by Jim Laughter
He scouted around the sector for over a dozen time cycles, only occasionally detecting a Human Mass ship and managing to avoid them. He carefully noted which planets were active in space and which weren’t. Mapping each system, he planned for future stealth missions in case this one proved fruitful. Nothing made your reputation more secure than being able to repeat a successful hunt.
Finally, he chose a planet with a sufficient human population to meet the demands of the Main Hive. Human meat was desired back home and they had set criteria for the costs and risks involved in its procurement. His own single ship surveys cleared it of any fears about hidden defenses or communications with the Human Mass. Even its location to an established transit tube vector was favorable. It would only require a minimum of adjustment to aim the large transit tube directly at this planet. The location would also have it materialize far enough away to avoid possible detection from the very few Human Mass ships that did appear in this sector on what appeared to be one of their regular routes between planets.
With his decision made, the commander sent a tight beam signal back to his home galaxy. He didn’t know how such a device worked. It had once been explained that it was a variant of the tube technology that allowed the Hive to transport hundreds of ships at once across the vast reaches of space between galaxies. All that mattered to him was that it worked.
He received the reply almost instantly. Ejecting a beacon, he vectored his ship away from the area. He waited patiently and watched the empty vastness of space. It wasn’t often one was fortunate enough to see a transit tube appear whereas it was more normal to be on the other side in a bound cluster of ships waiting for the signal to go through the tube. Because of the cluster, you could see little except the generation stations forming the transit tube ring. Even after the tube formed, all you might see is a formless gray swirl the cluster would be shoved in to. The best part of the show, as told by those few who had seen it, was on the receiving end. That was where the energies employed would rip space to provide an anchor for the other end of the tube. Now was his chance to view this spectacle first hand.
Soon a swirl began to form around the floating beacon. Then it took on more substance and began to both speed up and expand. The commander enjoyed the kaleidoscope of colors that appeared, mostly in the deep reds as the end of the tube formed. A definite ring became visible at the edges of the swirl.
And then the tube appeared. No flash or boom accompanied its appearance. In fact, after all the swirls of color, it was rather dull and empty looking, blending into the background of space around it, blanketing out the background stars. The commander was sure there were ways to detect it with instruments. If one were only doing an unaided visual scan, the end of the tube would be almost impossible to spot.
And then the cluster appeared. His cluster. Although a Hive Rep may supervise it, it was still his first big command. As soon as its transit binder was disengaged, he swung his ship around while the cluster spread out into their predesigned elements. Out of the central part of the cluster, a large ship appeared and approached his scout from behind. The commander waited while this command ship opened a port and swallowed his scout whole. The port closed and other ships took up station around his central vessel.
Exiting his scout ship in the atmosphere-tight port, the commander was greeted by two guards with the bands of the Main Hive Delegation across their chests. Without a word, these two turned and led him deep into the ship to a central but forward control area. There he was brought before the Hive Rep who would oversee the operation.
With only a guttural growl, the commander and the Hive Rep nodded at each other in formal greeting. Then the Hive Rep motioned toward the empty command seat forward of his location and closer to the front of the control area. Various stations and displays to keep whoever sat there appraised of the fleet status surrounded the control seat. It was possible to monitor any individual ship or group of ships throughout the fleet.
Stepping forward, the commander sat down in the command seat and assumed formal command of the fleet. A quick glance at the displays told him the transit elements were ready. The transports and harvesters were then dispatched to their predetermined hiding place behind space debris near the target planet. Picket ships slipped away to their far-flung stations as the few heavy battle vessels headed off on a different tangent. Soon there was only the central ship and its few escorts. This contingent would initially land on the planet.
At a command that sounded more like the growl of a hungry lion, the tiny group shot forward in space toward their target. As they approached the command ship, he signaled for chosen ships to form a survey wedge and streak ahead. On schedule, they signaled their arrival and he gave the command to proceed with the survey. The plan was now in motion. Time would tell how well he had anticipated the different and unknown contingencies of this attack.
Chapter Five
Morning announced itself bright but did little to dispel the gloom that hovered over the grounded captain. At least that was how Leatha viewed herself at that particular moment. Although space was her chosen home, she could normally revel in a beautiful sunrise as well as the next person. And at the station below, it was springtime, which would usually add to the enjoyment. But Leatha wasn’t here to relax. In fact, she wasn’t quite clear why she was here, which added to her frustration.
She woke at dawn out of long habit and was already fresh and dressed by the time breakfast was served. Leatha understood they had a common dining area here. But for the present, her meals were being brought to her. She felt like a caged animal. She considered venting her frustrations out loud but decided that might not be conducive to helping her situation. Forcing herself to relax, she sat in an overstuffed chair and stared out the window at the blue, green, and gold planet below, oblivious to the view. Once again, she mentally reviewed her situation.
