Ki’Bara waved the others away and stared at his son in reflection. The child was a marvel. He had other children elsewhere whom he had abandoned when the Camerlingo had called him to the palace. Once the Empress had chosen him as her consort, he was to leave all others behind. He thought occasionally of his sons and what his abandonment had meant to them. The Camerlingo had assured him the family would be taken care of as first of the Consort, but Ki’Bara the man did not trust the priest.
“Father?” a voice came from behind Ki’Bara. “I have heard of your orders to our fleet. Do you think it is wise to let the humans live?”
The Father turned to see the Camerlingo standing in the hallway. He was dressed in the ceremonial robes which had seemed to become a part of his body over the years. He held the thick staff in his right arm that denoted his station above the other priests. Ki’Bara hated the man and his constant presence in his life. He would have preferred to raise his son without the interference of the priest class. The Camerlingo, however, had already established himself as the head of the Emperor’s house and in charge of raising the boy. His wife, no longer the Empress now, and known as the Regent, had acceded to the Camerlingo’s requests without consulting Ki’Bara.
“I serve the Engineers,” the Father said, pointing to the image of the small alien. “I am tired of war, Camerlingo. I would like to try peace in my remaining years.”
“I believe,” the Camerlingo replied, stepping closer and raising the staff. “That is the first intelligent thing you have ever said.”
“How dare you?” Ki’Bara said, aghast at the audacity of the other man. “I hold the Emperor, may his presence be a blessing to us all, in my hands. I am the Father!”
“No, husband,” the Empress said, stepping from behind the Camerlingo to retrieve her son. “You have served your purpose and are no longer needed as the Father.”
Ki’Bara stared at his wife in horror. He had conquered armies and defeated rival political operatives to be the chosen consort of the Empress. For her to be denying his existence was unthinkable. He looked back to the image of the Engineer again to see the creature nod. Plans began to coalesce in his mind. He saw the strings of his destiny as they had been pulled without his knowing. The Camerlingo stood to the side of his Regent with a smug expression. The Emperor let out a loud click of happiness as his mother held him tight.
“We all serve the will of the Engineers,” the Camerlingo replied. “Your people thank you for your service, Ki’Bara. You have earned a new title befitting your sacrifice for our people.”
“A new title?” Ki’Bara said quietly. “Let me guess. I will be called the Fool. It is what I am. I should have seen your treachery cycles ago, Camerlingo.”
“There is no treachery on my actions, Ki’Bara,” the Camerlingo said. “I am honored to serve our gods. It is all I have ever done.”
The former Empress turned away from her husband, chuffing and squealing at the child. She no longer wore the pure white sash of power or even the loud colors of the former fad. She wore the gold circlet around her long, beautiful neck and a pale pink sash that fluttered in the wind. He stared at her as she left the room with his son. Before exiting from view, she turned to her lover and stared. The Camerlingo advanced another step.
“Ki’Bara,” he began. “In accordance with our god’s command, you have been given a holy title to honor your contributions to the Ch’Tauk. You will henceforth be known as…”
“The Martyr,” the Regent replied. “Go to the next world in peace, Ki’Bara. It is what you asked for.”
A sharp pain rammed through Ki’Bara’s chest as the Camerlingo’s staff pierced his armor. The staff twisted as he sought to end Ki’Bara’s life quickly. Breath refused to fill Ki’Bara’s lungs and he felt his hearts stop. The pain faded as numbness crept over his mind. All four of his eyes blinked at the Regent as she stepped from the room. Ki’Bara looked down to the floor. He saw his own green blood gushing from his chest and staining the floor of the palace. His hand rose one more time, and with the last of the strength he had, he spoke to his missing wife.
“I loved you, my Ch’Tauk.”
The corpse slammed into the floor as the Camerlingo’s staff was pulled out. The priest stepped away from the spreading pool of blood. He let out a chuffing laugh as he stared at the cooling corpse. He would never understand the will of the Engineers and why they had called on him to accept the man as the Consort. It was his duty only to serve their will. He stepped to the side of the projection of the Engineer, still staring placidly at the body of Ki’Bara.
