Betrayal

by E. Wayne Stucki

The Fleet Admiral consulted his electronic pad. “The target you refer to was Betran, your Eminence,” he said. “As to what happened? Simply put, we built that particular device to well.” The Run Point gave a questioning flick from his tail and S’Cal shrugged. “Although we manufacture components for nuclear weapons to strict specifications they’re never perfect. Because of that some weapons are more efficient and others less.” He scowled. “It seems Betran was targeted by a device that was more efficient than the others and that is the reason the output was more powerful than anticipated.”

  O’Den, the scientist who’d been put in charge of developing weapons after the first development pack had been killed spoke up. “There is more to consider than just the destructive output of the weapons, Run Point.” S’Cinf turned to glare at the Kthpok who had not been given permission to speak. If the creature recognized his peril he gave no sign but naively continued his explanation. “Each weapon is controlled for altitude detonation by some very sensitive equipment. Adverse weather can have an impact causing early or late detonation.”

  At that moment the Fleet Admiral took up the explanation to divert S’Cinf’s attention away from the scientist. He needed that Kthpok to develop weapons for their return to the Nest World. “We took into account the possibility of something going wrong in targeting the weapon, your Eminence. All weapons were set to detonate over areas deemed useless to the Kthpok such as residential areas or shopping centers. That way an error in the instrumentation or programming the detonation altitude wouldn’t cause damage to areas vital to our needs. Overflights have confirmed that the facilities we need in Betran remain undamaged.

  “However,” he paused to look at S’Cinf, “as you saw accidents caused by dying Iidx have started fires in all eleven cities. Without active suppression those fires could gut large portions of the cities.”

  “What measures are being taken to protect the manufacturing centers?” asked the Kthpok leader.

  The Admiral dipped his head and gave a sorrowful shake of his tail. “I’m sorry your Eminence, there isn’t anything we can do at the moment,” he replied. “We don’t have the right equipment or the population to fight the fires. The best we can hope for is that a strong rain will douse the flames or winds will push the fires away from the manufacturing centers.”

  “I see,” acknowledged S’Cinf. He walked back to his position and settled onto his perch letting his tail take some of his weight off his legs. The Kthpok leader looked at his staff who were sitting around the conference table then bobbed his head as if coming to a decision.

  “I am declaring the initial phase of our conquest complete,” the Kthpok leader announced. The slight sound of tails stirring at the pronouncement was heard. "With our ships in orbit we control the planet. It is time to begin the next phase.”

  “Run Point,” interrupted S’Cal, “although we’ve killed millions of Iidx there are still millions left. Landing our people now may be premature.”

  S’Cinf turned to look at his Fleet Admiral. “In controlling an entire planet some things have become obsolete, Admiral,” he said. “The title of ‘Run Point’ is an example. We are not comprised of separate Runs anymore nor do I govern a single Run. I rule an entire world with a united people comprised from many Runs! Therefore, I am a Planet Point and will be addressed as such!”

  All the Kthpok bobbed their heads in understanding and murmured, “Yes your Eminence.” They knew the Kthpok leader was not asking for their approval.

  The newly declared Planet Point looked once again at his officers and resumed his instructions. “With that decided your orders are to implement the next phase of our plan. First we will add soldiers to the garrison already placed on the island. They will guarantee the island is secure then the colony ships will be scheduled to land and offload. As before we will use that location as our center of operations.” He gestured at the Admiral with his tail. “By operating on the island we’ll be secure. Any Iidx who desire to attack us will have to cross the strait. We will see them and destroy them!”

  S’Cinf stood on his perch, leaned forward and placed his hands on the table. “We have routed the enemy in space, obliterated their bases on the planet. Their cities are radioactive wastelands. Those who survive have taken to hiding in the forests and mountains like animals. This planet is ours!” he announced. His voice was strong and confident. A finger jabbed the table to emphasize each point. “We will not be timid in taking our prize. We will land our ships on the island and build up our forces. Then we will leave the island to populate the main continent and hunt the Iidx who remain for sport.

