Fortress Earth (Extinction Wars Book 4)
Page 22
“Hold it,” I told Rollo. “I want to get out of my suit before we start this. I need a drink, and I need to think. Guard him while I get out of this.”
We traded guard duty as we each climbed out of our T-suit and bio-suits. Afterward, I wore my .44, and Rollo had a pulse gun.
We all went to a cafeteria, getting coffee and sandwiches. I’d like to say I was too sick at heart to eat after losing both Ella and Dmitri, but that would be a lie. I drank several cups of coffee and wolfed down three sandwiches. Rollo did likewise, just more of both and as he glared at Claath with murderous intent.
Finally, I sat back. I couldn’t believe I’d killed Ella. I couldn’t believe I’d lost the Ultrix Disintegrator. At least I’d wounded Abaddon. The Lord of Evil had gotten a surprise there.
“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what happened,” Rollo said in a hoarse voice. “I can’t believe we lost Dmitri.”
“And Ella,” I said.
“Ella was your assault trooper companion?” Claath asked.
I stared at him before nodding.
“She did not die,” Claath said.
“Don’t lie to me. I saw her die.”
“You saw a robot likeness of her,” Claath said. “She’s too precious to Abaddon to allow you to simply slay.”
“What?” I said, as hope raised its head in my heart.
“Commander, why do you think we Jelk rushed to Abaddon’s quarters once we escaped our confinement?”
“What are you talking about?”
Claath put his fine-boned hands on the table. “Do you even know what happened on the ship?”
“Yes. I saw Jennifer.”
“Who?”
“Surely you remember her,” I said. “She was one of your nurses when you first came to Earth.”
“Oh, the modified one,” Claath said, nodding.
“We can’t believe anything he says,” Rollo said hotly. “He’s a liar, at best telling half-truths to suit his agenda.”
“Maybe his half-truths are all we have left,” I said. “I mean, what else is there? We lost the disintegrator, the Jelk Catcher—”
“The what?” Claath asked.
“And we have a million Kargs on the Santa Maria,” I said, ignoring our guest. “Maybe we’d better hear what Claath has to say. I know we both hate him, but maybe he has a point about being allies of the gun. We’re losing our friends, and if we don’t do something quick, we’ll lose our great vessel, our last hope of saving Earth.”
“No,” Claath said. “You cannot save Earth. It is doomed. But you are correct about the ship. It is a lovely vessel. We can survive many long years by fleeing—”
I drew my .44, aiming it at Claath’s head. “Listen to me carefully. I can still transfer back to Abaddon. I’ll pop outside with my T-suit and leave you there. The First One can catch you and do whatever he was going to do to you Jelk.”
Claath appeared thoughtful. “Yes. I take your point, Commander. I should be the one asking you what happened. This is the ancient Survey Vessel. You have Ronin 9 T-suits. The only place to have acquired those… Ah. This has become quite interesting. I had not realized you’d seen the Curator. Yes. This silly plan has his ineptness written all over it. I see he hasn’t gotten any wiser over time.”
“Who are you talking about?” Rollo demanded.
Claath raised an eyebrow and glanced at me.
“Start talking,” I told him. “How come all you Jelk were prisoners? How come others weren’t? Why did you run to me, Claath? What’s going on here? Are you claiming to be Abaddon’s enemy?”
“Of course,” he said.
“Don’t you remember the portal planet?” I asked. “You screwed us by helping Abaddon.”
“That was then,” Claath said with a shrug. “This is a new day. We are allies of the gun, as I said earlier. Don’t worry about the past. Seek to survive the future.”
“What’s your story, Jelk? If you don’t start talking—”
“Yes, yes,” Claath said, interrupting, “enough of your beastly threats. Here in a nutshell is what has been happening with me…”
-39-
It was strange listening to Claath after all this time. Long ago, he’d turned us into assault troopers. He’d seemed so much larger than life then. He’d been the master of humanity’s fate. Later, he’d become the man who controlled the system. We’d rebelled against Claath in order to win our freedom. Then, he became the renegade Jelk. He helped Abaddon reach our space-time continuum.
