampered in that regard by not knowing where she was at the time of the explosion.”
We were quiet awhile.
“So, what comes next?” I asked, staring into my empty glass.
“Who can say. If a rosy picture was out there, I doubt you’d have ended up here.”
I was silent a bit. “Yeah. I don’t so much have foreboding as I do a bleak outlook. It pisses me off.”
“How so?”
“Here humanity is freed to move among the stars. We’re practically invulnerable. Yet I suspect we’re going to need all that to fight off our dear Berrillians.”
“Much as we do too. That was how it happened a million years ago. Once we bested them in open combat, they switched to unconventional warfare. They were hell to beat. You know, we only just did?”
“Really. Didn’t your son chase them away, tails between their legs?”
“Yes, in the end. But it took eons to break them sufficiently and completely. We were lucky.”
“Great. Now I feel so much better. Here I thought I had all the justification in the world to be depressed. Now I learn I’m going to have to sink much deeper to hit bottom.”
“You’re better than this, Jon. Yes, there is trouble ahead, but we’ll beat them. Without you, we did. This time, I almost feel sorry for them.”
“Is that smoke wafting up my ass? My, it feels all tingly.”
“I’m quite serious, young man. Jon, you were the key in defeating the Last Nightmare.”
“No. Talk about lucky, that was me in spades.”
“You somehow caused Yibitriander to give you command prerogatives, you found a vortex, and taught yourself to pilot it. You crushed the Uhoor. You made mincemeat out of the Listhelons. Jon, you are special, like it or not.”
“I’m just well trained and lucky. Chance favors only the prepared mind. Pasteur said it, and I’m living proof. That’s all.”
“Suit yourself. Any way you view it, we’re in for rough times.”
“What about the rest of our alliance. Are they reliable?”
“Yes, very much so. All three suffered mightily under the Berrillians. We fought together then, and they never wavered.”
“Technically and scientifically, are they about where they were?”
“The Fenptodinians have made great strides since then. The Churell some, but they are a mess now after the Last Nightmare assault. The Maxwal-Asute were concrete-minded and humorless, but they were loyal and fearless. Their technology has remained mostly unchanged.”
“Well that will have to be enough. That and human participation.”
“I’m afraid we shall see.”
“Are we slated to at least talk with the Berrillians again?”
“Nothing scheduled. It remains a possibility, but I know with great certainty they will never relent.”
He harrumphed.
“What?”
“They did just send us a message. They said a few hundred inmates of a prison for the criminally insane had escaped. They assured us none would leave their space, but they wanted to be fully open with their allies.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the next struggle for survival is about to commence. They have neither p
risons nor treatment facilities for the insane. In Berrillian culture, you are either very productive or you are dead.”
“So, you think they’re lying to us with a smile on their face?”
“I know they are. They know I know it too. They simply don’t care.”
“I knew I came to Peg’s for a good reason. You know, you might be right about my uncanny instincts. I found my way here for a good reason.”
He grabbed my shot glass and threw it back.
After he stopped gasping, he said, “I’ll drink to that.”
Only just a start…
List of Main Characters and Places:
Number in parenthesis is the book the name first appears.
Ablo (2): Led Uhoor to attack Azsuram after Tho died. Female.
Almonerca (2): Daughter of Fashallana, twin of Noresmel. Name means sees tomorrow.
Alpha Centauri (1): Fourth planetary target on Jon’s long solo voyage on Ark 1. Three stars in the system: AC-A, AC-B, and AC-C (aka Proxima Centauri). AC-B has eight planets, three in habitable zone. AC-B 5 was initially named Jon by Jon Ryan until he met the falzorn. AC-B 3 is Kaljax. Proxima Centauri (PC) has one planet in habitable zone.
Alvin (1): The ship’s AI on Ark 1. aka Al.
Amanda Walker (2): Vice president then president, a distant relative of Jane Greatly. Wife of Faith Clinton.
Anganctus (4): King of the Faxel, ruler of Berrill. Mean cat.
Azsuram (2): See also Odor, Groom bridge-1618, and Klonsar.
Balmorulam (4): Planet where Jon was shanghaied by Karnean Beckzel.
Barnard’s Star (1): First planetary target of Ark 1. BS 2 and 3 are in habitable zone. BS 3 was Ffffuttoe’s home, as well as ancient, extinct race called the Emitonians. See BS 2.
Beast Without Eyes (2): The enemy of Gumnolar. The devil for inhabitants of Listhelon.
Bin Li (2): New UN Secretary General after Mary Kahl was killed.
Forever Series 5: The Forever Alliance Page 22