The morning after she met Rose Sharon started at 0600 hours. Since there was no difference of day or night in space, everything revolved around the twenty-four hour clock, a universal of Axia civilization. She knew of a few independent planets that rigidly maintained odd days and hours, but they were the exception. One of her missions had been to such a planet that maintained a six-day week with thirty-hour days.
But on the station orbiting Alpha Two, the clocks and routines ran by the familiar system she knew so well. The day shift came into the ward right on schedule. She’d been expecting it and swore she heard the first click of a heel through the door exactly on the dot at 0600 hours.
One by one, she heard people enter each room in turn as they worked their way in her direction. Eventually, the day nurse popped into the two-bed room. An assistant with a clipboard followed her. Another universal, Leatha thought. She had never seen a medical facility without their ever-present clipboards.
Expecting to be treated mechanically, Leatha was surprised when the day nurse smiled.
“Good morning, Captain,” she said politely without overdoing it. Obviously, she had experience with people reacting to false and overt cheerfulness at too early an hour. Leatha noted that her collar sported the insignia of a trooper-first, and her nametag identified her as Alene Diskco.
“Good morning,” Leatha found herself replying almost automatically. Alene turned and nodded to her assistant who then left the room, closing the door behind her.
“I thought you might want a little privacy,” Alene said as soon as they were alone. “I’ve already spoken to Rose and I know it’s been a little abrupt for you lately.”
“That is an understatement,” Leatha agreed. “And right now I’m starting to wonder just why I am here. It looks like we’re in danger of over blowing this whole incident.”
“You already know better than that,” Alene said, cutting through Leatha’s argument like a heat ray through a Red-tail ship. “Deep down inside you know your control is hanging on by tatters.”
Leatha had no ready response to this. She forced herself not to turn away. Alene continued.
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“I know you are a straight shooter so I’ll give it to you straight. You’re in this for the long haul because that is the best way to deal with it. We’re not going to use kid gloves on you because that would be an insult to your own personal integrity. But it means that you will have to deal straight with us as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re going to have to do some digging in that noggin of yours, and it isn’t going to be fun,” Alene answered. “And you may not agree with how we do it. But with your cooperation, we’ll go all the way through with this and come out on the other side better than we went in.”
“Rose implied as much last night,” Leatha said. “Why the big speech now?”
“So you and I can come to an understanding right off the bat,” Alene said. “Even though I’m shipping you out later today, I am in charge of your entire world right now. Neither you nor fleets of Red-tails are going to change that. You can work with me or against me. In either case, you will work.”
“So much for bedside manner!” Leatha exclaimed. “And here I thought you were going to coddle me and bring me a fuzzy stuffed animal.”
“No, we’re going to bring you something worse,” Alene said as she reopened the door. Leatha could see someone standing there holding something ominous in her hands. “We’re bringing you breakfast!”
Chapter Six
True to her word, Nurse Diskco made Leatha work. The young captain never realized there were so many different tests the human body could be subjected to. And when she wasn’t underneath or inside some sort of scanning machine, she was filling out paperwork. Most of it was mundane stuff asking questions she had answered countless times before in her service career.
Then began a battery of tests going in a completely different direction. Rose Sharon herself delivered these. She appeared just as Leatha finished signing the last of a stack of forms someone had brought to her.
“Got anything left in that hand of yours?” Rose asked as she entered the room.
“I don’t know,” Leatha said. She put down her pen and massaged her tired hand. “I’ve signed so many forms it’s become automatic. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have me signing for the cost of a new cruiser or something.”
“That will be form 24b,” Rose said as she frowned at the stack of paper in front of the captain. Leatha wasn’t quite sure whether to believe her or not.
“So what do you have for me there?” Leatha asked, nodding toward the file folder in Rose’s hand.
“Just a simple test.” She placed the file on the bedside table Leatha was using.
“Nothing is simple,” Leatha said, looking at the file as if it would jump up and bite her.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Rose said. “Just make a note what time you start and keep track of your time when you take breaks.”
“Sounds like it’s got some critical aspects to it,” Leatha observed.
“Only in the sense of providing a baseline,” Rose answered. “Don’t fret about it. There’s no time limit on this.”
“Any extra credit for beating an unstated deadline?” Leatha asked.
“No,” Rose replied. “The elapsed time is just to compile information on the test itself, not you.”
“So exactly what do you want me to do?” Leatha asked as she picked up the file and opened it. Inside was a thick sheaf of paper with many questions front and back.
“I want you to skim through it quickly,” Rose said. “Don’t take time to think about it. If a question stumps you, just note the number and go on.”
“Sounds like you’re evaluating the test as well,” Leatha commented. “This looks like it could already use some editing. I see something like over five hundred questions here.”
“Five hundred and twenty to be exact,” Rose said with a grin. “You have fun with it and I’ll check back in a bit.” Leatha sighed as Rose left.