Claath was a survivor. That was the essence of his story. He’d learned to roll with the punches millennia ago. Abaddon had reached our space-time continuum with hopes of uniting his Kargs with the Jelk Corporation. Claath had slipped away from the First One, racing in a starship to warn his brethren. Thanks to Claath’s timely advice, the Jelk Corporation had turned their power against this terrible enemy of everyone and everything.
Claath had risen high in the Jelk councils, showing the other Jelk how to defeat Abaddon and trick the raging Kargs.
“But…” Claath said. “We had forgotten the cunning of a First One. Among them, Abaddon was known for his cleverness. I think, too, the Dark One knew where ancient devices had been hidden. He couldn’t trick the ancient artifacts. They were proof against him. That was critical. If the Forerunner objects had helped Abaddon, we would have had to serve him for eons. As it is…”
Claath cocked his head. “The ancient Survey Vessel was his latest find. I’m surprised—”
“Just a minute,” I said, interrupting. “I’ve let you talk for a while. Now, I have some questions.”
“By all means,” Claath said, with his easy smile. “I am at your service.”
I squinted at him. “Did Abaddon defeat the Jelk Corporation in the core worlds or did you decide to become allies of the gun?”
He winced slightly, looking away, and shrugged his narrow shoulders. “I would not say we allied with him.”
“So…Abaddon defeated you?”
Claath glared at me. “Certainly not! We are the Jelk Corporation. Nobody defeats us.”
“Sure they do,” I said. “All those Jelk at the end had just escaped confinement—unless you lied to us about that.”
“I have no reason to lie.”
“I’m glad to hear it. So what happened? How did all you Jelk become prisoners?”
Claath pinched his lower lip. “We had a parley.”
“What kind of parley?”
He frowned into the distance, speaking slowly. “We agreed to meet with Abaddon in the Onyx System. That’s in the heart of the core worlds. The First One came with his masses, and we met him in our thousands. I’m referring to battlejumpers. For five weeks, he spoke with us, attempting to win us over to his plan. Oh, Abaddon was clever, but even more importantly, none of us recalled sufficiently his powers of mind.
“As he spoke to us in turn, using his charm, the First One secretly read our thoughts. Even more treacherously, he implanted ideas into our sub-consciousness. Slowly, we found ourselves agreeing with his ideas. They were so grand and glorious. After centuries of fruitless war against the religious-besotted Jade League, the corporation would rule the entire Orion Arm. Abaddon promised that us as our fief. He would conquer inward, using our mercenary armies.
“Yes,” Claath said, “we planned to raise such a host as to startle the Curator and the inward races. They would know fear. They would rue the day they had turned on the Jelk, forcing us to flee to the savagery of the fringe zones. The corporation has worked tirelessly to raise the standard of culture and technology in the Orion Arm. Have any thanked us for our efforts? No. Always they resist, hating us, unwilling to give the corporation the due our hard work deserves.”
“In other words,” I said dryly, “the other races failed to treat the Jelk as gods.”
“Yes!” Claath said, slapping the table. “Would that be too much to ask? We gave the other races so much. You cannot imagine how they groveled in ignorance be
fore our coming.”
“Creed,” Rollo said, sullenly. “How does this kind of talk rid the Santa Maria of the Kargs? Maybe he’s lulling us to buy them time.”
“By no means,” Claath said. “My intentions are honorable.”
“What about the Jelk in Creed’s disintegrator?” Rollo demanded. “Don’t you care they died?”
“Ha!” Claath said. “Ahx Rax and Simi Baoji deserved annihilation, the traitors. They groveled to Abaddon, allowing the Dark One to place inhibitors in their being. They were no longer free agents, but slaves in the worst sense of the word. The rest of us went into confinement rather than to allow an inhibitor put into our essence. Yes, I am aware that they retained their Jelk-ness. Possibly, they could have multiplied later, thus eventually freeing themselves from Abaddon’s control. I suspect that was their reasoning.”
