A Fiery Sunset

by Chris Kennedy

  “Because it’s not even made of asteroids. During the war, the two greatest fleets ever assembled met in this system. There were millions of major combatants on both sides; the minor ships and smaller fighters and drones were uncountable. Quarter was neither asked for, nor given. They battled for months, until one side was wiped out. Legend states that the winning forces—those who would later become the Galactic Union—only had 137 ships remaining after the battle. They won…but the cost was…words can’t describe it.”

  Sansar nodded. “We have a term for that. It was a Pyrrhic victory.”

  “What is that?”

  “It is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victors that it’s almost as if they’d lost. Even though they were victorious, the damage done to their own forces negates any sense of achievement.” She paused and then asked, “Surely that must have ended the war, though?”

  The MinSha cocked her head and stared at Sansar for a moment, then replied, “You’d like to think so, but no; the war continued afterward, although the battle caused a number of races and systems to withdraw from the conflict. The enmity between the leaders of both sides, though, was such that the war continued for some time, even after that battle.”

  The dropship maneuvered, and the MinSha looked out the tiny porthole between them. “We’re here.”

  Sansar looked out. “Beautiful desolation” it might have been to the founding race, but the beauty was lost on her. The terrain looked like the surface of the Moon, although it had more of an Earthly look than the Moon’s dusty appearance. A rock-strewn plain extended off into the distance, with only some brushy shrub analogues and rocks to break it up. For a capital planet, it was remarkably uninhabited.

  The shuttle came around to the right as it neared the starport and overshot its approach vector. As it corrected, Sansar got her first look at the starport facilities, and she was amazed at its resemblance to pictures she’d seen of Earth’s pre-contact airports. From a massive central facility, several large arms extended like an octopus to the smaller buildings, and from each of those, little tubes extended to mate up with the dropships and shuttles clustered around them. Along the periphery, several large hangar-like buildings held larger transports.

  Beyond the main starport building, two massive tubes led off to a collection of tall buildings in the distance. Through one of them, she could see a large maglev racing off toward the buildings. Besides that, nothing moved as far as she could see, and a sense of ennui overcame her. Sansar sat back in her seat, underwhelmed. “I can see why you’d avoid the planet,” she said. “It looks like a barren version of hell.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter Eleven

  Winged Hussars Prime Base, New Warsaw System

  “Tell Uuth what you saw,” T’jto instructed Rick. This was the first time Rick had met Uuth, a Zuparti in charge of the Winged Hussars’ Home Security Team. The Zuparti reminded him of a weasel, in more ways than just appearance. They were always in motion, small but perceptive eyes taking in everything around them. Its long, almost feline whiskers flicked, and its nose twitched. He didn’t know how old she was, though the grey streaked in her black and dark brown fur spoke of advanced age.

  “It was a humanoid,” Rick replied, “near my height, wearing a dark robe which covered its entire body.” His eyebrows scrunched up as he organized his memory. A little of it was blurry, and that confused him. As he thought, he could see Uuth’s tiny eyes fix on the scar that cut into Rick’s head. Her eyes flicked down to a slate which was out of view. “Its skin was jet black,” Rick continued, “as black as I’ve ever seen. Humanoid hands, with long fingers.”

  “There are no aliens like that working for the Winged Hussars,” Uuth said. She glanced at T’jto before looking back at Rick. “Anything else?”

  “Yes,” Rick said. “When I challenged it, the alien lowered the hood covering its head.” He described the elongated and pointed head, the exaggerated eye ridges, glowing red eyes, and the fish-like mouth with silver teeth. He was about to add the crazy thin neck when Uuth interrupted him.

  “There are no aliens that match that description in the database,” she said.

  “What?” Rick said, jarred out of his recollection. “How is that possible?”

  “Corporal,” Uuth said, “I understand you’re scheduled for a session with medical technician Nemo and Dr. Ramirez?”

  Rick ground his teeth together. “Yes,” he answered tersely.

  “Maybe you’d better proceed with that appointment.”

