The Tsunami

by Marshall Miller

  They left smiling. It was the simpler pleasures that made life worth living in these stressful and violent times. Adam sat down at his new desk, a duplicate of his old one. His surviving personal and professional items were in boxes in his sleeping quarters. He would have to get them and reorganize his desk and office.

  Andrew stepped into the office doorway. “Director, I almost forgot. I have one short function I must complete. It will take just a moment.”

  “Lay on, MacDuff,” Adam replied.

  Andrew entered the office, stood in the center, then slowly rotated around until he had completed a complete 360 degree turn. He stepped over to the refurbished bookcase, reached toward the back, and picked something small from the back of the bookcase. He held it between his right thumb and forefinger. Then he walked over and showed it to Adam.

  “I just completed a scan for anything electronic or out of place. This little item appears to be a bug that looks exactly like a bug. It is a new type of sensor, so I will have to examine it more and try to determine if it is of Tschaaa or human origin. Your office is now clean of foreign objects, but you will still need someone to dust and clean up. And I do not do windows.”

  Adam chuckled. “Hm. If it is Tschaaa, will you put it back?”

  “No, as no one from His Lordship’s chain of command has told me they wanted a surveillance device placed in your office. If I am not notified, then it is unauthorized and will be removed, as your well-being is one of my directed prime duties. Strange and unidentified pieces of equipment I immediately assume are not placed there for your health.”

  Adam looked at Andrew, wondering if that was the full story. He was getting indications that Andrew had some plans or ideas of his own. “Well, Andrew, once again, I thank you for your continued assistance and support. I really do not know what I would have done without you.”

  “I suspect, Director, you would be either dead or captured. Captain Bender would have sent you to his home, rather than us sending him.”

  Adam shook his head, chuckling. “You sure know how to make a guy feel in control. Thanks again, Andrew.”

  “Now, Director, I will wait with Petty Officer Faust in the front office, as His Lordship wanted to communicate with you in private.” Andrew withdrew and shut the double doors to Adam’s office.

  Adam hesitated momentarily, then he sat down at his desk. He stared at the new device, drumming his fingers on his desk. Finally, he exclaimed, “Fuck it.” He opened up the modified laptop. Operating directions appeared automatically on the screen. Sure enough, he followed them and had a connection with in a minute.

  In a flash the communicator screen was showing his Lordship. The large Tschaaa was reclining in a large alien version of a hot tub, with two females giving him an alien version of a massage with their arms and tentacles. Over the Squid’s right side there stood a soldier class artificial being. It held a large bolt gun, the weapon at low ready. His Lordship apparently also needed a bodyguard.

  The Senior Tschaaa Lord waved his tentacles in happy greeting, though a bit slow in movement. Adam could not see any outside signs of injury, but for all he knew the backside of the cephalopod was a massive mess of cuts and bruises.

  “Director Lloyd. It is so nice to see you.” The theatrical voice with which the Tschaaa Lord had outfitted his translator remained the same, so it had survived the attack. Adam was glad as the voice and the body of the Tschaaa Lord seemed to be naturally connected in the his mind.

  “I am very glad you have survived, your Lordship. You seem not to have sustained much injury, or am I just not seeing any?”

  “No, my Director, I did not receive any serious external injuries, and the internal ones are now determined to be minor also. Thanks to your warning, I was able to get to my safe room. This structure had been constructed based on similar ones you have built. I am doubly in your debt, and owe my survival to you.” Lord Neptune performed gestures of affection and thanks with its tentacles. “I see you were not seriously injured either. Although Andrew said you received a few dents and scratches.”

  Adam smiled. “If it were not for Andrew, I would not have survived at all.”

  “Then I am also in his debt, My Director.”

  The Tschaaa Lord paused and shifted in the hot tub, the two females quickly attending to him as he shifted. After he had finished moving, he spoke again. “I must speak with you of unpleasant matters, caused by the attack from the feral humans.”

