“Yes, that is the question, from where, I mean. The captain of Royal Sovereign—the Orange Tamika warship docked outside—has told me these rumors. They are food for serious contemplation. The captain told me some believe Center Galaxy aliens have invaded down our spiral arm into Jelk territory. Others think that a secret cabal among them is attempting a Jelk coup. A small number of religious adepts believe Abaddon has escaped from hyperspace with a Karg taskforce.”
I felt cold inside. “Abaddon is in our universe? You’re sure of this?”
Doctor Sant shook his head. “I make no such claim of surety. I relate to you rumors, nothing more. This we do know. Something has shaken the Jelk Corporation. What’s more, various Saurian fleets have departed their jump-off points. By this, I mean those fleets no longer poise like spears to jab into Jade League star systems.”
“That’s good news, isn’t it?” I asked.
Sant stared down at me.
“I’m not talking about Abaddon and some Kargs making it into our universe,” I said. “That would be terrible—unless they brought Jennifer with them. Then I could try to free her.”
“No!” Sant said, horrified. “You must never attempt such a thing.”
I snorted. “Are you kidding me? She was my woman. If I have a shot at freeing her, you’d better believe I’ll take it.”
“That would be ill-considered indeed. The omens all point to one conclusion. If you ever meet Abaddon face-to-face, nothing will ever be the same for any of us.”
It was my turn to stare. I hated this oblique stuff. Besides, could Sant really be serious about this? What would that make my dream? Would it be a coincidence, or could the demon-lord speak across a thousand light years?
The Lokhars had an oracle, their greatest Forerunner artifact. It liked making ambiguous statements. I think the policy had rubbed off onto Doctor Sant.
“Do you think the Jelk problem is with Abaddon?” I asked.
“I have no way of knowing,” Sant said. “I believe it highly unlikely, though. The Center Galaxy invasion sounds more plausible to me.”
I nodded. “Sure, Doc—I mean, Doctor.” Like all Lokhars I’ve ever met, Sant was a bear concerning protocol. They disliked informality. “The Jelk are having trouble with someone or something. It has caused them to pull back Saurian-crewed taskforces from the frontier. Now why’s that a problem again?”
“I did not say it was.”
“Come on, Doctor. You’re acting worried over this. Sure, you’re trying to hide it, but I know you, remember?”
His whiskers twitched. “You are observant and rash, a unique combination. I wonder if that is the source of your remarkable strength.”
“No, it’s a bowl full of Wheaties every morning,” I said.
“I do not understand,” Sant said with a frown.
“It doesn’t matter. What’s troubling you? Is there something I can do to help?”
Doctor Sant halted and fingered his gaudy ring. His stare became intent as he studied the rose in the bubble. With a swift move, he took off the ring, holding it up to a ceiling light. “Do you know what this ring signifies?”
I wanted to say a lack of artistic taste. Instead, I just shook my head.
“It is an ancient heirloom, my family symbol. My father gave it to me. His father gave it to him. My great-grandfather accepted it as a token from the Orange Tamika Regent-Emperor.”
“Wait a minute. I thought all Lokhar emperors belonged to Purple Tamika.”
“No,” Sant hissed. “The Purple are upstarts. Over two hundred years ago, they purloined the throne from Orange Tamika. It almost brought open revolt among the Lokhars.”
“What stopped it?” I asked.
“The Saurian fleets poised to strike deep into Jade League territory,” Sant said.
I blinked several times. Sure. That made sense. Historically, what kept allies together? A larger threat. During World War II, the Soviets and Americans joined hands against Hitler. Once the Furhur died and Nazi Germany lay in ruins, the Russians and Americans soon began the Cold War. They didn’t have a larger threat binding them together anymore. In this case, the once threatening Saurian fleets were like Nazi Germany.
“Do all Jade League members like each other?” I asked.
“No,” Sant said, “many loathe the very scent of other races.”
“What about the different Tamikas?” I asked.
“You are shrewd, Commander. The Purple Tamika Emperor has moved openly against Orange Tamika. Our dreadnoughts and their elite crews died in hyperspace. Because of that, we have become weak. Some believe the Emperor will attempt to eliminate Orange Tamika altogether, securing the throne for generations to come.”
