Earth Song: Etude to War

by Mark Wandrey

“So they have found some ancient weapon, lost in time, and adapted it.”

  “I don’t believe that. I believe they created this weapon from scratch.”

  “Are you willing to bet your life on it, technician?” He didn’t move, though she knew he was watching her with his rearward set of eyes.

  “If I could disassemble the weapon and get at some of the internal components, maybe analyze the programming…”

  “Do it,” she said and turned to leave.

  “There is some risk of damaging it.”

  “See that you don’t.”

  He watched her leave and hissed. It would have been so much easier to be born a female. Strong, confident, in charge and with no-one to push you around. From the time when his fellow males of his litter had their claws dulled so they couldn’t hurt the females in play battle, he’d known things were not fair. He still had scars from his sister’s torments. And then they went off outside to learn war, and he was locked in classes with computers to learn machines.

  He sighed and looked back at the shock rifle. Still, sometimes it was a fair trade. Even a highborn would never appreciate such a machine as this! The Tanam always had the best of the best in technology. Even considering how often they were forced to use old, recycled equipment. Such was the nature of the world. This though, he placed a paw on the stock, admiring the machining and way it was adapted to serve the hominid, this was more of a piece of art than science.

  “Now to see inside of you,” he purred. They keypad on the stock was designed to thwart unwanted access and spoke of an undisciplined species. Who in an orderly society would fear of unauthorized beings handling such a weapon? He ignored the pad and took tools to begin disassembling the gun.

  A trio of typical triangular headed screws came free and the stock was ready to come apart. Careful lest he accidentally damage any internal components, he pried the two halves of the stock apart. Inside was the specially made computer. Also was the dual EPC magazine receiver. Both slid in from the bottom to allow the user to swap one magazine or both, a very elegant design.

  What he failed to notice was a dozen tiny electrical connections running around the stock. It would be impossible to open the stock without causing at least one of the connections to sever.

  The keypad beeped and he stopped. Something was displaying on the simple readout. He cocked his head at the strange symbols. When nothing else happened, he inserted a driver and pried the stock wider.

  Another contact in the center of the stock held a magnetic connection between the two halves. When he’d open the stock more than one millimeter, the connection was severed.

  Power from the EPC was fed hot into the computer, which burned out with a loud SNAP! He cursed and huffed as acrid smoke curled from inside. That would go against him. Some sort of a failsafe protected the computer.

  Still, there might be something left to learn, so he pulled harder. The second and last contact in the stock separated, and the EPC fed power back into itself. He had just enough of a warning to realize he’d made a fatal mistake, before the shock rifle exploded and blew his body into bloody chunks all over the room.

  Chapter 71

  Julast 4, 534 AE

  Planet Jumpoff, Neutral Territory

  Guards spotted them at the same time the Rangers noticed the guards. Despite having to keep more than a thousand Rangers warm and fed, Gregg had managed to set up in a low-profile manner so that instruments only detected the camp five hundred meters out.

  If Minu wasn’t so emotionally torn, she’d have been impressed. Despite her outward calm, she’d just left her husband behind on an alien world, a prisoner of their enemies.

  “Commander,” the sentry said, his happiness at seeing them obvious. Then he noticed the stretcher and their occupants. He activated his communicator at once and called for a medic. “And let Commander Larson know that Minu Grove has returned!”

  In less than a minute a squad of medics came at the run and took the two badly injured men to the Ranger field hospital, set up against a small hill.

  As they moved through the camp Minu took note of how well everything was arranged with roads carefully laid out between billets and equipment storage. A motor pool was working on the Lancers that had made it back from their ill-fated campaign on Planet K. She realized then and there that they needed an off world site to fall back to, just for times like these.

  The men were taken over by the attending combat physician at the hospital just as Gregg came in. He looked much better after a month of healing, even if he’d been forced to do it on a frozen planet like Jumpoff. “Sorry it took us so long,” Minu said and took his offered hand.

  “Just glad you made it,” he said.

  Cherise came running up then, the relief at seeing Minu safe obvious on her face. Despite her feelings, Minu smiled to her old friend who reacted like it was water to a man dying of thirst in the desert.

  Minu nodded, the message ‘I know, I’m sorry,’ on her intent. Cherise nodded back.

  Gregg had been surveying the condition of the returned team, noting in particular the fresh injuries, especially the blood on Minu’s hip of her fatigues. “Where and what?”

  “Coorson, of all places, and Tanam. Cats still have a grudge from Herdhome.”

  “But you all made it,” he started to say and stopped as he finished a head count. “Where’s Aaron?” Minu’s face turned hard. “Oh, Minu, no…” Cherise let out an audible gasp.

  “Not dead,” she said quickly, though with no less emotions, “cats took her on Coorson.”

  “Fuckers.” He turned to a captain, a battalion commander Minu remembered training. “Order up Second battalion right away!”

  “I’ll get ready,” Cherise spoke up.

  “Belay that,” Minu spoke quickly.

  “Just a damned minute, Minu, we don’t leave people behind.”

  “It was a trap, Gregg, I think they were after me.”

