by Musser, Dale
“Marranalis, what’s the status of your men?” I asked.
“They‘re in full gear and standing by in the hangar. We can have them onboard and deployed in the patrol ships in less than two minutes, if needed.”
“Go ahead and get them aboard ground transports. Have the rest of our ships deploy to staging areas over their targets; but they are not to take any action until we give word. If the Brotherhood turns down this chance to surrender, I want the attack to begin almost the instance they say NO. We will alert you from here. Get your ground troops to the surface and stage at your respective targets. You have about an hour and a half before we make contact.
“Commodore,” I said turning to Stonbersa, “What’s the status of the Mirage Fighters?”
“I sent them out on patrol earlier. Just before we contact the Brotherhood I will issue orders to cloak and report to their attack positions.”
“Good. Captain Kerabac and Captain Felenna, we have crews assembled and aboard the corvettes. Kerabac, you will captain the RUNANA, and Felenna, you will captain your own ship, the MIZBAGONA. The RUNANA will cover the southern polar region and the MIZBAGONA will cover the northern polar region. Your orders are to destroy any Brotherhood ships that try to leave the surface. You will remain cloaked during your operations. Remember, your ships do not have RMFF shields, so you are vulnerable to enemy fire. If you don’t have any questions, I suggest you get underway.”
After the crews departed, the NEW ORLEANS grew strangely quiet. This large, private space yacht was capable of housing several thousand people. However, the absence of my security forces, all of which were deployed for the anticipated final conflict at Alle Bamma, meant only a few hundred service staff and skeleton crewmen were left onboard; and on a craft as large as the NEW ORLEANS, a staff of 300 made this enormous yacht feel like a derelict ghost ship. But even with the entire security contingent deployed, the ship was quite safe. The RMFF shields and the cloaking system made the NEW ORLEANS impervious.
As the hour and a half mark approached, Stonbersa turned to me and said, “Tibby, I think you should be the one to announce terms of surrender to the Brotherhood. It’s through your plans and actions that we have them contained as we do; and it’s only right that you be the one to make contact.”
I nodded; but before I could respond, he added, “…and I think you should be wearing your vice admiral uniform when you do.”
It was and electrifying sensation when he said it; and I didn’t realize until that moment just how much hostility and anger I still felt toward the admiral. I knew that Regeny had never really done anything where he believed we were in harm’s way, but I was still harboring anger at him for Kala’s demise. Sure, it was at his request that we went into a martial arts demonstration that led to her injury. If we hadn’t done the demonstration, they could just as easily have administered the same fatal toxin by way of a blow gun and dart or a waiter with a piece of broken glass at the banquet table or any one of a number of different means. It was not the admiral’s fault, nor the Federation’s, nor the military’s. It was the fault of evil traitors with greedy, self-serving ambitions to enslave and dominate the galaxy who were to blame; and I needed to let go of my anger toward the admiral and set things right.
I looked at Stonbersa, who stared at me with sadness in his face; and I knew he understood the struggle I was going through. I saw tears in his eyes and I realized how others near me must also have been secretly feeling my pain through this ordeal.
I nodded to Stonbersa again and said, “I’ll be right back.”
I thought I would never wear the vice admiral uniform again. I never wanted it to begin with and I think I had been feeling growing resentment about it all along, even if it was only honorary. When Kala was struck down, that resentment grew into a tidal wave of fury; but now, as I donned the uniform and prepared to deliver the final blow to the rebels on Alle Bamma, all that anger and resentment melted away. It was the Brotherhood that was causing the pain and suffering; the Brotherhood who was rising up in violent attempts to destroy the Federation and steal the solbidyum for selfish purposes; and it was the Brotherhood that struck down Kala.
I felt a sense of strength and purpose as I adjusted the uniform and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked at the image and saw a man who held in his hands thousands of lives – the lives of his crew; the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands of Brotherhood members; and the lives of the gentle natives of Sweet Home, the children of Thumumba. I smiled a crooked smile, saluted myself using the old Earth style salute and said, “It’s time to kick some ass.”
