“I am always here,”came the lethargic reply.“Our planet exists in the same system as Boxt, so we were among the first. On our home we were nothing, pathetic creatures at the bottom of a very large food chain. Our sentience was a curse. With effort, we could attach to one of the mindless predators on the surface, but it was a short life. When Boxti came for us, we welcomed the call to arms. It was our guidance to the Great King that led to the conquest of worlds far beyond the scope of a few systems. In essence, we were the catalysts to the fall of the Great Civilizations. It is an honor that led to our placement near the Lord, as his closest advisors and confidants.”
Eruk didn’t have an insult or retort. For once in this miserable relationship, he felt a strange respect for the parasite. It had lived inside him so long, he barely conceived of it as a separate species.“Have you been with other hosts?”
The Druuma laughed.“Are you jealous? Yes, I have been hosted by many others during the great conquest. My life is measured in ages beyond your own conception. A benefit to a slow and uncomplicated evolution. I rode in the back of a continent-sized Brotillias whale for centuries, destroying that water world stone by stone. I whispered in the minds of the Yorek elder god until they prostrated before the true King. I lived the conquest.”
“Can you show me?”He felt a strange elation. In his readings of the Grol‘Nahja, the stories of the Great Civilizations always fascinated him. To have brought down empires that lasted hundreds of thousands of years must have been such an honor. To a warrior caste, it was the greatest of dreams to drop an entire race to its knees. For a moment, there was nothing as the Druuma considered the request, and then a flash of images so intense they felled the giant Cthanul. He lay on the ground, watched by the crew on the bridge with unease, as the lifespan of the worm played out in all its glory.
He saw the bright center of the galaxy, the black and green planet from which the Druuma came. Far from the system’s sun, the rock bordered on a frozen wasteland. Immense pockets of bubbling white pitch allowed life to flourish around a natural oasis. The life age flashed by, and Eruk watched the Druuma burrow deep to avoid the hideous beasts on the surface. Then, one day, something amazing happened. Strange ships landed and lithe, many-limbed creatures filed out walking unsteadily on four legs. Their eyes bore the crimson glint of the Drovan, and Eruk knew that these were Boxti slaves. They were the first, the explorers of some forgotten species that rescued the King’s army from their prison world. These gangly servants scoured the landscape, searching for the sentient life they had detected from above. Then, emerging at last from the golden ship, a Boxti Acolyte. If the scriptures were correct, this was Kumarat, the first Blood King and brother to the King of Hosts.
The warlord thrilled at what he was seeing. This was the first chapter of the Grol‘Nahja played out before his eyes. Using stolen technology, the Boxti escaped their Homeworld and rescued the Druuma from a neighboring world. It was the union that began the Great Conquest.
Eruk watched as the alien explorers marched deeper and deeper into the planet’s crust, past huddled masses of pale and glistening worms. While the Druuma were sentient, they had not advanced their civilization beyond an underground kingdom. Evolution had not been kind, leaving the creatures pitifully unprepared for the dangers of surface life. But that did not make them completely vulnerable. As the spindly scouts ventured further down, a curious animal followed their path down from above. Kabra were docile mammals that ate what little vegetation grew on the barren planet, and most predators left them be. They didn’t have much meat on their brittle bones anyway. But an intruder was an intruder. As soon as the furry white pup entered the cavern, the Druuma struck out.
From a hollowed out nook in the wall, the parasites spat out gobs of pink froth that stuck and sizzled on the small quadruped's back. The dog-like creature howled in pain, trying desperately to rip the burning mass from its skin. After only seconds it collapsed to the ground, dead. The attack had not gone unseen. Guided by Kumarat, the slaves recorded the violent display. Eager to make contact with Druuma leadership, they followed the path down into the heart of the cavern.
As Eruk lay on the floor, his mind completely given to his unwanted companion, he stared out with unseeing eyes and witnessed the second most important moment in the history of the Enlightened Race. The sickly green glow emanating from the inside of the Druuma Homeworld beckoned him, inviting him further into their world. As the vision continued, the alien creatures rounded a tall pillar of stone into the throne room of the Druuma king, a creature of unimaginable size. The cavern must have stretched for miles in all direction, but each dark corner was plugged off by one of the beast’s many limbs. It was unrecognizable as the progenitor of the parasites, this great and terrible consumer of worlds. The last of its kind, the Druumakan. It turned its many eyes and seem to stare deep into the Cthanul, its voice a tremor inside his chest.