  “And what was Planet K, a picnic? We’ve dealt with situations like this, we can be in and out in an hour.”

  “And if they’re not already gone, which they probably are, how many Traaga do you think will die when we go blasting in there with almost a thousand Rangers, guns hot and fur flying?”

  Gregg looked resolved but she shook her head and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Aaron is probably fine, Gregg. He knew the risk of this mission and went along anyway. We can’t make the situation worse by going off half-cocked on someone else’s world. As soon as we get back I’ll get Jacob to send a Scout team and we’ll figure things out. But for now, we need to go home.”

  “You can’t order me not to send a unit.”

  “No, but I can ask you. Please, Gregg, as your friend, don’t do that. Aaron wouldn’t want you to risk the lives of our men, and innocent civilians. If he isn’t dead already, and I don’t think he is, then they had a plan. I’m willing to bet his life that we’ll hear from the cats very quickly.”

  He took a deep breath and let it out through his nose before nodding. “As you say,” he agreed and she squeezed his shoulder. “If you can stand it, I have no choice but to follow your lead.”

  “How soon can you be ready to head for home?”

  “It’ll take us about twelve hours to break camp and mobilize.”

  “Leave the tents and heavy equipment, we can come back for them. You’ve been living in the freezer for weeks. Time to go home.”

  “Spread the word, Captain,” Gregg said, “prepare to depart with minimal gear. One hour.”

  “Yes sir!” the man said and left. Within a minute Minu could hear cheers going up through the camp. It had been a good call.

  While they were getting ready, Minu debriefed Gregg on what had happened in the intervening time. He was particularly interested in the mystery soldier and his anachronistic uniform and equipment. When he asked her what she thought, she shrugged. “I don’t know how you take all this mystery stuff,” he said finally.

  Minu chuckled
and shrugged again. “It comes with the family, I guess.”

  She didn’t bother grousing about the Ranger squad she’d been saddled with upon departing company from the rest of the men. She was beginning to realize she liked having the backup. If they hadn’t been there on Coorson, she’d be a prisoner of the Tanam as well, or worse.

  The medics got a chance to work on all the returning Rangers, and finally Minu, who’d insisted on being last. There was a couple gashes on her from the blast, one of her eardrums was perforated, and a tear on her hip where she’d pulled her hand free while trapped. The men who’d come back were all pronounced as stabilized and likely to recover.

  As the Rangers broke camp, the wounded were carried at the front of the column, right behind Minu and Gregg with her uninjured bodyguards close at hand. There was already discussion on when others would be able to rotate to that detail so the honor could be shared.

  After the long cold walk to the portal, Minu took her PCR and entered her code. The little hidden communication computer that distributed messages through the network of message drops the Chosen maintained linked with her personal communicator and lit up with several urgent messages from the Chosen network. She almost deleted them without reading, but decided to see what they were anyway.

  The first two she recognized as threats from Jacob, so she deleted them out of hand. Then two more that surprised her.

  “Minu, please return home. The situation has changed. Be safe. Dram.”

  Dram not Jacob. That in itself was interesting. It was dated over a week ago. She crinkled her brow as she thought about that, then looked at the last message.

  “Minu, urgent, return as soon as possible. Dram.”

  And then she got worried. What had happened? Gregg was looking at his own communicator before glancing up at her. So it wasn’t just to her then.

  “We better get back, right away.” Gregg nodded, then she remembered something. “You got the mouse?”

  Gregg smirked and patted his pack. “He’s been complaining constantly. We ran out of prepackaged food from Lilith a week ago. The men held a little lottery and have been trying everything from candy to toothpaste on his royal highness.”

  Despite the worry she felt about the messages, Minu smiled. Then she remembered Aaron and what he might be going through. She activated the portal. It swirled and there was there, after many weeks away from home, was the portal room of Ft. Jovich. Her communicator liked with the laser relay and instantly a live voice came through.

  “Identification please.”

  “Minu Groves, Chosen, standing by with Ranger detachment for return to home.”

  “Chosen Groves!” the voice barked in obvious excitement, “please stand by, I am transferring the call to the First.”

  Minu groaned. The last thing she wanted was to talk to Jacob. She only wanted to get out of the cold and soak her slightly swollen ankles in a warm bath and start planning the rescue mission for Aaron.

  “This will take a moment, Chosen Groves, it’s the middle of the night here.”

  Minu glanced at her chronometer and shrugged. Flying around at supra-luminal speeds screwed with your time. “Any reason we can’t just come through, soldier? It’s kinda cold here.”

  There was a longer pause than she expected before the Ranger officer replied. “I have been ordered to hold certain offworld travelers prior to return. That is all I’m allowed to say at this time.”

  So they stood in the cold for ten minutes until another voice popped into her ear.

  “Minu, where are you?”

  “Dram? Where’s Jacob?”

  “Please answer the question.”

  “We’re on Jumpoff. I have Gregg and all the surviving Rangers and we’re freezing our asses off waiting to come home.”

  “Have you had any contact with any other human units since you left?”

  “Dram, what—”

  “Chosen, answer the damned question!”