Six hours later, Leatha found herself staring out the window of a shuttle as it pulled away from the airlock of the space station. That was preferable to what she saw every time she closed her eyes. Unbidden, she could see sheet after sheet of questions materialize in her mind. She fervently hoped it caused as much of a headache for the people who created it as it did for those who took it.
A nudge of thrust and the shuttle angled down into the atmosphere. The repulsion field around the craft blazed brightly, caused by friction as they plunged downward. She heard Rose next to her react to the show. For her own part, Leatha tried not to notice. Ever since the fireworks incident, she found herself a bit shy of bright and flashing spectacles.
However, the show was soon over and the shuttle slowed its approach to the surface. From the light, Leatha guessed it was still morning on this portion of the Alpha Two planet.
This is going to make for a long day, she thought. She steeled herself for the long haul. Now all she could see were unknowns stretching out ahead of her. It seemed to be a future over which she would have very little control.
∞∞∞
Smoke rose in wisps from the fire and disappeared through a crude hole in the darkness above. Huddled around the blaze, the group eagerly soaked in the rare warmth. It had taken a stroke of luck, along with a lot of effort, to improvise the shelter where they now hid. For the first time in months, he dared hope for his small band of refugees.
It had been one of the little ones who discovered the hole leading down into the basement level of the shattered building. All they had seen above was rubble and twisted girders. Scorch marks were evident as reminders of the devastation the invading horde rained down upon the planet.
As expected, there were no signs of human remains, these having been packed off by the same red menace into large transport ships. Except for the few refugees like themselves, the planet had been stripped bare of human and even large mammal life. The efficiency of the attack left no doubt that these red creatures planned the attack with a singleness of purpose. That anyone escaped, much less survived in the time since, was nothing short of a miracle.
The attack came as a complete surprise to most people on the planet. The few who suspected something dangerous could happen to them had long been ignored in a collective effort to avoid painful or unpopular possibilities.
They all knew the historical references to war and evil in the universe, but the people on Credence had overcome those tendencies and this was a new era. So when the first alien ships overflew the planet and landed on a remote island, most people dismissed it as a curiosity. A scientific delegation sent to the island to meet the strangers were never heard from again. It was assumed they were busy interacting with the visitors. This turned out to be true, but not in the way the rest of the population assumed. In fact, the visitors found the delegation rather agreed with them—especially raw.
Soon a second delegation was dispatched and they too failed to return or establish contact with the mainland after the initial landing report. In the meantime, the few who were ever suspicious were trying to sound the alarm and prepare the people for what was coming. Few paid them any attention. The consequences of their ignorance would be very grave indeed.
A week after the second delegation failed to report back, new over flights by the alien ships started crisscrossing the planet. Obviously, they were doing some sort of mapping process. Assuming the visitors were merely curious, people continued about their daily affairs right up until it happened.
∞∞∞
Leatha shook herself. Her eyes refocused but she saw nothing out the window but darkness. It seemed only moments ago that it had been morning. Obviously, she had experienced some sort of blackout again.
“You all right, Leatha?” said a familiar voice from a corner of the room. Leatha looked and saw the outline of Rose.
“I... I don’t know. The last thing I remember was that it was morning. Then I was reliving the day you brought me down here.”
“That’s what I suspected,” Rose said. “You seemed to go into a state
of shock earlier this morning. I was called and I’ve been here ever since.”
“What is happening to me?” Leatha cried. “This isn’t fair!”
“No one said it would be fair,” Rose said. “But as to what is happening to you, I can only suggest a few possibilities since nothing is certain.”
“I’ll take whatever you have,” Leatha answered. “Right now I need something to make sense.”
“Ok, I may repeat myself but here goes,” Rose said. “As Alene Disko and I mentioned to you up at the station, your mind has decided to do some house cleaning, so to speak.”
“Maybe that is why my head feels like a vacuum,” Leatha offered, trying to crack a joke. It fell flat.
“And right now,” Rose continued, “it is just grabbing whatever it can and throwing it out the window.”
“Can anything be done to control it?”
“Possibly,” Rose said. “We can try to get it to bring up the past in an organized fashion. The problem is that what we consider organized and what your mind considers organized may be two different things.”
“Sounds like quite a challenge.”
“Think you’re up to it?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really,” Rose answered. “It’s going to come up whether you want it to or not. The dam is breached and there is no turning back.”
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Leatha said after a moment. “Well, I guess I better get ready. Another day, another battle.”
“It’s good to hear you say that,” Rose said as she got up. “I’ll be back in the morning and we can see what we have to start with.”
“But what if my mind decides to work the night shift?” Leatha asked, smiling.
“Then we’ll just have to deal with it,” Rose said. “Just in case, we can record anything that happens in here for later review. It might prove helpful.”