by Viola Grace
Len was amused and amazed. “I have weapons you know.”
Hima chuckled as she looked around with a chunk of ship in her hand. “I know. This is easier and far more controlled.”
“Really?”
“Well, that and even with your systems, I am not sure of my aim with living beings around.”
“So, your savagery has limits.”
“My rage wears off quickly.”
She moved toward the valley again. The others had regrouped and were looking down at the invaders, kneeling with their hands on their heads.
When she passed a ship with some of the aliens clustered in it, she simply turned it upside down and shook them out.
When they were on the ground, she pointed toward the valley, and they nodded, putting their hands on their heads and marching in join the rest of their army.
Hima sighed and looked around, opening a com. “Scans here are clear of life signs. They are all gathered near the valley. Now, what do we do with them?”
Nyvett cleared her throat. “I am asking the administrator what she wants to do with them.”
Duel chuckled. “I have offered my suggestions, but now, we have to wait.”
Hima asked, “What did you suggest?”
“Some pilot mines near the old bot resting grounds.”
Hima blinked. “That would definitely work.”
She asked the question she was really interested in. “Is everyone all right?”
Duel had a smile in her voice. “No losses on our side. The bunkers are safe and sound. Rations are plentiful, and all water and hygiene systems are all operating normally.”
Hima slumped in her pilot’s seat. “Oh, that is wonderful.”
She wished that she could touch her face because tears were streaming down her cheeks. It had been a hellishly emotional day so far, and it wasn’t even noon.
Chapter Six
Duel and Kab joined Myx, Iff, and Cio in watching the prisoners while Ai and Len were on outward duty. Dif was on central because he really didn’t have a choice.
“Duel, we need you to relay this message.”
“Of course, Administrator Lameera.”
“Just call me Lameera, Duel. We share a great grandmother.”
“Oh. Right. So, what do you want me to say?”
“I have a few questions first.”
Duel nodded, though Lameera couldn’t see her. “Sure.”
“The first, where are the pilots?”
“Ah, that. We are the pilots. We have been given the imprint of the pilots that our clans are named after. We can all fight and move like our original pilots.”
“Ah, that answers my second question as to where you got the weaponry. Are all the invaders contained?”
“Yes. For now. Where should we put them?”
Lameera sighed. “We will put them into the mine for now. Even if they can claw through metal as our legends say, they will have a problem with the composition of the stone.”
Duel nodded. “I hope so. Can you get security out here to herd them? We could lead them, but it is awkward.”
“Right. Of course. Was the city any help at all?”
Duel muttered, “I know you know this, but they are the ones who offered the valley and all the inhabitants to the Tokkel on a platter. If they killed all of us, they would have all the world except the city to play with or tear apart.”
She paused and remembered, “Oh, and they have genetically altered themselves at the Tokkel’s urgings, so no one there is now able to be a pilot. Well, that is according to the Mayor. Otta.”
She could almost hear Lameera’s wince.
“Otta? You mean our Otta? Dif’s Otta?”
“The same family line is my guess. It was hard to tell with the fangs and blue hair. He was also really small. I thought that the city folk would be our size. We are eating plants and animals from the same world, after all.”
Lameera sighed. “Not all of them. Our use of the insects of Hera is not something that the city would have engaged in.”
“Oh. Right. Come to think of it, I didn’t see where their food was generated. The small portion of the city that they occupy isn’t really set up for any type of farming. They also don’t seem like the kind to dig under their city like we do.”
Lameera agreed. “It bears looking into. Well, I will get the security teams out, set up a few rounds of rations and water supplies.”
“We have two hundred men in custody.”
Lameera chuckled. “So, we will have to water them a few times a day. Can we talk to them?”
Duel paused. Inside her mind she heard Kab say, If you want to speak with them, I can translate for you and translate your words to them.
“Apparently, Kab will translate. I will have to get out of him, but I found the pilot’s armoury, so that is good.”
“Is that safe?”
“The files are still at the city, and there are others who can pilot him if I fall.”
“Files?”
“The memories of the pilots. All the pilots. If they survived to the end of the war, they put their memories of driving the bots into storage. I saw at least eighteen different stations.”
“Do you believe that all of them contain the mind of a pilot?”
“At least twelve of them do. I recognized them from our histories.”
“Anything else of note?”
“Well, Xaia took their shield down, so now, they are as vulnerable to the Tokkel as we are. Oh, and we broke their gate to the forest area that they have let go wild. They even have a hive of bees back there, and no one knows it.”
Lameera was interested. “How much empty space?”
“Enough for all of us as long as we bring along some of the pop-ups.”
“I am going to bring that to the council. It is a great idea.”
“What idea? I am just stating a fact. It is a large, empty space with arable soil and easy-to-dig substrata.”
“You don’t say.”
