Casserine

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “Don’t bother, Bink,” Jake cut in. “These terms, just as our demand for an unconditional surrender, are not negotiable.”

  “I am at a loss to comprehend human contradictions,” the Alien admitted. “You allow slavery on your own planet, but will not take slaves. You have power to rule all the known planets, and yet you wish to trade instead.”

  “We took out some of the leaders back on our home world, perpetuating slavery, just recently,” Jake said as a means of explanation, “but we have no intention of killing people on a whole sale basis, who insist on stupidity as a way of life. Our countries on Earth are like your clans here, in a way. Each country has leaders. Some are bad, and contribute to the enslavement of their own people.”

  “The United States of America, on Earth, is the single most powerful entity on the planet, and they are exerting their influence for change, not by murder, but by trade. We represent them out here, and we will try to conduct ourselves in like manner. You would do well to make things right with this other race without too much of our intervention.”

  “Very well, Commander, will there be anything else?”

  “Tep, we’re coming back down there just like before, and we’re coming real quick,” Jake told him. “Start working on the translation device, and have the survivors of this race ready to go. I want the coordinates of where they’re being held, and I want you to remember if anything happens to any of them, or any of us, your people will be annihilated without further talk.”

  “I will send their location to you immediately,” the Alien promised. “It will take a few hours to adapt a translation device.”

  “Have it on site where they’re held in four hours then,” Jake replied, and disconnected.

  “I’m beginning to miss the straight forwardness of fighting the Bugs,” Mercer commented.

  Jake laughed, clapping a hand on the shoulder of his old friend. “Don’t get down now Charlie. We’re in the process of joining the Universe together.”

  “You ain’t thinking of forming some United Alien Command or something, are you?”

  “Hell no,” Jake retorted. “We are going to gain wealth and power, and parlay it into an empire of trade and common law. On the other hand, they don’t have to like us, respect us, or trade with us, but by God they will fear us.”

  Mercer nodded. “How do you think this space Gate exploration will come out?”

  “That stuff gives me a headache,” Jake admitted. “A few months back, I was trying to explore Casserine. Now, I’m trying to come to grips with Gates making space a maze of undetermined size, and wondering what the hell’s beyond that?”

  “Casserine’s starting to sound better and better to me, Jake.”

  “Well, lots of room there, Charlie,” Jake laughed. “A lot more than it seems in this universe. Funny how if you live on the surface of a planet without a population, it makes you feel like you own your own galaxy; but if you traipse around through space in a closed up can, with literally millions of unexplored miles all around, you feel like someone’s crowding you.”

  “Shall we go down and cause enough trouble to take our minds off this claustrophobic feeling?” Mercer asked.

  Jake stood up and gestured to the door. “After you, Major.”

  “Well, at least there were no explosives set to detonate this trip to a complex,” Mercer observed, as he slipped on the translation headset Binky had arranged to be on site in the Alien prison.

  Only two Aliens greeted them outside the complex, where Major Corey landed Alpha Drop Ship. Binky had wisely evacuated all the other guards from the facility. Mercer looked back at Lieutenant Mendez, and made a twirling motion with his right index finger. Mendez swung around instantly, and relayed orders to the company commanders in front of the regiment of Marines behind him. Half of the men fanned out around the complex, while the other half marched toward the entrance to the complex. They deployed inside the open gate. Alpha Drop Ship had lifted off again, and was providing close air support, while two Command Wing Fighters patrolled above.

  The rest of the planet was in lock down at Jake’s command. Nothing moved on the surface, where all the other Drop Ships, and Command Wing Fighters, flew in overlapping patterns at varying distances from the surface. The Intrepid monitored the situation from above, and provided logistical support, navigation, and air traffic control. All Alien craft were grounded, which could still fly. Binky’s two Alien representatives had handed Jake and Mercer the translators as soon as they had disembarked from Alpha.

  “Okay boys,” Jake addressed the Aliens. “I take it you two speak our language?”

  “Yes, Commander,” the larger one said gruffly. “May we lead you to the prisoners?”

  “Have you explained why we have come?” Mercer asked.

