by Mike Luoma
“Even the last twenty four hours notwithstanding, I think we make a pretty good team,” BC
suggests. “If we’re fighting for our lives, and you know we are, I’d really like to have you by my side, next to me in the fight.”
Anita is still a little flush with anger, but BC thinks he maybe sees a blush rising up in her cheeks behind her ire.
“I didn’t realize you were such a dumb romantic, BC,” Anita chides him. She leans over and kisses him on the cheek. “You’re sweet. Who knew such a mean, vicious killing machine like you could have such a way with words?”
“Is that a compliment?” BC asks her.
“Nah. I wasn’t finished. The way you have with those words? It’s a way of torturing and maiming them,” she volleys back. Then she smiles. “I do know what you mean, believe it or not. I can’t believe it… And it is sweet, even if you’re not exactly thinking straight.”
Aw shucks?
“But don’t talk like this is our last stand, it’s bad luck.”
“We should move,” BC says. “If the Domo are running scared, the Eldred could be right behind them. They could attack at any second.”
“A romantic and an optimist,” she laughs.
“I’m a realist,” he answers defensively. He turns to a com unit and calls an assistant.
“Yes, sir?”
“Situation red, repeating, situation red,” BC says. “All Solar Alliance forces on red alert. I want gold squadron to relocate from Mars to the old Project asteroid base immediately. Green squadron, you’re reassigned from Lunar Prime to the asteroid base, effective immediately.”
Thinking on the fly here… who do we have where… where will we need them?
“Tell the forces now billeted on Cat’s Eye to secure the colony and prepare for an assault,” BC
says, “from Dolomay, the Eldred, or… hell, even the Flaze might decide to kick us when we’re down, who knows? Now that the Domo have decided that they’re done with their side of the bargain.” BC
looks over at Anita, who is scrutinizing him as he gives his commands. “And please remind the commander of the SAIF ships at Cat’s Eye that he still answers to Governor Schwartz, okay. Make sure the governor is informed on everything that’s going on this time, too, for chrissakes.”
“BC?” Anita tries to get his attention.
“Have green and gold squadrons coordinate with the asteroid base defense’s SAIF detachment. Black and white squadrons are posted there now. Black leader is the acting commander, report to him.”
“BC?” Anita tries again. BC breaks off from the com and looks over at her.
“I’m sorry,” he says, realizing he’s been steamrolling along ignoring her. “I was on a roll,” he says, trying to explain.
“No, you were,” she says, reassuring him. “But…”
“What? But what?”
“The more I think about it… as I listened to you sending more ships… well, here’s the thing,” she says. She shakes her head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this… I don’t think the asteroid base is really defensible against the Eldred. I don’t think, realistically, that we can hold the Project base,” she says quickly, as if she couldn’t say it at all unless she got it all out at once. “The shipyards we can defend. But the asteroid base? It’s too large and sprawling, too riddled with passages… just too vulnerable. We saw that when Dolomay attacked us there.”
“You don’t think we can keep them at bay from there?” he asks her for confirmation. “We’ve done it before.”
“Not if they’re gathering the numbers the Domo say they are. Makes what we faced before look like just a handful of ships. This time…” She stops, thinking. “This time there will be thousands, BC. Maybe hundreds of thousands.”
“What do you suggest we do?”
“Give them the base,” she says. BC looks back at her, silent, surprised by her words. Wow! Didn’t expect that from her!
“Give them the base?”
“Yeah. Send the SAIF squadrons to the shipyards. Keep a token force at the base. Defend, but be ready to cut and run. Maybe plant some explosives? Take some of them out?” she explains. Her brow furrows as she thinks. “We’ll need to get everyone off of the base. Starting now!” she realizes.
“Oh?’ BC asks.
“Well,” she looks away, “That’s what I would do.”
“Since we’re being honest here… Do you think we can hold the shipyards?” he asks.
“Honestly? I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Really? So, you’re an optimist, then?” BC says sarcastically.
“I’m a realist,” Anita insists, echoing BC’s earlier comment.
Let’s see…
BC does some quick thinking. He puts a call in to Commander Dragama from the SAIF Black Squadron.
“Dragama here,” the commander answers.