  “Let there be no question,” he continued. “Our ultimate goal is to return to our nest world and reclaim it from the humans. But it will take time. In fact, it is probable that those living now will not be alive when our people make that triumphant return. It may take centuries and even millennia but we will not forget the treachery of the humans and our vengeance will be sure.”

  Swarm Master Zelof traced his path around the conference room for what seemed to be the thousandth time in the past hour. Two days earlier Lieutenant Chattan in the communications suite had been listening to a message from Queen Geddon. There had been nothing unusual in that. Geddon had been calling for all Iidx to gather to the Sanctuary Cities for months now. What was unusual was that the speech had been cut off in midsentence by a burst of static. A further check by the Lieutenant’s people had revealed that all bands used by the Iidx in the sanctuary cities were silent. Then two hours later an encrypted message came in from the patrol assigned to scout Zimri, one of the nearby cities designated by the Kthpok as a haven. The message stated that the city had been attacked with a nuclear weapon but the structures were relatively untouched.

  When he heard the report the Swarm Master couldn’t understand what the Kthpok were doing. How could they miss like that? The patrol didn’t understand either but they had visual records to verify their report. At that point Zelof had ordered the patrol back to Refuge. He needed more information about what had happened. Now he was waiting for a report from the swarm evaluating those records.

  Zelof was on the far side of the conference room when the door opened and Rayel led several other officers into the room. The Iidx leader stopped pacing and faced his staff. “Well?” he asked, “what’ve you found?”

  The Swarm Second nodded at the Iidx standing next to him. “As you’re aware Swarm Master Commander Shunshin presided over the evaluation swarm,” he announced. “He’ll make the report.”

  “To answer your question sir, we’re not sure,” replied the Commander as he stepped forward. “It’s not like anything we’ve seen before.” He shook his head. “Well, we have seen something like it before but we can’t explain the results. It doesn’t fit our experience.”

  Shunshin gestured at an input receptacle. Responding to the unspoken question Zelof dipped his antennae in approval.

  The commander walked over to insert a data cube into a slot in the console. He waited until a blue light showed on the cube then his true-hands flicked across the keyboard. In response to the keyed commands the large wall monitor for the room flickered and brightened. Commander Shunshin turned back to face Zelof. “Whatever it is the Kthpok used on our cities,” he said, “it’s deadly.”

  Zelof moved around the table to get a better view of the screen. Shown in the distance was a city. “Is this Zimri?” he asked and glanced over at the briefing officer who nodded. “Before or after the event?” he asked.

  “Before, Swarm Master,” was the reply. “As you’ll see. I’ll play the entire sequence for you.”

  Zelof watched the screen as Shunshin made another entry on the console and the playback began. Specks of reflected light over the city meant aircraft were operating. Then the person taking the video zoomed in to get a better picture. Now vehicles and Iidx on the surface streets could be seen going about their business. In the background voices of the patrol were heard. It seemed that one member of the patrol had been ra
ised in Zimri and was describing the local landmarks for his Swarm Mates. The camera was following to record the narrative.

  After a few minutes of looking at items of interest a voice was heard exclaiming, “What’s that? That streak in the sky.”

  “Where?”

  The camera view shifted to show a bright streak leaving a trail of black smoke tracking across the sky. The camera followed the object with an occasional jerk to keep the object in the middle of the screen.

  Zelof heard the patrol making guesses as to what was causing the streak, where it was going and what it would do. The prevailing opinion was that they were observing debris burning up in the atmosphere. The top of the largest buildings in Zimri had just come into the bottom of the picture when the missile (because by now it was apparent the object was a missile) erupted into a blinding sun.

  The intense flash overloaded the filters of the camera for a moment. Curses were heard as the soldiers of the patrol experienced temporary blindness. A moment later the image cleared and Zelof saw the ground. Then the picture shifted and caught a fading fireball as it rolled skyward.