  “We have told them they will be going home,” the other Alien answered. “They do not understand, but they are very excited.”

  “How long have they been here?” Jake asked, taking off his helmet, with Mercer following his lead.

  “Some as long as twenty of your Earth years, Commander,” the larger Alien replied.

  “Very well,” Jake nodded. “Let’s not keep them waiting any longer. Lead the way.”

  Inside the complex, they were led past where the Marines had deployed around the inner complex perimeter. They entered a building very much like the prison building their own people had been kept. All the prisoners of the other Alien race were waiting in a group on the ground floor, having gathered their meager belongings, which they held in their arms. Jake stopped suddenly, as did Mercer and Mendez, who came around to his side, rifles at the ready.

  “I don’t believe it,” Jake said in complete amazement. “You recognize these people, don’t you, Charlie?”

  Mercer nodded, chuckling at the sight of creatures straight out of human legend and folklore. Mendez simply looked back and forth between his Commander, and his Regimental leader in confusion. “I don’t get it, Sir. Have you seen this race before?” Mendez asked.

  “Didn’t you have to read any history, Bob?” Jake asked with asmile.

  “Not much, Sir,” Mendez admitted. “But what would our history have to do with these creatures? Binky’s race is the first Aliens we’ve ever encountered.”

  “I don’t think so, Lieutenant,” Mercer laughed. “There are pictures of this race in Earth’s history for centuries, at least drawings of them. People claimed to have been taken up, and experimented on in spaceships crewed by Aliens who.”

  “Looked a lot like these folk,” Jake finished for him, noting the smile had vanished from Mercer’s face.

  “I guess Binky’s planet ain’t the only ones who were out gathering specimens,” Mercer added angrily. “These people should be centuries beyond us in technology. How the hell could they have been easy targets for Bink’s people?”

  “My head’s aching again, Charlie,” Jake said quietly.

  An Alien prisoner walked forward towards Jake’s group. All of the prisoners wore drab one-piece jumpsuits, The tallest of the adults were not more than five and a half feet high. Their pale oval faces, with huge eyes, reflected a yellowish glow in the lights. The slight indentations on the sides of their heads appeared to be ears. The broad flat triangular shape in the center of their faces the humans assumed were noses. The Alien who had walked up to them held out a slender, elongated hand, with five fingers, and opposable thumbs.

  “Hello,” the Alien said in a high pitched, slightly slurred tone. “You speak English,” he stated matter-of-factly.

  Jake enfolded the Alien’s hand in his own, shocked yet again by the Alien’s command of the universal Earth language. “Yes, we all do.”

  The Alien nodded happily, and after Jake released his hand, he shook hands with a reluctant Mercer, and a confused Mendez.

  “You have surmised correctly, gentlemen,” the Alien began, with what looked like a smile. “We would have been well advanced of our captors if not for a civil war on my home planet, which deci
mated both our people and our technology. Shortly after re-occupying our mining colonies, we were attacked by creatures we had never seen before, and forced to withdraw from even our colonies.”

  “We did extensive research over the centuries into life on Earth, and we were very amused at how your people viewed our excursions. Hoping.”

  “I’m real glad we could entertain you all, ET,” Mercer broke in, “but you all ain’t doing so well now, and I’m wondering if any of our people are in some kind of a zoo on your home world.”

  “ET?” Mendez questioned.

  “Twentieth Century Earth term for my people, short for ExtraTerrestrial,” the Alien answered. “My name, in reality, is Zaros.”

  “Never mind the intro’s ET,” Mercer said sharply. “I’m not sure I want to know you all that well yet. Answer the question.”

  “No, we did not take people from Earth to our home planet,” Zaros assured him. “We did, however, repeatedly take people up into space for study. After a tragic crash onto your surface in the middle of your Twentieth Century, we opted for continued study off planet.”

  “Why didn’t your people just establish contact with ours?” Jakeasked.

  “At that time, your people were at constant war with each other,” Zaros replied. “We thought ourselves far superior. An ironic fact, which ended such arrogance, occurred as wars on your planet lessened, and an all out conflagration broke out on ours. All contact with your world has been ended since the close of your Twenty-First Century.”

