Reaper's Crossroad

by Timothy Ellis

We went through the process again, and this time the applause was more muted.

  "Other more conventional military medals are also being awarded for actions during the Darkness War. We've attempted to standardize the common gallantry and service awards, and these are now awarded based on the recommendations of the commanders of each major battle, ship, or station. There are too many to go into here, so let's show our appreciation as a society now, and you can congratulate as individuals when appropriate."

  We both began clapping again together, and it was a more normal applause this time.

  "There will be a campaign medal for the war currently raging, which will be announced in due course, hopefully when the war ends. We expect more gallantry awards to be made in the near future based on battles so far, and I believe some of our allies are also preparing medals. But for now, there is one award left to make."

  He picked up the last box, and extracted another medal, holding it high. He turned to me, and brought the medal down so I could scan it.

  "Admiral Hunter, in recognition of your leadership, dedication to saving people, and willingness to sacrifice yourself for the safety of all, with no thought of personal reward, and your rejection of civilian leadership which most people wanted to see happen, a grateful society awards you the Earth Star. This is a completely new medal, never before awarded, which will replace such medals as the British Victoria Cross and American Medal of Honour, while retaining the meaning and honour of both. This is now the highest military award which can be bestowed, and its award to Admiral Hunter was the first order of business conducted by the new government. Admiral, congratulations."

  I stood there stunned as the applause again thundered, and David had to ping me to get me to change my uniform again.

  The medal itself was an eight pointed star around a circle map representation of Earth, with the front showing Australia, and the rear completing the other side of the world map. The ribbon was all the colours of the rainbow, and both connected to a gold bar with five equally sized and spaced diamonds across it. I added it next to the Medal of Honour, and shifted my uniform again.

  David seized my hand, shook it several times, and held on until the applause began to die. He motioned me to the podium. I glared at him for a moment, he grinned, and I gave in.

  "Thank you," I said, and stepped down.

  I found my parents waiting for me there, and the team.

  I was suddenly lost in hugs, and David waited for us to finish.

  "For those wearing dress uniforms, the standard is now to wear awards from our new society above previous awards, with the exception of any sector's highest award."

  He grinned around the crowd.

  "You may now adjust your uniforms."

  Thirty Six

  I might have known.

  When Jane and I stepped onto the bridge of Gunbus first thing the next morning, it was already full. Quite like old times, the whole team was there, and with one exception, were all in their old positions. Annabelle wasn’t in the XO's chair, but in a seat at the back. Aline was in the chair instead, wearing red uniform like Jane and I were, where everyone else was wearing 'slinky red'. Even Annabelle was, which quite surprised me. The next surprise was George being there as well.

  I'd given up asking how the team always knew when I was about to go off on my own. I suspected Jane, but wasn’t going to ask her. I just did what I always did, and rolled with it as if I'd expected them to be there. I was glad the tiger, roo, and magicians were not with us though, as for what I intended to do, their presence might have been a complication.

  "What's the mission boss?" asked BA.

  "We're going to make a social call," I said as I sat.

  "Expected?" asked Amanda.

  "Or not expected?" asked Aleesha.

  "Not expected, and most likely, unwelcome as well."

  "My favourite," said BA, grinning.

  Jane sat in her usual seat, and raised an eyebrow at me. I nodded, and she took us out the side flight deck entrance to BigMother. This involved a U maneuver, since to clear both ships and station, we had to go an immediate down, before we were clear to go out.

  Only a few minutes later though, Gunbus came to a stop.

  "Cloak us Jane, please."

  "Confirmed."

  The view vanished, and returned, as the ship suit covered the entire hull, with the exception of just the engine nozzles.

  I brought up the nav map, shifted the view to the other side of Thorn's space, and into the system beyond. I zoomed it in on the station sitting a few hours back from the jump point.

  "Are we hunting Keerah?" asked BA.

  "Hunting no. Just a social visit."

  "Are we all going?" asked Annabelle.

  "Probably."

  She and BA shared a glance, and the entire team rose and left.

  "Was it something I said?"

  Jane and Aline laughed. I ignored them, and concentrated on putting the right sized rift into place, making sure on the other end it could not be seen.

  From our side, we could see the station looking large on the other side. There was a ship docked in front of us, so I moved the rift around the station looking for an empty dock. By the time I had us lined up to an empty one, the team had all returned.

  "Here," said BA, offering Aline and I a gun each.

  It resembled my Long Gun, but wasn’t the same, and especially wasn’t as long. I looked at BA.

  "New gun boss. They based it on your Long Gun, but it's designed for taking down a tiger or roo in a single shot. Stunning at any rate. The full pulse should go right through one of them. But that was secondary to having a gun which could stun them with a single hit."

  Holding the gun had popped up a new installation box from my PC, which did a quick suit software change, adding in the holster definition. The holster appeared on my right thigh, and I pushed the gun into it.

  I hesitated for a moment, pulled it out again, and tossed it to Jane. She caught it, and slotted it into a holster on her own thigh. She flashed a quick eyebrow raise at me, but said nothing, returning to concentrate on the ship.