“And he’s making these moves now because the Saurian fleets no longer wait to attack?” I asked.
“You ask that as if the Emperor is foolish. The Saurian fleets have not only retreated but also traveled deep into Jelk Corporation territory. In some fashion, the Jelk are divided or under assault. There has not been such an occurrence for time immemorial.”
“Maybe it’s a Jelk trick,” I said. “They’re cunning enough to do something like that. I mean pull everything back and leak rumors that a terrible invasion has brought this about. Then, once the Jade League breaks into conflict, the Saurian fleets will return with a vengeance, cleaning up.”
“I agree that is a possibility,” Sant said. “It’s what makes this a difficult decision.”
“You mean your leaving the solar system?” I asked.
Instead of answering me, Doctor Sant raised the gaudy ring a little higher. “This is my most precious possession. I have worn it with pride. Now, Commander Creed, I give it to you.” Sant extended his long arm, shoving the ring in my face.
I reacted hastily without really thinking about what I was doing. “Oh, well, thanks,” I said, taking the ring. “Yeah, this is something,” I said, hefting it. The ring was heavier than it looked. “I’ll treasure this all my life.”
Sant closed his eyes, nodding with seeming appreciation, as if this was a holy ceremony. Maybe it was. When he opened his orbs, he watched me expectantly.
“Uh, oh,” I said, beginning to understand. No doubt, I was supposed to give him something equally precious in return. This was a swap. I happened to be wearing my .44. I began unbuckling my gun-belt.
“No,” Sant said. “I could not accept a weapon of war, especially one that killed the Emperor’s daughter-wife.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, I’m not sure what I could give you then.”
Doctor Sant smiled serenely. “There is a boon I would ask of you.”
“Sure,” I said.
“You know the name of the Forerunner artifact.”
“I sure do,” I said.
Doctor Sant waited expectantly.
Maybe I should have just told him. I didn’t want to, though. The tiger had shot me with poison slivers. Screw him. He was supposed to aid us, not us him.
“I do not ask for such a thing for myself alone,” Sant said. “It is for Orange Tamika that I ask, the brother-in-arms who died for you and your assault troopers, allowing them to reach the center of the portal planet.”
“How does knowing the artifact’s name help Orange Tamika?” I asked.
Doctor Sant’s serene look became strained. I don’t think he liked my question.
“I am not here to bargain,” Sant said.
Of course you are, old son. For all I knew, the ring was bric-a-brac, a worthless piece of junk. Sant might be pulling a fast one, and I didn’t like it.
“Several months ago, I saved you from the Starkiens,” he told me.
“Yes, you did,” I said. “And you have my most profound gratitude for doing it. I’m the one the artifact spoke and listened to, yet the baboons weren’t impressed with me. You just rode on the relic, and they seemed to think you were some holy man because of it. Why did they have the difference of reactions between the two of us?” I asked.
Doctor Sant
stiffened, and his fingers twitched. Had I hit a nerve? Maybe I should just make up a name and give it to him. I rejected the idea.
“You need to let me know exactly what’s going on here before I give you the artifact’s name,” I said.
The tiger seemed to consider that. “You are a wily—” I think Sant almost called me a beast, barely stopping himself. “You are a wily dealer,” he said. “Because of my journey with an artifact, I am an acolyte now. The Starkien recognized the change in me. I have begun a holy trek, a soul journey. As the speaker for the Sol Object, my words have gravity.”
“Wait a minute. Why are you the speaker? If anyone should be the speaker, it’s me,” I said, jabbing a thumb against my chest.
“No!” Sant said, horrified.
I raised my eyebrows.
“Forgive me, Commander Creed. Even after these past years, you are new to the Jade League. You have an exalted post as guardian of the object, but you are not an accredited acolyte. I am Lokhar. I have ridden the relic. I have studied it and now will return to the empire to speak my words to whoever will listen.”
This was rich. After all humanity had done for the Lokhars, we were still little more than beasts in Doctor Sant’s eyes.
