"So…" what Alice was putting together in her head wasn't ready to be said aloud yet. There was much more to consider if the whole planet was about to be overrun. "I have to think about this."
"We'll be meeting with the resistance leader in a few minutes," Iruuk said.
"I have to give him this news the right way. If I just drop in with nothing but doom and gloom, he could spin out, do something unpredictable, even make things worse."
"How could anything he does make things worse than Edxi domination?" Iruuk asked.
"Good question. I'm sure there's an answer neither of us want to hear."
"Right, I don't want an answer to that one." Iruuk stepped in beside her and was quiet for a moment. "Are you sure you want me on this mission?"
"You wanted to get off-ship more, and I want them to see we aren't just a bunch of humans. Just keep your eyes open for anything I miss, I'm going to be concentrating on the meeting."
"All right," Iruuk said. He was nervous, normally it would be amusing, but she needed him to be watchful.
"Hey, this is going to be simple, and if it isn't, I know you can handle yourself, so relax and enjoy the sights," Alice told him quietly. "Take a few deep breaths while I think for a couple minutes."
Iruuk nodded and sucked a long breath in. It would have been nice to have a problem so simple as pre-meeting jitters, but her issues were far worse. The proposal she had for Peter was challenging enough before. With the news of an Edxi takeover, it changed completely.
* * *
There were once great attractions on the world of Nuaji. Peter grew up watching tourists from across several sectors visit monuments to nature, exciting attractions and places of wonder. As a boy he got to know many of them, almost all, in fact. The Inverse Gardens were one of the few that he hadn't seen until the tourists were gone. When the Order of Eden decapitated and replaced their government, the tourists stopped coming. The attractions were shut down, the people who worked there were relocated by regional government and a few Order representatives.
The Inverse Gardens were abandoned. The transit train that led there was closed, but there were new residents before long. The narrow, ancient lava tunnels surrounding the tall, empty main vent were filled with hidden caves. Sensors couldn't penetrate the rock,thanks to the combination of minerals within, and not even Peter knew how many of his people hid in the labyrinth. Everyone knew what was about to happen, he was going to meet with one of the most successful and violent rebels against the Order. They'd seen the footage of her executing Admiral Tafford, some of them even tried to prove it was fake by analysing it, but no one could. With the efforts the Order took to hide and delete copies of the recording, Peter knew it was real. He also knew that Haven Fleet claimed credit for several instances of mass destruction. All of them were military targets, major facilities that the Order of Eden wouldn't be able to rebuild overnight.
"Nervous?" Sonny asked him.
Peter looked around the landing platform in the main vent. Faint starlight leaked in from far above. A few lights and bioluminescent plants painted the overgrown walls in hues of blue and green. Thick hanging vines and climbing foliage had taken over since the caretakers left the Inverse Gardens on their own. Ornamental plants that needed care were choked or starved out by heartier, more aggressive growth so much so that some of the windows across from the platform were nearly completely overgrown. What was once a curated, lovely garden inside the main flute of a dormant volcano had become a riotous vertical jungle, and he loved it. "How could I be nervous here?"
"We could have more people cover us. There are a lot of fighters here now that the meeting has been called," Sonny said in a whisper. "A couple snipers could set up."
"We agreed to meet in a safe place where two of us could meet two of them. The room behind this platform is perfect, I don't expect this is a trap."
"You've missed traps before," Sonny said.
"Survived those too," Peter replied with a reassuring smile. "This is going to be one of the more interesting moments of our lives. Everything could turn on this meeting. I believe she really is here to help us, and people like her may look like they work alone, but they don't. If this goes well, we will find many friends in the galaxy."
"I feel like you keep me around just because I'm your personal pessimist," Sonny sighed.
"You take good care of me," Peter replied, momentarily cupping Sonny's cheek. The stubble along his jaw was another sign of nervousness. He was skipping parts of his routine, and it made Peter wonder for a moment before he whispered; "Thank you."
The leaves rustled, and a ship appeared as it came down. Its thrusters didn't roar but whispered low as it stopped to hover over the far end of the landing platform. The ramp lowered and Alice stepped down with a gigantic Nafalli at her side. The ship, sleek, black and nimble looking, left the way it came, up through the hollow vent. "See? She brought one companion."
Sonny stared at the Nafalli and snickered. "Oh, sure, I measure up perfectly."
Alice's eyes met his without flinching, it was as though she saw right through the scars, and he returned her easy smile, feeling like he did before his attractiveness was destroyed. "Welcome to the Inverse Gardens," he said, accepting a handshake from her. Alice retracted her gloves before taking his hand, and he was surprised to find her hands calloused. They weren't fresh, hard workers callouses, but different, like a gymnast might have.
Then he shook Iruuk's hand and was instantly charmed as the massive creature grinned down at him. He seemed excited to meet him, almost boyish. His hand was huge, but his grip wasn't too firm, and the fur around it was warm. "I've never seen anything like this place," he said. "I'm Iruuk."
