A few smiles came from the soldiers.
“This campaign may only have one advantage for those who fight it. Since the beginning of war, men who have returned from the battlefields have often brought the war home with them. They've agonized about killing others and seeing their colleagues killed. Of course, that is particularly painful when you are fighting those of your own race. In this campaign our enemies have two arms and two legs; they are humanoid. But from what we hear they are nothing like us. They may be about as alien as anything we’ve ever encountered. So perhaps for once in the history of war we can leave this one behind when we go home. Sgt. Rab, the troops are yours.”
Rab barked a command and all one hundred saluted. I saluted back. I turned and walked back toward Belen’s mansion. I passed Carmen, standing under the branches of two twisted trees. She smoked a cigarillo. The smoke curling over her head. She flashed a smile.
“Thought that was only average, sir, with all due respect. I was expecting a stunning, jarring, star-spangled stem-winder of a speech.”
“They looked hungry so I thought I’d let them go for lunch. Hungry people don’t usually go for stem-winder speeches.”
She blew out some gray smoke, giving the air an acrid smell. The dark, green eyes watched the soldiers walk away. For a moment a flash of green tenderness came.
“They’ll do fine, sir.” she said.
I turned around. “Beg your pardon?”
“I think they will do fine.”
With two fingers I reached over and touched her forehead, expecting to feel warmth indicating a fever. When she matched the cool of the day I touched her cheek and jaw. She gave a sardonic smile, as if she understood completely.
“Have you been taking kindness pills, Carmen?” I said.
“No, sir. Although that has been suggested by a number of people. Maybe I’m mellowing.”
“Think I will talk to our Christians in the squad. For Carmen Hidalgo to tell me our inexperienced, green troops will do all right...” I shook my head. “It’s a miracle.”
A low but delighted chuckle came from her.
“On your map in your headquarters. Our space Belgium. My squad is taking the east path?”
I nodded. “You and three others, plus about thirty-three of our blue soldiers.”
She puffed smoke again then bit into the tobacco. “We can hold, sir. If they get through the mist, we can hold. They won’t get near the Aristolans.”
“You give me confidence, Carmen.”
“Overwhelming firepower does help. But it may not be all we need, sir.”
I nodded. “Why don’t you walk with me to my office?”
“In my area of the world, we had army ants. Thousands or tens of thousands of them would start marching, and nothing could stop them. They killed everything in their path and stripped the trees bare. Nothing moved after they stormed through a region.”
“Somewhat analogous to what we’re facing.”
“The odd thing about army ants is that even a fire couldn’t stop them.”
“Persistent little buggers, aren’t they?”
“A lot of them, too. The ants would just scramble into the fire and smother it out. Thousands might have been killed but they didn’t divert their marching or swerve to avoid any flames. They marched straight in. Darnest thing you’d ever seen.”
“I don’t think the Molochs are going to be diverted, either. I’ve got a hunch they will keep coming at us. All two million or so of them. They must breed like flies, or like army ants.”
When we entered my office, Carmen eased down on a chair. I sat behind my desk. She crossed her legs. The gentle smile revealed small, white teeth.
“I’ve talked with Jaclyn.” she said.
“I was wondering about that.”
“Beautiful child.”
“Yes.”
“Strange. The nanos can restore youth nowadays. Wrinkles can disappear. But nothing can restore innocence, can it? Once you’re fallen, you’re fallen. Fait accompli.”
“Well, Eric and John might disagree. Perhaps Father Diego would also disagree.”
“Yes, they speak of redemption. But redemption must be sought. If you seek it you first must understand you have fallen. But once you’ve fallen don’t you just keep falling? Gotta be difficult to tell people to give up their sin. They become addicted to the darkness so can’t bear the light. They seek to extinguish the light, don’t they?”
“Carmen, you are getting heavy on me. Just how long did you talk to Jaclyn?”
“Long enough. Did you notice there is not only a gentleness to her, but a soothing atmosphere around her? It envelops you. It’s like a natural tranquilizer - only better. You walk in grouchy, cranky, and mean, and a gentleness comes over you.” She pulled her cigar out of her mouth and smiled. “You want to go help an old lady or something.” She leaned back in her chair and stretched out her legs. “But you also get the feeling that life is deeper and richer than you ever thought. It’s like you’ve been in a dream for all of your life, and then you meet Jaclyn and you move into reality. But reality is so much better and peaceful and joyful than you ever imagined.”