“It is done, my god,” Camerlingo said. “What is your will for me?”
“Camerlingo,” the impish alien said. “You have served our process well. We will bestow upon you a new title.”
“Honor me, my lord,” the Camerlingo replied.
“You will be the voice of the Engineers,” the creature said. “You will be known as the Conduit from this day forth, and you will act as our emissary on Ch’Tauk.”
“Thank you, Lord,” the Camerlingo replied. “I live to serve your will.”
“Go now, and serve your new Emperor,” the Engineer commanded. “He is the future of your people and our gift to you.”
The Camerlingo stood and stepped over the body of Ki’Bara. He did not look back as he exited. He had more important things to do.
34
Earth – Wyoming
“I have something!”
Farthing held the scanner close to a slab of reinforced concrete. The ceiling of the mountain facility had collapsed several levels and the search was not going well. Resolute had taken a day to repair its M-space engines and another three days to travel home through the thick blue-brown membrane. She had arrived in the Terran system to find the planet a grayish sphere dotted with black, sooty patches. Already, the planetary ecologists who had survived the exodus from Earth were creating plans to scrub the atmosphere and restore the planet to the beautiful, blue world it had always been.
“Give me a hand with this,” Lee Pearce ordered as he stepped over rubble blocking the path.
His arm was supposed to be in the sling that hung loosely from his neck. Doctor Demsiri had set the bone and begun the healing process after he was delivered to sickbay. Alice had been at his side the moment he awoke to hold him and say how proud she was for him. He stayed until the bone had mended and then set about repairing the ship. When Resolute reached Earth, Henry Moore contacted him from the flight deck of Baal.
“You take that side,” Henry said, standing behind Lee to steady the man on the uneven ground. “I’ll take that side.”
The meeting between the two men had been cool. The last time Henry had seen Lee was when Lee had ejected the security man in an escape capsule at Perigee station. Admiral Chang had explained to Henry the need for the deception and the two had tried to reconcile. Two awkward days of trying to talk had turned into a farce when Emma and Alice conspired to get the men to eat dinner together. The double date had worked and the four had been inseparable ever since.
“Commander, can you get under it?” Lee asked Farthing. “If we can leverage your end up…”
The three men braced their knees and tried to lift the hardened slab. Lee could feel his mending arm sting as he stressed the bone. A grunt of pain escaped his lips and his fingers slipped away. He landed on his back amidst the dust of the demolished fortress. Henry jumped over the slab and raced to Lee’s side. Lee coughed at the gray soot. Farthing stepped back from the slab and looked at the scanner again.
“I am reading energy signs below, Captain,” Farthing said. “This does seem to be the only egress to the location.”
“It’s okay, Commander,” Lee said, leaning on Henry’s arm and picking himself up.
A blast of energy shattered the stone, showering the three men in fine dust. Lee swatted away the debris, pulling his own pistol and pointing it into the dust. As the cloud dispersed, he made out the outline of Alice and Emma, the latter with h
er own rifle shouldered. Alice raised her hand and waved to Lee through the dust.
“Hi, boys,” the pilot said. “You look tired.”
“Would you put that thing down!” Henry shouted to his lover. “You’ll kill someone blastin’ away like that.”
“It would be welcome,” Emma said, finally lowering the gun. “I’m getting bored of all this peace.”
“Dropping this building on our heads would liven up the day pretty well,” Lee said, stepping around the gaping hole created by the blast. “You really should warn us, though. I’d hate to have fought a war and then get killed by my best friend’s girlfriend.”
“Let’s clear this up before we move on and make sure the ceiling is secure,” Alice reminded him.
The group set to work clearing away the larger stones. Emma and Alice had brought a construction crew down from the upper levels. The team braced the ceiling while Lee and Henry pulled a larger boulder aside. Farthing continued to scan the area. Henry wiped his hands and motioned for the group to move into the dark hole beneath.
