With the modifications complete, Hastelloy closed the panel and started to take his leave of the room. He pressed his back against the wall and his legs against the gravity coils metal container. He then shimmied his way back up to the exit hole in the ceiling.
Hastelloy froze once he reached the opening when he realized a group of overseers stood only a few feet away. He couldn’t see much, but he did see Tomal’s white skirt and blue sash. After what felt like an eternity spent waiting, his calf muscles began twitching uncontrollably. His legs vibrated up and down like a sewing machine needle.
Running out of options, Hastelloy decided to sneak a quick peek over the edge. He saw Tomal was making no effort to try and move the group of overseers. Instead, he was busy protecting Mosa who was cowering behind him.
Fortunately, Gallono thought quick on his feet. Realizing the Captain’s dire situation, the commander led a mob toward the group of overseers. The chants of “Anubis” grew to a deafening volume, but the overseers held their ground. Glancing over the edge again, Hastelloy could only see feet and ankles all around him. Then a familiar set of arms reached under his armpits and yanked him up to the surface.
Hastelloy casually surveyed those around him to see if anyone noticed his sudden appearance from the room below. None of the slaves paid the least bit of attention, but one set of eyes was transfixed on him and nothing else. Mosa was staring straight at him from over Tomal’s shoulder.
He should have been panic stricken. She was among a crowd of overseers. One word from her and he was cooked. Instead, Hastelloy was remarkably at ease with the situation.
He’d have been much more concerned if Mosa quickly looked away when their eyes met. That would imply she wanted to conceal the fact that she knew something. Instead, her stare was open and unapologetic; she wanted Hastelloy to know that she knew. He wasn’t sure what game she was playing, but she definitely had her own agenda. Hastelloy hoped that agenda would become clear to him sooner rather than later.
At the moment, however, he needed to get out of there. Amid the confusion of soldiers moving in to disperse the crowd, Hastelloy, Gallono, Tonwen and Valnor made their way back to the camp feeling confident their mission was a success.
Predictably, the evenings work session was a particularly miserable one. The overseers clearly decided to crack down and make examples of anyone who so much as sneezed. There was scarcely an individual whose back did not feel the sting of at least one crack of the whip.
As he worked, Hastelloy kept an eye out for Tomal. The lieutenant’s inaction during the earlier operation demanded disciplinary action. On three occasions, Hastelloy witnessed Tomal holler at slaves to get them moving faster, but no lashings were given. In another encounter, he shoved a slave down to the ground, then picked him up and threw him back into the stone hauling crew. Again, not a single crack of the whip was heard.
Apparently Hastelloy was not the only one noticing Tomal’s inactive whip. Nofru gruffly grabbed Tomal by the arm and pulled him away from the rolling log road. Tomal’s four body guards made ready to follow, but a quick waive of Nofru’s hand put a stop to it. The two overseers moved behind a cluster of boulders to hide an unpleasant conversation.
Hastelloy managed to reposition himself to see most of Nofru’s upper body between two of the stones, but Tomal was completely obscured from view. Hastelloy was too far away to hear the words, not that it would have helped much considering he still didn’t comprehend the language, but Nofru’s sharp angry gestures told the story. Tomal had not given an adequate number of beatings and that needed to change.
Moments later, Nofru stormed away from the cluster of boulders, leaving Tomal alone. Now was the perfect opportunity to give Tomal the dressing down he so rightly deserved.
Hastelloy picked up a log with Gallono and carried it towards the start of the primitive stone moving conveyor belt. Their path just so happened to take them behind the cluster of boulders. As they rounded the giant stones they found Tomal sitting on his haunches with his back leaning against the stone. His head was back and his eyes closed in introspective thought. Hastelloy took one last look around to make sure Tomal’s body guards were still away. They were so he seized the open opportunity to address Tomal’s blatant and willful failure during the mission earlier in the day.