“Don’t get too peaceful. We still have a battle to fight.”
Carmen stood up and walked over to the map with the Aristolan territory surrounded by a blue circle. She tapped the ocean to the north of the circle.
“You’re still sure our enemies don’t have a Navy? They won’t be attacking by sea, will they?”
“Don’t think so. Belen had one of her ships fly by the planet a couple of weeks ago and it launched a few probes. No sign of any Navy anywhere on the planet.”
“So where on the planet are the Molochs located? They have a primary area?” she asked.
“Not that we can tell. They seem to be all over. On all continents. No other life that we can see, no sentient life. Although whether we can call the Molochs 'sentient' is anyone’s guess. There are rumors of another race on Vega but that has not been confirmed.”
Carmen snickered. “If so, they must live underground.”
“That’s what the rumors said. A lot of conspiracy theories, but I’ve found no evidence to back up any of the rumors. It’s just speculation. Nothing more.”
“We’ll know soon enough. So when we get the Aristolans off the planet, what do we do with them?” she said.
“Belen will be telling me that in a couple of days. She’s off on one of her trips now but should be back later this week. Maybe by tomorrow. Then I might have an answer to that question.”
She smiled. “Think I might like to stay with Jaclyn and her friends.”
“I'm sure they’d be happy to have you.”
She gave me a big smile and a half salute when she left. I turned back to the map where I had been directing most of my attention for several days. The little white patch of Aristolan land circled by blue. The lighter blue of the ocean north of it. The red of the Molochs on the other three sides. Our little space Belgium was fitted into a continent that looked a bit like Europe, absent the boot of Italy. There was a large sea separating it from a southern continent, which was more of a circle than Africa but almost as big. I frowned and gazed at the little white pearl of land surrounded by the bloody red color. The rules and the basic understanding of war did not apply in this case.
Chapter 15
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” said the great Sun Tzu. He was the only individual in all the galaxy to have penned a book on war and have it read centuries later. What he said was true, but it was also not relevant to my situation. Whatever the Molochs were, I could not subdue them without fighting. Usually a general deals with an enemy who is deadly, but rational. And usually, although men will sacrifice their lives for their countries and their buddies, warriors do have some regard for their own life. That didn’t appear to be the case in this situation either. From the little we knew, the Molochs would charge headlong into radiation that would fry their bones.
/>
Good commanders do not waste their men, even if they have men to waste. Gen. Grant was appalled at the number of men slaughtered at Cold Harbor. The Confederates lost about one thousand men. He lost more than nine thousand. “It wasn’t war, it was murder” went the famous quote. Grant was accused of being a butcher, which was unfair. He knew he had to fight, and he did, but he didn’t want to waste lives.
But the rules of the Civil War, whether from General Grant or General Lee did not apply in this situation. That was the problem. ‘The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him’ said G.K. Chesterton. And in this particularly situation, we also were fighting for cash. A hundred thousand dollars is strong motivation. So is a million. But my soldiers also had something worth fighting for, and that was very important. Carmen had been profoundly affected by her talks with Jaclyn. I didn’t doubt a few other members of the squad had talked with Jaclyn, too. I think there as impressed as Carmen was. Jaclyn’s race was worth fighting for. Letting them be exterminated was a crime against humanity and a crime against beauty and truth. Despite the rhetoric of politicians and idiot pundits, beauty and truth don’t really have all that many defenders. It’s always nice to see some firepower on their side.
On the plus side, with enemies like the Molochs, I did not have to come up with a creative, unique, brilliant strategy to defeat the enemy. Just ignite our explosives and let the Molochs charge into a death zone. But I had to consider the Army Ant theory. Two million Molochs charging. Could they survive the lethal zone? Or could enough of them survive to be a danger to us and the Aristolans?
There was also the question of the lack of intelligence. Belen’s probes had given us snapshots of our enemy but no real information. Nothing in-depth. When I fought with the Deltans against the Critts, the government had massive amounts of information about the opposing army and navy, their commanders, their usual tactics. The Deltan info file had extensive details about the military and social opinions of Critt generals and admirals.
But right now I was not fighting a rational war; there were no rational commanders on the other side. And I desperately wished I knew more about the gzzyaks who faced me. Gzzyaks was a Transfalia word roughly meaning bottom-dwelling sewer parasite murderous scum. Even murderers on that planet considered it extremely offensive to be called a gzzyak. It had become one of my favorite words.