  “That was a nuke!” exclaimed a voice.

  “But it missed,” said another. “Look! That airburst was too high to do any harm.”

  “I’m not so sure,” replied a third. “The Kthpok haven’t missed yet and I don’t think they did now. Get a close up of the city. Something doesn’t look right.”

  An almost ear splitting explosion was heard followed by a deep, chitin-shaking rumble. The sound of the distant blast was finally reaching the patrol as the image shifted from the black, roiling cloud to the city. Now the observers saw smoke had appeared above the buildings in several places and was starting to climb into the sky. There was no sign of aircraft which wasn’t a surprise. The shock wave alone from the explosion would have knocked them out of the air.

  The camera operator singled out one of the rising plumes of smoke and zoomed in. Nothing could be seen but some buildings blocking the view of the source of the smoke. The image shifted to another plume and the people in the conference room saw a tanker type vehicle had lost control, overturned, slid into a building then burst into flame. A check of the other sources of smoke revealed similar accidents; some caused by personal craft, some freighters and others from aircraft falling out of the sky. Still using the magnified view the operator scanned a large area of the city. No movement was observed. Then the image blanked.

  “The patrol commander spent some time examining the city through magnifiers,” commented Shunshin. “When he couldn’t see anyone he broke radio silence and called us. He thought it was vital to get word back to us of the attack.”

  Zelof turned away from the screen to look at the evaluation swarm. “I agree with his assessment,” he said. “But what have you shown me? That air blast appeared to be too high to have caused any damage.”

  Commander Shunshin responded by bringing the picture of the city after the explosion back to the screen. “Using the angle of the picture, the location of the city and the elevation of the patrol - they were in a mountain range twenty miles from the city - we calculated the altitude of the event,” he announced then consulted his pad. “The nuclear detonation was at or near an altitude of twenty thousand feet. Unless the Kthpok have suddenly become inept they deliberately placed the device where it couldn’t physically damage the city.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” commented the Swarm Master. “Why would the Kthpok give us a free fireworks display? And that doesn’t explain why all transmissions worldwide have ceased. Was the patrol able to make contact with any inhabitants of the city?”

  “They didn’t see any alive,” replied Shunshin with a shrug from his antennae, “although they didn’t move in closer either. Their orders kept them at a distance. Then we ordered them back to Refuge for their visual records.

  “Once they got here we were able to run the video they took through computer filters and enhancement.” As he was talking the Commander was entering another sequence on the keyboard.

  Once again the screen flickered and a still picture of the city appeared. Zelof recognized it was after the attack from the columns of smoke. A square showing an area away from an accident was identified. The square enlarged to fill the screen as the computer enhanced the picture. This process was repeated several times until a portion of a city street intersection had been magnified and enhanced. Now, no sign of any damage to buildings could be seen.

  Zelof moved a little closer to the screen and took note of what he was seeing. There were vehicles haphazardly arrayed in the road. Some were crumpled together in accidents that could’ve been caused by the explosion while others appeared to be parked in the middle of the street. But what drew the Swarm Master’s attention was the Iidx scattered along the walkways, in doorways, and hanging out of windows. They were lying on the sidewalk and along the edge of the roadway.

  The Swarm Master pointed at the screen with a true-hand and turned to Shunshin. "Are they dead?” he asked. “Perhaps they’re stunned by the shock wave?”

  Shunshin shook his head. “I think they’re dead,” he said in a low voice and waved his antennae at the screen. “Look at the time indicator from the recording. This was taken long enough after the event for the people knocked to their feet by the shock wave from the explosion to start to get to their feet.”

  Zelof turned back to the images. “But how were they killed?” he asked. “It was an airburst. There’s no visible shock or heat damage to the infrastructure.” He faced the officers of the evaluation swarm with a single question. "Radiation?”