  "Have I left you enough room Jane?"

  "You have."

  "Take us through then."

  "Confirmed."

  Very slowly, Gunbus moved through the rift. We found ourselves several ship lengths from the airlock, and Jane gently eased us in, pressing the ship up to the side of the station. A screen popped up showing the ship suit completing the cloak over the engines, and another one showed the cargo bay airlock, with a single security droid waiting to go through. The inner airlock door opened, followed by the outer one, and lastly the ship suit opened enough to allow the droid to access the station airlock's external controls.

  "I'm in," said Jane. I only had to wait a moment. "Got him. Two star general. And he's alone."

  Yet another screen popped up showing me a schematic of the station, which zoomed in on the management section, and highlighted a rather large office, which appeared to be off the main operations room. A second later, and dots appeared showing where individual Keerah were. The general seemed to be alone, and stationary.

  I rose.

  "What are you doing Jon?" asked Aline.

  "As I said, a social visit."

  "Alone?"

  "The general is alone, so yes."

  "And you expect us to do what?"

  "Wait down in the cargo bay. If a rift appears in front of the airlock, go straight through. But I seriously don’t expect to need you. This is a social call, not an invasion."

  "Why?" asked Annabelle.

  "Because this waste of life going on has to stop, and it won't unless I can get a dialogue going. One Keerah general is not going to hurt me, and I can come back as easily as I go there. At this point, there is nothing at all to lose making the attempt."

  I looked around, and didn’t see any sign of anyone agreeing with me.

  "Look, Jane and I were going to do this by ourselves. I can get myself in and out be
tter than anyone else, and one person is not going to pose a significant threat to a Keerah general. I need to do this in order to define our responses in future. We never got the chance to open a dialogue with the Darkness, and I'm not going to keep slaughtering tigers without trying to open one. Roos as well, but the Keerah are the bigger current threat. I get why you came along, but I've got this, I have to do it, and I'm glad you're backup if I need it. But I don’t anticipate needing you."

  I could see several mouths struggling not to say anything, and internally grinned. Jane interrupted any comments with another screen. It was an actual live image of the general. He was sitting at a desk, very human like, although clearly his chair was designed for his much larger body. All the same, he could have been anyone behind a desk anywhere, just bigger, and more intimidating.

  "Are those decorations on the baldric Jane?"

  The only thing he was wearing was the exact same baldric I'd seen Hobbes wearing for formal occasions. But in this case, it had about a dozen badges of some sort on it.

  "Rank and decorations. He's had a long and distinguished career."

  "How do you know that?" asked Amanda.

  "From the database on the ship we captured. He's had a lot of combat, and been decorated for bravery and leadership."

  "Package delivered?"

  "Confirmed."

  I shifted my suit to include my own decorations, and grinned around the room.

  "I'll be back," I said in a low gravelly voice.

  A rift opened in front of me, and I stepped through, closing it behind me.

  Thirty Seven

  The room was large.

  I made it half way across the floor before the tiger looked up. Surprise crossed his face, I made it another couple of steps before he managed to move, and his hand looked like it was going for a gun.

  "There's no need for violence general, I'm just here to talk."

  His hand stopped, his face now showing shock. He moved past it very quickly.

  "How am I understanding you?"

  "Let's just say a tech advantage we have over you. You hear me in your language, and I hear you in mine. Translators are something we made an effort to perfect. I had your station's updated before I came here."

  I was standing next to a chair in front of his desk. It didn’t look very comfortable, designed as it was for a much bigger differently shaped butt, a tail, and legs which were more muscular and jointed differently.

  "Admiral Hunter I presume?"

  "Yes. I'm sorry I don’t know your name, and presume I can't pronounce it anyway."

  He was looking now at my decorations. His gaze went back to my face.

  "I know a lot about humans, and you look too young for the number of decorations you wear."

  "I am young. Both for the rank I carry, and the awards I've been given. But war can have these side effects."

  "Is this a dress uniform you wear?"

  "Sort of. It's a new uniform. Your war on us has forced us to change a lot of things, which includes reforming a military we hadn't wanted to keep going. I'm here to ask you to stop attacking us."

  He hesitated for a moment.

  "How did you get in here?"

  "It’s a trick I learned not long ago. Something some of my people can do which yours cannot. Would you like a demonstration?"

  "You’d show me your trick?"

  "Sure. You'll figure it out eventually, and I want to make a point with it."

  I pinged Jane, opened a rift at the door, and her security droid entered carrying a chair suitable for me. It walked across the room with the tiger staring at it, placed it in front of the desk, and walked back to the rift, stepping through. I closed the rift again, and sat.

  "What was that?"

  "Security droid. Basically a robot. We use them for a lot of things."

  "Troops?"

  "Yes. Some of your people have met them already. But we've mainly been using them against the Trixone."

  "How did it enter my office?"

  "Sort of a doorway. I have a ship close by, and we stepped through from it."

