by Shawn Jones
Kim laughed and said, “Neither do I, Heroc. Neither do I.”
After kneeling to greet the wolves, Heroc stood and entered the home she had spent so many hours in. “Is the General here?”
Before Kim could respond, Cort entered the room with Dalek in his arms and said, “I’m just Cort here, Heroc. Even when there is tension between us.”
“Tension?” Kim asked.
“There are more queens out there. Heroc told me this morning.”
“Oh, no. Heroc, you have to turn them over the Ares Federation. You have to. Without your queens, we only have one option.”
“So I am led to understand, Kimberly.” Turning to Cort she said, “I have the information you have asked for. H’uum is sending messages to the worlds that they are to deactivate their defensive networks and turn all queens over to you.”
“How many are there?” Cort asked.
“We have three million lives on four hive planets. There are two hundred vagabond queens there.”
“Thank you, Heroc. I know to you, that this probably feels like another betrayal, but you have saved your species again. I doubt that is much consolation, but it is true.”
“I asked you once before, Cort, please do not kill our queens.”
“Is there a way for me to be certain that there are not more queens out there, Heroc?” Other than Bazal and brain surgery.
“Hey,” Kim said. “I know you two need to talk about this, but let’s put it away for now. This is my family time, I’m starving, and I have to feed Dalek soon.”
“I am not family, Kimberly,” Heroc said.
Cort spoke before Kim could. “You most certainly are, Heroc. When I fell in battle, you were the one who stayed with Kimberly and comforted her. She’s told me that she could not have made it those dark days without you. You will always be family.”
Heroc regarded Cort for longer than was politic. “I am honored. But I am also confused yet again. I hope that my time is measured long enough to understand you completely, Cortland. But perhaps I understand you a little more. Family is all that matters to you, Cortland. How can you protect me while fighting my species? You did nearly the same with Speral, didn’t you? It’s loyalty. Of course, I should have known this sooner. You are driven by loyalty. To you, Cortland, every debt is a blood debt.
Heroc became lost in the moment as the train of thought followed its natural path. Kim wondered at her silence. “Is something wrong, Heroc?” she asked.
“What? Oh. No, Kimberly, nothing is wrong. I just had a bit of an epiphany, I suppose.”
Kim looked at the taller female questioningly. “Do you care to share?” she asked.
“Perhaps later. I am still realizing the extent of it.” Your mate is torn within himself. Loyalty. This is why he didn’t keep his promise to destroy us all, isn’t it? Because I am family to him, so he wants to show his loyalty. Now I have to find a way to help him, and to help my people at the same time. That is what he meant. He truly doesn’t want to kill us. I haven’t been able to accept that, but it is true.
“Okay, let’s eat then,” Cort said. “I have something special for you, Heroc.”
“Really? I am intrigued, Cortland.”
“We brought Terran bees, a kind of flying insect, here to help with the pollination of non-native plant species. The honey they produce is spectacular. I believe you will love sweetwater made with it. I also have some to send back to H’uum.”
--
“Did Cortland really mean what he said about me being a part of your nest, Kimberly?”
Kim and Heroc were walking around the observation platform above the stockade structure. They had walked the path many times in their friendship, each six-kilometer plus circle cementing their bond even further. Cort had suggested they all go, but Kim nixed that idea, saying it was her time with Heroc, and that Cort should take the wolves and Dalek for a walk. While Cort capitulated, Coke did not. He was behind Kimberly happily following the two women.
“Of course he did. I am alone, Heroc. What was left of my own family died on Earth when Atlantica fought Speral’s people. You were the only one here for me when I thought he was dead, so you are family, and you always will be.”
“That was my epiphany. I realized that he was torn between fighting my people and protecting me.”
“He was, and still is, willing to kill the rest of your species, but he desperately wants to find a reason not to. He is very good at war, but he does not like it, Heroc.”
“He is a strange man.”
“You know his past. It is unlike anyone else’s. I think it gives him a unique and demon-filled perspective.”
“Demon-filled? What does that mean, Kimberly?”
“His past haunts him. I don’t know if you can understand it, but he also carries the burden of every single being he has killed. I mean that literally. Sometimes when I look into his eyes, I can see the souls of every life he has taken. And sometimes when he doesn’t know I am watching him, I see the pain he feels.”
“Even the way he looks now? Since his face was damaged?”
“Especially now, Heroc. His old face was aged. His new one is young, like mine. But his eyes are so old. Even having lost my husband, and being raped on Mars, I cannot fathom the depth of his pain.” Kim held up her left hand. “This ring was his mother’s. She died of an illness centuries ago. Just a few years later, he took it from his sister’s lifeless hand. A few years after that, he took it from his wife’s dead hand.”
“I do not understand that kind of grief. For us the individual is but a part of the whole.”