He tossed the heavy log aside which snapped Tomal out of his bout of self pity. The young engineer stood to face the captain’s approach. As Tomal’s superior officer Hastelloy assumed the power position and got right up in his face.
“What the hell kind of a soldier are you? Hiding some cowering female behind you is more important than our mission? Has all the luxury, food, prostitutes and power warped your sense of purpose? Where were you back there; I was trapped below and you just stood there with your new friends. It was like you wanted me to get captured.”
Tomal gave no answer. He simply stood there staring at his feet.
Not satisfied with the lack of response, Hastelloy pressed the issue. His rage got the better of him when he reached up and gave Tomal a shove on the shoulder and shouted, “ANSWER ME!” Even before Tomal opened his mouth, Hastelloy knew he had just erred badly.
Tomal snapped his head up and yelled in the Sigma language. “Guards, seize him! You know the law. Slaves are unworthy to lay their hands upon an overseer.”
Out of nowhere Tomal’s body guards came sprinting to his aid. Two men grabbed Hastelloy, dragged him back into the open, and threw him to the ground. The other two guards took hold of Gallono for good measure.
Tomal looked around to make sure Nofru was nearby to see what was about to transpire.
“I’ve been too lenient on you peasants, and the events earlier today prove it,” Tomal cried out. “Strip him.”
The guards tore Hastelloy’s clothes away until he lay on the sand wearing nothing but his pride, which was about to be stripped away as well.
Tomal pulled out his cattail whip and changed over to speaking Novan. “You arrogant bastard.” CRACK. “You led me to this waste of a planet.” CRACK. “You disregard my advice and leave me stranded here for eternity.” CRACK. “You dismiss and disrespect my talents.” CRACK. “Which far exceed your own.” CRACK. “You and the other idiots can’t even figure out the language of these primitives.” CRACK.
Tomal grew tired of administering the beating with his right hand so he switched to the left. “How dare you make us be submissive to these beings?” CRACK. “We’re their superiors in every possible way.” CRACK.
Tomal paused again to get a double grip on the whip. Before continuing the savagery, he noticed three more guards came over to restrain Gallono. The man was positively lost in rage, screaming every obscenity in his vocabulary and making up a few new ones.
Tomal casually rolled his head back and forth. Then he returned his attention to the very bloody Hastelloy who lay motionless on the ground in front of him. “Your strict adherence to the council’s directive has brought us nothing but misery.” CRACK, CRACK, CRACK.
Tomal tossed the whip aside, wiped the blood spatter off his cheek, and calmly strutted away from the scene.
Straining against the now seven guards required to pin him to the ground, Gallono growled toward Tomal. “I will end you, you grubby little parasite! You hear me, traitor, I will end you!”
Chapter 25: Alpha Dog
Goron limped along the outer hull of his once proud ship. The hasty run down the side of the pyramid was a bit much for his aging frame to absorb, not to mention the long run back to the ship; what was left of it anyway.
He still couldn’t fathom how a lowly Novi collector class ship managed to inflict so much damage to his craft with just two fusion torpedos. The shields should have absorbed the hits without difficulty, yet here they were. The engineering section of his ship completely gone and he was stranded on this world with only one shot at getting home.
Goron knew he needed to expect the unexpected from his Novi counterpart. He had monitored the Novi communication
channels during the battle and knew the collector ship led the fighting once the command ship was annihilated. After that great moment, victory seemed a mere formality, but this Novi captain definitely knew what he was about.
This was a leader who transformed certain defeat into victory while fighting four to one odds and overcoming the psychological effect of using the constrainer ships to prevent a Novi retreat. If that wasn’t enough, the Novi captain had the intestinal fortitude to fly his ship nose first into another vessel, blow it up, and fly off free and clear of the trap.
That sort of command ability was not natural. It could only be the product of living hundreds of lifetimes and retaining the lessons learned from all of them. This was one of many advantages the Novi enjoyed in the war thanks to their infernal Nexus device.