"It's good to meet you," Peter replied. "We're going to speak in that room there," he said, turning and directing them to the old apartment set back from the landing pad. Its floor to ceiling windows were dingy, a few younger vines were starting to reach down from the edge above them. "Like the rest of this cave, it defeats sensors, so we can guarantee the secrecy of this meeting."
"The Order has satellites that may detect your ship if it wanders. You'll want to warn your crew not to go far from the volcano," Sonny suggested.
"The Order hasn't been able to crack our cloaking yet," Alice replied. "Thank you for the advice, though."
"Oh, so it's true. Your fleet has superior cloaking field technology?" Sonny asked.
"For now, " Alice replied.
"There are ways to defeat every kind of cloak," Iruuk said. "The more we encounter the Order of Eden, the closer they'll get to defeating our protection, it's only a matter of time, but with the kind of tech we have, we should be able to hold the advantage for some time."
"So, does your fleet share technology?" Peter asked as he entered the apartment. There were a few wicker seats set up in a circle with a low table in the middle.
"We share some, but not all," Alice said. "Was there something your people are interested in?"
"I'm sure there would be some interest, but I didn't have anything in mind when I was asking. I'm sure the few ships we have could do with some upgrades, but we don't have anything large, or have bases that could use something like a cloak."
"But people live here," Alice said, looking into the main room of the apartment.
The residents had been considerate, removing their personal items, cots and any other sign that the apartment had been full until an hour before. Peter realized that it looked too clean, just like a group of people had just carefully cleared out. "There are people here," he said, conceding the point. "Everyone who is trying to live outside the Order's reach on this world is ready to move at a moments' notice. I stay in the cities, usually, visible to the people who want to seek me out. It's dangerous, I know. Law enforcement sends people in my direction to try to trick their way in, but it never works. Our organization recruits people, we don't accept anyone we don't know."
"Roughly how many people do you have?"
"I don't know. We're
organized in cells, so I never know how many members each has," Peter replied. "The Order controls this world through the government establishments that already existed when they arrived, so the restrictions I've heard about on other worlds aren't as strictly enforced here."
"So, you've been able to grow more than most resistances?"
"Again, I can't say for sure," Peter replied patiently. There were hundreds of cells, he didn't know how many, that was true, but there were at least fifteen people in each. "Cells split after each grows to more than twenty. Every cell has to have three people in it as a minimum. As far as I've seen, my cell is the only one that has been resting at three members for more than a few weeks. How did you find me, by the way?"
"The Order of Eden has a file on someone named Mary, but I couldn't locate her, but you were prominent in her records. They were watching Mary, then she disappeared. No one knows where she is, but we used the ground surveillance to find her associates. A pattern came up then. You were spotted two to three days before every major sabotage against Order facilities and ships. That's why I took a chance on you."
"And I thought I was being so careful," Peter said, feeling a little alarmed at being spotted so easily. His people were behind the absence of patrol ships in orbit thanks to regular sabotage on their engines. Faulty stabilizers caused the crashes of half a dozen freighters lifting heavy metals to ships waiting in space. Parts of manufacturing printers went missing all the time, and there were over a dozen other efforts to complicate the occupation under way across the planet. It was true, Peter spoke with many representatives from many different cells, it was a breach of their own system, but he knew why it would work. It would work because he would never be captured alive. He would never allow it. If Alice's people could track him down, then the Order wouldn't be far behind. The realization gave him an uneasiness that he couldn't entirely shake.
"I knew they were getting close," Sonny groaned.
"The Order aren't on to you yet," Alice said. "At least, there's no record of an investigation into your actions. We found you because of Theo and Lewis. Two very talented investigators with a lot of computing power."
Peter said. "I'll have to change my strategy anyway. I've been doing things the same way for too long."
"My crew and I were ready to help you with that, but things changed today. You're about to be invaded by the Edxi," Alice said quietly and calmly before looking to Iruuk.
The Nafalli continued where she left off. "The Order are changing the weather patterns to cause accelerated growth across the planet. From the information we gathered from their own network, we saw that the Edxi will start arriving in as little as seven days. You have nine days at the most before they have a large fleet here to prevent any ships from leaving, any people from getting off the world or its moons. I'm so sorry."
Dismay struck Peter like a tall wave, it felt like all the energy left his body. The Edxi were death. He'd seen the contraband footage of Edxi attacks and the conspiracy videos about how they were taking entire worlds for their broods. Humans were a food source. The Edxi saw them as lesser life forms, flies who thought they were intelligent and needed to be swatted back into their place or eradicated altogether, but not before they were made to suffer. "Well, this is…" he cleared his throat and shook his head. They were coming to his home. The planet he hadn't left once, not even for an orbital view.
"If you're lying, if this is some kind of plot to break the back of the resistance…" Sonny warned.
Iruuk, unable to sit in a wicker seat, leaned down to the table in their midst and carefully put a data chip there. "I'm sorry. Everything we found is there. Scan it, there are no hidden transmitters, no malicious software, only evidence to prove the bad news. I'm sorry."
"Your people were just run out of your own solar system," Sonny said, it was posed as an accusation.
"Don't insult them, that's only a rumour, propaganda," Peter countered. He could feel the meeting going badly. The news of the Edxi's impending arrival was taking everything off track, and whatever he planned on saying no longer applied.