Then I made an about face and headed to the bridge.
When I entered the bridge, all eyes turned toward me. Stonbersa stood there with a beaming smile on his face. Verona, who sat at the communication station, and A’Lappe, who acted as navigator and pilot in Kerabac’s absence, and two other officers on the bridge all applauded.
“All right, let’s gets this show on the road. Open a communication link on all channels.” I saw Verona make some adjustments on the console in front of her as the communication vid screen activated.
“Attention, members of the Brotherhood on planet Alle Bamma, this is First Citizen and acting Vice Admiral Thibodaux James Renwalt of the Federation. I offer you one last chance to surrender. All bases that wish to surrender must lay down arms and shut down all ships and power sources. Remove your camouflage netting, immediately release all slaves that you may be holding, and assemble in the center of your compound to await troopers who will accept your surrender. I repeat, all bases that wish to surrender must lay down arms and shut down all ships and power sources. Remove your camouflage netting, release all slaves, and assemble in the center of your compound to await troopers who will accept your surrender. Failure to so will result in the destruction of your ships and bases and, ultimately, in the deaths of many of your members. Those who surrender, depending on circumstances, may be eligible for amnesty from the Federation. Those who do not surrender, but are captured and found to be soldiers and officers of the Federation military will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of Federation law.”
I had barely finished the message when the vid screen lit up and a gray-haired man of about 60 years appeared on the screen. “You want us? Come and get us, if you think you can. Just because you caught us off guard the first time doesn’t mean you will be so lucky this time,” and then the screen went blank.
“Tibby,” said A’Lappe, “I’m getting readings from the surface of three compounds withdrawing their netting. It looks like they’re following your instructions for surrender, but I don’t see indications from any of the others.”
“I’m now getting readings of three ships taking off from the polar region where many of the escaping ships headed after our raid. It looks like two patrol ships and one corvette similar to the RUNANA. What do you want us to do?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Felenna is there in a cloaked ship. She’ll handle it.”
“Tibby,” Stonbersa said, “these are people Felenna lived and worked with for the past several years. You don’t really think she will fire on them, do you?”
Just then from a point in space where nothing appeared to be, several laser weapons and torpedoes flashed across the blackness. The two patrol ships vanished in nearly simultaneous explosions, leaving only the corvette. Captain Felenna’s image then appeared on our vid screen as she broadcasted on all channels, “This is Captain Felenna of the MIZBAGONA, now in service to First Citizen and acting Vice Admiral Thibodaux James Renwalt of the Federation. I advise all ships fleeing Alle Bamma to stop now and comply with Vice Admiral Renwalt’s terms. Surrender or be destroyed. You have ten seconds to comply.”
I needed only to look at Stonbersa; there was our answer.
At the nine second mark the fleeing ship suddenly came to a halt and the face of the gray-haired man appeared once more on the screen. “We surrender.”
The screen split to show both Captain Felenna and the gray
-haired man. “Vice Admiral Tibby, I turn the prisoners over to you.”
“What is your name,” I asked the gray-haired man.
“Captain Theberas,” he said.
“Captain Theberas, I want you to land your ship back at the base from which you just fled. You and all your crew will then disembark and gather in a group about 50 meters away from the ship. Anyone found on the ship once we take possession of it will be shot and killed. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Leave ALL your weapons on the ship. Take nothing with you. Wait at the gathering point until my troopers come to you. Do not attempt to escape or you will be killed.”
“Tibby,” said Verona, “I’m getting reports from all our patrol ships of surrenders that are underway at the Brotherhood bases. We’re going to be crowded if we bring them all here.”
“You have a point. Have each team evaluate the size of the prison cells on each base and see if we can get all the prisoners collected and imprisoned in one place.