  “And yet you speak English,” Jake commented.

  Zaros smiled. “My people became enraptured with your race. We watched your movies, and your television shows, from the country America, with almost an obsession. This form of playacting never occurred in our culture, and it became quite addictive. In the dark decades after our civil war ended, we had very little to take our minds off our woes, other than the entertainment discs we had made of your playacting genre. Some of my people have tried to duplicate your playacting, and your literature to varying degrees, but they seem hollow copies of the real thing. We have decided over time, it is this thing your people mention over and over, called imagination, that we lack.”

  Mercer looked at Jake with a disgusted look on his face. “Great, a whole planet full of retro-Earth, movie freaks.”

  Chapter 36

  ET’s

  Both Jake and Mendez broke into laughter, knowing Mercer’s irritation at the new craze, Jake had some hand in spreading. Zaros watched the humans with unabashed joy, as the two Aliens of Binky’s race merely looked on in boredom.

  “I am very pleased to meet up with your race again,” Zaros said happily. “We do not have this thing you do, called laughing, and it is very gratifying, for some reason, to watch humans do it.”

  “We’d like to take your people home,” Jake stated finally. “There will be some facts, which come into evidence, which may anger your people about how they lost their colonies. I’d rather not discuss the details here. What race do you know your captors as? I mean, how do you refer to them?”

  “We call them the Bazantlans,” Zaros answered. “You may refer to us as ET’s if you like. That movie has been a favorite, beloved classic for many generations of my people. In reality, our race is referred to as the Passallions. I can speak for my people here in saying we would be very happy to go home, Sir.”

  Jake nodded, and looked over at Mercer, who gave him a quick wave off. “Don’t ask me. Nothing I’d like better than to pal around with a bunch more Earth Vidders. Can we go now?”

  “Yep,” Jake answered, looking at Mendez. “Bob, get some Marines, and lead our new guests on board Alpha. I’ll have Major Corey call in a Drop Ship to transport them to the Intrepid. Get Jensen’s squad to accompany Charlie and I. We’ll fly along with them, while you gather the boys up, and fly back on Alpha.”

  “Aye, aye, Sir,” Mendez acknowledged, and gestured to Zaros. “Please follow me.”

  Zaros turned around, and beckoned to his people, who clamored forward excitedly. They gawked in awe at the imposing figures of Jake and Mercer. Jake smiled, and nodded at the Passallions as they filed past. Mercer simply stood with his arms folded across his chest, and his particle beam rifle over his shoulder. The Passallions reached up to touch their arms, and their small mouths mouthed words of thanks.

  “Boy,” Mercer said, “When they see the vid of this back on Earth, they will literally go nuts.”

  “I forgot to call, Sara,” Jake said, hurriedly putting back on his helmet. “How’d you like the show, Sara?”

  “Oh, hello stranger,” Corey replied.

  “Very funny,” Jake said. “Be happy I had my helmet cam on, and pointed in the right direction.”

  “At least I could hear what was going on, even though I had no one to speak to,” Corey continued.

  “Are you done now?” Jake sighed, as Mercer, who had also donned his helmet again after the last of the prisoners went past, laughed at the ragging Jake was getting.

  “Why yes, General,” Corey answered smartly. “Can I pick you boys up now?”

  “Tea, come on down, and bring another Drop Ship with you,” Jake replied. “You take Mendoza, and the rest of the Marines back to the Intrepid. Charlie and I will fly up with the Passallion prisoners.”

  “I don’t like it, Jake,” Corey commented.

  “What’s not to like?” Jake asked. “I’m taking a squad of Marines with me.”

  “Okay, but I’ll be on your six the whole way back to the Intrepid.”

  “Fine with me, It’s all yours now, Sara. We’ll drop off our Alien cargo, and get some sleep. I want to talk to these Aliens a bit more before I meet with Binky’s crew. Get in touch with him, and tell him we’ll be back down tomorrow for the big meeting.”

  “I’ll tell him, see you on board the ship.”