“It’s a thought, simply a thought. What does Nyvett think of this?” Duel smiled.
Nyvett spoke, “You haven’t said anything I disagree with. You can talk to them?”
“I can. Kab is confident. I will just put on the headset, and he will use me like a talking puppet.”
Lameera was shocked. “You allow that?”
Nyvett laughed at her. “We have the bots wired into our brains. Doing it outside the pilot’s cradle is fine. I think we would feel naked if they weren’t with us by now.”
Duel cleared her throat. “I think Lameera meant the part about letting Kab talk through me.”
“Oh, yeah. I can see how that would be different.”
Duel and Nyvett both laughed.
Lameera paused, spoke to someone else and then returned. “The security detachment will be there in seven minutes. We have been on standby. We will get the medics up in a few, and when they have been seen to, the march to the mine will begin.”
Duel laughed at that. “Do you think they will make it?”
Lameera snorted. “The whole six hundred meters? Yeah, I think they might manage it.”
“When do you want me to talk to them?”
“As soon as security arrives. I would like you to be able to listen to them and speak to them the moment that one of ours appears.”
“So, you want to make sure that their attention is split.” Duel grinned. “I can do that. When I hear the lift coming, I will be ready.”
She triggered the release for her chair and brought the headset down from its hiding place.
“I am so looking forward to actually hearing what they have to say.” Duel slipped her connection to Kab free and ran him through the small headset when it was in place.
When she heard Lameera, she knew that the connection was solid. “They are almost at the lift. Are you ready, Duel?”
Duel headed to the weapons locker. “I will be out in one
minute. I just have to arm myself.”
She took out a belt with two holsters and wrapped it around her, tightening it. The thigh straps went on easily, and when she selected two pulse guns, she felt downright rakish.
“Kab, can you relay the conversation to the other bots and have them tell their pilots?”
“Done. I will be closing my hatch after you step out. I don’t wish to risk an incursion.”
“Right, because there are no security ports here. Got it.” She smiled and straightened her shoulders. “Is the lift on the way?”
“I hear something approaching the surface.”
“That is good enough for me. I am ready.”
She stepped up to the hatch, and the door swung open. Kab’s hand was flat and waiting for her. “Can you hold me above the crowd?”
“I can. I can hold you there for centuries if need be.”
She snorted. “I won’t last that long, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
She stepped out and onto his palm. She braced her feet slightly as he lowered her to a point ten feet above the ground. The crowd of grey and green aliens turned toward her, and while they stared at her, she stared right back. She stared into every set of gold feline eyes surrounded by distorted and scarred features.
She heard murmurs in the crowd in a guttural tone, and Kab translated it. “A woman.”
Kab responded for her. “A pilot.”
Behind the crowd, the lift reached the surface and opened, spilling fifty heavily armed security officers of Bot City into the area.
The alien with the most scars nearest to her muttered, “How do you speak Tokkel?”
She inclined her head while keeping an eye on the crowd. “We still have your language on record. We remember everything.”
He cocked his head. “Your world’s ruler said you were ignorant.”
“And that we were easy targets?”
“So our leaders told us.”
Duel listened to Kab ask the final question. “Do you believe they were correct?”
He looked around. “No, but you are foolish.”
The weapons that were drawn by the Tokkel were all pointed at Duel. Kab took over.
Her weapons cleared the holsters and began firing with mechanical precision. Twenty Tokkel were down and groaning in under fifteen seconds.
The security officer walked up to her and said, “Perhaps you should tell them to surrender all weapons or be killed.”
Duel was standing with her weapons out, and she glanced at the officer before she nodded.
“Surrender all weapons or be dealt with as an armed opponent. We do not normally take prisoners, so keep that in mind if you want to live.” Duel watched the Tokkel looking at the dead on the ground before removing any and all weapons on their person and carrying them to a spot next to Kab’s foot.
Duel watched them, the security detail watched them, and when the men were standing sheepishly and avoiding their dead, the security officer called out the directions and Kab translated.
“The officers are going to escort you to a holding area. You will be kept there until arrangements can be made to return you to your people, or another agreement is reached.”
The officer who appeared to be second in rank to the one who had called her foolish, spoke. “What about our dead?”
“We will store them, or you can tell us what your burial rituals are. All attempts will be made to adhere to them.”
Duel suddenly realized that they were going to have to collect all the dead. Things had suddenly gotten more complicated.
The march was amusing. Duel was carried like a cup of water by the careful Kab. He walked with the prisoners and reminded them of why they had failed. The bots were the reason that half the population had been separated, and they were now the reason that the Tokkel had lost their incursion to a bunch of girls.
Duel was smiling at the conversations she was overhearing. Several of the male Tokkel were shocked that they had lost to females, more of them were shocked at the physical representation of the females. They kept referencing another species they were familiar with, and the Nine were the closest thing to the women warriors of the valley that the Tokkel had ever seen.
