The Hooligans were good, but he wasn’t sure they could hold against the combined force of the Federation’s First Witch and her personal guards. At least now his guys should let him fight to stay free.
He studied the way Lars and Stephanie were closing. It wasn’t like the team would have a choice. As he looked for a gap to fill, Todd caught sight of Ka nudging Piet with her elbow. “Did you get it?”
The older man snickered. “Yup.”
She wriggled her fingers, and Piet pulled several bags of something very familiar from his pockets
“Are those treat bags?” Todd asked and Ka chuckled as the cats responded to the word.
“Treats?” the corporal called and waved a bag so the felines could see it.
The closest crew members began to look from the cats to the two potential target groups. As soon as they had worked out where the two beasts were most likely to run, they moved hastily out of their path.
Piet pulled more bags out of his fatigues and passed them around the team. “Make sure you split ʼem the tiniest bit before you throw.”
Lars signaled his team forward, but his look of confidence turned to alarm as the Hooligans pivoted, called, “Treeeaaaaats,” and threw the bags in his direction.
“No!” he shouted as the first bag hit and burst to release a mixture of finely ground chicken, beef, raw egg, and fish oil all over him.
The next two missiles caught Johnny, whose expression of surprise turned to horror. Marcus and Frog leapt aside, but Gary had a vendetta, and he anticipated exactly where the small guard would be. The bag burst in Frog’s face.
The effect was instantaneous. Both cats forgot their loyalties and duties, leapt after the fragrant treat and those now wearing it, and growled warnings at each other in their excitement.
As Piet handed out the second round, Lars’ team turned and ran. The two cats paused long enough to decide the treat on the floor would be there when they got back from their pursuit of the one being carried down the corridor.
“That’s—” Stephanie began as Jimmy and Piet grasped Todd and bolted in the opposite direction to the one the cats had taken.
At the same time, Reggie began counting down.
“Thirty… Twenty-Nine… Twenty-Eight…”
The rest of the team joined in. “Twenty-Seven…” they chorused as they took the turn into Life Support and headed to the maintenance corridor between tanks.
“This is—” Todd dug his feet in and prepared to fight.
What he intended to say next was lost in the blare of an alarm as the deck lights began to flash amber.
The gun crews were already moving to bring their weapons to readiness when the Knight spoke.
“All crew, all crew, all crew.” The ship’s voice came over the loudspeakers, and she didn’t sound like she was playing.
Piet tightened his grip on Todd’s arm, and it wasn’t because he didn’t want him to escape. The Knight repeated her call for attention.
“All crew, all crew, all crew.” she said, then followed it with, “We have an imminent translocation in close proximity. I repeat, we have an imminent translocation opening in close proximity.”
As she repeated the warning, the door to the Life Support section opened and Stephanie stepped through, followed by Vishlog and Garach.
The Knight continued. “All crew to battle stations. Stand by for evasion and defense. We have an imminent translocation opening in close proximity.”
“Steph…” Todd muttered as Reggie said, “Ten…”
Stephanie smiled, snapped her fingers, and wrapped him in blue light.
“Nine,” the Australian said and wrapped his arms around the space where Todd had been. He stumbled forward when he caught hold of nothing, and his sergeant gave a startled yelp as he blinked out of their midst.
He reappeared beside Stephanie, and she slid an arm around his waist and pulled him close as Vishlog draped an arm over his shoulders.
“Seven,” Garach said helpfully. “Six… Five…”
“Stephanie’s team has control of the VIP,” the Knight reported, then added. “All crew, stand down. The translocation is complete. I repeat, all crew, stand down. The translocation is complete and my sister has arrived.”
For a moment, there was silence before the crew began to cheer.
“Two…” Garach continued and grinned at Reggie. “One!”
“Stephanie’s team holds the VIP at the end of the match,” the Knight announced, and the crew cheered even louder.
The emergency lights flickered and went out, only to return and blink three times and pause before they blinked another three times to gain the crew’s attention.
“Crew, prepare to be sucked inside a whale of a ship. Stand by for docking. We are home.”
Chapter Seventeen
“This—” Gereg Hrageck’s voice shook with barely suppressed fury.
“Yes,” Jaleck agreed and looked around the table to see every gaze focused on the terrible scene before them.
The Regime troops had returned to their ships, and the battlecruiser made its final pass to rain fire on Hrageth’s Run and destroy all that remained. Hrageck’s anger was reflected in every expression.
The ground boiled, and rock and earth turned to liquid and flowed over the planet’s surface until nothing remained to show the settlement had ever existed.
As the footage ended, the gathered Council of Families members looked at each other, and Jaleck moved to keep their attention on the screen.
“We have one thing more,” she told them. “This is being broadcast as close to real-time as we can manage. Admiral Angreth is ensuring the integrity of the recording and relay.”
Admiral Angreth was enough to calm most representatives, and several glanced at Gralog, who stood at her back. Her chief security guard was as good a claim on her as the engagement ring humans used.
