Alexis had to agree. “Especially since we had to divert to avoid the fighting in the next system over.” She attached multiple gas canisters to her rig, pushing aside her discomfort at the negative association she had with them as she did so. “What do you think we’re going to find when we get down there?”
“Frightened people,” K’aia told them without inflection. “We’re going to be invaders to them, just like the specialists who conscripted us were until we learned better.”
Trey remained quiet. His mind was caught up in battling his urge to reject their orders and do something to work with the people on the planet instead of forcing them into a life in the military.
Alexis couldn’t help pick up the fractious thoughts Trey was broadcasting. She put her hand on his shoulder. “I know,” she told him gently. “I don’t like it either. None of us do. But this is the only way, I think.”
“Is it?” Trey countered. “Or can we find a better way that doesn’t infringe on the rights of these people to choose their own path?”
Alexis shrugged. “I can’t see one,” she admitted. “The Seven are too close. We’re too late to make any attempt at diplomacy.”
Gabriel saw similar discomfort in the postures of everyone in the bay. “I don’t think any of us like it. It’s too close to what we went through.” He paused as a thought occurred. “Hey, do you think the team who nabbed us felt like this?”
SI Torrence nodded, hearing their murmurings as he walked past them to the drop ramp controls. “Nobody I know feels entirely okay with plucking people from their lives, but we can’t spare the fighters to place protection around every planet in the Seven’s way. All we can do is our best to save who we can and fight them off when they attack.”
The landing went without incident. No law enforcement or military came screaming out to meet the unit when they debarked far outside the planet’s center of population, largely thanks to the stealth technology that hid their ships.
SI Torrence held them back and gave last-minute instructions while the other units assigned to the mission landed and got into position. “Keep to the route set on your dash-comm. Your drop point is half a day’s drive from the city, with four stops along the way. Don’t get separated from each other, and don’t take any risks if the people fight back. Use your gas if a crowd turns into a mob.” He paused, his face softening as he looked at each of them in turn. “Remember, I’m here to guide you. You get stuck, you call me.”
The unit approached their vehicles, two smallish ships with separated rear compartments. The front had room for five, with a shaped bench at the back for the larger or four-legged species. The cockpit was laid out somewhere between a fighter Pod’s and a truck’s, with the pilot’s and navigator’s chairs in front of the hybrid dash-comm and benches behind, with all the dangling straps they expected to see in military transports.
Alexis stepped aside to allow Gabriel the pilot’s chair, wanting time to think while they made their way to the ground. K’aia climbed in behind her, followed by Trey and Boden.
There was a moment of discontent when Slash and Sibil clashed over who would pilot the second ship.
“You’re not flying this thing,” Sibil argued. “We’ll be dead before you manage to take off.”
“Says you!” Slash retorted.
They were both cut short when Gorrak slipped around them and hopped into the coveted seat. “Quit stressing. It doesn’t matter who flies it, except it’s going to be me.”
Both females shot the Shrillexian looks that would kill a lesser being.
He just shrugged and jerked a thumb toward the passenger bench behind him. “You can keep Jentek company,” he told Slash. “Sibil, you can navigate.”
The Leath looked up from his quiet conversation with Pootie at the sound of his name. “Huh?”
Pootie rolled her eyes as she moved over to make room for the surly Noel-ni. “You suck, Gorrak.”
“Yeah, and Slash’d crash us,” he replied. “Face it, I’m the best driver out of the five of us.”
Nobody had an argument for that since Gorrak had proven to be the best of them all during driver training.
They set off in convoy toward their first designated target in speculative silence.
Gabriel concentrated on the dash-comm and the road. He felt confident, and his mind was clear of doubt as he drove the route that took them through the rolling agricultural land.
He’d had time to think about his realization that a person of duty and honor had little room to maneuver since he’d gone through the archives as SI Torrence had instructed. His love of history had always been confined to who won what battle, and how hard they’d kicked the ass of the enemy.