  With a bob of his antennae the Commander replied, “Radiation is the only answer we could come up with, Swarm Master. But we have no idea of the dosage generated by the device or the type.”

  “It had to be fairly substantial,” commented Talax, the base medical officer. He’d been included in the analysis process because of the need for medical expertise. “The radiation reached into buildings and other shelters. A review of a computer-enhanced version of the first sequence did not find any movement. Anywhere! And that matches what the patrol master found when he searched the city with magnifiers.”

  “There was no movement,” repeated Zelof; his antennae drooped at the news.

  Talax shook his head. “No movement anywhere,” he confirmed. “We didn’t find anyone leaving the buildings to see what had happened or to fight the fires.” He shrugged. “Any weapon has ranges, Swarm Master. Someone probably survived if they were deep enough underground or far enough away. Our patrol surviving to report the attack shows that. In a side note, our people from the patrol are being given an extensive examination by my people to make sure there aren’t any delayed side effects.”

  The Swarm Master looked back to the image shown on the screen. “Run the full sequence again,” he ordered.

  Everyone remained silent as they watched a busy city, one designated by the Kthpok as a haven, die. Vehicles could be seen driving on roads and aircraft flying over the city. Then the missile was detected. Seconds later it detonated. The sequence ended with the enhanced image of the street intersection on the screen. Zelof stared at the dead Iidx strewn on the street.

  “The Kthpok can kill our people,” Zelof said. His voice was filled with sorrow and regret. His antennae sagged down his back. He turned back to the officers gathered around the table. Their postures also indicated the despair he felt.

  “The Kthpok can kill our people,” he repeated in a stronger voice, “and they can do it without damaging any infrastructure or endangering their own people.”

  He paused to take a deep breath and let it out through his abdomen ports. “Our enemy will be landing soon to claim the planet they’ve conquered,” he announced.

  “When we learn where their main landing is we’ll attack!” exclaimed Rayel trying to work up some enthusiasm. “We’ll wipe them out!”

  The Swarm Master shook his head. “I appreciate and understand your enthusiasm Second but the K
thpok will be expecting that,” he explained. “Since they created this weapon they will know how to protect against it. All they have to do is let us mass for an attack, retreat into protected bunkers and detonate another device like the one that killed Zimri. Our main force would be eliminated and with it any chance our people would have of surviving to reclaim Main Hive.”

  Zelof looked back at the screen and his antennae lowered. “I suspect from the silence of the other cities that Zimri wasn’t the only city attacked.”

  “Surely a surprise assault would succeed,” protested the Second.

  “A surprise assault with overwhelming numbers couldn’t be done,” replied the Iidx leader. “Part of that’s because of where the Kthpok will land. They’ll return to their facility on Tarren Island to build up their strength. Crossing the channel with a force strong enough to defeat their defenses and kill the inhabitants is impossible.”

  “Then we simply cede our hives to the Tails!” said Commander Shunshin his antennae stiffening in indignation. “What about the people who’ve already fled into the wilderness. Are you forgetting them? They’ll starve or be hunted like animals if we don’t do something.”

  “We forget no one!” bristled Zelof, his antennae stiff with anger. “And you forget who you’re talking too!”

  Shunshin started at the rebuke then nodded his head in apology and stepped back.

  The Swarm Master turned to the rest of the Iidx in the room and continued. “Let me tell you what we’re going to do! We’re going to send out teams to help our people hide and make sure they remain hidden. We train them. We develop a secret network of hives and rebuild our civilization under the Kthpok’s very snouts.

  “The Kthpok have a limited number in their population and they’ll need resources which can’t be found on Tarren. When they leave the island for those resources we’ll be waiting. We’ll attack quickly then melt away into the jungles and deserts and they’ll have nothing to fight. The Kthpok will lose people in groups of two or three. Because of their low numbers they won’t be able to afford these losses. This war will be won but not with battleships and missiles. We will win by using subterfuge and guile.”