  Minu clamped her jaw and glanced at Gregg who shook his head. “Neither my team nor any of Gregg’s Rangers have contacted any other humans since we escaped from Planet K.”

  “That is good to hear.” There was relief in that voice. What the hell was going on?

  “We’re ready for you now, come on through. We’ll explain everything then. I’ll be on site in an hour, it’ll take that long for you to get situated.”

  The communicator went dead and left her staring at the vast bunker under the fort and wondering what in the world was happening, and why it mattered whether or not she’d run into anyone else while off world.

  “Let’s go,” she said and nodded to Gregg before stepping through to their home.

  Chapter 72

  Julast 4th, 534 AE

  Fort Jovich, Peninsula Tribe Territory, Bellatrix

  The bays underneath each of the defensive forts were a dizzying catacomb of ceramic concrete chambers that could be used for everything from equipment storage to vast water storage. Each bay had its own forcefield controls as well. With the portal situated in the center of the maze it was possible to force an intruder to fight their way through literally dozens of forcefield reinforced walls before gaining the surface.

  As Minu stepped through, one of the several wall displays opposite the portal provided instruction.

  “Deploy your men through exits One and Four. Injured should be moved through Exit Three. Once you have cleared the portal, command staff can meet through Exit Two.”

  Minu pointed to the display for Gregg, who nodded understanding and gestured to his battalion commanders as they came through the portal with their staff. They were quickly organized and in less than a minute hundreds of Rangers had poured through and being moved in organized columns to the secondary rooms.

  Minu followed both groups, one after another to see where they were being led. Adjacent bays were blocked off, blast doors closed and forcefields in place. There were no exits. What there were was hundreds of crates of supplies in each bay. She quickly headed to the bay through Exit Two. More crates of supplies, and a field command module set against one wall.

  She climbed inside and found it powered and configured. A communication screen was blank but flashing a standby icon. She dropped into the chair in front of the sole live monitor and glared at it in sullen anger. In less than ten minutes she was joined by Gregg and his battalion commanders. Sgt. Selain was just outside with the uninjured members of his squad.

  As the minute ticked on there was no change in the communications station, and their personal communicators would not link outside the bays. Minu used the time to update her daughter.

  “We’re home,” she told Lilith who was racing between the stars thousands of light-years away.

  “That is good to here, mother. Please keep me updated on any intelligence on father’s whereabouts? We pass a number of Tanam leaseholds before coming close to Bellatrix. A lightning raid is not out of the question.”

  “I will keep that in mind. For now, get home as quickly as you can. Something is going on here, something bad.”

  “I’ll try and stay out of trouble, mother.” And she signed off.

  A second later, the communications monitor came alive.

  “Chosen Groves?” asked a young five star scout. She should see a pair of high ranking Rangers behind the man. It was a normal enough scene, except they all looked deathly ill. Minu felt like she’d been punched.

  “Chosen Groves reporting. Who’s in command of the fort?”

  “I am, Chosen.”

  Minu swallowed and calmed herself. “I need to know the situation, Chosen, and I need to assume command.”

  “I can’t allow that.”

  “You don’t have a choice.”

  The young Chosen, despite being very obviously ill, looked worse. “The First will be here any minute, ma’am. Please stand by.”

  “I hope you are making the right decision, son.” He only nodded; the two Ranger commanders behind him looked resigned. As he’d promised,
another person entered the room behind the young Chosen a minute later.

  Dram moved the young Chosen aside (who appeared grateful to be relieved) and sat in the chair. Minu could see immediately that he looked just as ill as the others, if not more so.

  “What in the world is going on, Dram?” she asked. Now more afraid than mad.

  “It’s a virus, Minu.”

  “All the Chosen and Rangers sick?”

  “At the last survey, more than two thirds of the planetary population.”

  “You are serious?”

  “Deadly serious. We quarantined you because you haven’t been exposed. There are a few dozen additional Chosen scouts that were off world when it hit as well as about one battalion of Rangers. The Rangers are still deployed, we held them offworld. The Chosen are in quarantine, just like you. Because of how the virus hit, First Division that you just brought home are the only Rangers not sick.”

  “Fatalities?”

  “Very few yet. The virus is a form of encephalitis, Affecting the brain. Starts like a flu but quickly causes brain swelling, debilitating fever and eventually the patient cannot walk. It leads to a coma for some. It’s more complicated in some cases. The doctors are working on it.”

  “Where’s the First? Is he sick too?”

  “Yes, he is.”

  Dram lifted his arm and there was one golden star on the cuff.

  “Oh shit. Is Jacob dead?”

  “Suspended.”

  “Oh shit.”

  “You’re repeating yourself.”

  “Sorry, First.” She shook her head. That would take some getting used to.

  “Don’t be, you’ve missed a lot while you were gone.”

  “I wasn’t running away.”

  “I know that, Jacob didn’t exactly treat you fairly. You were fully entitled to take Lilith and go off on your own. I only wish you’d stayed in better contact.”

  “You know Jacob abandoned the Rangers on Planet K?”

  “I do, and that’s the main reason for this star.”

  Minu nodded.

  “Let me tell you what happened.”