  “Yes, your Lordship. I have been expecting this.”

  The Tschaaa Lord signed a combination of sadness and consternation. “I know that my offspring, known as El Segundo, has told you the angry suggestions my fellow Lords have been making. That all remaining humans should be confined to compounds and concentration camps, to be used for food only. There is a strong desire for revenge.”

  Adam sighed. “I understand. Trying to explain the concept of collateral damage is probably near impossible, your Lordship.”

  “Exactly. Once again, your ability to cut directly to the point shows itself. My fellow Tschaaa feel that the killed young were purposefully targeted. An incident such as this is so alien, it is almost incomprehensible to them.”

  “That is because your species never really fought wars with itself. We have a long tradition of both accidental and purposeful genocide.”

  The Tschaaa Lord gave an equivalent of a sigh. “That is probably true. But whatever the reason, I had to explain it to them. It was the offspring of my loins, so it was my decision as to what should be done in response. I must do something.”

  “So, my Lord…what do you want to do?”

  “First, my Director, be assured that your safety is not in question, at least not from me. I owe you my life, so it would not be honorable to blame you for the deaths of so many of my crèche. But I must take action against the Unoccupied States. I have also received notification that certain humans are organizing to refuse any further harvesting of dark meat from Cattle Country. So, I have two rebellions that must be dealt with.”

  One of the female attendants handed him a stalk of sugar cane, which the Lordship inserted into its hidden mouth. The chewing of it seemed to relax the large alien. “I will have to ask you for some more of your sugar cane, Director Lloyd. My supply is almost depleted.”

  “That can be arranged, your Lordship,” Adam answered.

  “Interruption of supplies of premium dark meat must not be allowed, so I will have to deal with that first. This despite my desire driven to strike back at the Ferals, the rebel humans who tried to kill me with the nuclear weapon. Now, my Director, how many armed humans could you muster in say, two weeks’ time?”

  Adam was afraid he would ask this. He was glad that he was not meeting with the Lordship personally, or he was certain that he would have quickly become fish food.

  “Your Lordship, I have always been honest with you. I must confess to you that…obtaining human support to kill other humans will be extremely difficult, even people of color.”

  Lord Neptune interrupted. “Is that because of the wild, angry attacks the local members of my crèche made against your personnel?”

  “Yes, Sir. They feel betrayed. They believe they sacrificed one part of humanity to survive but were attacked anyway, despite trying to defend against the attacking rebels.”

  The Tschaaa Lord paused, deep in thought. “Even if you either threatened them with harvesting, or offered great rewards for their help?”

  “I am afraid, Lord Neptune, that neither would work to any great extent. I can probably find a few volunteers here in Key West who like to fight, and a few more mercenaries if I pay enough. Most of the Flying Squad personnel are gone, or have gotten fat and lazy, so I would be lucky if I managed to field a few hundred of them. The regular army I am in the process of building… Prior to this attack, I could field several thousand well-trained personnel. Now, that the word has gotten out about what happened—in large part due to radio reports from Deseret—I am afraid that many wou
ld defect to the other side if we tried an attack on the Unoccupied States. An attack on Cattle Country would probably result in large scale desertions after the first week when the forces were deep in country. And although I have a large Guard Force keeping the dark meat peoples in, they are not trained offensive soldiers.”

  His Lordship displayed some agitation. “I had an arrangement with the leader of Deseret a few years ago. I had decided that the fanaticism of the Deseret people’s religion coupled with their excellent organization would result in further large scale destruction should I try to harvest their state. I asked them through a couple of Front Men to send out as many non-members of their religion as possible for harvesting, and I would let them live in peace. That is, as long as they stayed within the confines of their borders. I guess that arrangement is… turned off.”

  The Squid shifted his body again. “I have been ignoring them for the past few years, as Cattle Country has been set up. I have plenty of coastal areas under my control, and I figured they would soon realize that if neither side bothered the other, we could co-exist. I guess I was wrong.”