  “You’re just going to ignore what I saw.” It wasn’t a question.

  “I’ve reviewed the monitors in that area,” Uuth explained. “Although there’s a gap in the coverage area, we see you but not this alien creature you’re describing.”

  “When it lowered the robe and hissed at me, it felt like worms in my skull,” he blurted, “maybe it can alter the camera’s reception or the recording?” This time it was T’jto who looked at Uuth. Rick had been about to mention that it felt like his memory was blurry in places, but he decided that comment wouldn’t help.

  “We’re going to run some checks on footage elsewhere in Prime Base,” Uuth said and stood to her full four-foot height. “For now, please continue with your duties.” Rick looked between the two, then nodded. He knew there was no sense in continuing.

  “Thank you for the report, Corporal,” Lieutenant T’jto said as Rick got up.

  “Thank you, sirs,” he said and left.

  After he was gone, Uuth spoke. “Is he stable?”

  “Completely,” T’jto said without hesitation. “In fact, he was one of the few who could stand The Nothing, or the 2nd level of hyperspace, as Sato describes it.”

  “From what I understand, that’s not necessarily a good thing.”

  “That place was as disturbing as normal hyperspace is completely blank.”

  “Are you going to report this to the colonel?”

  “Of course,” T’jto said. “He is one of my NCOs; I have to. I just don’t know how to report it, especially with everything going on right now.”

  * * *

  Alexis hadn’t slept in the day since the meeting. She’d tried twice and failed both times, eventually giving up to return to her office and work on various projects. No matter what she did, she kept coming back to the meeting with the visiting merc commanders. All except Alistair Sinclair were younger than her, and all had stared at her with the same profound look of betrayal.

  I owe them nothing, she thought over and over again, and every time she thought that, a tiny voice in the back of her mind repeated Nigel Shirazi’s accusation. You’re a coward. But who was she to risk the lives of every single Winged Hussar and their dependents on a lost cause? She was just considering a sleep aid when a message came in on her pinplants.

  “Colonel Cromwell, this is the alert office. A ship has just arrived at the emergence point.”

  “Understood,” she said. “Is the ready squadron standing by?”

  “Manned, and ready to boost on command.”

  “Good,” she said and changed to her tactical expert. “What do we have?”

  “” Ghost explained, then continued a moment later. “”

  “Acknowledged,” she said and switched back to the alert office. “Scramble the fleet,” she ordered and got up, preparing to head for the shuttle bay and Pegasus. “Notify the Hussars’ static defense commander of the situation.”

  “Comms here,” another cut in, “we’re receiving a coded signal from the ship.”

  “Identity?” she demanded.

  “It’s Drizz from Earth, and his personal code matches!” Alexis stopped and heaved a sigh of relief.

  “Stand down,” she said. “Send my regards to Major Drizz, and have him meet me here in my ready room as soon as he’s brought abo
ard.” She considered for a second. “Just in case, send American Pharaoh with Excalibur and Osman to escort them in. I’m eager to hear more about how he came to be on a MinSha ship.”

  In the four hours it took the MinSha ship to be escorted to a parking orbit near Prime Base, Alexis grabbed a shower and put on the dress uniform her aide had laid out after hearing a representative of the Golden Horde was aboard the MinSha ship. When the shuttle arrived at the secure hangar on Prime Base, she was waiting.

  Alexis floated in her formal uniform, black tunic and pants, snug, space black with gold piping. The only adornment was a silver colonel’s eagle, the logo of the Winged Hussars on one shoulder, the logo for Pegasus on the other. The Hussars were one of the merc units who didn’t go in much for decorations. The exception were their marines, who wore silver stars under their name badges denoting combat boarding actions and the name of their squad, also in silver.

  With her in the bay were her XO Paka—a black and gold lined sash her version of a uniform—the commander of the Hussars’ marines, and all three squads of Pegasus’ marines, who’d been rotating as her personal guard since everything went to shit.

