It had to be subtle and it had to look like the Terrans had done nothing and that we were the aggressors, in order for Isuma Florin’s plans to work, and for her to get her war.
Constantine’s slave assassinating Jai in public, where there were dozens of lenses recording every second, destroyed everything she had carefully orchestrated, including months of indoctrination of the Terran public, educating them about how evil Carinads were. She reacted exactly as Rayhel Melissa had predicted she would.
It was a masterful plan Rayhel had devised, one that stretched over thirty years. He had not given a damn about Carinads. He didn’t care if we visited Earth or not. His focus was purely on vengeance. Seducing Isuma, sleeping with her for years, was part of that plan. He wanted nothing more than the destruction of the Florina family which Isuma had rebuilt.
Rayhel and the real Isuma Florina had been lovers. The woman who would become her had quietly killed Isuma and taken her place, then called off the alliance between the Florin and the Melissan, using insults and false accusations of brutality, destroying Rayhel’s character and painting him to be an inhuman monster, in order to keep her distance from one of the few people who would know she was not the real Isuma. It had damaged the Melissan reputation and the family’s gilded status grew tarnished. Rayhel’s grandfather, who was the Secretary of the Assembly, was forced to step down.
Another Secretary was voted in and life went on. The contretemps had eventually blown over and everyone forgot about the drama, except Rayhel.
While Rayhel plotted, Isuma had taken over the Florina family and turned their fortunes around. From a minor family with some money and resources, she had raised them to primary family status, with three planets and dozens of moons and other resources to draw upon. She was the first Florin to ascend to the Secretary role in the Assembly since the war when the Florin had insulted the Melissan and established the blood debt.
Many years later, Rayhel became The Melissa, and took up his traditional seat in the Assembly. There, rubbing shoulders with Isuma, he had managed to convince her that he had put their past behind him. Sometime after that, he and Isuma began an affair.
It had always been Rayhel’s intention to destroy the Florin family the way Isuma had destroyed his. When he learned about our cloning technology and that death to Carinads did not mean quite the same thing as it did to Terrans, he realized he had the means to deliver the death blow he had been planning for more than a generation.
And so he had coached a loyal Drigu to pretend to be Constantine’s slave, and to assassinate Jai in public, where everyone could see it, including Rayhel. He yearned to watch Isuma’s face while she figured out all her plans to create the war she wanted had just been destroyed by a Constantina, who was counted—these days, anyway—as the Florin’s greatest rivals. It would set off a civil war, and Rayhel and the Melissa could sit back and watch the Constantina and the Florin tear each other to pieces.
As the full picture of the Terran conspiracies emerged, our dinners grew somber.
Kristiana, who was the last to interview Rayhel and had been reporting what she learned that evening, shook her head. “These people are diabolical!”
Keskemeti, who rarely spoke anymore, raised his head. “Oh, and we Carinads are not?”
He didn’t get an answer that night, but the question lingered with me.
There was one last piece of information which Rayhel turned over. He revealed it on the second last day before the jump ended. I believe he did it deliberately, to demonstrate good faith, for he was about to face the judgement of all Carinads.
Arati Georgeson was the one to share that final revelation.
“The Terrans were at war for five generations,” Arati informed us. “The war and the military defined the life of everyone, shaped their economy, and influenced the way they think. It’s hardly a surprise that Isuma wanted those days back.”
“This defeated enemy they conveniently expunged from their memories,” I muttered. “I don’t suppose Rayhel told you who they were?”
Arati nodded. “Not that it will do us any good,” he said heavily. “The Terrans didn’t just defeat them. They utterly destroyed them.”
“Who were they?” Peter asked.
“They were called the Bai. I get the impression the Bai culture suppressed violence, but when they were faced with Muradar aggression, they roused themselves to all out defense, and the war lasted over a century. But the Muradar defeated them in the end, then made sure of it by razing every planet they settled. Now, nothing remains of them.”
“Wait,” Mace said, sitting forward. “The Bai weren’t Muradar? Were they even human?”
“I think so,” Arati replied. “Rayhel doesn’t seem to be too certain on that point himself. He wasn’t in the military and never saw a Bai himself. For ten years, Terrans have pretended that the war never happened, while trying to figure out how to run their worlds without a military campaign to drive their citizens to contributing with everything they’ve got. They’ve been flailing ever since—inflation, unemployment, famine.”
“Isuma wouldn’t have had to work too hard to convince Terrans another war was needed,” Dalton said, his tone disgusted.
