by Wayne Basta
After an agonizing few minutes, the blaster fire ceased. Yuly leaned around the corner again and then said, “It’s clear, sir.”
Solyss followed the armored marine out from behind his cover. They found the corpse of a Ronid female in the center of the street. She was dressed in civilian attire, and it was unlikely she had been a member of the Alliance force planet-side.
“Both shooters were civvies,” Asheerah said flatly.
“Not the welcome I would have expected from a prison colony. Well, not for their rescuers anyway,” Solyss said, casting a meaningful glance at Kueth.
The man shook his head. “I don’t understand it. They shouldn’t have access to weapons. The Alliance made sure of that.”
Asheerah picked up the rifle next to the woman. “RE-112. Alliance standard issue. It looks like they changed their mind about arming the locals.”
Looking down at the dead woman, Solyss considered their options. They clearly weren’t welcome, at least on first sight. But the locals likely had no idea what had occurred in orbit. The Alliance troops might not even know, and if they did, they could have told the people anything. Perhaps these people had merely been defending themselves from invaders.
“We keep going,” Solyss ordered. “Keep on the lookout. From now on, non-lethal force if at all possible.”
Though hidden by her armor, Asheerah cast him a glance he felt sure was one of annoyance. She hated using the stun setting. Nevertheless, she gave the order to the marines.
The group continued down the road leading into the city. Marines took positions in the vanguard and brought up the rear, with the unarmored people like Solyss in the center. Eerie silence surrounded them as they walked. After a few blocks, the marine in the lead threw his hand up, signaling them all to stop.
Before Solyss could move away from the center of the street, windows and doors in the buildings around them flew open and people appeared in them, all holding weapons. At a wordless order from Asheerah, the marines collapsed into a tight group surrounding him and the two civilians.
For a long moment, no one moved. Despite the armored marines forming a wall between him and their attackers, Solyss felt vulnerable. Their armor would protect them from some limited fire, but the concentrated attack that could come from those around them would be more than the armor could withstand.
“Mirel?” Kueth said and then suddenly stood up over the crouching marines.
Another shout came from among their ambushers. “Kueth?!”
At the sound of the woman’s voice, Kueth pushed himself forward and out from behind the marines. A middle-aged woman came running out of the building to their left, and the two embraced.
No one else quite knew how to respond. After a moment, the weapons held by the civilians started to lower, though not very far. The marines kept theirs raised and aimed.
The realization that they were still surrounded by a bunch of people with guns must have finally intruded on Kueth and Mirel, who Solyss assumed was his wife. The pair of them broke apart, though not going far.
Kueth turned to Solyss. “Major, this is my wife. These people won’t hurt you,” he said, a wide grin still on his face.
“That depends on what His Lordship decides,” Mirel replied. “They’ve already killed two of our lookouts. Who are they, Kueth? How did you get here?”
Looking confused, Kueth said, “Mirel, this is Major Solyss Novastar of the Union navy. He’s come to free us from the Alliance.”
“Lord Renard has already freed us from the Alliance. And now he’ll decide your fate,” one of the Terran men in the windows shouted back.
Beside him, Gamaly groaned.
Ignoring her, Solyss stood up, holstering his pistol as he did so. He surveyed the group of armed locals and was surprised to see that a majority of them were Terrans and Braz. Upon reflection, he decided that shouldn’t be surprising. Josserand and Kueth were both Terran. This planet might be a prison, but it was nothing like the Olan prison on Sulas. Here, people would have been free to move about and live their lives, to a certain extent. He turned to face Kueth and Mirel. “I think now’s a good time to go see Lord Renard.”
“Throw your weapons to the ground,” said the man who had spoken earlier. “Then we’ll take you to Renard.”
Solyss started to move his hand to drop his pistol but stopped when Asheerah said, “Not gonna happen.”