When the fighting had ended on Earth, Henry and Emma had been escaping a burning skimmer tank. It took the human forces hours to realize the enemy had stopped firing. Henry had called Jack Cole to tell the others of the vision sent from the elves. The mountain base to the north, however, had remained dark. First contact with the orbiting fleet had come soon after his conversation with the intelligence man. Henry learned of the other teams sent to Earth and their progress. It seemed his signal beat the team from New Zealand by only a few minutes. The entire world was ready for the battle as soon as the signal came.
Losses on the planet had been in the billions. Over the six year reign of the Ch’Tauk, thousands had been rounded up and used as slave labor on other worlds. Thousands more had been ground to dust under the alien overlords. The bulk of humanity were either in orbit over the planet or rising up from hidden bases. The first place Henry wanted to return to, though, was the bunker carved from the granite where he had learned to love Emma. He had told Lee about the children left behind and about the one man who had stayed to guard them.
“Lights!” Lee ordered. The construction team handed over glowing torches and the small group entered the passage. They had to drop down into a partially collapsed hallway. There was a faint glow from the end, behind a sealed door. Henry led the way until Lee pushed him aside. The captain had become anxious for the recovery and was becoming restless. Alice put a calming hand on Lee’s shoulder and slowed his pace.
“Lee,” she said. “He might not be here. The battle lasted a long time. There was no guarantee he even made it here. He was old and crippled. He’s probably buried on some plain between the bases.”
“Henry said this man, the colonel, was a tough old bird,” Lee responded, trying to calm his nerves. “If he survived, then the children must have survived too.”
“We’ll find them,” Alice replied. “Calm down.”
Henry had moved past with Emma, and the two were scanning the door. Farthing was staying behind to keep watch on the cracked ceiling. If something were to happen, he would be the first to let them know.
“No traps,” Emma said. “The seal is partial, though. I think the frame is cracked. We might have a hard time opening it.”
“Well, don’t shoot it!” Lee said, holding his injured arm up to stay the woman’s hand. “Farthing, get that crew down here with bars. I want that door opened.”
“The felinoid padded back up the passage and through the opening. The Vadne and Tonal forces had continued to fight the Ch’Tauk even as the enemy stopped firing. The slaughter had been unimaginable. Fully half of the Ch’Tauk fleet had been destroyed before the exchange over the Ch’Tauk home world had been completed. Admiral Chang had finally relayed cease fire orders when he regained sensors and communications. The remaining ships fled without retrieving their lost soldiers. Makeshift camps had been set up and the refugee Ch’Tauk were being ferried back to their world by the cleared out slave ships left on the planet.
The construction teams returned a few moments later with large pry bars and electromagnetic pulse scanners to unlock the door. A loud buzz emitted from one of the handheld devices caused the dim light from behind the door to go out. Electric torches were re-lit and the pry bars were set against the metal jamb. A squeal of metal later and the thick door popped away from the frame. Lee stepped into the breach with his light held high.
Beyond the doorway was a pitch black room. Lee played the light over the metal walls. He heard breathing from beyond. Henry and Emma stepped through behind him and spread more light. The room was huge, and several places seemed to have collapsed. There were a few chairs, and what looked like a damaged wheelchair, but no people. Alice and Farthing moved in and the room brightened further.
“This is Captain Lee Pearce of the battleship Resolute,” Lee said loudly. “The war is over. You can come out. There is nothing to fear. We won’t hurt you.”
“Speak for yourself, Flyboy,” Alice whispered. “I didn’t get to kill enough of the bastards up there. If one is hiding here, I want to scrape his armored skin from my boot.”
Lee looked over at his fiancé. She had been saying things like that for a while. Demsiri had told Lee she would need time to work out the traumatic stress and he should give her space. He wondered if the woman who had worked on the flight deck of the old Terran Princess was really still in there.
“You human?” a voice asked from the far side of the room.