Back on his ship, Eruk opened his mouth and began to scream.
- V -
Jerry refused to speak on the long ride home. Watching his boss, his friend, crash and burn on live television had been a sobering experience. It wasn’t shame he felt. In fact, he hardly felt anything. To say that the interview had been a disaster would be letting them off lightly. Unless they had grossly overestimated their opponent, the election was all but lost. Hell, Alexander might have just cost the Federate its home planet. They rode mostly in silence, rain drumming the roof of the limo.
Adeline and Arthur sat on the opposite side of the limousine, arguing animatedly. Arthur insisted that an aggressive media blitz would win back the favor the High Chancellor had so spectacularly lost. Adeline wanted to work on qualifying Alexander’s words, spinning them to a more favorable meaning. The two aides had been at each other’s throats since leaving the studio.
“You’re being petty,”Adeline said scathingly.“The public won’t respond to more attacks. This will only push his numbers further down.”
Arthur rolled his eyes.“Can they get any lower? This interview is going to be replayed a millions times and on every network. Before the end of the day, the entire galaxy will hear the High Chancellor pardon a war criminal.”
“That’s utterly ridiculous, Arthur. He said nothing of the sort.”
“No one says a kind word about Norton and gets away with it,”Arthur shouted.“No one.”
Adeline shook her head and chewed on her lip.“We need to clarify that he wasn’t excusing the late Emperor. Maybe he was implying that the Red Hammer intends to revive the Empire Americana.”
Arthur groaned.“You cannot be that stupid.”He ignored her hurt expression and continued.“Public opinion is the only fuel this administration has ever had. We came in with a big boost; the first freely elected head of this new and strange government. And within a year we had already squandered that resource.
“People are rooting for us to fail, and this sound-bite is demonstrating that fact. It’s not enough to salvage when there is nothing out there to find. We need to be aggressive, take on our opponents on even ground before they prepare an attack ad that will cost us Earth.”He took a second to regain his composure.“I know you’re new at this, Adeline, but are you seriously this clueless.”
“Excuse me?”
Arthur scooted closer, placing a hand on the seat between them.“You got a nice boost in support from your work with the grays, but other than that, what have you added to this administration? You’ve been here barely a year and already have a seat in the High Chancellor’s personal motorcade? Your understanding of politics is shaky at best, and your kittenish behavior has earned you the respect of absolutely no one. I mean, you’re either related to a member of the Council or spreading it for a judge to have made it this far. Do you really think you belong here?”
Adeline sneered.“Listen to me, you little shit.”
“I can’t hear you. Spread your legs a hair more.”
“ENOUGH!”Jerry bellowed. His nostrils flared and his face flushed beet red
.“Another word and I will kick you both out of this car and you can walk back to the fucking hotel.”He turned to Arthur, pointing a finger under the aide’s chin.“And if I hear you call her that again, I will personally ensure you spend the next decade as the personal butler to the Governor of Pluto. Am I making myself clear?”
“Yes, Jerry,”Arthur said bitterly.
Adeline wiped at her eyes, quickly settling her nerves.“Understood, sir.”
Jerry sat back in his seat, turning on the television and finding a news program. He poured a drink from the minibar and took a long sip. His mouth twisted into a frown.“Goddamnit. They know I hate vodka.”He looked over at his boss and friend, but Alexander hadn’t moved the entire time.
The small screen played a spread of local channels. Brent Kerrigan had responded with passion and, more importantly, restraint in his approach to delegitimizing the Burton regime. The media, never a friend to Alexander, had been quick to jump all over his various slips and replay them again and again on the Net. His poll numbers had already slipped, causing a cascade effect for AttachéPaylok. Jerry tried his best to hold back his anger, but he couldn’t deny the fact that Arthur was right: Alexander was handing control of Earth to the Red Hammer without even trying. But there was no need to chastise the politician.
For the rest of the trip, Jerry and Adeline tried to put a finger in the dam. They called in favors from every major news network. So far, their luck had been poor. Most of the media hated the High Chancellor and took no small pleasure in dragging his name through the mud. The entire Council seemed to have disappeared, leaving him on his own to defend the position. Looking out the window, Jerry had to think that even the public were out for blood. The security escort since their landing at London the day before had been nothing short of excessive. Hundreds of Secret Service agents surrounded them at all times, including the unflappable Donald Groves. The old guard dog’s eyes never stayed still, and Jerry could see the effect the stress was having.