Stopping, he rested his hand on the pistol’s grip as if that had been his intention all along. He had no worries about going unarmed to this meeting. With Gallant and the space station in orbit, the people here were at his mercy. But he also recognized that tone in Asheerah’s voice. An order from him wouldn’t change her mind. He didn’t want to have to reprimand another one of his friends for insubordination.
“You’re going to drop your weapons, or we’re going to make you drop your weapons,” the man in the window threatened.
“Good luck with that,” Asheerah said, her voice icy calm. Solyss could imagine the satisfied smile on her face at the prospect of showing her skill.
“Boci,” Mirel said, stepping away from Kueth and in front of Asheerah. “These people brought Kueth back to me. They’re not our enemies.”
For a moment, Boci kept his rifle ready, now aimed at Mirel. She continued to give him a determined look, and he eventually lowered the weapon. He gestured to the others. “They can keep their weapons. For now. We’ll let His Lordship decide their fate.”
Once the locals lowered their weapons, Asheerah ordered the marines to do the same. She kept them in a tight defense formation around Solyss and Gamaly as they were led through the city.
While they walked, Solyss tried to keep an eye on Kueth. The man stayed close to Mirel, the two quietly talking together. Their pleasure at seeing each other was obvious, and Solyss felt slightly better about agreeing to help Kueth. His team still might not achieve their goal by coming here, but at least Kueth hadn’t been lying about his family being trapped here. That counted for something in Solyss’s book.
They walked through the city streets, taking only a few turns. A large, clean building came into view after a few minutes. The structure looked much more stable and well-maintained than anything else he had seen. As they got closer, he decided it would most likely be the Alliance’s ground headquarters.
Once inside the building, Solyss recognized signs of a battle. Burn marks marred the walls, doors were crumpled in, and shattered glass littered the floor. Either the battle had occurred very recently, or the locals didn’t have any interest in cleaning it up.
Their journey ended in a small courtroom. The judge’s bench towered above them at the front of the room. The room held no jury box, which Solyss knew to be typical for Alliance courts that dealt mostly with aliens, who weren’t entitled to trials by jury.
Solyss and the marines squeezed into the center of the room, where the accused would typically stand. The locals lined the walls, still holding their rifles ready, though they remained pointed at the floor.
The man who had spoken to them earlier, Boci, shouted, “All bow in honor of His Lordship Josserand Renard!”
Boci bowed low as a door opened behind the bench. Some of the others in the room bowed, though most merely bobbed their head. The marines, if they did anything, stood up straighter.
A middle-aged man dressed in an ill-fitting Alliance officer’s uniform came through the door and took a seat behind the bench. He matched the description Solyss had been given for Josserand. He waved his hand in a sweeping gesture toward those in the room. “You may rise. Now, tell me, what do we have here?”
“My lord,” Boci said, “these invaders landed in an Alliance shuttle. They raided the town, killing two of our people. They don’t wear Alliance uniforms, but they’re clearly mercenaries hired by the Alliance to assassinate you and take back the town.”
“Boci, you idiot, they aren’t with the Alliance. Kueth brought them here to help us,” Mirel said, her tone impatient.
“Is that really you, Kueth, my loyal servant?” Josserand said, surprise evident in his voice.
“It is… my lord,” Kueth replied, hesitating on the honorific. “When you were taken by the Alliance, I made contact with the Union military. They agreed to help free you in exchange for your help against the Alliance.”
Josserand frowned at Kueth’s statement, but the man continued, “We arrived here and took control of the orbiting space station, driving off the naval ship defending this world. We’re free of the Alliance occupation.”
“A mighty deed you’ve accomplished,” Josserand said, his tone icy, “but unnecessary. Thanks to my leadership, the people of Okaral have already thrown off the shackles of Alliance oppression.”
“We liberated ourselves this morning, without your help,” Boci added.
“Convenient timing,” Gamaly whispered beside Solyss.
“Now, now, Boci,” Josserand chastised. “They’ve saved us the trouble of having to take the station ourselves. In exchange for that, we can forgive them the unfortunate incident with our two sentries. We’ll call it a mere misunderstanding.”