His trip through the archives had left him introspective while he worked to figure out why it took so little time for people of all species to forget the lessons they’d learned the hard way and jump right back into repeating the same mistakes. Before the planets whose governments had been smart enough to pull together had formed a defense, this whole galaxy had been at risk of being lost to the clan who’d earmarked it as a rich source of life to play their sick games with.
His conclusion was simple: conscription might not be the ideal way to ensure the Seven didn’t overrun this part of the universe, but it sure beat the people of the gameworld rolling over and showing them their bellies.
He saw the immorality in forcing choices on the people, but something his mother had once told him and Alexis had helped him reconcile his feelings on the situation.
Survival came first, and whatever price they had to pay for freedom was only a fraction of its worth.
They would leave this game with an intimate understanding of what it cost to enforce the hard decisions a leader had to make for the good of everyone. The incentive was that humanity and their allies were the innocents at risk in the real-world analog of this scenario.
Alexis, however, found herself leaning toward the other end of the argument. She didn’t know if she was capable of causing harm, even if it was for the greater good. She glanced at Gabriel’s cool exterior and felt the calm radiating from him. How are you not a mess? she asked him in their mindspace.
Gabriel lifted a shoulder without taking his eyes off the road. Easy, he replied. Soon as Trey told us that Eve altered the program to include Ookens, I knew the Seven were bound to take the people of this planet and twist them into abominations. You’re the math genius. We can’t save everyone, and there aren’t enough resources to evacuate a whole planet. We have to follow the plan.
Alexis pressed her lips together. She was torn between the need to preserve even a small piece of the civilization on this planet and her strong belief that individual rights were as important as the good of the many.
There was no way to offer them the choice with the Zenith model of operations.
She gazed out the window, seeing none of the alien construction they passed as their ships ate up the miles. She barely noted the people she saw working the fields, except to acknowledge that they were prime targets for the Seven, being tall and well-built for hard labor.
Trey leaned between the twins’ seats. “How far are we from the first town?” he asked, craning to see the dash-comm. His face dropped when he saw they were nearing the first marker, then hardened when he saw the people of the planet for the first time and it hit him that all of them were going to be wiped out by the Seven. “They look so peaceful. I hate that we have to do this to them.”
K’aia spoke for the first time since they’d set off. “Take it from me. The people we save will be grateful eventually.”
Trey turned to give her a confused look. “How can you say that?”
K’aia inclined her head. “I can say it because I’ve been on both sides of the situation. Did I ever tell you about what I did in the time between leaving the mine and deciding to find my way to Bethany Anne?”
Trey shook his head, curious at his usually stoic friend’s sudden verbosity. “Some? Not really.”
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K’aia drew a long breath and exhaled the ghost of her grief. “I went back to my home and buried my dead. I searched City-on-the-Lake for any surviving members of my family and found none. For a while, I was alive, but I didn’t live. I felt guilty that I had lived and my family didn’t.” She shifted on the bench. “I spent some time doing my best to remedy that before Sabine set me on the right track, but eventually I got to where I could see that I’d been given a chance to do something bigger with my life. Something that mattered.”
“I get that,” Sibil told her in a low voice. “It started with feeling good about being able to fight, but when we learned in class how the Seven operate, I went to check the archives. I found out that they’d worked their genocide program on my homeworld, and it made me forget I was pissed at the turn my life had taken. Now my only focus is on making sure others get the same chance to take the fight to them that we have been given.”
Slash bumped Sibil with her shoulder. “I can’t say the same. My people are safe back in the Empire. Whether they disowned me or not, I’m glad the Empress has their backs. But I’m glad I got conscripted. I was only heading for prison or an early grave. Now I have a legitimate focus for my aggression.”
“I hear that,” Gorrak called over the comm.
“Are we there yet?” Pootie asked.
Chapter Nine
Alexis closed the rear doors on the sleeping people and headed back into the cockpit of the ship, feeling like her soul had been soiled in some indescribable way.