On this planet things were different, Goron knew the advantage was his. He was free to make use of the local populace. They looked upon him as a god and obeyed his every command. The Novi, on the other hand, were forced to fight under the constraints of their precious noninterference directives. Their rules of engagement would be their undoing.
Goron reached a small hatch on the roof of the bridge, grabbed hold of the ladder and climbed down into the half circle shaped room below. He would have much preferred using the regular air lock entrance to the ship, but that was on deck four, which was crushed upon impact when they landed.
He stepped off the ladder to once again take in the tragic scene. His command chair on the upper level was covered in wires and hoses hanging down from the ceiling. Goron never cleared it off because even after all these months, he still didn’t feel right sitting in that chair again. The seat was for distinguished leaders, not men who lost space battles to unarmed collector ships.
Two steps below on the main level he saw the empty chairs where the pilot and navigator orchestrated their spectacular landing.
“We should have left them sitting at their posts as monuments to duty and honor, but the stench would’ve been too much,” a voice said from behind Goron.
“Not to mention the bug infestation, but that would have been fitting,” Goron responded without emotion.
He already filled out the forms for the two dead bridge officers to receive the Order of Valor for their service. Not only did they execute an impossibly precise landing maneuver with a ship that was all but a dead stick, they also volunteered to stay at their posts during impact with the ground while Goron and Elohim barricaded themselves in the interior conference room.
“If only there’d been a way to reach the rest of the crew to warn them about the devastation the crash landing would cause,” Goron said with regret. “Then we’d have hundreds of Alpha warriors here, and I could take the fight to those abominations of nature. I’m tired of hiding behind the frail creatures on this planet.”
“Half our warriors were lost when the torpedo strike tore away the engineering section,” Elohim said. “The loss of pressure triggered the emergency bulkheads to lock into place and transformed the interior of the ship into an endless maze of locked doors that the survivors were helpless to navigate. I was just fortunate to get trapped in a section next to the air lock. The only way I got in here was by making a space walk along the outer hull and coming in the hatch.”
Goron remembered how surprised the three bridge officers were when they heard a banging come from outside the hatch while still in space. “There must have been a way to release the doors.”
“Of course there was, but it required power. That power source unfortunately was severed from the rest of the ship thanks to those unnatural beings,” Elohim spat. “This self pity is pointless, Leader, what’s done is done. The important thing now is that our plan to get home is progressing well.”
Goron turned towards his engineer and found him hard at work testing the gravity coils. He didn’t like the way the engineer staked his claim to the pending victory by referring to it as ‘our plan.’ Goron stalked over behind Elohim to view the test results for himself.
“I’ve confirmed your suspicion. The frequency settings on the coils have been tampered with,” Elohim reported. “That mob was just a cover for the Novi to set a sabotage plan into motion.”
“It certainly looks that way, but Pharaoh and his overseers haven’t mentioned anything about pale, pigmy men with oversized heads and eyes . . .” Goron stopped mid sentence as he was distracted by Elohim’s snickering. “Oh grow up.”
“I’m sorry Leader, I just can’t believe that name stuck. If only Pharaoh knew the title he’s so proud to call himself means tiny genitals in our language.”
In his mind, Goron chastised himself for letting his subordinate see a moment of insecurity in him. How could he be the Lead male if Elohim didn’t see self-confidence emanating from his every action? Elohim’s break in discipline was unacceptable. The pup needed to be put in his place.
Goron leaned over the engineer’s shoulder and said softly, “When someone tells a joke for the first time and the other laughs, it means the joke was funny. If the other doesn’t laugh at said joke when it’s told a second time, it means the joke is no longer funny or welcome. Tell me Elohim, why would the joke be told a third time? Am I dealing with a learning disability here?”