“In other words,” I said, “you’re going to create trouble for the Purple Tamika Emperor. But you’re going to do it with religious coloring, hiding behind your new status.”
“Please, Commander Creed, I ask that you speak with decorum and forgo your crudities.”
I kept thinking about Sant pulling the trigger seven times and the Shi-Feng blowing themselves up to kill me.
“That’s right,” I said, hotly. “I’m only a barbarian guardian, one of the only people an artifact has ever talked to. Oh, by the way, how many artifacts have told a Lokhar their name?”
“Only the highest priests would know such a thing,” Sant said, stiffening.
“You know what I think?” I asked. “If an artifact talked to me, that means I outrank everyone in the acolyte department.”
Sant’s eyes darted away from mine. I wondered if I’d hit another nerve. Frankly, I hardly cared.
“Look, Doctor,” I said. “You and I have been through a lot together. I saved your bacon on the portal planet. The assault troopers saved the universe. Yet, what do we find: insults by everyone who thinks we’re nothing but beasts or barbarians. Well, I’m sick of it. No, I’m not giving you the object’s name. You can take your ring back if you want.”
I thrust it at him.
Sant’s eyes widened and his whiskers stood straight out. With a lightning move, he snatched his gaudy ring, stuffing it in a pocket.
“You have insulted me,” he said.
“Yeah, right,” I said. I almost told him how he’d shot me seven times. Instead, I said, “You’ve insulted me throughout this entire conversation. You don’t see me sulking about it.” I told myself to calm down. The tiger was an ally. He’d helped us just seven months ago with the Starkiens. “Look, Sant, you gave me your ring to try to bribe me. I’m betting knowing the name of the artifact would be just about the biggest thing to hit the Lokhar Empire. And you want me to just give it to you. I don’t think so.”
Doctor Sant hissed with outrage, and needle-thin claws popped out of his fingertips.
I stepped back, thinking: Here we go again. I drew my .44.
“You have committed a grave error, Captain Creed.”
“Well how about that, Doc,” I said, my gun-hand rock steady.
He drew himself to his full height, and it seemed he might curse me. Then, suddenly, the claws slid back into their sheaths. His shoulders sloped like normal and he nodded. Was that a result of Ella’s protocols at work in his mind?
“I was an Alien Contact Officer before I became an acolyte,” he said. “You humans are different from us, Commander Creed. I feel sorry for you, not because you will not give me the name. You are correct. I sought to trick the name from you. It was unworthy of me and unworthy of you. I am sorry, Commander.”
“So am I, Doctor Sant. Whatever happens, I wish you luck.” I put away the .44.
“May the Great Maker guide your way,” Sant said. “You are going to need all your courage and guile to keep your artifact. A time of troubles is upon us. If the Jelk Corporation splinters or falls into civil war, I doubt the Jade League or the Lokhar Empire will survive it. That will mean every race for itself. You Earthlings are too few to last in such a state.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see about that,” I said.
Doctor Sant held up a hand in a salute. Then he turned away, heading for a hatch that would take him to the Orange Tamika warship. I wondered if I’d ever see him again.
I heard a hatch clang shut. I knew I had to talk with Diana. If things were starting to fall apart out there, we needed a plan. We couldn’t just hang on anymore. We had to begin building a fully defensible solar system.
-8-
After Doctor Sant and his Orange Tamika Lokhars left, we had the solar system all to our lonesome. For the first time since the aliens had shown themselves, we were the only beings here.
Despite his galling nature, Baba Gobo had taught me a valuable lesson. Actually, he just affirmed what I’d already known and then forgotten. To every alien we’d met, men were beasts at worst and barbarians at best.
The Lokhar Emperor had refused to admit us to the Jade League. He’d thought about letting the Forerunner Guardians join, a backdoor for humans, so to speak. Even that had been shot down in the end.
It left us in a precarious spot. Baba Gobo had probably backed down to Doctor Sant for another reason, one worth considering. The might of the Lokhar Empire had stood behind Sant. What stood behind us? Not a damn thing.