Gamaly pursed her lips at that and then leaned over to whisper to Solyss, “Offer to take him up to the station as compensation.”
He cast a curious look down at her but shrugged and turned back to Josserand. “Sir, as further compensation for the unfortunate death of the townsfolk, allow us to provide you transport up to the space station.”
Josserand smiled, his eyes flickering to Gamaly briefly. “A worthy offer. I accept. Boci, prepare my transport.”
Chapter Sixteen
For the first few days after returning to Kol, Saracasi had avoided the UDF headquarters building. At first, she had told herself she simply had a lot of work to do, which was true. But after all the logistics had been ironed out and repairs to her damaged fleet had begun, she had run out of excuses.
In truth, she admitted to herself, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to happen when she saw Asirzi. She definitely had no idea what would happen. She had forced herself to bury her feelings for the last few months. But the sense of loss, hurt, and, yes, she admitted, love, still bounced around in her subconscious.
She finally went down to the HQ building with an excuse to see Chavatwor. She made no effort to find Asirzi, though she half hoped they would run into each other. When that chance encounter didn’t come that day, nor the next day, she finally admitted defeat. This time, she would seek her old lover out. Then she could find out where they stood.
As luck would have it, as Saracasi entered the main lobby, Asirzi came out of a meeting room. She glanced up from a datapad she was reading and then stumbled to a halt when she caught sight of Saracasi. For a long moment, both of them stood there.
Forcing herself not to stand around like an idiot, Saracasi approached Asirzi, a tentative smile on her face. Asirzi didn’t return the smile, instead merely looking cautious.
“Hi,” Saracasi said awkwardly.
“Hello,” Asirzi responded, her tone polite but neutral.
The tense greeting hung in the air. Saracasi tried not to read much into it. She had caught Asirzi off guard, after all. They continued to stand there in silence for a moment, Asirzi rubbing her artificial arm and Saracasi trying to decide where to put her own hands.
Finally, Saracasi decided that since she had sought this meeting out, she should start. “I’d hoped to run into you one of the times I’ve been here.”
“Really? I never hid myself,” Asirzi said, her tone disbelieving.
“I had hoped it would be a chance encounter. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to see me,” Saracasi admitted.
“You’re the one who walked out on me,” Asirzi said, a bite to her tone, though her face softened immediately after she said it.
The jab stung Saracasi. She didn’t think it was entirely accurate, but she hadn’t come here to argue. Instead, she said, trying to fill the words with as much of her true emotions as she could, “I’ve missed you.”
Asirzi’s face and antennae drooped slightly in a look of sadness, though her eyes betrayed a hint of pleasure. She said, “I thought… no… uh… I’ve missed you, too.”
The flustered stammering between what Asirzi said and was going to say made Saracasi smile. It gave her hope to think that Asirzi’s feelings might be just as confused as hers. Maybe she hadn’t ruined everything irrevocably before.
As the thought crossed her mind, Tadashio came barreling into the lobby. The shaggy Kowwok breathed a heavy sigh of relief at the sight of her and ran over to her, calling, “Commodore! I’m glad I found you!” He sounded somewhat alarmed.
A flash of anger at the distraction flared up in Saracasi. Her sense of duty and desire to fight had been the wedge that had been driven between her and Asirzi. She had come here not dressed in uniform specifically to avoid reminding Asirzi of that. The issue wouldn’t be resolved that easily, but she knew she had to start somewhere.
Instead of Asirzi getting mad, though, she laughed. With the first smile Saracasi had seen on her face, Asirzi said, “The universe has it in for us, doesn’t it?”
Saracasi chuckled at the thought. “It would seem that way. The universe can’t win forever, though. The war will eventually end. And so will my duty to the Union, along with any desire of mine to remain in uniform.”
“Well, maybe we should continue this conversation then,” Asirzi said, her brief look of mirth replaced by another sad smile.