  The door to the shuttle opened, and the first out was Major Drizz. He was wearing light duty armor with a sidearm; Alexis was a little calmer seeing that. If anyone tried anything here, there would be a lot of dead beings very quickly. The next out was a Human she didn’t recognize. He wore a silver oak leaf and the Golden Horde’s standard duty uniform. Flanked by Dragon Squad, she floated toward the shuttle.

  “Commander,” Drizz said and saluted.

  “Welcome back, Major,” she said and returned the salute.

  “Ma’am, this is Lieutenant Colonel Walker of the Golden Horde.” The man came to a good zero gravity position of attention and saluted her, only having to use a foot against the shuttle to avoid spinning. Not bad for a non-navy type. “Walker, this is Colonel Cromwell, commander of the Winged Hussars.”

  “Permission to come aboard, Colonel,” Walker said, holding the salute.

  “Granted,” she said, returning it. Only then did he drop his own. “Lieutenant Colonel Walker? I seem to recall there was a Sergeant Walker on the Horde roster?”

  “I got promoted,” he said with a twisted smile. Not so happy with that, either, she thought.

  “Well, for Sansar Enkh to boost you to a light colonel, that says volumes about you.” He shrugged. Humble too, she thought. “Well, why don’t you two come up to the meeting room, and you can explain how you came here in a MinSha ship.”

  “First there’s someone else you need to meet,” Major Drizz said, and beckoned to the shuttle. He had to repeat the motion twice before there was a response. It came in a chittering dialect that Alexis was surprised to realize her translator pendant didn’t recognize. “I’m sorry; he’s shy.”

  “Tell whoever it is that there’s no reason to be afraid,” Alexis assured him, although she knew a dozen weapons were trained on the door, poised and ready.

  After a moment, a long, sleek, fully-furred form slid from the shuttle hatch. Tiny black-on-black eyes shone with moisture, a little nose twitched, and a spray of whiskers shot to either side. She could see tiny sharp teeth. Its limbs were rather short for the long body, though well-muscled and quite dexterous. It didn’t move through zero G so much as swim. Here was a being as at home in space as her Hussars. She smiled in appreciation, even if she’d never met the race.

  “Colonel Cromwell, this is Ensign Thorb of the SalSha.”

  Her mouth narrowed in surprise. Not only hadn’t she ever met one, she’d never even heard of them before. Accessing her pinplants, a check of the Hussars net confirmed it wasn’t there.

  “” Ghost said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me that Sha meant an uplifted race?”

  “”

  Alexis glanced around the bay. Within view were MinSha, elSha, and a couple of opSha. Her mind reeled from the revelation. The SalSha regarded her with keen interest. An unknown race? She started to ask how that was possible, then it fell into place. An unknown race’s name, uplifted, and her translator, which was interfaced with the net to translate any race’s speech in the galaxy, didn’t recognize this one. She fixed Walker with a laser-like stare.

  “Mr. Walker, would you care to tell me where you came by a Kahraman uplifting facility, and what motivated you to use it?”

  Walker sighed. “Perhaps we should have this discussion somewhere else.”

  * * *

  “Oh, come on!” Alexis exclaimed, “That’s a serious violation, and it’s a law the Union actually enforces!” Everyone around the conference table looked uncomfortable except Thorb, who was playing a game on a slate while everyone else talked. Although it appeared to be amusing itself, Alexis was pretty sure Thorb was also listening to everything that was said. The SalSha had excellent situational awareness.

  “We know that,” Walker admitted. “We really didn’t have any choice in the matter.”

  “Equiri shit,” Alexis said with a snort. “I ignored the bit about uplifting in Peepo’s list of charges. I figured it was just another trumped-up charge, or something someone else did, and they tried to pin it on you. Like the Canavar on the Cavaliers.”

  “No,” Walker said and gave his head a slight shake, “this one was on us. You have to realize they weren’t playing by the rules either. We were at risk of being wiped out, and the damn malware program was tearing our CASPers up.” He gave a little shrug. “We had to improvise.”