  "Is this how your fleets appear where they should not be able to?"

  "Yes. But let me make something very plain. So far, we've been waging a defensive war. I'm here to try and stop us needing to go on the offensive. I understand the Keerah like to conquer, the Ralnor want order, and the Trixone want to eat. What I need your leadership to understand is we don’t want to be at war with any of you, but if you continue to poke the dragon, eventually it will wake up and burn you."

  He frowned at the mention of dragons. I wondered if there were some out there, and the Keerah didn’t have good relations with them.

  "Humans have never been a threat to us before. Now they are. This is intolerable."

  "That isn’t true. The humans you've known in the past were more of a threat than you ever realized, but chose not to show it to you. They had other skills than making military ships, and successfully kept you at bay without needing a strong military. You misjudge them because you look at the wrong things."

  "We are forced to look at what you've done, admiral."

  "I've done nothing except protect those who asked for it. My people, who you have never known, have a long history of defending the weak, the oppressed, and refugees. We arrived in the system now being fought over by all three powers, to find refugees from Trixone space being attacked on all sides. I protected them. I made it very clear I didn’t want hostilities with anyone. I was fired upon by all three powers, and took what action I needed to in order to get the refugees to safety, and protect my own ships."

  I gave him a stern look.

  "Your people decided to make war on mine, and on other human groups. The escalation has been purely on your side. And so far, we've protected our borders. We've done nothing to provoke a war with your people other than protecting ourselves. And make no mistake, on our side of jump points, we have defenses you cannot dream of."

  "We've seen your new defensive stations. Traders who have allegiance to us have provided everything we need. Impressive, but not invulnerable."

  I nodded. I'd expected as much.

  "But at what cost? You send fleets through, and nothing returns. The Ralnor and Trixone do the same, and nothing returns. We reduce your fleets to debris, capture your ships when we wish to, and have enough of all your technology to reverse engineer what each of you does best."

  "How do you rate our technology?"

  "The Trixone have the best ship speeds, but they are not in our class, so offer us little. The Ralnor have the best weapons, and are helping us to big advances in ours. You have the best hulls, and reverse engineering is well under way. The three of you have a third each of the galaxy from which to build ships and recruit soldiers and crews. But all they can do at the moment is die needlessly."

  "That will change."

  "No, it won't. You've seen only what I wished you to see. You have awoken a dragon which had only just gone back to sleep, and so far, only one eye is open."

  "Why do you talk of dragons?"

  "Do you fear them?"

  "We fear nothing."

  "Including a pointless death apparently. All of your dead so far died pointlessly. What is it you want?"

  "Dominion over you and your space of course."

  Thirty Eight

  "Not going to happen."

  "Of course it will. You have no idea what is coming for you."

  "I have a very good idea of what is coming. I also have a very good idea of how long it will take to get here. But put that aside for now, and let me ask you a different question." I waited for a nod. "How long is it since you were at your homeworld?"

  "You mean Keerah itself?"

  "Yes."

  "I've never been there. My own homeworld is a month away by fastest ship."

  "What if I told you I could arrange things so you could walk to your home in minutes, and to your homeworld in not much longer?"

  "I would call you a lia
r."

  "I can prove it to you any time you wish. But think further. The Keerah control a huge expanse of space. Imagine being able to move key people from one end to the other within hours. Being able to move the perishable delicacies of one world out on a border all the way to Keerah itself inside a day. Wouldn’t that be worth something to you?"

  "Impossible."

  "We have a saying. The impossible we do immediately. Miracles take a little longer."

  "You're insane."

  "Perhaps. Is it wise to poke an insane dragon?"

  "Again this talk of dragons. None have been seen in decades."

  Which suggested they'd been hunted to extinction.

  "My offer stands open. I am willing to show you the advantages of the travel system we've developed. We are willing to receive your diplomats, and we wish at the very least to put a non-aggression treaty in place, and allow trading between us. All you need do is send me a message, and we'll arrange it."

  "It will not come. Even if I was interested myself, which I'm not, my superiors will have me killed for even suggesting it."

  "Send it to them in whatever way keeps you alive general. But also tell them this. You have a Keerah day to withdraw from this system, and each of the other systems adjoining human space. Any military assets remaining after that time will be destroyed at a moment of my choosing, and we will move our defenses outward. Should you withdraw, leaving this station in civilian hands, we will declare this system a neutral zone free of both our military. We will link the stations to our network, and traders from Keerah space will be able to trade with us without needing to enter our space. The same applies in the other systems."

  "You threaten us?"

  "Yes. I would prefer we agree to a cease fire and neutral zones so we can negotiate for peace. But if you refuse, I have no alternative but to go on the offensive."

  "You will be doing nothing of the sort admiral."

  The hand which had been hidden all this time came up, holding a gun. I grinned at him. It steadied on my chest.

  "Do you honestly think I’d come here if I had any fear of being taken?"

  "Humans are known for their stupidity and lack of forethought."