The Wages of War

by Saxon Andrew

  “You know we could be executed for this?”

  “Nope.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “We’ll simply say our scanner reported the radiation higher than it is.”

  “You must really love your family!”

  “I do.”

  “Well, I don’t, and I like being away from them,” the Scanner remarked.

  The Pilot stared at him for a moment and then asked, “Are you planning to break your contract with your mate?”

  “No, but I imagine she’s planning to leave me.”

  “And what happens to your property if she does that while you’re away?” The Scanner glared at him and the Pilot smiled, “You’ll probably end up with nothing but the bills.”

  The Scanner looked away and then turned back to the Pilot, “I’ll change the radiation reading.”

  “That’s a wise decision.”

  The Scanner pushed some buttons on his panel and scanned the planet again for radiation. He pressed another button and then said, “Alright. I’ll enter the information and you better make sure you never reveal what we’ve done to anyone!”

  “You can count on that; I don’t want to be executed for this. I’m moving the ship around the core of the galaxy at this distance and start working our way back in to the black hole. Let me know if you find any habitable planets closer to the core.” The Scanner nodded and looked at the star map for a likely prospect.

  • • •

  Robert followed the scout outside the range of their scanners and said, “What did you just do?” Cami shrugged. “I mean it; what did you do?”

  “I just inserted a suggestion into their subconscious.”

  “You did what?”

  “We can hear all of their thoughts and if you focus on the minute thoughts in their subconscious, you can push some of them. That pilot doesn’t want to be away from his family, and I saw that fear in his subconscious thoughts. I added a little push to cause it to enter his conscious mind.” Robert stared at Cami shaking his head. “The other Grang hates his mate but fears she’s going to take everything they own. I didn’t have to push that thought much; the Pilot said the perfect thing to bring his fears into his conscious mind.”

  “Cami, you just performed mind control on those two Grang. I didn’t detect you doing it either. What you’ve just demonstrated is dangerous.”

  Cami smiled, “You’re worried I might use it on you.”

  “You could say that,” Robert remarked.

  “It won’t work on a telepath.” Robert raised an eyebrow and Cami added, “If I entered your mind, even on a subconscious level, you would detect it.”

  “But it would work on a normal human.” Cami stared at him and her smile disappeared. “Wouldn’t it?” Cami shrugged.

  “This explains a lot.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Robert watched the scout disappear in the distance and brought the ship to a stop. He turned to Cami and said, “I saw the fear your mother had when she allowed you to go on those dangerous missions when you were younger. It was one of the most intense emotions I’ve ever seen but she allowed you to go. You manipulated her to allow you to do it; I suspect you also manipulated your father.” Cami glared at Robert and he sat back in his chair, “How long have you been able to do this?”

  Cami thought about denying his accusation but knew he’d see she was not being truthful. “I think it began when I was about two years old.”

  “That’s ridiculous! There’s no way you had that kind of control of your telepathic talent that young!”

  “Robert, it wasn’t control; it was fear.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I never knew my mother; she died giving birth to me. My father blamed me for her death, and he beat me numerous times. Whenever he reached for the belt to hit me, I felt immense fear of what was coming. I would close my eyes and wait for him to start and hoped that he wouldn’t do it. Some of the times, he’d stop and drop the belt, coat hanger, or anything else he was going to use on me. But it didn’t work all the time; my father’s mind was a cauldron of pain and suffering and I think nothing could touch his subconscious. Once I entered the State Facility after my father abandoned me, I would see when others wanted to hurt me, and I’d feel that fear all over again. It didn’t always work when I was younger than seven…but one day, things changed. I seemed to be able to stop others from hitting me. I paid attention to my fear and saw what I was doing to their minds. I worked on it and learned how to see the emotions and fears in other’s subconscious minds. I’ve used the talent rarely and there are instances where it didn’t work.”

  “Why not?”

  Cami sighed, “If someone is hell bent determined to do something, changing their mind is not easily done. High emotion seems to prevent me from using their subconscious mind to change their behavior.” Cami paused and added, “The smarter a person, the more difficult it is to change their mind. It took some time to get my parents to allow me to go with Sweets and Charlie.”

  “What fear did you use to get them to agree?”

  “Robert, that’s rather harsh.”

  “You had to work on their fears to make it happen; what fear did you use?”

  Cami blew out a slow breath before replying, “Their fear of humanity being destroyed.”

  Robert tilted his head, “I saw that is a major motivator for both of them. Do you feel guilty for manipulating them?”

  “I guess; but it needed to be done to save humanity.”

  Robert stared at her in silence for a long moment before responding, “That still doesn’t make it right.”

  “I can teach you how to do it.”

  “I don’t want to know how it’s done! Mind control is the largest fear that all non-telepaths feel toward telepaths. We’ve assured everyone that telepaths can’t control a person’s mind and it appears we’re wrong. If this gets out…”

  “It won’t get out if you keep your mouth shut!” Robert stared at her and Cami sighed, “I learned how to do this to survive. If I hadn’t developed this talent, my father would have probably killed me; he almost did when he abandoned me at the hospital.”

