by T. R. Harris
“Aw, shucks, Riyad. Is this the softer side of Flash Tarazi?”
“Just wanted to say this…while I have the chance.”
“Don’t you lose faith too. Mac is hard enough to deal with.”
“I’m not losing faith, just thinking that we can only cheat fate so many times. And for the two of us, we’re way over our quota of lucky breaks.”
“No argument with that. But you and I both knew the odds of us making it back alive were slim to none. We’ll keep on fighting. Even if it all comes crashing down, at least we can say we’ve really fucked up the Sol-Kor for a very long time, even more than we had hoped for.”
Riyad smiled. “Yeah, they must be freaking out about now.” And then the smile vanished. “Unless the bastards know something we don’t.”
“You sure can be a buzzkill, Mr. Tarazi. And here I was expecting to meet my maker with a smile and a spring in my step.”
“It’s just that there’s so much we don’t know about the Sol-Kor.”
“Relax. They’re basically very simple creatures. If it hadn’t been for Panur, they would have either eaten themselves into extinction or have been confined to just a few systems and a lot fewer numbers.”
“Yes, we do have your son-in-law to thank for our current situation.” Seeing the grimace on Adam’s face, Riyad smiled. “Too soon?”
Chapter 12
Drasic Reol stepped over and around the various piles of still-smoking debris to survey the damage caused to the Royal Zygote nursery. His despair was complete when he found all thirteen females were dead. His knees grew weak and he staggered to a nearby wall to support himself.
A High-Noslead reached out an arm to assist him but he brushed it aside. “I will be fine. It is the dust in the room that is affecting me.”
Drasic could see on the face of the officer that he did not believe his explanation. He straightened and walked across the room to the blown-out window of the last cell. The body of the female was an unrecognizable mass of bloody flesh. He closed his eyes momentarily and chanted a silent dedication. The bodies would be processed and fed to the Applying Council. He knew the consumption would have no magical effect on the members, even if some believed it would. Still, they would feel elevated above the current crisis as receivers of the sacred flesh of the females, possibly to then better face the tragic reality of the events of the day.
As the High Chancellor of the Applying Council, he had been in his chambers adjacent the Queen’s when the attack occurred. He had been confused at first, refusing to believe that such a thing could happen. And yet he had been in the Pinnacle Mount at the time of the last invasion. The circumstances leading to that event were clearer to follow: a Noslead had brought a Human to Kor, and then another Human had come to his rescue, with the inexplicable assistance of Panur—that diabolical mutant the Queen so favored more above her other sons.
Yet this event was different.
Only moments before he had received confirmation that the beasts from U-5 had entered through a portal in the Farm and found a way into M-1. From there, multiple reports traced their movements: from the nursery, to the Queen’s Chambers, and then back to the nursery. Now they were not to be found, having escaped through the roof of this very room.
This had been a deliberate attack on the Queen and her Zygotes. Never had such a thing been attempted. And yet so few of the beasts had caused such massive devastation. That was the one aspect of the event that worried him the most. Several fleets of Sol-Kor were operating in U-5, and although Drasic found the thought to be inconceivable on the surface, perhaps they had made a mistake by venturing into the universe of the Humans?
Considering what had taken place within the Mount this day, it was now almost a certainty. With the size of the multiverse, the Humans should have been left alone.
Drasic looked through the hole in the roof and at the Sinnis Star Cluster high above. It was a familiar sight, a significant symbol in the sky above Kor. The Cluster had been one of the first harvests when the Sol-Kor expanded from their local area, thanks to Panur’s unexplainable genius. Now Panur had deserted the Colony, and the Most-Revered Queen was dead, along with her Zygotes.
Drasic sensed the presence of the High-Noslead next to him. His name was Rolic, or something like that, and he was of an intelligence level to realize the significance of what had taken place here. What must be going through his mind now as the very future of the Sol-Kor faced this unfathomable abyss? Even now, those of a particular mind level would be looking to him for a solution. Vast numbers of others would accept things as they happened, even if that meant the extinction of the Sol-Kor.
Drasic turned to the officer. “You will secure both the nursery and the Queen’s Chambers. Give access to only those with the highest level. News of these events must not be circulated until I decide to release it.”
“Yes, My Chancellor.” Then the High-Noslead looked into the cell again. “May I ask a question?” he asked.
“No, you may not, yet I will give an answer. The race will survive. There are contingencies, even for something as tragic as this.”
“That is reassuring.”
The Noslead was wise not to ask what such contingencies would entail. At the moment, Drasic Reol had no idea.
Chapter 13
A long line of vehicles was entering the spaceport through the main gate. There was security, but more for accounting than any real screening. Along each lane of traffic a glassed-in box contained a cadre of Sol-Kor seated at monitors and key panels. They seldom got up from their seats.
Adam kept his hand along the side of his head, shielding the mask from any undue scrutiny, even though he had learned by now to take the farthest lane to the left, where no one would be moving along next to him.
There was an indicator light on the station to his left, and it changed to an amber color as he approached. It would turn white before any of the traffic in front of him moved forward. He stopped next to the security post, staring ahead, his heart pounding ever faster for each second the light didn’t change.