That none of her colleagues called her on it was a tribute to the admiral’s hard-won reputation. He’d been a champion in his own right, long before he’d sent her his honor guard, and she had not returned them.
Fleet Admiral Jaleck indicated the screen. “We sent a ship to see if there were any witnesses.”
“Witnesses!” The exclamation came from Nachtel Echgrech. “They’re all dead.”
“Exactly,” she agreed, “and they died in what I imagine were the most horrific circumstances—especially the humans.”
“So how do you expect to have them witness anything?” he challenged.
“Because the Telorans have mages in tune with the negative energies surrounding an unjust death,” she told him sweetly, and his gasp was echoed around the table.
It was a small fact she’d learned from the alien mages when trying to understand how they could help the Dreth deal with the negative effects of nMU—and one she’d ordered them not to share.
“Their clean-up rate of murders has been phenomenal.” Sudden understanding dawned on several faces, and Jaleck smiled. “And it is a close-held secret, something I expect you to honor and keep.”
Around the table, right hands were formed into fists and laid over hearts. She returned the gesture before she continued.
“Who would be more betrayed than the humans of Hrageth’s Run? Murdered by their own, their children and partners killed alongside them by their own.”
She glared around the table. “Intelligence reveals not a traitor among them—not to Dreth, or to Earth. They respected the tradition of guest and host and behaved with honor, despite not being Dreth.”
The fleet admiral indicated the screen, where the film showed the surface of Hrageth’s Run as seen from the cockpit of a dropship coming in to land. The camera was clearly part of the pilot’s suit because it moved when he did.
“We’re here, ma’am, sir.”
Angreth’s voice spoke through the HUD comms. “Proceed. They’ll be watching, but their vision may be delayed. Stand by for orders.”
“As you will,” the pilot replied and fo
llowed his co-pilot into the passenger compartment.
Several of the gathered Family representatives tensed as the first Teloran came into sight. These were only a little shorter than their Dreth escorts, and the fields that concealed their features were active.
Many of those at the council table had faced them in battle, and years of integration had not dulled the memories. More than one hand was laid on an arm or shoulder in comfort.
Jaleck noted it and decided the time for Telorans to sit with their Dreth counterparts needed to arrive sooner rather than later. They’d had almost three decades together. It was more than enough time.
“After you,” the Teloran stated and its sibilant tones set her teeth on edge.
The councilors were not alone with their memories. She’d fought the mages too, but she’d come to understand they were soldiers like everyone else and their survival had relied on service.
As had that of their families.
No, she wouldn’t hold their past against them.
“How will they locate the bodies?” Gereg asked. “I assume they will need bodies or some way to mark where the fallen lie.” He gestured at the screen. “And I do not think even bone survived that inferno.”
“My technical experts assure me that some bone might have survived,” Jaleck informed him.
“But the soil melted,” the councilor protested.
“Yes, but bone may require more heat,” she explained, “and if it does not, the Telorans assure me that the negative energy created by an unjust death is impervious to heat.”
“And the mages can detect such energy,” Gereg acknowledged with a heavy sigh. “But ghosts?”
“This had me puzzled too,” the fleet admiral said, “but the mages say there is a dimension in which the dead may linger—a plane of existence between ours and the one where all go when they are dead. I think he referred to it as the Plane of Ascension.”
“An antechamber to the next life?” Gereg sounded mildly curious, and she ignored the soft chuckles of disbelief that greeted his statement.
“Yes, High Councilor. That is what the Telorans tell me.”
“And you hope a spirit of the wronged still lingers there, unable or unwilling to move on?” Nachtel sounded scornful.
Jaleck replied as though answering a particularly slow student. “That is correct, Councilor.”
He colored and his cheeks became a darker green, but the landing party had left the shuttle and waited while one of the warriors shrugged into the harness that let him carry the detection equipment.
A second warrior held the tablet on which the readouts would be shown. The two Telorans stationed themselves on either side of the detector and spread their hands, palms down, toward the earth.
“We are ready,” one stated, and the Dreth carrying the detector nodded.
“Tell me when to stop,” he instructed.
“Agreed.”
The Family Council watched as the team walked slowly across the ground. The camera switched to one carried by a drone. It showed the Dreth and Telorans traversing the desecrated land as the shadowy outlines of buildings appeared.
“This is how the settlement looked prior to the attack,” Admiral Angreth informed them.
Humans and Dreth moved like ghosts around the team, and walls rose to show the party moving through them into a classroom. Blue lines sprang into being. They outlined each separate area and the school buildings vanished, taking their ghosts with them.
“Here,” one of the Telorans announced as the detector emitted a soft alarm.
“Here,” agreed the Dreth technician following the readouts.
To the observers’ surprise, the Teloran knelt. “A child who wants his mother,” he stated, “and he does not speak with strangers. He—” His shoulders slumped. “He flees.”
Gesturing for the Dreth to follow, he moved in a distinct direction, and his partner walked parallel.