  Adam assumed that the Lord knew he had sent Captain Bender back by now, that Andrew had escorted him to Deseret. But neither he nor El Segundo had brought it up, so Adam decided to continue to play stupid.

  “The media broadcasts from the Unoccupied States had that much effect?” the Tschaaa Lord asked.

  “Yes, Your Lordship. It provided those outside your area of control with human heroes. It showed that you are not in fact ten feet tall, but that you can be seriously attacked. The Rebels bet on the fact that no one wants another general exchange of WMDs, to include rocks. Which I guess they are correct in thinking, as I do not see any of your fellow Lords launching anything at the Unoccupied States.”

  Lord Neptune slumped a bit in his hot tub. “That is true. We all realize that true collateral damage in such an exchange of weapons would be devastating to the ocean ecosystem, as well as killing many young outright by errant warheads. The Ferals attempted a surgical strike against me, although large, that almost worked. Had it worked as they planned, the collateral damage would have been contained within the Marquesas Keys complex. As it was, thanks to the distances involved and the fact that our young were spread out, the casualties were light when you consider the millions of Tschaaa existing along the coastlines of North America. However, the psychic damage was horrendous. The unnecessary death of even one of our offspring is deemed unacceptable. The deaths of close to three thousand young and adolescents is considered a form of genocide.”

  His Lordship signed confusion with his social tentacles. “Which is why none my species understands the concept of abortion. How can a breeder who is sane kill its offspring in the bud? It is unfathomable.”

  Adam shrugged. “Some humans believe as you do. Others that the decision to give birth is the mothers to make. With the extreme reduction in our numbers, I have not heard of many selective abortions being done. Not to mention your mandates against them.”

  “Be that as it may, Director, where do I get soldiers and warriors from? I will have many Tschaaa volunteers, but my species are not suited for operations hundreds of miles from the oceans. They will be at a disadvantage for warfare in the interior lands. There are finite numbers of deltas, falcons, even with additional production. The same holds true with robocops, greys, modified harvester robots to fighter standards.”

  The Lord noticed Adam’s raised eyebrows at the last part of his statement. “Yes, I have not been sitting, vegetating, while I have been recovering from my injuries. I have been reviewing many of your film records of your past wars, as well as fictional essays. You humans speak often of robot warriors, not just cyborgs. Therefore, I have already started the modification of some one thousand harvester robs to a fighter standard through the use of some of the millions of human weapons that have been seized. Small arms with ammunition can be attached instead of the specialized harvesting equipment, producing a mobile small gun platform. But they will have limited decision making or tactical planning capabilities.”

  “I will keep making limited numbers of my soldier class like my bodyguard here, and of course, numbers of greys and lizards.”

  The Tschaaa Lord seemed to perk up a bit as he discussed what he was doing. “I have also taken a page from your recent past. Your Hitler and your Stalin made use of slave labor to produce weapons. At the huge Baja Complex, I have taken more than a thousand Cattle from the former area of Mexico that had not been harvested or relocated to Cattle Country and given them the choice—work in factories making and modifying equipment, or else be chopped into steaks.”

  “I thought you had pretty much rounded up all the dark meat you could find?” Adam inquired.

  “No, not in some of the more remote areas. I have let Feral humans exist in certain parts of North America, in small groups, keeping an eye in the sky on them. If disease suddenly swept through Cattle Country, I would still have access to a viable breeding population of humans in the wild, without having to tap those of you who are already in the controlled areas, providing services to me. I also maintain an ‘us versus them’ dichotomy. At least it worked up until last week, when the Tschaaa attacks on you Key West humans apparently derailed this model.”

  Adam was once more reminded of just how intelligent and adaptable His Lordship was compared to others of his species, not to mention humans. If he had been killed by the nuke strike, even El Segundo, his offspring, would have trouble replacing him. Without him, Adam doubted that the invasion over six years ago would have been successful, past blowing the hell out of everything.