Non-player characters or not, nothing about the activity she’d just partaken in made her feel like a good person. Not the terrified expressions on the faces of the ones too shocked to fight back, and definitely not that they’d been left with no choice but to use force on those who had been cognizant of the danger the team presented on their arrival in the town.
“We could have handled that better,” Gabriel agreed, feeling the same grubbiness deep inside he felt coming from his twin.
The town square was empty as they drove away, the remaining people having fled when they realized they had no chance against the fully-armored strangers who had appeared in a cloud of purple gas and taken their pick of the young and strong.
K’aia did what she could to comfort the others, despite her own feelings of ineptitude in the face of their inexperienced fumbling of the objective. “We don’t have to feel good about it. We just saved a bunch of lives. Doesn’t matter one bit that we did it by force.”
“Oh, it matters,” Trey countered. “It matters because we’re not heartless. I hope it never gets easier to bear than this because that will mean we’ve lost what makes us the good guys.”
That more than anything gave them solace as they worked their way through stopping points two and three. Two hours into the drive toward their final stop, the dash-comm beeped and SI Torrence’s concerned face replaced the route map.
“Stop where you are,” he instructed. “There’s been a development.”
Gabriel pulled over to the side of the road, and Gorrak halted the other ship beside them and opened the side window so they could all listen together.
SI Torrence’s voice had a strange quality to it, coming from both ships’ speaker systems at once. “Stay exactly where you are,” he told them. “The fighting has spilled over into this system. We’re pulling you out.”
Gabriel narrowed his eyes at the unexpected news. “What do you mean, you’re pulling us out? Why?”
“The Seven have sent their soldiers down to the planet,” SI Torrence replied. “They know we’re here, and standard procedure is to abandon the mission and extract all specialists still on world.”
Alexis balked at the thought of leaving the people they hadn’t yet rescued to die at the hands—or tentacles—of whoever the Seven was using to hunt them. “Staff, we can fight them,” she told him. “This is what we’ve been training for.”
Gabriel nodded at the flickering holoscreen. “Yeah. It’ll sure as hell beat what we’ve been doing all day. Let us stay.”
“Please,” Trey finished for them all.
SI Torrence shook his head, his face set in firm lines. “Absolutely not. Even if you are capable of beating them, we’ve invested too much in your training. You’re too valuable to risk.”
“Screw that!” K’aia’s outburst was accompanied by exclamations of outrage from the rest of the unit.
Pootie scrambled over the benches and through the gap between Alexis and Gabriel’s seats and pointed a finger at SI Torrence. “Don’t make us start a mutiny down here.”
Alexis calmed Pootie with a hand. “What Pootie is trying to say is, can’t you contact Specialist Childers and ask permission for us to use this as further training?”
Gabriel grinned as he figured out Alexis’ tactic. “Yeah, training. How many are they sending? If it’s a small number, it will give us the opportunity to put into practice everything you and the specialists have taught us without the risk of being part of the main battle.”
SI Torrence looked at the twins like he wasn’t entirely sure whether he was being played.
“No, really,” Alexis insisted. “Think about it. We get to demonstrate Etheric Empire fighting techniques, mixed in with the tactical and strategic knowledge we’ve learned on the Zenith course.”
SI Torrence faltered, caught between his duty to follow procedure and his desire to see the best students he’d ever had in action.
“We’ll bring back any Kurtherian technology we get our hands on,” Alexis added in a quiet voice, dipping her head. She hoped the trick of human psychology worked on Yollins, too—or at least on Yollin NPCs programmed by Eve.
SI Torrence frowned and muted the call. They waited impatiently while he lifted a handset to his ear and spoke inaudibly.
“What’s he saying, Alexis?” Trey murmured.
Alexis found it hard to read the SI’s rapidly-moving lips, but she persisted. “He’s talking to Specialist Childers. I think…I think he’s arguing our case?” She squinted in frustration since the handset partially blocked her view. “Dammit. I can’t tell what he’s saying!”