“I am not sure that is true. You understand it enough that you were able to comfort me when I thought I had lost him.”
Heroc reached out with one of her upper arms and touched Kim’s shoulder. “You needed me.”
“Heroc, we are going to be married. Will you be my maid of honor?”
“I do not know what a maid of honor is, but I will happily do anything for you.”
--
The next morning, Heroc was back in Cort’s office. “Can you speak for H’uum on state matters, Heroc?”
Heroc was sipping warm sweetwater. “Yes. So long as I do not betray his empire, H’uum will agree to the terms we negotiate. But I do not understand. We are hardly in a position to negotiate. You imprison us.”
“We will get to that, Heroc. Right now I just need to know that H’uum will trust the terms you agree to.”
“He will, Cort,” Heroc said as she added more of the hybrid honey to her cup. “Cortland, if you offer him this honey, he would probably agree to any term you demanded. It is exquisite.” Her mandibles stretched and twisted in a way that Cort had come to recognize as a smile.
“Heroc, you will always have the honey available to you. But by your reaction, I suspect it could become a trade commodity. With both your people and Lap’s.”
“You will trade with us? The Collaboration will never allow it.”
“You forget, Heroc. The Collaboration is a separate entity from the Ares Federation. I can trade with you all I want to.”
“Oh, yes. I understand. That will be a matter for separate negotiations I assume.”
“Yes, of course. Back to the matter at hand. I think I have a solution. If I have all of your queens,” Cort paused here, “If I have every single one of your queens, I will allow your species to remain on any planet they currently occupy. When each planet’s population drops to below one hundred thousand H’uumans, the Federation will begin transporting that planet’s remaining inhabitants to your homeworld. After ten of my human years, all remaining members of your species will be quarantined to your homeworld. Any members of your species found outside of your homeworld, without Federation approval, will be summarily executed.”
“I see. You will let us die off, rather than euthanize us.”
“Yes. Given your lifespan, I believe it to be an appropriate solution. Will H’uum accept it?”
“Does he have a choice,
Cort?”
“Yes. He can always hide queens from us, or allow others to do so.” Cort stood and walked to the coffee pot, where he refilled his cup while continuing, “But if he does so, I have to go back to the original terms. I will wipe out every remaining planet of the former Cuplan Empire.”
“I believe he will agree to the terms,” Heroc said. She stood and walked to Cort’s window, where she saw Kimberly approaching with Coke. “We should finish for now. Kimberly is here.”
“She can wait a bit longer for you, Heroc. There is one more thing we need to talk about. We have most of your technology, but I need to know how you crystallized planets. H’uum has not shared that with me. Why not?”
“Look at what you have accomplished with three-hundred year old technology, Cortland. You have brought the scourge of the galaxy to its knees. If I give you that technology, you will become exactly like us. And even if you do not, your successor will.” Heroc thought about Dalek. She loved the human child, and now that she understood his father’s burden, she did not want to pass that burden along to the boy. “I will not give you that technology, Cortland. Not if you were to destroy my entire species.”
“Isn’t that H’uum’s decision?”
Heroc watched a small reptile fly overhead. “General, do you trust me?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then let the secret die with me.” Heroc finished her sweetwater and faced Cort, “I have taken steps to make sure I am the only remaining member of my species that knows all the aspects of the technology, and you have already destroyed our old homeworld. So there are only a handful of our people who even know parts of the technology, and they too, will be gone soon. The secret must die with me.”
“How many have you killed?”
“My burden is irrelevant. Let this be my gift to Dalek.”
Cort was touched by her sincerity, and her obvious love for his son. So much so, that he decided not to push the issue. At that moment, he was confident that Heroc would not betray him if he trusted her. “Convince me that you are right, and I will drop the requirement.”
“It was not our technology. We found it buried on one of the first planets we colonized. We destroyed a moon and two outer planets before we understood it. By that time, we knew that those who had come before us had destroyed themselves with it. You have seen how we put it to use, and it has had the virtually the same effect on our civilization.”
“You are saying we don’t know enough to use it safely. Like the medallions.”
“Medallions?”
“The method I used to travel into the future.”
“Ah, yes. The Nill’s transition technology.”
“Yes. Apparently we were using it incorrectly.”
“Would you have Dalek’s life shortened by technology your people could not control?”
Cort thought about Heroc’s words as he finished his coffee. Kimberly walked in as he said, “No. No, I would not.”
“Then let the secret die with me, Cortland. I don’t ask you as a H’uuman. I ask you as someone who has grown fond of your spawn. Give me this one thing, that he may benefit by it.”
“What are you talking about?” Kimberly asked.
Cort held his hand up to Kim and said, “Heroc, I will grant you this one thing, for Dalek’s sake. I wouldn’t for any other living creature. Don’t betray my trust.”