I sipped wine at a candlelight dinner with Diana. Doctor Sant had left two months ago. Since then, three voyagers in three different alien vessels had entered the solar system. Each had claimed pilgrim status, wishing to view the Sol Object. Each had left a bad taste in my mouth. They’d felt like conmen casing a joint, studying the security systems for a future heist. In seven years, we’d had six pilgrims. Now, we’d had these three in quick succession.
As we ate, I told Diana about my worries.
We were in a special dining area of Mars Base. A ceiling window showed the stars. Side screens showed the lonely rock formations of Mars at night. To cap it, the Amazon Queen had worn sheer silks to the meal. Even after all these years, she had to play her predator’s games. I could see her breasts under the fabrics, her rouged nipples. She’d caught me staring several times, and it made her smile. A shark couldn’t have grinned with more malice as a morsel swam toward its jaws.
Most of me said to go ahead and roll in the sack with her. It would be well worth it. A smaller voice warned me she was a honey trap meant to bury me deep. I had no doubt Diana knew sex techniques that would leave me gasping. She also had a monstrous ambition to run everything.
Was this how she’d taken care of Loki?
There had been three members on the Earth Council before I’d left for hyperspace years ago. No matter how hard I tried to find out, no one could tell me what had happened to the ex-Swedish billionaire. He had simply disappeared one day.
I realized that Diana had no qualms about using whatever tool she needed to achieve her ends. Understanding that, I tore my gaze from the peaches under her silks and found her licking her lips.
“We don’t have to be adversaries, Creed,” she purred.
In lieu of answering her, I sipped wine. The candlelight in the center of the table flickered, causing shadows to shift along the walls. I don’t know why, but it reminded me of everything the coming of the aliens to Earth had permanently stolen from us. There would never be movies in San Francisco with a hot date or pizza and beer on a Friday night after sweaty games of basketball with my friends. That Earth had died. Despite all our automated factories attempting terraforming, we possessed a poisoned planet with bitter survivors hanging on by our fingernails.
�
�We have to do something new,” I said.
“That sounds erotic,” she told me.
I clunked my wine goblet onto the table and leaned back in my chair. “Do you remember Demetrius?”
“Of course,” she said. “He was a good man.”
“He was a rugged son of a bitch,” I said, “an ex-SAS trooper who died on the portal planet. He gave his life so we could keep on living.” He had been Diana’s bodyguard in the early days when the freighters had been grounded on Earth. The man had joined me on the expedition to save the universe. He’d given his life so the rest of us could live. I thought about Demetrius, how I had to turn his sacrifice into something lasting.
“Okay,” Diana said, frowning.
“You’re not tracking my thoughts,” I said. “This—” I waved my hand to indicate the room and everything it entailed— “is our responsibility. You and me, Diana, we’re running the show. Mankind lives or dies on our decisions and actions. We don’t have time for games.”
“If we don’t live, are we really alive?” she asked. “There’s no point to existing if we don’t enjoy ourselves sometimes. Take a break tonight, Creed. You’ve earned it.”
I snorted. “If I genuinely believed you cared a whit about me as a person, I might find your seductive ways alluring. As it is, I realize you’re just trying to manipulate me so you can gain more power.”
Something hardened in her eyes, reminding me of a boa constrictor squeezing its prey. That disappeared a moment later, and she smiled. The sexual wattage pouring out of her almost made me reconsider the offer. As I debated with myself, the tip of her tongue slowly dragged across her lower lip.
I admit it, my groin stirred. The lady was sexy. I had to do something, or I was going to rip off her clothes and do her on the table. So, I laughed, stood and swept the wine goblet off the tablecloth, letting the glass shatter against the video of Mars at night.
Diana flinched in surprise.
“Wait here,” I said. In three swift strides, I opened the door and moved into the hall, shouting for N7.
The android opened a different door, giving me an inquiring glance. He looked like a choirboy with soft blond hair. He wasn’t that, but one of the most dangerous beings on our side. He wore a naval uniform and cap. He’d been with me in the artifact’s inner sanctum, meaning that N7 also knew the object’s name. No one thought to ask him, though. Lokhars in particular had an aversion to treating androids as people. Did androids lack souls? I suppose so because the Jelk built them to order. Even so, N7 had become one of my brothers in arms.
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