Lee shone his torch towards the voice. He saw the twin barrels of an old chemical shotgun pointed in his direction. There was a familiar click of a hammer being cocked on the ancient weapon. Lee had the strangest feeling he knew the gun.
“Yes,” he replied. “We’re from the Alliance.”
“The Alliance ain’t here. It’s out there…In space.” the voice replied, the barrel of the gun staying steady even as the voice seemed to lose strength.
“It’s a little hard to explain over the barrel of a gun,” Lee said. Come out and we’ll talk.”
“Ev?” Henry called out. “Ev, it’s Henry. Put that thing down and come out.”
“Henry?” asked the voice. “What the hell are you doin’ out there?”
“Bringing your boy home,” Henry called back. He looked over at Lee, who was just beginning to realize who he had been talking to.
Everett Pearce stood up and into the light. Lee nearly staggered a step forward as his father moved out into the room. Everett looked pale and thin but still carried the shotgun tight in his right hand.
“Dad?” Lee said, not believing what he saw.
“Lee?” Alice said, stepping to his side. “Is that your—”
“Dad!” Lee said, dropping the torch and racing to his father. Everett Pearce raised his free hand and wrapped it around his son’s neck. Henry stepped over and took the shotgun, letting the two men share an embrace that neither had ever expected. Henry had withheld the information about Lee’s father in case the man had not survived. Father and son held each other for a long minute, until Emma coughed. When they pulled apart, Alice saw tears in Lee’s eyes that were mirrored in his father’s.
“Grandpa Ev?” a voice, small and young, rose from behind the fallen concrete where Everett had been hiding. “Can we come out now?”
“Come on out, honey,” Everett Pearce said, as small children emerged from their hiding place. “Let me introduce you to my son.”
Lee and Alice were surrounded by the children. Henry and Emma watched as dozens of little children stepped from a hidden chamber beyond the room and surrounded their protector and his son. The two glanced at each other before clasping hands.
For this group of humans, the war was, for the moment, finally over.
35
Earth – Costa Rica
The sound of dry leaves under the heels of his military boots made Alfredo Ortiz unbearably sad. Once, the rainforest of his native Costa Rica would have been lush and full of the chirrups
of birds and insects. Every step would have released the deep, rich scent of growing things. As he made his way deeper into the mangled undergrowth, Ortiz saw only the dead and dying leaves of plants which should have been green and wet. His skin felt cold in the navy jacket and black trousers of his uniform.
The sun should have been hot and high in the sky at this time of the year. Instead he felt only the gray, clammy humidity which soaked his clothing and made him shiver. When he and Godfrey Rowling had landed in the village where his family had lived, he felt the need to check the coordinates twice before he believed where he was. The entire village was a blackened hole in the earth which had filled with sea water over the years.
There were no traces of the ancient buildings where he had played as a child. His own home would have been submerged under tens of feet of water. His hand scanners told him, however, the structure was no longer there. The Ch’Tauk had used the people of his village as slave labor further north and burned the place to the bedrock. Rowling had helped him stay on his feet as he surveyed the lake. The only remaining sign humans had ever lived there was a broken oxcart by an overgrown road. The brightly painted panel stuck out incongruously against the ash. He had nearly stepped on the wooden plank before realizing what it was. The cart had once stood outside the gate of a playground his grandson had played in. The thought of the toddler who had probably long since died nearly overwhelmed him.
Rowling had insisted on taking Alfredo up the road to the mountains. He had told the man many times of his cabin in the mountains where he and Sophia had spent their early marriage. Instead, he had taken a few days’ supplies and ordered Rowling back to the Terran Hope with instructions to retrieve him in seven days. Ortiz assumed he would find some trace of humanity in the mountains in that time. If not, he would leave Earth forever and stay on the ship. After six years of pain, he no longer felt hope for his family or friends. Earth was a foreign place, and his home village was a tomb.
Resolute Victory (The War for Terra) Page 26