“Can we get back to the Bai?” Mace asked. “If they’re not Muradar, who were they?”
“The Bai,” Yoan said, with a grin.
Mace rolled his eyes. “Yes, but who are the Bai?”
“A people like us, I imagine,” Gratia Rosalie said. “The enemy of the Terrans.”
“Another generation ship lost to history?” Yoan suggested.
Lyth cleared his throat.
Everyone looked at him.
“Arati said the Terrans razed the Bai planets. He didn’t say the Terrans killed every last Bai.”
We all swiveled back to Arati.
He hunched in on himself, under the weight of inspection. “I’m sure that was what he said,” he muttered. “He did say that just last year, the Muradar navy inspected those planets, and they were still sterile and empty.”
“Slate can confirm what Rayhel said,” I said. “But if there are any Bai left, they might be worth finding. They fought the Terrans for a century. They’ll have knowledge we can use.”
And just maybe, they might be an ally.
“You speak as though a war is coming,” Kristiana pointed out.
“You don’t think one is?” I asked her.
She pressed her lips together.
“The Terrans are too busy fighting themselves,” Gratia Rosalie pointed out.
Peter shook her head. “That won’t last. Danny is right. It won’t take the Terran leaders long to figure out the quickest way to end a civil war is to launch an interstellar one and unite everyone under the Terran flag.” Her mouth turned down.
*
“I couldn’t help noticing you got very quiet, after Arati reported in,” Dalton said to me later than night as we prepared for sleep.
I nodded. “It occurred to me that Jai’s mission was a total disaster. He and Marlee are dead. Keskemeti and Seong will never be the same.”
“Everyone was impacted in some way,” Dalton pointed out. He got into the bed. “Look at you. You’re still gnawing away at it, too.”
I climbed in next to him and put my back against the padded bedhead. “I didn’t want to go to Terra and tried to talk Jai out of it, but even I didn’t suspect how completely hopeless the mission was, right from the start.”
“Was Kristiana right? You think war is inevitable?”
I leaned my head against his shoulder. “I really hope not. We’re not prepared for war. Our society isn’t structured to support a military class the way theirs is. We’re not the Terrans.”
“That bothers you, doesn’t it? That we might be like them. That we have the same traits.”
I closed my eyes. “In seven thousand years, there has been genetic drift that has changed us. Let’s hope that change is enough.”
I went to sleep with my head on his sho
ulder.
_____
The next book in the Iron Hammer series:
Waxing War
Danny and her allies brace themselves for war.
The bellicose Slavers are hellbent on war. Danny and the Carina worlds work to find a way out of a seemingly inevitable conflict they are ill-equipped to face…
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Space cities have been locked in war for centuries over the resources of an asteroid belt.
Humans pilot swarms of pod fighters to protect their city’s mining operations from other cities, risking everything and suffering multiple deaths and regenerations. Then Landry goes through a regeneration which introduces an error that will destroy the delicate balance of the war.
Resilience is a space opera short story by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.
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About the Author
Cameron Cooper is the author of the Imperial Hammer series, an Amazon best-selling space opera series, among others.
Cameron tends to write space opera short stories and novels, but also roams across the science fiction landscape. Cameron was raised on a steady diet of Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, McCaffrey, and others. Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi, Martha Wells and Cory Doctorow are contemporary heroes. An Australian Canadian, Cam lives near the Canadian Rockies.
Other books by Cameron Cooper
For reviews, excerpts, and more about each title, visit Cameron’s site and click on the cover you are interested in: https://cameroncooperauthor.com/books-by-thumbnail/
Iron Hammer
Galactic Thunder
Stellar Storm
Planetary Parlay
Waxing War
Ruled Out
Stranger Stars
Federal Force
Redline Rebels
Imperial Hammer
Hammer and Crucible
An Average Night on Androkles
Star Forge
Long Live the Emperor
Severed
Destroyer of Worlds
The Indigo Reports
(Space Opera)
Flying Blind
New Star Rising
But Now I See
Suns Eclipsed
Worlds Beyond
Ptolomy Lane
The Body in the Zero Gee Brothel
The Captain Who Broke The Rules
Standalone Short SF
Resilience
Copyright Information
This is an original publication of Cameron Cooper
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2021 by Stories Rule Press
Text design by Cask & Sabre Publishing Consultancy
Edited by Mr. Intensity, Mark Posey
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FIRST EDITION: March 2021
Cooper, Cameron
Science Fiction—Fiction
Planetary Parlay Page 23