  “Did you manipulate him to take you to the hospital?” Cami glared at Robert. “Did you?”

  “I knew I was in horrific pain and I pushed him to take care of me.” Robert tilted his head and shook it. “What are you thinking?!” Cami asked.

  “You’re a product of your environment; it’s not your fault. But now you know better and you will have to decide if this is a talent you intend to use in the future.” Cami was clearly angry, and Robert asked softly, “How would you feel if I manipulated your parents to promote me over you and turn over control of Britannia’s fleets to me.”

  “That’s awful!”

  “Cami, this talent could be used by any telepath for all the wrong reasons. It’s a loaded blaster and you never know who could be holding it. No one should be able to do this.” Robert turned back to his console, “Your secret is safe with me.”

  • • •

  Cami stared at Robert as he sent a thought to Grady, “Sir, the scout has listed Britannia as unfit for habitation due to lethal radiation levels.”

  “Why would they do that? The radiation is not at a harmful level.”

  “They didn’t want to have to come to Britannia to build a base; they would have to be away from their families too long and they decided to say it isn’t habitable.”

  “I guess the Grang aren’t as bad as I thought.”

  Robert glanced at Cami and said, “I’m not so sure about that Sir. These two were extremely selfish and driven to take care of themselves over their civilization. I’ll keep an eye on them, but they’ve moved around the core and will be ten light years away shortly. They won’t be coming back.”

  “Do you think it’s safe to lift the black out?”

  “Yes Sir. We’ll be leaving on our mission shortly so you should get some scouts out to the core to dete
ct any others that move this way.”

  Grady smiled, “I’ll take care of that immediately. Good job and I’ll see you shortly on Britannia.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Cami turned to her console and put the weapons on standby. She was silent for a few moments and then turned back to Robert, “It was this talent that kept Britannia hidden from the Grang.” Robert nodded and Cami waited for him to respond. Finally she said, “Every time I’ve used my talent it was to protect humanity and my family!”

  Robert turned to her, “I’m sure you had excellent reasons for using it but where does it stop? The more you use a talent, the stronger it grows. The Grang aren’t a danger to Britannia; we could wipe them out any time we choose. Even if we destroyed that scout, the Grang still wouldn’t be an issue. You’ll have situations where you want to get your way and what will stop you from using your talent? Quite frankly, if you chose you could take control of humanity and rule it. That concerns me.”

  “I have no desire to do that!”

  “You’re seventeen years old, Cami! You don’t know what you’ll become in the future. Right now you just push others in the direction you want. Eventually you may develop the talent to where you can do more than just push; you’ll actually control other’s behaviors.” Cami stared at Robert and then turned back to her console. She knew that she had done more than just push those Grang; her talent was getting stronger. She was angry until Robert said absently, “I wonder if you pushed Taffy and Grady into wanting to adopt you.” Robert ran a diagnostic and turned to Cami, “I need to take the ship in, and have it checked out.”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “The power delivery from two of the reactors is not running smoothly. Something is causing it to be erratic. I’ll check it out with Dr. Goldman, and I’ll let you know when it’s ready for launch.”

  “What do you think is causing it?” Cami asked.

  “I’m not sure. It could be the conduits to the generators are at fault, but I won’t know until we get it checked out.” Cami nodded and Robert flew the ship down to Britannia’s surface.

  • • •

  Grady called off the black out and Justin appeared on his display. Grady smiled, “What’s up?”

  “Sir, I want to make a suggestion and I want you to hear me out before you say no.” Grady’s eyes narrowed and he nodded. “I think I should take my Squadrons to the Triangulum Galaxy and do some scouting.” Grady’s head went back, and Justin quickly added, “Sir, my scouts need to work on developing their scouting skills and all they’re doing at the moment is sitting around being useless. I know we’ve looked at the planets that civilization inhabit but we’ve not looked at anything else outside of their territory. We don’t know what’s going on in the rest of Triangulum and it will give my scouts the opportunity to hone the skills they’re going to need in Andromeda.”

  “And what happens if some of your scouts are detected?”

  “Sir, you know how stealthy our new ships are and they will probably think the ones they detect came from the Stealth Civilization they’re fighting against in Andromeda. However, I’ll put the fear of hell into my sailors about taking any risks of being detected. This is a perfect opportunity to get my squadrons trained properly.”

  “What about Admiral Tyer’s suggestion of moving out close to Andromeda to provide protection if our scout has to run?”

  “Sir, the Griffin has three thousand Garrions on board for defense and they can be used to offer protection to our scout. You know the mission to Andromeda is going to take a long time and I’m concerned about my scouts losing the skills they’ve developed in the initial search of Andromeda. Once my squadrons scout the Triangulum Galaxy, they’ll return to be provisioned and then we’ll join the Griffin.”

  Grady thought about the suggestion and couldn’t come up with a good reason to not do it. After a few moments he asked, “How are you going to give your squadrons a break during this mission?”

  “We have fifty of the old model carriers given to us by the Colonies and we can take two of them to support one squadron each. They’ll stay outside the galaxy and they do have the stealth coating on their hulls along with most of our current stealth systems.”