“Ah…a protector,” he murmured as the detector beeped again, “but…too broken to speak. He holds the child.”
His next words were filled with wonder. “They will not leave without her.”
He turned a featureless face to the waiting Dreth. “The one we seek is close. Cast in a circle around this spot.”
Again, the buildings blinked into life and blinked out, replaced by the lines. The team stood in the middle of what had been a classroom.
“If you would stand back a little,” the second Teloran instructed. “There is anger and outrage…a sense of great betrayal…and such sadness.”
The Dreth moved even farther away when the mages signaled that they needed more distance. Together, they brought their magic to bear on the burned ground at their feet.
Melted debris flaked away and rose to swirl in the air currents and reveal the paler fragments encased within.
“Tegortha aid them,” one of the councilors whispered at the sight of them.
“May we approach?” the Dreth team leader asked, but the Telorans shook their heads.
“We do not control the Waiting,” the first Teloran informed them, “and there is so much anger.”
“True,” his partner agreed. “When there is this much anger, it is difficult to tell if the Waiting will talk or seek immediate retribution.”
“You mean the dead—the Waiting—might attack?” Nachtel looked horrified, but no one answered, not when the reply played out so powerfully on the screen.
The Dreth escort remained at a distance and the two Telorans took a step away from the hole, their bodies crackling with barely visible fire.
“Come,” one commanded. “Tell us what happened here.”
“Let us assist,” the other urged. “Tell us what we can do to aid your journey. You cannot remain long between.”
To the surprise of the watching councilors, both Telorans released their shields so that their bodies appeared in plain view.
“We are only mortal,” they said, and it sounded as though they were answering a question.
They turned as though following the progress of a person, and the Dreth backed away from their captain. He stood his ground but worry creased his face, his gaze on something the observers could not see.
When he held both his hands before him, he inclined his head as though he was accepting the touch of a petitioner.
“Change the spectrums.” Angreth’s order came in firm, quiet tones, and the councilors remained transfixed as the scene shifted. At first, the different spectrums showed nothing, then one of the Telorans spoke a single word and a third figure appeared.
The woman was dressed in the practical dress of the Hrageth’s Run settlers—a long tunic, soft baggy trousers, and sturdy boots. Her long, dark hair was pulled back in a braid, and she carried a blaster slung across her front.
“They killed us,” she told him, her eyes pleading. Turning slightly, she caught sight of the child and a man with dark eyes and a coarse black beard.
“My lover and my child,” she told the captain. “They took us all. There was no mercy.”
Her voice broke. “Not for the elderly, the human, or the very young.”
The captain clasped her hands gently. “Who?” he asked.
“The Regime,” she hissed. “They came and killed everyone within our settlement.”
She paused and the tears dried on her cheek as she straightened. “Did Dreth finally declare war?”
He shook his head. “No, they did not.”
“Did they…did they do something to make the Regime angry?”
“We only need to exist to make the Regime angry,” one of the councilors muttered, and others murmured agreement but not loudly enough to drown out the next words.
The captain shook his head and drew her a step closer.
“No, we did not. They should not have been in this system. They have no reason to be here and were not authorized.”
“But you didn’t stop them.” Anger blazed in the woman’s eyes, and he dropped her as flames danced over her skin.
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“Had we been aware, we would have driven away those we did not destroy,” he told her, then asked, “Why are you still here?”
“I seek vengeance,” the woman declared, and the male spirit groaned, rose to his feet, and lifted the child to his hip.
“Em—”
She held a hand up to demand silence.
“Don’t you Em me, Dex. I want vengeance. I want them to pay for the time they stole from us and the life they stole from my son. I want them…”
The captain stepped closer. “Citizen Em,” he said for want of another name.
He inclined his head toward the man and boy. “Citizen Dex and Citizen Son of Em, you will have vengeance.” He gestured at the world around them. “For this betrayal, Dreth will rise, and the Regime will be driven from our skies and our worlds. This, I swear.”
“As a Dreth and for my departed hosts?” she demanded.
“As a Dreth, as the representative of your departed hosts, and as the clan father who adopts you and yours as his own,” he declared.
Several councilors gasped and Jaleck looked at the councilor who represented the captain’s clan. He lowered his chin in acknowledgment.
“His vow will be recognized,” he confirmed. “We will seek out their records and find any of her clan within our systems so his word is honored.”
“But they’re human,” another councilor protested, and he nodded.
“They are,” he declared, “and they suffer, fight, and die alongside us. House Gravach honors the pact.”
“And House Karnach stands in support,” Jaleck declared.
Several other councilors murmured their approval and they all turned to the screen.
The woman’s spirit had tilted her head as though listening and managed a small smile before she drew the man and child into her circle.
“Vengeance will be exacted,” the captain assured her. “Gravach swears it.”
“Gravach honors me,” the spirit replied, made a fist with her right hand and placed it over her heart, and extended it in a warrior’s salute.
“Gravach is honored by you,” he answered and touched his knuckles to hers.
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