Claath shook his head at such stupidity. “The margin for error was too high. It was folly—”
“What are you talking about?” Rollo shouted.
Claath closed his mouth, sitting straighter. He glanced at me, and his smile returned.
“What?” Rollo asked, looking from me to Claath.
“The Commander understands me,” Claath said, indicating me.
Rollo rose like a grizzly bear. I had the feeling he would attempt to rip Claath’s arms from his torso. Instead, the big man turned, stomping out of the cafeteria.
“You do understand me, don’t you?” Claath asked.
I figured I did. Abaddon had tricked the Jelk. They agreed to become his allies. In doing so, they fell under his power. Eventually, the Jelk realized their error. At that point, Abaddon gave them a choice. Take the inhibitor in their essence—becoming his slave until such time as they divided into renewed halves—or go into confinement.
“How did Abaddon confine you?” I asked.
“Partly though his amazing mind-powers and partly through ancient First One hardware,” Claath said. “It is like a Forerunner object and like…” The little Jelk frowned.
“Like the original AI you escaped?” I asked.
Claath’s head jerked as he stared at me. His eyes burned for an instant. His old villainy shone through, and he hunched his shoulders, hissing like a snake. Abruptly, he looked away, stood, shivered several seconds and slowly brought himself under control. He sat back down, facing me with a seemingly placid smile.
His eyes were hooded now.
“That,” he said, “was long, long ago. I…do not like to remember that time.”
“Okay,” I said.
His eyebrows rose. “Okay?” he asked.
“You were slaves in the beginning, right?”
“No…”
“But you didn’t like it in the original AI?”
He seemed to freeze, probably in an attempt to control his emotions.
“I did not like it there,” Claath said softly.
“Why did the Jelk become the ultimate capitalists? Why do you seek riches and luxury?”
He blinked at me as if I were a cretin. “What else is there?” he asked.
I studied him.
“There is no such thing as a soul,” Claath said. “That is an invention of you flesh creatures. It is a mind disease, in fact. The Jade League seethes with it.”
“The other races are insane?”
“Yes! That is a good way to put it. They do not see reality as it is, as we do. Perhaps that comes from our original confinement. We see deeper than others.”
“Or maybe you don’t see as deeply,” I said.
“That is preposterous,” he said. “We are the Jelk, the ultimate realists. There is nothing but the here and now. The accumulation of capital, of things, is everything. There is nothing else but this delusion of souls. That is a false path for the weak-minded.”
“Does Abaddon share your beliefs?”
Claath cocked his head. “That is a shrewd question,” he said, with something like surprise. “I am unsure. He seeks power instead of riches. In the end, the two are different paths to the same end: comfort and enjoyment.”
“Abaddon doesn’t strike me as someone out to enjoy himself,” I said.
“Perhaps you’re right.”
I raised my cup and found that my remaining coffee had gotten cold. I got up, tossed the coffee into the sink and brewed more. I returned to the table with the fresh cup, sipping the steaming liquid.
“So…” I said. “When I wounded Abaddon…”
“The locks on our cages came loose. We had been hoping for something like that. I suppose Abaddon is recapturing the others. I, with my greater knowledge and quicker ability to decide, realized I had to get far away from him. That left you as the only avenue for escape.”
“You didn’t fear my wrath?” I asked.
“To date, you haven’t been able to kill a Jelk. Yes, with the Ronin 9 weapon, you did, but Abaddon destroyed the gun. Thus, it seemed that the most logical choice was to go with you and convince you to do the right thing.”
“What would that be?” I asked.
As Claath started to answer, Rollo appeared in a T-suit. He aimed his beam at Claath.
“What are you doing?” the Jelk asked.