“On second thought, I want all the officers brought to the NEW ORLEANS and the troops secured on the planet in the slave pens. Any functioning ships are to be flown off world and held in an adjacent orbit. Should the Brotherhood members change their minds and attempt a breakout, they will have nowhere to go.
“Have one of our cargo holds prepared as a prison for the officers. It is to remain heavily guarded and under constant visual and audible observation via vid monitors until we can transfer them to the URANGA, when it arrives. Also, contact Admiral Regeny and let him know that we have taken control of Alle Bamma and have secured several hundred prisoners so he can make similar preparations. Find out when they will be arriving.”
“Yes, sir,” said Verona.
“And now if no one has anything else for me, I’m going to get out of this outfit and see Kala.”
When I got to the room where Kala lay in stasis, I found Piesew sitting there alone with her, unaware that I had entered. He was gaily chatting away with her as he sat casually in a rather comfortable easy chair with his legs crossed, sipping on a cup of tea.
I was struck by the informality of his demeanor – something totally out of form for him normally; yet in this situation, it seemed somehow perfect. When he finally saw me, he rose immediately from his chair and said, “First Citizen Tibby, I will leave you and First Citizen Kalana alone. I will be outside when you leave.”
“It’s alright, Piesew. I’ll only be staying a moment. I just wanted to tell Kala that we have defeated the Brotherhood; and first thing in the morning we will return to the surface to finish gathering the eggs necessary for her treatment. We should have them in just a few days,” I said as I gazed at Kala through the encasement.
“That is indeed great news, Tibby. I’m sure First Citizen Kalana is most pleased.”
After a short visit I took a quick swim in the pool to undo some of the tension that had built up in my body over the past few days; but it was not the same as swimming with Kala and I ended my swim sooner than I normally would have.
The patrol ships started arriving about an hour later to transfer officers of the Brotherhood into the vaulted cargo hold that was prepared as their confinement. The hold was equipped with a large hatch that accessed space and a double airlock within the ship that served as a guard station for the hold area and allowed another set of guards to remain posted outside the airlock in the connecting corridor. The cargo hatch also represented a significant and ever-present threat to the prisoners that told them any attempts to escape and take control of the NEW ORLEANS would be resolved by simply opening the cargo hatch and allowing them to float off into space. As it was, most of them had simply given up. They were a pretty broken bunch by the time they were herded into the hold. They seemed to be expecting conditions equivalent to their own treatment of prisoners; and the relief was visible on their faces when they saw the bunks, toilet and food synthesizer that were set up within the space.
Reports from the planet indicated that it took two camps to hold all the non-officer prisoners. They, too, were a pretty docile bunch that put up no resistance, especially after it was explained that their stay on the planet would be at most a few days. All in all, we had taken over a thousand prisoners. We had also gained five fully functional corvettes, 17 patrol ships and two small cargo ships that were loaded to the hilt with processed and packaged God’s Sweat. We decided to dispose of the drugs by ejecting the packaged cargo into the local star. The freighters would be sent back to my estate for repurposing. Four of the corvettes, all under the command of Captain Felenna, would remain at Alle Bamma to protect the planet and its people. The other ships would be filled from the crew of the NEW ORLEANS. One of the corvettes was to return to Megelleon with us where it would receive a new crew. On a five-week rotation one of Alle Bamma’s contingent of ships would return to Megelleon for crew leave and ship maintenance as the fifth corvette returned to service at Alle Bamma.
As all of these arrangements unfolded, we received word from Admiral Regeny that the URANGA was two days out from Alle Bamma and only two Brotherhood ships remaining in the pursuit. The admiral decided to give them one last chance to surrender, which they did. One of the two ships also was a corvette; and the admiral was surprised to see the level of armament it contained.
On the day following the surrender of the Brotherhood troops, Kerabac, Hotyona and I returned to the surface. I had promised Jnanara I would return once the Brotherhood was defeated. I looked forward to telling her that we had succeeded in freeing the children of Thumumba and capturing the evil ones and that we were proceeding with the restoration of their jungles as promised. I also wanted to formally ask for permission to continue my search for ruguian eggs and hoped that she would allow me to return after unloading all the prisoners to the URANGA, which would free up my security teams to assist in the egg hunt and minimize the duration of our stay to a day or two.