A voice called out from a speaker on the station.
“You’re registration number does not match access status.”
Adam still had his embedded translation device—as did all creatures within a galactic empire in the Milky Way—and what was known of the Sol-Kor language had been programmed into the device. The problem: without his visor, he couldn’t answer back.
He remained staring ahead.
“You do not have access,” the voice in the speaker said again.
The truck he was driving could only move at a modest twenty miles per hour. Making a break for the flight line would be comical. On Kor, all his men could run faster than twenty miles per hour. He was pretty sure even the baggage carts could move that fast.
The seconds ticked by.
There was movement in the cab. He glanced right and saw a visor lying next to him. He reached out and snatched it up, transferring it to his left hand just below the window level.
“This is a special delivery,” he said quickly.
Tiny speakers on the edge of the visor broadcast his words in Sol-Kor.
“What cargo?”
Adam took a chance. “It does not concern you. This is High-Noslead business.”
The light switched to white. Adam sent the truck forward and through the gate.
He followed a path to the left, one that passed through a short tunnel and emerged along the inner perimeter of the vast tarmac. Outer lanes were dedicated to food conveyors.
He held up the visor and spoke over his shoulder. “Someone back there is going to get a medal for this!”
“Thank Mac for that. The last time he pulled a mask over his head he removed the visor and stuck it in his pants.”
Adam looked at the amber plastic device and dropped it, wrinkling his nose. “What is it about you guys and your crotches?”
“Relax, Captain, we’re not the only ones in here who smell like a cesspool.” Ad
am recognized the voice of Ensign MacTavish.
Riyad appeared at the pass-thru. “That was kind of ballsy.”
“These creatures operate on a tier system. Those on the lowest level—like gate monitors—won’t question the actions of someone higher than them. At least that was what I was betting on.”
“So what now?”
Adam pointed into the sky. “See that? It’s a whole stream of ships leaving the surface. I say we grab one of these beamships and join the parade.”
“In that case, we have to make sure Anderson makes it aboard. He’s the only one qualified to fly one of those things.”
“I want a pay raise!” Neo Anderson called out from the back of the truck, having heard Riyad.
“Tell you what, Neo. We get aboard, I’ll give you a seat right up front, with a nice view of the Sol-Kor universe.”
“And popcorn?”
“Yeah, whatever makes you happy.”
********
Adam turned off the perimeter road and entered the main part of the landing field. Most vessels they could see were the gargantuan harvesters, yet getting closer they did spot a number of the ubiquitous beamships parked among the giants.
Numerous other vehicles were crisscrossing the field; none appeared to be the smaller type of truck the team was in. Luckily no one came to question them, and Adam was able to drive right up to a beamship without incident.
There were several workers outside the ship, and the main hatch was open. With his mask still in place, Adam circled the ship once to check if any other Sol-Kor were on the other side, but the only ones visible were near the hatch. The truck slid past the entrance, then stopped and began to back up.
The Sol-Kor stopped what they were doing to watch the truck, confused but not alarmed. That changed when the back of the truck flew open and simultaneous puffs of suppressed rifle fire cut them down where they stood. Then, with MacTavish in the lead, the team rushed into the beamship. Adam and Riyad brought up the rear, entering the starship to the sound of additional gunfire both forward and aft of the entrance. Voices called out:
“Bridge secure.”
“Engine room secure.”
“Completing sweep.”
A moment later, confirmation came through that the ship was under control of the commandos, with four compliant prisoners under watch in a back stateroom. The bodies of the dead Sol-Kor from outside were carried in and the hatch secured.
With beamships the main enemy vessels in the Milky Way, they knew quite a bit about them, and the team set about checking fuel levels and preparing for liftoff. Ten minutes after the first Human entered the hatch, the ship was powering up.
Adam was on the bridge, sitting in the standard command chair and still feeling the effects of the painkiller stimulant he’d been given to help with the injury to his side. Sergeant First-Class Anderson was in the pilot seat, with Wizard Kaczynski operating the nav computer.
“There’s a definite departure pattern,” the tech specialist reported. “We’re not going to have clearance, but once we’re up it would be wise to blend in with the other departing ships.”
“Make it so, Mr. Anderson. You may engage as you wish.”
“Yes, sir,” said his pilot.
Beamships used a very efficient, Panur-designed lifting system that produced a minimal amount of backwash, allowing vessels to land and take off in much closer proximity to one another than did Milky Way starships. So with very little disturbance, the beamship left the surface of the spaceport and glided along about a mile up until it joined the parade of other ships leaving the planet.
Immediately, the comm links came active as the port’s control center questioned the unauthorized departure. Adam had Connors open the link and then scrape his fingernails over the surface of the microphone. Every time a challenge came through, he would do it again, making it appear as though the challenge was being answered. By the time they reached orbit, the challenges had stopped. Hopefully, ground control had logged equipment failure as the reason for the lack of communication.
Riyad hobbled up to the command chair and leaned a weary body on an armrest. “That was easy, Captain Cain. It’s about time something was.”
“Yeah, just a walk in the park.”