“Dragama, this is Bernard Campion,” BC says, identifying himself.
“Well hello, Prime Representative. To what do I owe the honor?”
“Commander, I have a technical question for you. Is there any chance you could fire the new laser defenses we’ve installed on the asteroid base remotely, from your ship?”
“Hmm. Let’s see, I think we can in case of emergency… hold on, sir.”
“Sure.”
BC and Anita look at each other as they wait for Dragama to come back on the com.
“What are you thinking?” she asks him. Before he can answer, Dragama returns.
“Yes sir, we can. Even easier than I thought. Their systems can be tied into ours in an instant, it’s built in for triangulation fire. We can assume control of the base defenses from any of our command vehicles.”
“Wha…” Anita begins, but she stops as BC raises a finger, asking her silently to hold her thought.
“Excellent, Dragama, that’s good news. Thank you, commander,” BC says, signing off. He turns to Anita.
“Let’s get everybody off the Project Base, bring them back here to Ceres Central. Leave the base empty, surrounded by a carefully selected super squadron of ships led by Dragama’s forces, so the Eldred think we’re still there.
“When the Eldred arrive, we’ll fire back at them using the base’s lasers as well as ships’ lasers, so it will look like the base is fighting back. We’ll be trying to take out as many of the Eldred as we can, don’t get me wrong, it’ll be a real battle. And we’ll also try to observe them, assess the strength, the size of the Eldred force, see what we’re up against.
“In the meantime, while we keep them busy at the base, we shut down the shipyards and mobilize every ship we can afford to defend the facilities themselves. Shut down the beginning of the lines now, Anita, have them focus on finishing up the ships already in production. Get the brain boys out of there, too.”
BC is thinking on his feet.
“We should get all our scientists back to Mars, the Moon or Earth,” he says, thinking out loud.
“Damn,” he swears, stopping.
“What?” Anita asks. “What is it?”
“If the Eldred are striking with such huge numbers…” he shakes his head.
“What?” Anita asks again.
BC calls up the com.
“Get me the colonial governors,” he says.
“BC, what are you doing?” Anita presses.
“We can’t defend them. We’ve got to evacuate the colonies. I’m sorry, Anita. If the Eldred are going to hit us the way the Domo say they are, we can’t have our forces spread out all over the place. I’d like to, but we can’t defend the colonies from Dolomay and the Eldred and secure our defenses here, too.”
“They’re not going to like this,” she comments. She shakes her head.
“I know. I don’t expect them to like it. But,” he grabs her lightly by the shoulder so she’ll look directly at him, “you’re giving up the Project Base. Because you know we can’t defend it! For the same reason – the very same reason! –we have to evacuate the colonie
s.”
“They’re still not going to like it,” she repeats. “The colonists are all rugged individualists, very defensive…”
“We’re connecting with the governors now, Prime Rep,” the com cuts her off as it sputters back to life.
“You know it makes sense,” BC says to Anita before he answers the com. She smiles.
“I know,” she says. She frowns. “But I also know them. You’re asking them to abandon their homes. They’re going to resist.” She shakes her head and tells him again, “They’re not going to like it!”
And they don’t like it. They all take the news badly, and BC comes away from the five-way conversation feeling bruised and verbally battered. He also comes away with a nasty headache. Nowhere near as bad as those old headaches I was getting. Those seem to be gone. No Dolomay lately either… no attacks, anyway. Maybe I shut him out. Now… if only I could figure out how to strike back at him, attack Dolomay with my mind. Wouldn’t be something!
He’s too powerful. I feel like I’m lucky just to keep him at bay. But a guy can dream, can’t he?
BC and Anita manage to find more quality time together that night. BC drifts off afterwards into an uneasy sleep, anticipating attacks even as he tries to relax and rest. He doesn’t feel Dolomay in his mind. Instead, he feels as if he’s in Dolomay’s mind! BC dreams of being on the bridge of Dolomay’s ship – once again looking out through Dolomay’s eyes!
Dolomay is laughing at a Domo sniveling at his feet.
“Get up!” Dolomay shouts at the pathetic creature.
“Yes, Dolomay,” the Domo mumbles out of its sideways mouth as it struggles to its feet.