That was interesting. There was another species out there that looked human.
Kab translated everything for her. His systems could hear it all.
She listened to their surprise when a portion of the silt-covered valley floor lifted, exposing the exploratory mine.
The officer paused the first of the men and shouted, “There is plenty of room here for all of you. Food will be brought in a few hours. Water will as well. Hygiene facilities are already in place with pictograms of how to use them.”
Duel dutifully translated, and when Kab was done, she told the security officer, “Choose one to ask about the dead.”
The officer nodded, and they began the march of the Tokkel into the exploratory mine.
When the Tokkel were all within the mouth of the mine, Kab lowered her to a few feet off the ground. The Tokkel selected was nervous, and the officers were not shy about keeping their guns ready.
Duel spoke firmly in Tokkel. “What do you do with your dead?”
He swallowed. “Ma’am?”
“What do you do when a Tokkel dies? How do you treat the bodies? When they die in battle, do you record their names?”
“Um, yes. We all have tags on our uniforms. Here.” He pointed to a braiding along his neckline. “It has our name, family, and rank in it.”
“What do you do with the bodies?”
He looked abashed, his bubbled grey skin and only light scarring showing his age. He was too young to die on an alien world. “We burn them. Once they are recorded, the bodies are done.”
“Thank you. I have one more question. Did you volunteer to come here?”
He shook his head. “We are pulled from our families and given the necessary training. If we survive, we can have families of our own.”
Duel cocked her head. “So, you kill to survive.”
He shrugged, and it was a very human gesture. “I suppose so.”
“Thank you for the information. You and the others will be fed and housed until we know what to do with you.”
“Thank you for not killing me.”
She nodded and then paused. “What are the Nine?”
He went pale. “They are our hereditary enemies.”
“They look like us?”
“We only ever see the males, but they are smooth skinned of various colours. Their limbs are similar in shape and dimension to yours, but they have... abilities that we do not possess.” He swallowed. “They are terrifying.”
“Thank you. You may join the others now.”
He nodded, and he left her to return to the others.
The security officers let him pass, and then, they activated the force shield that the valley had developed far before they had sent a copy of it to the city.
No one was getting out until they knew what the hell they were going to do with them.
Duel sat in Kab’s palm, and she relayed the information. “They have rank records woven into their uniform collars, but their bodies are to be cremated.”
Lameera answered her via the open com. “We have been getting a signal request from the orbiting ships. I need you back here to do the translations.”
“We are on our way. The com tower?”
“Yes. The monitors are waiting and have recorded all signals.”
“Good.” She was speaking and Kab was walking as she talked. It was weird to be held like a glass of water or night light, but sitting in his hand was a lot easier than standing.
She heard Kab in her ear. “The Tokkel warriors are not here out of choice. You know that.”
Duel nodded. “I am getting that idea. Why would they do that?”
“They are expansionist. They have a society designed on conquering and acquisition. Incorporati
ng the genetics of their conquered races is part and parcel of their methodology.”
Duel nodded. “That explains the city. Loosening up their genetics would make it easier to blend in with an existing population.”
Kab agreed. “Yes, but that is not usually how they work. They come in, destroy, and mop up what is left. In this instance, they have cultivated the city. That is not normal.”
Duel smiled slightly, but she had to ask, “How do you know so much about it?”
Kab spoke baldly, “I don’t know. The information is simply there.”
“Fair enough. Well, prepare to use more of it. There is a crowd in the com tower.” She smiled brightly as he lowered her toward the open window in the tower.
“I will make sure my language through your mouth is polite but direct.”
“Thank you.” She breathed in. “Here we go.”
She stepped off Kab’s palm and into the com center. It was time to find out what the Tokkel wanted.
Chapter Seven
The women looked uncomfortable when Duel stepped inside. The com officer looked at her and nodded. “We have been getting a signal in for the last half hour. It doesn’t have the tone of a demand.”
The clan heads were staring at Duel as she stepped toward the com unit. “Play it.”
The growling and garbled message came through.
“Women of the valley, your city has abandoned you.” Duel listened while the others gasped. “They have demanded your death in exchange for the technology we offer.”
Duel held up a hand to pause the recording while the elders spoke.
“Are we truly sure that the city has abandoned us?” One of the older leaders was hopeful.
Duel waited for them to look at her before she spoke. “We were told that the valley was the price they city was willing to pay for technical and genetic benefit. The mayor and those around him are no longer human on a genetic level. They are neutral and about to become whatever is next introduced to them. In a mining term, they have been stripped of all their supports and are in danger of collapse.”
The Aka clan elder winked at her. “I can understand that, but why would they let their bodies degrade like that? Don’t they have any pride in their heritage?”