“You know they’ll find the truck and put two and two together. There’s probably a transponder aboard which will allow them to track us.”
“Connors, did you hear that?”
“Yes, sir. Already on it. We captured a few beamships back home so I have a pretty good idea where to find it.”
“Make it quick, Mike, it looks like we’re in a pack of about a thousand beamships, all headed in the same direction.”
“Could be headed for a portal,” Riyad pointed out.
“Now that’s a good point. Maybe we can get back home by passing through a gateway with an alien fleet.”
“If they’re headed for our universe at all.”
“There you go again, dickhead, being a buzzkill.”
“Hey, don’t get me wrong. Any universe will be better than the Sol-Kor universe, if you ask me.”
“Another good point.”
“I think I’ve found the transponder,” said a pair of booted feet sticking out from under the comm console. Just then the entire bridge went dark. “No, that’s not it.” The lights came back on. “Let me try this one.”
The bridge crew held their breath. When nothing happened, they exhaled.
Connors extricated himself from under the console. “Sorry about that. I’m pretty sure the transponder is disconnected now. Either that or I activated a self-destruct.”
Anderson whipped around in Conner’s direction. The tech met the pilot’s look of concern with a smile and glanced at his diver’s watch. “We should know in five…four…three…”
“Screw you, Mike!”
“Damn, Anderson, are you saying a badass dude like yourself is afraid of a little self-destruct bomb? What a pussy.”
Adam smiled. “Okay, knock it off. I’m glad you’re all feeling good enough to screw with each other. Now, Mr. Kaczynski, how about you and Mr. Tarazi try to rustle up some charts, something that’ll tell us where we are and where we’re going. Mac, see if you can find something for us to eat. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m so hungry I could eat the ass out of a yak. Connors, go aft and check on the chief and Mr. Johnson with the prisoners. And someone, anyone, find out if the showers on this tub are working!”
Chapter 14
Admiral Andy Tobias grimaced when he saw the last message was from the president of the union himself. He took the notepad from the enlisted man and dismissed him.
Michael Osbourne wasn’t a man Tobias would call a friend, but he was someone the officer could respect. Sure, he’d fallen for the misguided hype from his former science advisor, Jack Hardy, when it came to the whole portal detector episode, but since then he’d gone out of his way to curry the admiral’s favor. Andy was sure he was just being pragmatic, since Andy knew the dirt on how hard the president had tried to stop the mutant from completing his work. Now the diamond-core detector was guiding allied forces to portal after portal, giving the defenders of the Milky Way galaxy at least a fighting chance against the invaders. Without the detector, the galaxy would have been overrun months ago by dozens of completed arrays and tens of thousands of enemy warships and harvesters.
But now Tobias was up to his neck in trouble and the cagey politician saw this as an opportunity to silence the obstinate senior officer once and for all.
Andy left the bridge and adjourned to his away cabin located between the CIC and the command bridge. He didn’t want the crew to hear the browbeating he was about to take from the leader of the Human stellar empire.
Comm relays had been strung through the open portal and into the Sol-Kor universe, so all Tobias had to do to link with Earth was input the secure access code.
When the image of the president appeared on the tiny screen, he glared for a moment before tur
ning away and telling unseen people off-screen to vacate the room. A moment later his face came back square on the screen, changing to an ever-deepening red the longer he stared at the officer.
“Just what the hell are you doing, Andy? You know you’ve already lost over two hundred men in an effort to save a handful—at the most. In what universe does that make sense?”
“Mr. President, if Cain and his team can accomplish their mission, we may be able to gain the upper hand and put an end to the entire conflict. I felt that in light of the significance of their mission—as well as their chances of making it out alive—every effort had to be made to assist them.”
“By sacrificing even more lives on the off-chance Cain may find his way to your portal? As you’ve inferred, the chances of them getting out are slim to none. In war, men are often called upon to die for the greater good. That’s the nature of the game. I’m sure Cain and his men knew that going in. Have you ever thought they may elect to go out in a blaze of glory rather than even attempt to come back?”
“I have, Mr. President, yet I believe I know Cain and Tarazi well enough to say that would be their last choice. My men are trained to do all they can to get their team out of harm’s way and back on friendly ground before giving up all hope.”
Osbourne shook his head. “I suppose ordering you back into this universe would fall on deaf—and insubordinate—ears?”
“Sir, we control an alien portal in the Sol-Kor universe. Strategically, that’s significant. Even if Cain doesn’t make it back, it wouldn’t make sense to surrender ground we’ve already taken.”
“And what if they counterattack with overwhelming force?”
“I’ll deal with that when the time comes, Mr. President. Right now I have screening units out that will warn us of any fleets heading this way. The Sol-Kor may help you get your wish, Mr. President, but not without a fight.”
Osbourne slammed his fist on his desk. “My wish? My wish! I’m the goddamn president of the Orion-Cygnus Union, Admiral! My orders are not wishes. My orders are commands, and at the moment you are in violation of a direct and lawful order from your commanding officer. I could order those around you to place you under arrest, or worse, to dispatch you with extreme prejudice for your insubordination and traitorous endangerment of my military forces.”