"Most of the Order's version of that is true, only we defeated a full Edxi invasion. After that the Order Fleet came, and we couldn't hold up against them unless we started using firepower that would do permanent damage to parts of the Haven Solar System. Even then, it would have left us with too little to hold the system against another relatively small attack. We're fighting back now, that's one of the reasons why I came here. I'm part of an effort to reach out to potential allies, to help them in this fight, find out what kind of support they need and what we can do. When they're facing an unwinnable fight, I'm supposed to save as many of them in as I can. We need people more than anything else. Fighters, thinkers, leaders, everyone."
Sonny stood up and paced behind the chairs, opposite Iruuk, who was standing behind Alice. Peter thought for a moment, stared at the tiny golden data chip on the woven wood table until the central question came to him. He looked up at Alice who was watching him calmly, expectantly. "Which are you here for? Fighters, thinkers, or leaders?"
"I came here because there might be a fighter we knew here already, Mary, and there's an Admiral nearby. I was told to find my own targets, given permission to follow our fleet directives however I saw fit until I was recalled. I'm following two of those directives. To rescue or assist the enemies of the Order of Eden, and to collect intelligence. We're already collecting intelligence, now I'm here to help you and your people."
"This doesn't feel like help," Sonny nearly screeched as he gestured to the chip on the table.
"Sit down," Peter told him firmly.
"No, I'm going to get this checked out right now," he replied, snatching the chip and leaving the apartment.
"There are friends down the hall waiting to hear the result of our meeting. They're good with data," Peter explained. "You have to understand, we love our world. The cities seem busy, thick with people, but there are only five of them in the whole world. Each has a major port, and even now only one third of the people there live in them. Nuaji is an enchanting place, the nature here has a personality of its own, the people who stay feel like the planet takes care of them. The thought of Edxi coming here is like a defilement. The notion stuns me, truly stuns me. He is having a different reaction, but it's for all the same reasons."
"I understand," Alice said. After a moments' pause she corrected herself. "I'm sorry, that's not true. I've never loved a place that much. Maybe someday I will, but I've been more of a wanderer until just a while ago. I'm sorry you're facing this."
"I won't be leaving," Peter found himself saying. It surprised him, and from the looks on Iruuk and Alice's faces, the statement surprised them too. "Everyone else should, though. There are only one point four million people on the planet now, most of them near the ports."
"Can you reach them without using the main networks? Without the Order seeing?"
"I have cells across the globe," Peter nodded. "What do you want me to tell them? How do I manage this kind of thing?"
"Tell them to start ferrying people to Scarn. It's a world in the…"
"Ulow System, I know it. Have you been there? I hear its very alien," Peter said.
"It is, but the Order won't touch it. I'll use my ship to find holes in the Order of Eden coverage in this system so most of the ships won't be seen leaving. I can't guarantee that every route will be safe, but I'll do my best, and I can't guarantee that larger frigates won't get spotted. I only have one ship here right now."
"Any help will be welcome. I see why you want to use my network, too. If we do this right, there won't be panic until the final days," Peter nodded. Images of people being torn apart, Edxi brood rushes where hundreds of large insects rushed across open terrain as they chased people down ran through his head. "Then they will come."
"You don't have to stay. If we do this right, the planet could be almost empty when the Edxi get here. The Order isn't keeping more than a few destroyers and other small
ships in orbit," Alice said, trying to placate him.
Peter sucked in a deep breath and shook his head. "I won't give in to despair. That's not who I am." He felt his resolve renewing and a thought came to him clearly.
"Wait," Alice said in almost a whisper.
He looked up, into her blue eyes. She was leaning forward, focusing on his gaze. It was as if she knew what he was about to ask, or at least had some idea of how determined he was becoming. "I love this world too much to let the Edxi have it. I need a bomb. Like the type that's used to strip a world before it's re-terraformed."
"We can make one," Alice said quietly. "It would take us a day to manufacture something that would ruin everything living on the planet. It's a desperate measure, though. The Edxi may turn away if there isn't enough mammalian life here for their broods, if the humans are mostly gone. You shouldn't have to destroy all life on the surface."
"I don't want there to be anything for them here, they can't have this planet." Peter said through clenched teeth. He let himself fall back into his chair then, covering his eyes for a moment as he reminded himself that Alice wasn't the enemy, only the messenger. Then he continued. "Life took root deep in this world, it'll grow back. Even if it doesn't, someone, someday will come and re-terraform. It won't be in time for the Edxi to make this a brood world. Agree to make me one of those bombs, and you'll have thousands of fighters, hundreds of thinkers and experienced leaders."
"So, you know Haven Fleet recruits many of the people we save?" Alice asked.
"I assumed. I know my people will join you and they know even more who will, just take them away from here."
"I will," Alice said, offering her hands.
Peter took them and nodded. Iruuk was turning away, stroking his eyes and muzzle. It looked like a sign of sadness, no, grief. His attention back on Alice, he saw some of that in her expression, but she mostly looked determined. "I believe you."
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13 Page 8