  “That’s a great way to put it,” Paka said. “You improvised by breaking a fundamental law of the Union.” Alexis couldn’t ride the new lieutenant colonel too hard. After all, the Hussars had a walking, talking violation of the fundamental laws themselves in the form of Ghost, which made it somewhat hypocritical of her to do so. For that matter, they’d been trying to duplicate the AI for almost as long as it had been part of them. But at least they’d had the good sense to keep quiet about it.

  “How in entropy does the Union know about them?” she asked, gesturing to the SalSha.

  “We have no idea,” he said. “Our intel people are puzzled by that. What we do know is we need your help. They’re actively hunting us across the galaxy.”

  “I can attest to that,” Major Drizz said. “If it wasn’t for Walker and a squad of Horde troopers, I’d either be dead or a prisoner.”

  “But you said Sansar willingly surrendered?” Alexis asked. Walker nodded glumly.

  “She was hoping she’d get to the bottom of this if they took her to Capital. I’m afraid things might not be going as she hoped; the mercs under Peepo are moving in and taking over on Earth. They aren’t there to suppress; they’re setting up shop.”

  Alexis was silent for a minute as she considered her options. “Okay,” she said finally, “I need to think this over. You have what, a company of troopers over there?” He nodded. “Good, have your people and the SalSha move over here for now. We’ll detain and question the crew of the Caw’kal for now.”

  Walker nodded.

  “How many of you are there here?” she asked Thorb.

  “Thirty total,” he said without looking up from the game. Alexis shot Walker a baleful glare.

  Walker shrugged. “They all volunteered after they saw how Thorb was changed. By that point, we couldn’t really say ‘no.’ In for a penny, in for a pound.”

  “They all want to be space fighter pilots, like me,” Thorb said, with no small amount of pride in his voice.

  “Oh, so you’re a space fighter pilot, are you?” Alexis asked, an amused grin on her face.

  “Yes, I am,” Thorb replied. “I already have two kills to my credit, as well as one boarding action.”

  Al
exis’ eyebrows rose, and her eyes widened. “Is that true?”

  “It is,” Walker said with a nod. There was a twinkle in the SalSha’s eye, but he also looked quite serious. Dr. Ramirez came in at that moment.

  “Ensign Thorb, I’d like you to accompany Dr. Ramirez. He’s chief physician of the Winged Hussars.”

  “More tests?” Thorb asked, giving Walker a pained look.

  “I promise, I won’t hurt you,” Ramirez said, looking over the new race with fascination.

  “It’ll be fine,” Walker said. “Real pilots have to get examined a lot to make sure they’re healthy.”

  “Oh,” Thorb said. “In that case, fine!” He hopped up and took Ramirez’s hand, surprising the surgeon. He quickly recovered and led the alien out.

  “See to the transfer of your personnel,” she said to Walker. To Major Drizz, she added, “Help the marines move the MinSha prisoners over. I’ve notified Lieutenant T’jto, who’ll oversee their interrogation.” She looked back at Walker. “Tomorrow at 0800 we’ll have a meeting with all the company commanders who are present. I assume Enkh authorized you to speak for the Horde?”

  “Yes,” he said, albeit uncomfortably.

  “Good. I’ll have your senior staff member in New Warsaw there as well.”

  “One more thing,” Walker said and held out a data chip. “This is the record of our battle while Thorb was piloting a MinSha fighter. I think you should review this before you judge them.” She took it and gave him a little nod. Walker seemed to consider something for a moment, then shrugged. “I think you should look at it.”

  “I will,” she said. “Until tomorrow then, Lieutenant Colonel.”

  * * *

  Alexis sat quietly in her office, her eyes staring off without focusing. Her attention was all inward, attending a virtual meeting of the Winged Hussars’ specialists and experts. For the last few minutes, she’d heard status updates on the construction. Everything was on schedule, but that didn’t change her original idea. None of the larger ships would be done for more than a year. Even if she reallocated resources, that would only bring a couple ships to completion a few months’ sooner, and it would leave the others half-finished.