We set the ship down in our original landing place and exited the ship with the intent of finding Jnanara and her tribe again; so we were surprised when we opened the hatch to find that hundreds of natives had suddenly appeared from the jungle. Not one of them were visible when we landed; but seconds later the ship was surrounded by them. As we stepped out, they began waving their arms and making a sort of cheering noise that emanated from their throats. The sound of their collective voices reminded me of the call made by creatures on Earth we call howler monkeys. From the rear of their ranks I could see a small entourage of natives preceding Jnanara’s arrival. This time she wore a lei made of red flowers. As she moved through the crowd, the natives around her bowed their heads in her direction. When she reached the place where we stood, she stopped and the cheering ceased all at once. She smiled; and I sensed she was waiting for a formal greeting.
“Greetings, woman who speak for children of Thumumba,” I said as I bowed in her direction.
“Greetings, man who speak for Thumumba,” she said and bowed her head momentarily.
“I return as you ask. Children of Thumumba again free. In days all evil men gone from Sweet Home. After many days all ugly villages gone and Thumumba’s jungle again clean and new, like evil men never here. I bring many friends in days to take away all possessions and signs of evil men.”
As I finished saying this, three peals of thunder filled the air and all the natives bowed down in a low murmur of prayer.
“Man who speak for Thumumba speak true,” said Jnanara.
I proceeded to explain to Jnanara that there will be periodic short visits from small groups who would be allowed to come only with my permission and that these groups would study the plants and animals of Sweet Home and search for medicine to help other good men.
“I now keep houses in sky where friends live and watch over Sweet Home, so evil men not come again to take sacred plant and bind children of Thumumba. Friends stay in sky houses and watch from above, not come down or walk on Sweet Home unless evil men come.”
Again came
three peals of thunder and again Jnanara said, “Man who speak for Thumumba speak true. Children of Thumumba will welcome friends who seek medicine and will protect from Slow Mover and other dangers on Sweet Home.”
Then she turned around and nodded to the four men waiting behind her. Each approached me carrying nutshell bowls covered with large I’aban leaves, which they set on the ground before me. I felt compelled to kneel in front of the bowls; and when they removed the leaves, my eyes filled with tears of joy. Each bowl was filled with ruguian eggs, more than enough to supply the anti-toxin needed for Kala’s recovery. I was speechless and in complete awe of the natives’ kindness and hard work. Tears ran down my face uncontrollably as I looked up and smiled at Jnanara. I would be forever grateful for the natives’ gift.
“Man who speak for Thumumba, this gift from Thumumba. Children of Thumumba hear call and gather eggs as Thumumba say. Take to strange little medicine man in sky house. Make medicine to fix woman who sleeps. When she again whole, come back, you and woman. No go away from Sweet Home until you come back, you and woman. Thumumba say you must come back together.”
Then she kissed all three of us on the cheek and said, “You three now children of Thumumba. You now in our hearts and welcome here always.”
Then the cheering renewed and we were suddenly besieged by hundreds of natives, these mysterious children of Thumumba, who streamed toward us with outstretched arms. Once they touched all three of us, they vanished, one by one, quickly and quietly into the jungle, leaving us alone and in silence with four bowls filled with ruguian eggs.
“Tibby, I don’t know if I believe what just happened,” Hotyona said. “How did they know we were coming? How did they know Kala was the one who was sick? You never told them it was a woman. And how did they know of A’Lappe and that he would make the anti-toxin? I mean, they could have figured out that we needed more ruguian eggs; they had been watching us collect them; but beyond that, I don’t understand how they knew any of this. Up until now I thought that the dreams of Thumumba were the result of hallucinations caused by the plant that God’s Sweat is made from, but that would not account for this. I’m at a loss to figure it out.”