“I have decided to pay you for your information,” Dolomay says to the Domo, “but I have come to believe your terms are far from equitable.”
“You wish to renegotiate?”
“I wish nothing! I will give you ten of these pale echoes, these humans, to do with as you will. Not the one hundred for which you have asked. And you will give me your information. Or you will die. You and your entire crew of overgrown leeches will be exterminated, your ships flown straight into the nearest sun!” Dolomay growls. He grins a sharp toothed grin down at the Domo. “Your choice.”
“I can’t… I’m not auth…” the alien stammers in protest. Dolomay continues to grin down at the Domo in silence, waiting. If Domo could sweat, this one would be dripping wet.
“A moment?” the Domo asks of Dolomay.
“A moment? Ten minutes, no more!” he tells the alien. The Domo bows and scrapes and leaves the room, presumably to speak with its superiors. Dolomay lets his grin fade. He turns to the “pale echo”
who has been amusing him lately.
THE LOVELY FIZA. A FINE BITCH OF HER SPECIES, WEAK AS THEY ARE. PERHAPS EVEN WORTHY OF A BOND, BACK IN MY DAY. SHE TELLS ME THEY HAVE
SIMILAR BONDS AMONG THE PALE ECHOES.
HER MIND IS SO SMALL. ASLEEP. CLOSED. NOT SO EASILY LEAD AS AL-SALID. THOUGH I BEND HER TO MY WILL, SHE SEEMS AFFECTIONATE ENOUGH. THIS
CONCEPT OF “LOVE” SHE SPEAKS OF, THAT I’VE SEEN IN HER MIND… SO FOREIGN, SO ALIEN.
THOUGH THESE HUMANS BE OUR OFFSPRING, THEY ARE VERY DIFFERENT. THIS LOVE, THEIR “BELIEFS” AND “RELIGIONS,” THESE THINGS THEY HAVE
INVENTED…
WHAT ARE THEY IN THE END BUT MORE EXCUSES FOR THE EXERCISE OF WILL, CONTROL AND POWER?
BUT THEY ARE SO REAL TO THEM! I’VE SEEN IT IN THEIR MINDS! SEEN HOW
THEY HOLD THESE SIMPLE CONCEPTS TO BE TRUTH. HOW THEY GIVE THESE IDEAS
THEIR REALITY!
Fiza looks up at Dolomay and smiles.
I MUST ADMIT, HER APPETITES ARE MUCH LIKE THOSE OF THE WOMEN I FAVORED IN THE LONG AGO.
Dolomay reaches down to stroke Fiza’s cheek, much as one might caress a favorite pet. Fiza plays along and purrs her approval of his touch. She pulls one of Dolomay’s fingers into her mouth and sucks on it briefly before Dolomay pulls it away.
YES! STRONG APPETITES, INDEED.
The reentrance of the Domo distracts Dolomay away from Fiza.
“Do you have an answer for me? Do I get my information or do you die?” Dolomay asks the alien matter-of-factly. “Have you had your warriors calculate the likelihood of your escape should you assassinate me? Or try to resist? What say you?”
“We agree to your new conditions,” the Domo says to Dolomay.
“Excellent!” Dolomay exclaims. He motions to one of his lieutenants. “Have ten prisoners chosen at random and delivered to the Domo ship immediately,” Dolomay orders. The lieutenant nods, and leaves the room to carry out Dolomay’s demands.
The Domo brightens and straightens up.
“You see?” Dolomay says to the Domo, “I can be quite reasonable.”
“As can we,” the Domo insists. “We gladly provide information when compensated adequately.”
“Well then,” Dolomay says to the alien, “go on!”
“The Eldred plan on attacking the humans in the very near future,” the Domo says with import and weight.
Dolomay laughs him off. “That’s it?” He turns to another lieutenant, “Go stop the prisoner transfer!” The man runs to follow Dolomay’s orders.
“News fucking flash!” Fiza comments.
“Indeed, this is not information, this is old news,” Dolomay says in disappointment to the Domo.
“Now you’re going to die!”
“No! No, wait,” the Domo begs for its life. “We understand this! But there are more details that you do not know! The Eldred believe the humans need to be ‘contained’. With this in mind, they will be striking the human’s asteroid base and shipyards sometime in the next month.”