I needed more intelligence on the Molochs and I had no idea how to get it. It was possible that everything we thought we knew about them was wrong. Then again, maybe it didn’t matter. All we had to do was hold a piece of ground for a couple of weeks until we could get the Aristolans off the planet, and get the weapons for the Deltans.
The two born-again Christians knocked on my door and saluted, interrupting my thoughts. “Come in, gentleman.”
“No time, sir. We’re off to see Stephanie and to pick up weapons.”
I nodded. “Make sure you do. We’re going to need them. Maximum speed to the destination and back. We don’t have much time.”
They saluted again and exited.
As a military man I – and other military vets – are somewhat similar in one area to Christians. Their faith tells them not to be led by emotions, or as they call it, 'by the flesh.' When the flesh dominates, you can make mistakes and do incredibly dumb things. As soldiers we’re trained not to let our flesh dominate us either. Don’t get emotional in battle. Don’t get angry. If you do, you will make a mistake and either get killed or kill someone you didn’t intend to kill.
We go by training and experience. Don’t get emotional. That goes for the battlefield and in tactics. Even though there are hundreds of thousands of lives on the line, don’t get emotional.
But don’t make mistakes, either. And I suddenly realized I had made a great mistake. I had placed complete confidence in Stephanie. I had no backup plan. If something went wrong I had less than one week to devise another military option to keep the Aristolans and my own men from getting slaughtered.
I wondered if I should go talk to Jaclyn. I needed a little serenity.
Chapter 16
The Three Horsemen, as Starret had nicknamed the aliens, had returned to their ships. The table had sunk again into the sand.
“That’s all folks.” Starret said.
A desert wind, sounding angry yet forlorn, blew sand across his ship. The red sand smacked against the two ships, a pitter-patter of granules. Rain sounded better, Starret thought. On a dozen different planets you could fall asleep listening to the rain. Rain had a gentle, tranquilizing sound. Not the sand. The granules sounded hard as steel. They bounced across the ship akin to angry insects.
“Will you warn your people?”
“Yes, I will give them this little picture show and tell them where the information came from. I will also tell them you have nothing to gain by revealing the invasion.”
“And everything to lose.” said Uherlt.
“Marie, what’s the nearest military headquarters?”
“The Fort MacDonald military installation on Beta Three. It’s been there for fifty years. The top military base in this sector of space. It also is the closest military base to the galactic rim. They keep an eye out for ships beyond. I’m sure the commander would be interested in your tale and very interested in the tape we have for him.”
“Do tell.”
“I do.”
Starret sighed. “Is their aim just to conquer or simply to destroy? Or conquer what they can and destroy the rest. Knowing of the Critts and the Xulons… you wouldn’t surrender to either force. They don’t take prisoners.”
“No, we don’t.” Uherlt said.
“The two races are outlaws in the Federation so it makes sense they make common cause with our enemies. Uberlt, you don’t want to come with me? It would be safer than going back to your home planet.”
“Yes, but I still might gather additional information. It will be better for my people if we are defeated in this next war.” He shook his head. “I will not waste any more time.”
He stood up. Marie opened the door for him. He shook Starret’s hand and walked out.
“Set a course for Fr. MacDonald, Marie. No detours. We don’t want the scenic route.”
He poured a glass of wine and sat down. He thought about the holograph. There was something odd about that. It registered in his brain but then flicked away because the holograph moved so fast. The ships zoomed across the planets and left nothing in their wake. But there was something… unusual. As he sipped the wine, mentally he refocused on the Holograph and the destruction it showed. The black ships had swarmed into the galaxy. The first two inhabited planets were obliterated, then the ships moved to the next system and did the same. They ignored the third system – nothing there – and moved on to the third.
The wine turned bitter in his mouth. That was it. The third system. They ignored it. It was out of the way and nobody paid it much attention but it was inhabited. So why did they ignore it? Maybe it wasn’t worth bothering with. But it seemed odd they would leave a planet untouched in their bloody path.
He rubbed his forehead. What was that planet? Wasn’t a famous one that’s for sure. His fingers ran across his computer, bringing up the system and highlighting the planet that had slipped out of his memory.
“Marie, what is the name of that planet?”
“Vega, Clay. That’s Vega.”
Starret nodded. Now he remembered it. No one in the galaxy paid it much attention.
Deadly Voyage (Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Book 1) Page 12