  Grady hesitated and then said, “You have permission to carry out your plan. Just be prepared to leave instantly if the Griffin runs into trouble.”

  “Yes Sir. Thank you.”

  “I want to know what you discover in Triangulum on an ongoing basis.”

  “We can use our telepathic communicators Sir. They aren’t able to detect them in Triangulum.”

  “How long will it take you to be ready?”

  “I need the two carriers you’ll assign to me and once that’s done, we should be ready to leave in less than a week.”

  “You’ll have them in less than an hour. The faster you complete this mission, the quicker you can join the Griffin.”

  “Thank you Sir.”

  • • •

  Charlotte and Graylin were in the cafeteria when both of their communicators went off simultaneously. Both lifted them and Charlotte’s expression turned anxious, “Something’s up. My scouts have been ordered to report to the Comet immediately.”

  “I’ve been ordered to the Nebula.” Graylin looked up, “What do you think it is?”

  “I have no idea, but Justin must be up to something. I wonder if the defense Garrions have been ordered to join us?” Graylin picked up his sandwich and started wolfing it down. Charlotte left her meal on the table and rushed out of the cafeteria.

  • • •

  The two Squadrons began launch operations on the Griffin and began arriving at their carriers two hours later. Justin contacted Charlotte and Graylin to meet him on the Nebula and they arrived in his conference room. They walked in quickly and Justin held up his hand, “Relax, we have a new mission and we will be leaving in three days.”

  “What’s the mission?” Graylin asked.

  “You’re taking your squadrons out to the Triangulum Galaxy and we’re going to scout it.”

  “Why?” Charlotte asked.

  “Because our pilots will lose their skills if we don’t keep them busy!” Justin replied. “We’ve really not taken a good look at everything in Triangulum and all the maneuvers in the world won’t get them ready like a real scouting mission will. Triangulum is less than half the size of the Milky Way and we should be able to complete the mission before the scout we’re sending to Andromeda gets really started. We’ll join the Griffin outside Andromeda after we complete scouting Triangulum. Each of your squadrons will be on a Carrier and you’ll start your scouting on the opposite ends of the galaxy. You will assign some of your Garrions to defense duties for your carriers. Our defense Garrions will be leaving with the Griffin.”

  Charlotte glanced at Graylin and then asked, “Where will you be Sir?”

  “I’m taking the Red Rock out between your carriers above Triangulum and you will feed me the information you collect using your telepathic communicators; the Triangulum Civilization can’t detect them so it shouldn’t be an issue. Plan to send me your data every other day instead of constantly. Charlotte, you’ll send your data the first day and Graylin, you will send yours the next day.”

  “Who is in overall command?”

  Justin turned to Graylin, “I am. However, the carrier commanders hold rank over you and are charged with making sure the carriers are defended properly.” Justin paused and then added, “Any scout that’s detected will be removed from our fleet and given a job in fleet operations; there will be no exceptions. Make sure your scouts know getting detected during this mission is not an option and they better make sure it doesn’t happen!” Charlotte and Graylin stared at Justin in silence and he continued, “The carriers are being provisioned and once that’s completed, we’ll be launching. Get your units ready!”

  Graylin and charlotte stood up and said, “Yes Sir.”

  They left the conference room and Charlotte smiled, “This i
s a good idea.”

  “We’re taking a risk of being discovered.”

  “We run that risk any time we go scouting. We can handle the civilization in Triangulum if it comes down to it; I’d rather make a mistake there than in Andromeda. This will be good for our crews.”

  Graylin shrugged, “I wonder who is replacing Cami and Robert on Justin’s ship?”

  “I didn’t think of that. However, that’s not our problem. Let’s get moving and get our crews ready.”

  • • •

  Kelli Kim arrived on the Red Rock’s bridge and went to attention, “Captain Kim reporting Sir.”

  Frank looked at her and returned her salute, “At ease Captain, you will be replacing me as the ship’s pilot. I will be temporarily promoted to replace Cami as the Admiral’s Second-in-Command. Your scores have been excellent, and I expect you to do a good job piloting the ship.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Frank moved away from the pilot’s console and Kelli sat down. She was distressed that she and Sandra had been separated a month earlier but Sandra was made a ship commander so that softened the blow. She was promoted to senior Captain and been sent to Resource Officer Training during the break. She guessed she was due for a promotion but serving on the Admiral’s ship wasn’t what she anticipated. The training to be a resource officer was truly educational and the things she learned about the new warship were amazing. But, being a pilot wouldn’t allow her to use the training in her new assignment. Oh well.”

  Justin entered the bridge and immediately said, “At ease.” He went to his command chair and looked at Frank sitting next to him staring at Cami’s former panel. He was shaking his head and Justin asked, “What’s wrong Frank?”

  Frank sighed and turned to Justin, “I’ve been trained on this panel, but I have to tell you I’m as comfortable with it as a cat staring at a pit bull.” Justin stared at Frank and Frank sighed, “Sir, I don’t think this setup is a good move.”