  “Okay, Sara,” Jake replied, taking off his helmet again. He walked over to where Binky’s two representatives were watching the Marines escort the Passallions out of the complex. They turned as he approached with Mercer close behind.

  “We’ll be going now,” Jake told them.

  “You won’t be blowing up our complex, Commander?” The gruff one asked hesitantly.

  “No, we’ll just leave this time without the extra farewells,” Jakereplied.

  “Very well, Commander. If there is nothing further we can do for you, may we take our leave now?”

  “Sure, go ahead,” Jake replied. He and Mercer followed them out, where they split off to where their small land vehicle was parked.

  “What do you hope to get from ET, Jake?” Mercer asked, as they walked towards the landing zone, where Alpha had already landed. The Marines at the perimeter of the walls fell in around their leaders, as Mercer motioned them to come along.

  “Who knows,” Jake replied, with a shrug. “I’d just like to get some idea of what they were doing for twenty years, and if I’ll need to ask Bink a few extra questions.”

  “This mission will make us more famous than when we took out the Bugs,” Mercer said, with some smugness.

  Jake glanced at Mercer in amusement. “I think you’re getting addicted to notoriety, Charlie. Pretty soon, you’ll want your own line of T-Shirts”

  “That prick Dougherty already took care of that for me,” Mercer retorted. “He made one up from that looped vid of me falling on my face. I’ve already confiscated three of the damn things. I’m thinking of calling a court martial court together for the disrespectful jerk.”

  “Are you going to have me preside at this Kangaroo court?” Jake laughed.

  “See,” Mercer pointed an accusing finger at Jake. “This is why discipline has broken down on this mission.”

  “Enough,” Jake begged, having trouble now even drawing a breath, as other Marines around them had begun laughing, just watching Jake. “The picture of you as the self…righteous…disciplinarian…too much…too much.”

  The second Drop Ship landed to take the Passallions aboard
the Intrepid, and the Marines under Mendoza helped them into the ship. Jake had walked away from Mercer, trying to regain his composure, but Mercer followed along, threatening to take the case to Governor Risling. The more he threatened, the more Jake laughed, which had been Mercer’s intent.

  “That’ll learn ya’,” Mercer declared with satisfaction. “I guess you’ll think twice about making light of a fellow officer.”

  This set Jake off in another paroxysm of laughter. “Don’t make me…hurt you…Charlie.”

  “Okay, you big baby,” Mercer relented. He turned, and gestured for Mendoza to get the Marines on board Alpha for the trip back to the Intrepid.

  “Send Jensen, and his squad over to ride up with us Bob, so the ET’s don’t hurt us.”

  “Aye, aye, Sir,” Mendoza acknowledged, from outside Alpha.

  Jensen and his squad peeled off from the main unit, and joined Jake and Mercer at the hatch of Drop Ship Two. Mercer started to say something else, but Jake held up a threatening finger. Mercer only smiled, and waved him on first.

  “After you, General,” Mercer quipped.

  Jake sighed, and glanced over at Jensen. “Take your guys and buckle in around the inside hull, so you have a good view of these Aliens. Don’t make it obvious, but keep your weapons at the ready.”

  “Aye, aye, Sir,” Jensen said, leading his squad on board.

  “What do you think’s going to happen, Jake, the ET’s might cuddle us to death?” Mercer asked sarcastically.

  “Just playing it safe, smartass. Get on board. We’ll talk to Zaros while we’re winging it back to the Intrepid.”

  Mercer nodded, and led the way on board. He waited until Jake cleared the hatch, and then sealed it up. Looking around at the silent Aliens, Mercer spotted Zaroz. With a hand wave to Jake, he went over to the Alien.

  “Would you mind if General Matthews and I join you, Zaros?” Mercer asked politely.

  “Not at all, Sir,” Zaros answered, motioning for the two Aliens seated on either side of him to move to two other seats.

  Jake came up next to Charlie, as Zaros cleared a couple of seats. “I’m Jake Matthews, and this is my Chief of Staff, Charlie Mercer. We may as well be on a first name basis. Do you have a second name, or is Zaros your second name?”