“I would like that,” Saracasi said, ignoring Tadashio, who was practically bouncing beside her.
“Until then,” Asirzi said, turning away and disappearing down a hallway.
Taking a deep breath, Saracasi watched her go and then turned to the upset Kowwok. “Yes, Chief?”
“Commodore, I’ve been going over the communication system as part of the effort to track down the cause of the power surge we had,” Tadashio explained. “In the process, I discovered an improper computer program.”
“Improper?” Saracasi asked. Software was her biggest weakness with ship design. She had no idea how to program any of the systems on a ship.
“One that shouldn’t have been there,” Tadashio said.
“A remnant from the DeeGee’s days as a miner?” Saracasi asked, a dark suspicion welling up inside her.
“No, it was a recent program. I checked it over and was the cause of the comm array transmission during the surge. It might have even caused the surge, though I can’t be sure,” Tadashio said.
“What did it transmit? I thought that it was just a burst of static that went out,” Saracasi said, already moving toward the building’s exit.
“That’s what it looked like, but it was actually a coded transmission. I still can’t decipher what it said, but, Commodore, I was able to decrypt some of its programming. Before transmitting, it accessed our navigational computer logs. Whatever else it sent, it included the spatial coordinates of the DeeGee’s last ten jumps,” Tadashio said, his tone fearful.
“Irod,” Saracasi said, putting the pieces together.
Tadashio nodded as they stepped out into the bright Kol sun. All thoughts of Asirzi vanished from Saracasi’s mind. They still had a traitor in their midst.
“Who else knows about this?” Saracasi asked.
“No one,” Tadashio answered. “I didn’t tell anyone what I found. Though probably a lot of people knew I was working on the comm system.”
“Get back to the ship. Go over every system. Look for more viruses or other signs of tampering, both related to this problem and potential other ones,” Saracasi ordered.
Tadashio saluted and then rushed off across the sand. Saracasi pulled out her comm and followed at a more deliberate pace. She tried to raise Kaars Aerinstar but got no response. After several attempts, she gave up and signaled Master Sergeant Deja’z’reth Adat’to, the marine training commander. “Master Sergeant.”
“Aye, Commodore. What can I do for you?” said the voice of Deja’z’reth.
“Aye, Commodore,” Deja’z’reth said without any hint of hesitation in his voice.
She shut down the comm and immediately established another link. Once she had a connection, she said, “Arz, start powering up Audacious.”
“Commodore?” Arzesaeth Ernebee asked over the comm, clearly surprised by the order.
“We’re taking a little trip. Recall all crew and get Chava’s work crews off. I’ll be there shortly,” Saracasi said and then cut the transmission, moving faster now toward the launch pads.
Watching out of the window of his cabin as the transport came in for a landing outside Lost Hope, Irod, Zeric sighed. After finishing up on Cardine, Lei-mey had directed their transports to a meeting on Mirthod. The last month or so had been nothing but talking to politicians, meeting recruits, and pretending to smile—all things he hated doing.
Fortunately, there had been no shortage of people willing to offer him a drink. He had tasted almost as many different liquors as people he had met. That was probably the only thing that had gotten him through it. He never thought he would actually miss combat.
Even sitting around the arena on Sulas had been better. At least there he had participated in planning actual military operations. He still hated doing that, but he hated smiling for people he couldn’t care less about even more.
Zeric took a swig from his last bottle of a type of wine he had been given on Cardine. He’d never cared much for wine, but this stuff had been much stronger than anything he’d tasted before. It was sad to see it gone, but walking down to meet the troops with a bottle in his hand wouldn’t look good.
Finishing the bottle, Zeric looked at himself in the mirror. He had neglected shaving on the journey to Irod. The troop transport didn’t have many places to go where he’d have been seen. Most of the troops remained in a large barracks-style compartment, while Zeric and the other senior officers had their own rooms. Aside from a few meals with the officers and one with the troops, he had remained in his cabin, only seeing Gu’od and Kumus.