  “Well, Sir, I will do my best to obtain support for you. But I am not optimistic.”

  His Lordship positioned his tentacles in a way that could mean something between an inquiry and a statement was about to be communicated. “Adam, I have been in contact with James Kray, the Leader of the Church of Kraken.”

  Adam had always hoped the situation would never come which would necessitate the direct use of fanatical Church members. But it looked as if the Tschaaa Lord was about to broach the subject.

  “Mr. Kray stated that he could have forty thousand armed personnel in thirty days.”

  Adam could not keep himself from snorting derisively. “Armed warm bodies they will be, your Lordship, not trained soldiers. I predict that half will run at the first sign of danger, the other half will wind up shooting more of their fellow Church members than the enemy.”

  “That may be, my Director. But, armed warm bodies will be of use to start an action against those humans who are resisting my control. It will also send a message to my fellow Lords that I am taking forceful action. That will be sufficient reason for many of them to slip back into their day-to-day inertia, content to stuff themselves on fresh dark meat.” Once again, Lord Neptune had proven that had he been a human chess player, or the leader of a major human world power, he would be a force to reckon with, even on a bad day. “Kray claims he can have a like number of trained personnel within ninety days, if I help supply the human weapons and equipment.”

  Adam had heard through his intelligence sources that James Kray claimed a couple of million full-fledged Church of Kraken members. Thanks to his Lordship’s directions, the Church had allegedly stopped its cannibalistic ways of eating other humans, which had been an attempt to be more like their role models, the Tschaaa. As many humans had done in the past, thousands were drawn to a religion based on a strong new belief or symbol in their search for something to replace the previous but now gone order in their lives. They identified with the apparent victor species—the Tschaaa—now the symbol of strength. The fact that some Tschaaa had started a form of spiritual belief or ancestor worship around the deep sea giant squid had just added to the attraction. Humans seemed to be drawn to large and strange beasties and monsters, most religions having at least some mention of such things in their histories. Witness the Old Testament behemoth.

  “Well, your Lordship, as the
saying goes, I would have to ‘see it to believe it’. So, the… unfortunate aggression against humans at Key West does not affect his belief about working with your fellow Tschaaa?”

  The Lord waved a tentacle at the screen. “He only cares about true believers. Since no Church Members were apparently injured by any Tschaaa, he has put forth the narrative that true believers are protected, as they are the true allies of my species.”

  The Tschaaa Lord blew a few bubbles from its gills, the same as a chuckle for a human. “I am still fascinated by ability of humans to adopt a whole belief system or mindset in a relatively short period of time. And with such fanaticism. Our culture and beliefs change very slowly. The adoption of the new beliefs revolving around your giant squids and a possible ancestral or supernatural connection with the Tschaaa is unique in the recent history of my people. Usually, it would take decades before more than a few individuals would adopt a new way of viewing the world around us.”

  The Tschaaa leader signed he was musing. “But here, on Earth, we already have substantial numbers of Tschaaa adopting a parallel belief to your Church of Kraken. Once again, I have to entertain the thought that this planet and its denizens are having profound effects on what it means to be a Tschaaa.”

  Adam considered for a moment telling the Lord that humans were having similar thoughts about what it meant to be human, humane, and the word humanity. However, he decided it would just muddy the waters.

  Lord Neptune continued. “Be that as it may, my Director, I plan on using James Kray’s followers, if for no other reason that they may make good cannon fodder. Crass and brutal, yes, but they in no way have demonstrated the abilities you and yours have in being a potential client species. I hope we can work through the unfortunate events of recent days. Much like your kind has worked to overcome racial and religious strife among groups in the past, I hope to make the casualties suffered on both sides of our temporary conflict a thing of the past. The humans you have brought into the rebuilding of your areas have been a source of pleasure to me. They have also demonstrated to me, and to the other Lords the potential of the Human Species.”