“I will not, Cortland. The technology shall die with me.”
“What are you two talking about? Tell me now.”
“Kimberly, it is of no matter. I was simply promising Cortland that I will always honor Dalek.”
“There is more than that.” Kim knew that she had missed something intense.
“It’s okay, babe. We were just finalizing the rest of the treaty,” Cort said. Turning to Heroc, he added, “The matter of the honey will have to be addressed by Kimberly. She is in charge of this planet.”
“The honey?” Kim asked. “What about it?”
“Heroc thinks it is worthy of being traded to her world.”
--
A week before his wedding to Kimberly, Cort was told in no uncertain terms that he would not be sleeping at home the night before the big event. He considered bunking with his Marine officers, but decided instead to go camping. He and Bane left Bergh Station four days before the ceremony, made their way to the northern tip of the continent, and set up camp near where Kim was planning to build their retreat. A temporary ring was there to protect workers from the dinosaurs, and Cort and Bane stopped there to rest. The first night was uneventful, and the next morning they continued their trip to, and then across the twenty kilometer long isthmus to the northern continent, and set up camp not far from where a small river left a narrow gorge, becoming shallow and spreading into a wide delta.
About one hundred meters above sea level, Cort picked a campsite and began gathering firewood. Once he cleared a five-meter circle and stacked several small stones around a depression he cut into the ground, he stacked the wood nearby and built his fire, ready to be lit later that evening. Bane then left to scout the area around the camp, leaving his scent to warn other animals away, while his alpha built a lean-to on the windward side of the fire ring. When Bane hadn’t returned thirty minutes later, Cort called him, and was answered with a stressed howl that put Cort on his feet and running. Calling the wolf as he ran, Cort found Bane trapped in a deep hole that he couldn’t leap from.
“What the hell did you get into, boy?” Cort asked as he pulled a spool of the super-strong molecular wire rope his family produced on Earth from a pouch in his tactical vest. Securing it to a small boulder nearby, he lowered himself into the hole with the wolf. Once he was at the bottom, he checked Bane for injuries, before taking a look around the deep, well-like cut in the ground. The ground beneath him was soft, but was dryer than Cort expected it to be. Looking to his left, he saw a what appeared to be a small opening, perhaps big enough for Dalek’s head to fit through.
When Bane realized that Cort had seen the opening, he started digging and within a few seconds, disappeared into the hole. Intrigued, Cort decided to follow the wolf rather than call him back, and checked to make sure both his knife and his handgun were ready. Then he attached the molewire to a clip on the back of his vest, and crawled in after his friend. It was about ten meters before he was able to stand up in what he now knew was a cave, and when he was fully upright, he called to Bane. “Bane. Heel!” Reluctantly, the wolf returned to his side as he pulled the hood of his FALCON suit over his face, to take advantage of its augmented light capabilities. When he activated the suits IR system, he was astounded. It’s not a cave. It’s a tunnel.
He was standing on a wide, nearly smooth floor that gradually sloped downward, into the depths of the planet. A few hundred meters in front of them, Cort saw a sharp turn in the structure. He activated the mapping system in the FALCON and began recording as they walked forward. Wynn is going to love this.
After the cave turned, Cort saw Bane push through a dirt wall that opened another passage to Cort’s view. That passage quickly widened into a great cavern that reminded Cort of the bomb bunker that was his first home in this century. It was much larger though, and this cave was natural, not a man made shelter from weapons of death. It wasn’t its vastitude that grabbed his attention, though. He was captivated by the drawings on the long wall encompassing the cavern. There were crude images of many of the plants and animals he had come to know on Solitude, as well as a few that he didn’t. He followed the wall around the cavern recording every square centimeter of the artwork. This is incredible. John Wills would have loved this. But who made them?
Cort’s mind left the memory of his dead archaeologist friend, and went back to the drawings. They seemed to depict one continuous scene around the length of the wall. It took almost an hour to get to the far end of the cavern, and by that time, Cort knew the mural was a history of the planet, drawn out in one long timeline. He had seen what appeared to be an ancient comet strike, grea
t fires, and even what he thought was a massive seismic event. There is no way that just one person recorded this much history.
Another thirty minutes of walking the perimeter recorded more images of natural events. He saw volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and even changes in the stars. Cort came to a section that showed the system’s sun burning hotter, and little or no foliage, dead animals and empty rivers. A drought?
A little more than two-thirds of the way around the wall, when Cort could see the place where he began his journey around Solitude’s history, the drawings ended. The last image was clearly a grave. In the grave, the drawing showed a human-like being with light hair. It appeared to be a male, and in his hand was what Cort thought was a drawing instrument. He drew his own death. But where is his grave?