“Not their colonies?” Dolomay asks, noticing the omission.
“Evidently not,” the Domo says. “They seem to believe striking the asteroid base and shipyards will cut off the colonies. They seem to believe the colonies will wither and die cut off from Earth by the base’s and shipyards’ destruction.”
“Right,” Dolomay says, pondering the Domo’s words. “They seem believe this. They would seem to be wrong,” he laughs, “of course! But I can see why they would believe that, seems plausible they would. That reminds me,” Dolomay breaks off to call over to an underling. “We need to put another raiding party together. Get a crew together. I want to hit the hydro gardens again on Crankshaft –
restock the larder!” The underling leaves and Dolomay turns back to the Domo. “What about their new base, on Ceres?”
“The Eldred will advance on Ceres after they hit the asteroid base and shipyards,” the Domo says.
“Oh, will they?” Dolomay asks, amused. He almost snickers. “I think they underestimate the tenacity of the pale echoes,” Dolomay muses. “They’ll give them a good fight! The Servants,” Dolomays sneers, using the ancient name of the Eldred from when they served his race, “don’t realize, can’t really comprehend how much like their masters these ‘humans’ really are! The Servants may win – they have stolen our old technology and now call it their own. They have powerful weapons at their disposal, after all.”
“And they plan on striking in unprecedented numbers!” the Domo adds. “A force the size of which the universe has not seen in a million years!”
“I remember fleets in numbers that would dwarf any the Eldred may be able to muster,” Dolomay scoffs. “Still, I’m sure they can amass ships enough to stagger the humans. They plan on attacking en masse, do they?”
The Domo nods.
“Interesting. The Servants seem to be gambling! They’ll beat the humans, of course, but they will pay a very high price.” Dolomay’s grin returns, spreading wide across his face. He looks around the room at his followers. “When they pay that price, we will then exact an even higher price from them!
We’ll wait until the humans have been defeated. They will not go easily, no matter what the Eldred think. There will be great damage on both sides. But ultimately the humans will lose. And then we will strike what is le
ft of the Eldred! We’ll wipe them out, and then take over what is left of the human race! Earth will become the home of my new Empire!”
“You talk pretty big,” Fiza cracks. “What if ‘the humans’ don’t lose?”
Dolomay laughs out loud.
“You still overestimate your little species, you pale echoes of my great people, don’t you my pet?” he patronizes her.
“I hate it when you call me that!” Fiza pouts back up at him.
“You all make lovely pets, so obedient, so easily trained,” Dolomay purrs at her, “aren’t you, my pet? Don’t fret, pet!”
YOU WILL LOVE ME! YOU DO LOVE ME!
He reaches over to stroke her cheek and her eyes go blank. She looks confused, and then leans in to accept Dolomay’s caress.
“There, now, pet, isn’t that better?” he asks. She smiles a confused smile at Dolomay.
“Sure, D,” she says. Dolomay smiles and turns back to the Domo.
“When will they strike?”
“As I’ve said, we do not know for sure. Within the month, certainly. The Ser – the Eldred already gather their forces in preparation for their assault.”
“I see,” Dolomay say, thinking. “Well thank you, Domo.”
“So you will have your men deliver on your bargain now?” The Domo asks him. “You will have them continue the prisoner transfer?”
Dolomay nods at the alien. Dolomay beckons, and one of his lieutenants saunters over. The Domo looks on expectantly. “I want you to take care of the Domo ship,” Dolomay says to the underling.
“Destroy the ship now.”
“Yessir!” the underling acknowledges, spins and turns to execute Dolomay’s orders.
“But you promised to…” the Domo begins to protest.
Dolomay pulls a beam gun from his side and fires point blank at the Domo. He lifts the beam as he fires, slicing upwards through the alien. Smoking jagged halves collapse to the floor at Dolomay’s feet.
“Fly their ship into the sun,” Dolomay commands. He smiles over at Fiza. “A promise is a promise, after all.”
Fiza!
“Who said that?” Dolomay says, confused.
“No one said anything, boss,” one of Dolomay’s men says to him.
Dolomay seems confused. A strange thought occurs to him.