Goron pulled himself to an upright position and was gratified to see Elohim spin out of his chair and bring his body to its full height to square off against him. The taunt solicited the desired response; Goron towered over the smaller man by a good six inches. The lowly engineer took in the visible reminder of his place and held his Leader’s gaze for a second and then shrank back into his workstation.
Goron took command of the situation. “Shall I order the workers to uncover the rooms so we can fix the frequency settings?”
“That’s what I recommend, Leader,” Elohim said with a meek voice. “The change was extremely subtle. They altered the backup transmitter frequency and buried the change deep in the subroutines. The coils still function the way you need them to, but the Novi might be able to assume control with the alteration.”
“You’re probably right. They’ll have a device of their own to receive that frequency giving them control of the gravity coils. But wouldn’t they have to make one final alteration to the control module in the central chamber? They’d have to instruct the device to receive the backup signal instead of the primary.”
“Yes, Leader, but I respectfully ask, why take the risk? We can simply open the rooms again and change the frequency back. That way the threat will be removed completely.”
“Having his sabotage plan stopped will only encourage the Novi commander to devise another course of action,” Goron instructed. “I’d prefer he focus his efforts on an act of sabotage I’m already aware of and prepared to stop.”
“It’s an awful risk leader,” Elohim cautioned while being careful not to sound insubordinate. “Your victory here is far too important to take such chances in my opinion.”
“You don’t need to remind me of the stakes,” Goron snapped. “For the first time in ten thousand years the Novi are about to know what it feels like to suffer combat losses on a large scale. Those losses will be felt if, and only if, we succeed in capturing and destroying that Nexus device. Otherwise those lives will be regenerated as usual.”
“Imagine the chaos around their empire when news gets out that millions of soldiers were actually lost in a battle,” Elohim beamed.
Goron allowed himself a moment to visualize the mayhem. Finally there would be retribution for the suffering and hardship the Novi inflicted on the galaxy in their quest for domination. The thought brought a smile to his face. The grin soon faded as a concerning question entered his mind.
“How do you think the Novi snuck into the rooms? We reached these people first. I set us up as gods and the Novi as demons to be feared and attacked on sight. They can’t simply blend in with the slaves; they’d look just as alien to these creatures as we do,” Goron asked of his subordinate.
“It appears these Novi aren�
�t playing by their own rules,” Elohim responded; his voice dripping with disappointment. “My best guess is they used that blasphemous reincarnation machine of theirs to alter form so they now look like these creatures.”
“I can’t accept that,” Goron boomed in frustration. “The Novi are many things, but they do have their rules and are very fond of obeying them. The two tenets they hold most dear are to never commit suicide, and never alter their physical bodies.”
“All the evidence points to my conclusion, Leader,” Elohim continued. “Our agent spotted a slave climbing out of the northeast chamber. How would one of these clueless creatures know what the gravity coils were, let alone have the ability to alter it in a nearly undetectable way? It was one of the Novi, I’m sure of it. I say we have the suspect taken, assuming the agent can get close to him.”
“Yes. Have the agent try to locate the suspect, but only watch him. Don’t have him taken just yet. He may lead us to others,” Goron ordered. “A collector ship has a crew of five, plus we also need to consider the millions of lives in that Nexus device that may have been brought back to life.”
“Given that line of thinking, for all we know the whole work camp could be disguised Novi just waiting to take us down,” Elohim blurted out with concern.
“Don’t go barking up the panic trees just yet. If they had massive numbers here we’d be dead already. I chose this landing site with the exact purpose of preventing a head on attack from the Novi. Their directive precludes them from interfering with this civilization’s culture, and releasing millions of Novi soldiers would definitely qualify as interfering.”
Elohim looked as if he had something to add, but Goron cut him off with a brisk raise of his hand. “The Novi commander is a walking contradiction. I need to figure him out to know how to proceed.
“He’s adhering to their directive by trying to blend in and come at us subtly rather than charging in with guns blazing. Then he turns around and violates the directive by having his crew kill themselves and alter form.
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