The beam poured from the orifice, striking Claath, burning into his flesh.
“Abaddon is controlling him,” the Jelk shouted. “Stop him before it’s too late.”
Rollo kept beaming, and in a moment, Claath exploded into a ball of bright energy.
-40-
In my haste to get out of the way I spilled coffee on my shirt. At the same time, the ball of energy floated upward.
“Rollo!” I shouted.
Was he under Abaddon’s control? Had the Dark One planted a post-hypnotic command deep in Rollo’s subconscious?
The beam stopped and Rollo lowered his suited arm. He used a suit-speaker to talk to me.
“I’m sick of him, Creed. I’m sick of his haughty ways. I wanted to watch him die in the disintegrator’s power chamber. That’s all I could think about these past minutes—that we were cheated of our reward.”
“Are you feeling…like yourself?” I asked.
“What’s that supposed mean?”
“Claath has suggested that you’re under Abaddon’s control,” I said.
The beam-weapon arm lifted as Rollo re-aimed at the ball of energy.
“Don’t do it,” I said.
“Claath is slime,” Rollo said in a tight voice. “He’s trying to use us.”
“I know that.”
Rollo’s silvered visor turned to me as if in surprise. “Why are you letting him then?”
“I’m not. I just understand that that’s his goal. I have a different goal, though.” I made a soft gesture. “Do you plan to keep on shooting him?”
“I’ve thought it over, Creed. It has to take energy to form flesh, to go from one state to another. If one made Claath change states over and over again, maybe that would eat up his energy reserves. Maybe that would be like starving Claath to death.”
I tapped my chin, considering that. It was a novel idea, certainly.
“I hate him,” Rollo said flatly, as he turned to watch the floating energy ball.
The energy changed color, becoming a deep red. Slowly, it took on a humanoid shape.
“I share your feelings,” I quietly told Rollo. “But we need him, as I’m out of ideas. We have a million Kargs working down to us. Abaddon has Dmitri, Ella and Jennifer. Maybe the little…creep can come up with an idea. But he won’t be able to tell us if you keep forcing him into his energy state.”
“Yeah…” Rollo said. He finally nodded. “I’m done for now. You do what you gotta. Count me in for whatever it is.”
With that, the T-suit vanished.
I touched the wet stain on my shirt. With a shrug, I returned to the pot, pouring myself another cup. I sipped and silently debated strategies as Claath pulled himself together.
After a time, I heard a chair leg scrape against the floor as Claath sat down.
“Was that a planned event?” Claath asked coldly.
“Ah, you’re back,” I said, facing him. “I hope that wasn’t too painful.”
“It was quite painful, and I resent it.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t try to pretend. You already knew it hurt. Why else would any Jelk exhibit pain symptoms at his bodily demise?”
“That’s a good point,” I said, taking another sip of coffee. I was starting to feel shaky from the caffeine. Maybe I should stop for today.
Worry crossed his reshaped features. “Are we allies of the gun or not?” he asked.
I took my time answering. “That depends,” I said.
“On?”
“On whether you can help me or not,” I said.
“I assure you, I can.”
“I’m not interested in assurances. I want proof. What should we do now?”
“What is the precise objective?” he asked.
“Freeing my friends and killing Abaddon.”
Claath moved a saucer with his fingers as his features pinched up in thought. Looking up at me, he said, “We may not be able to free your friends.”
“Why?”
“Because all this,” he said with a wave of his hand, “is taking too long.”
I raised my cup, made to sip and then hurled the cup and remaining coffee from me. The cup shattered against a far wall.
Claath jerked in surprise, staring at me. Then, he glanced about as if searching for Rollo.
“Listen,” I said, putting my hands on the edge of the table, leaning toward him. “How do we kill Abaddon without a disintegrator?”
“I have no idea.”
“You didn’t have a plan for killing him?”
“We—meaning the Jelk Corporation—have had several plans. They all failed.”