Their agony was ended a moment later when SI Torrence restored the audio and gave them a solemn nod. “You’d better not make me look like a liar.”
Gabriel grinned. “Sweet! Does that mean we get to fight?”
“Orders are to make your way to the hills and find a place to lay low,” SI Torrence told them, his hologram bouncing as he ran. “I’ll be there in half an hour, forty minutes maximum. Specialist Childers wants to be sure you’re equipped for this, and somebody needs to get the people you’re transporting to safety.”
He signed off, and Gabriel and Gorrak got the ships moving again.
“Follow me,” Gorrak called over the comm.
“Yeah, hell, no!” Gabriel exclaimed, speeding up to overtake Gorrak as they turned off the highway onto a beaten track. “Eat my dust!”
Alexis was amused by the unusual spike of annoyance from her brother. What’s got your panties in a twist? she inquired with a chuckle.
Sooner we get there, the longer we have to strategize, he replied.
Alexis giggled at Gabriel’s attitude, sensing the real reason he was suddenly showing his caveman side. Didn’t realize Gorrak’s driving skill had become a sore point with you.
Shhh! Gabriel told her. I’m trying to concentrate here.
Alexis shrugged and sat back to enjoy the race. Their ships were fitted with inertia-countering technology for situations where they’d have to go off-road at speed, so their passengers would be just fine. Oookay, Dad.
Gabriel ignored her and swerved left to go around a rock that split the dirt road in two.
Gorrak went right, and the two ships met on the other side with a shower of sparks as they scraped past each other. Gabriel nudged ahead to take the lead as the path narrowed.
Alexis gave her brother a pointed look. “Why not just crash now so we can walk all the way?” she snarked.
> Gabriel sighed and opened the comm. “Take it down a notch before we damage the ships,” he told Gorrak as he reduced his speed to something more sensible.
Farmland gave way to wilder vegetation, and the ground grew uneven and rocky. They took their ships as high as they dared, straddling the line between keeping up their speed and remaining undetected by the enemy ship they saw in the distance on the dash-comm.
Alexis wondered if the enemy ship was headed for the city, or maybe it had honed in on the location of another unit.
Either way, they were safe for now. Their ships dropped out of sight as the hills rose out of seemingly nowhere. Gabriel called a halt once they were enclosed by craggy stone walls whose sharp edges had been softened by erosion.
Trey checked their time and left his seat with the idea of putting a meal together. “Is everyone hungry?” he asked.
“Want a hand?” K’aia offered over the enthusiastic assent that came over the comm from the other ship.
Trey waved her off. “I’m good, thanks. It’s just rehydrating whatever they packed in for us. I’ll call everyone when I’m done.”
“We’ll eat outside,” Alexis decided. “There’s barely room to swing a Noel-ni in here.”
Trey wasn’t against the idea after being cooped up in the cockpit for most of the day. “Sounds good to me.” He left the cockpit and headed for the galley.
K’aia got to her feet as a thought occurred. “One of us should check on the passengers. I’ll be back soon.”
Trey took a moment when he got to the galley to look through the options before settling on making a version of the human dish called chili. His thoughts were on the battle ahead as he emptied various sachets of dehydrated ingredients into a deep, two-handled pot and added water before turning on the heat and placing the lid on the pot to seal it.
There was some analogy to be made between cooking and planning a fight, he thought. Success depended on prior preparation, for example. It had been months by their time since Addix had died, but he saw how her loss still affected the twins. Even K’aia still grew introspective when the Ixtali’s name came up, but she had been the spymistress’ protégé so it was to be expected. He hadn’t known Addix well. In fact, he’d been mostly terrified of her as an instructor who gave no quarter, but his determination to repay her for saving his mother’s life was no less strong for the lack of bonding between them.
If All Else Fails Page 7