“Adeline,”Adeline said, snapping her phone shut as the motorcade arrived.“African Media is going to ease off replaying the interview. They’ll give equal air time to the advertisement we knocked out, the one with Kerrigan at that rally in Des Moines.”
Jerry scoffed.“Doesn’t matter how many shots we have of him shaking hands with the Devil. People don’t fear Red Hammer the way they used to.”He looked over at Alexander, but the man was focusing out the window into the steady downpour.“New York got spun around so fast you’d think people wanted to blame you to begin with. Jonah turned the whole thing into a PR bonanza, and we let it happen.”He swore.“We should have let Gilroy have those troops from Kronos, instead of sending them all to New Eden.”
Alexander stewed in his seat. He wiped absently at his cheek, convinced he’d missed a spot of greasy makeup.“We should have let them bomb the tower the moment Jonah stepped inside.”
“New York is practically under Red Hammer control already,”Arthur said.“We had a few reports of dissenters disappearing in the night, and now we barely have anyone inside willing to talk. The Nangolani had to flee the planet, they were dying in such numbers. Red Hammer’s recruitment is up two hundred percent, and that butcher Victor is running the show. They could be executing people in the street, but Jonah walks away clean.”
“And Kerrigan with him.”Jerry felt his anger rising, watching Alexander just sit there and take the hits. He’d never seen the man so broken.“Do you have a plan? Alexander?”
“What?”
Jerry leaned forward.“Do you have a plan? Any idea how we’re going to salvage this mess? We can’t just let Red Hammer take over Earth. You do understand that, right?”
“Of course I do,”he said, though his voice was weak and distant.“We just need time.”
Jerry slammed a fist against the window.“We’re out of fucking time! If we had six years instead of six months, I’d say we had a chance, but you’ve really stuck your foot in it, Alexander.”
“Jerry,”Alexander said, full of warning.
Donald, seated between the two, straightened up. He wouldn’t harm the Chief of Staff, should it come to that. He was simply making his presence known.
“I asked you if you could handle it,”Jerry said. The vein in his forehead throbbed.“I told you that the reporter would bait you, and you still bit that goddamn line like a guppy staffer. And you wouldn’t stop. You must have given him ten good sound bites with which to ream you until election day. To call that interview anything but an unmitigated disaster would be generous.”
“Christ, Jerry,”Alexander said.“I got a little heated. We can fix this. We’re not about to let Jonah Blightman and his little band of misfits take over the most important seat in the Colonial Delegation.”
That did it for the Chief of Staff.“Are you out of your fucking mind? Jonah Blightman doesn’t need to win a popularity contest here. The Federate is a young government. We have little more than a decade under our belt since the UEC crashed and burned, and all we did was put a little window dressing on the system and hope people didn’t notice. I know you remember how that conference went, Alexander. You were standing right next to me.”
Arthur looked interested.“The Disbandment Conference?”
“Two hundred leaders from around the galaxy,”Jerry said.“All of us picking up the pieces after the Mars shitstorm. All of us standing on top of twenty million dead and trying to keep a civil war from spreading to every planet in every system. And it was closer than we thought. Colorum had skirmishes throughout the war, and New Eden had that sonofabitch German defector. We weren’t looking at just losing the government, we were looking at the entire idea of united planets falling apart. Humanity slipping down the drain over a debate on fucking salary caps.”
“It was more than that,”Arthur said, suddenly animated.“Those miners had legitimate grievances that the Martian government wasn’t doing anything to fix.”
Jerry stared wide-eyed at the aide.“Are you serious? Since when do you buy into that propaganda bullshit?”
The young man sneered.“The guild leaders had been protesting for years before the first shot was fired. Unsafe work conditions, the use of underage workers and a whole slew of deaths written off as understandable expenses. And it wasn’t just Mars. Colorum had worse conditions, with all those poor men drifting off into space when their tethers broke.”
Adeline scoffed.“That’s textbook Red Hammer bullshit.”
Alexander groaned.“Christ on a fucking cross, are you two going to argue the whole trip home?”His eyes were bloodshot as he glared at his two trusted advisors.“Ask two people about Mars and you’ll get four reasons the war started. I know all of them. Borogrin and his Miner’s Rights movement. The garrison’s crimes against the slums. Warden Ludvig and Emperor Norton’s campaign against the lower class. All of it bullshit of the lowest grade.”He turned back to the window, resting his head against the bulletproof glass.“And now the citizens of Earth are starting to believe it. Those damned broadcasts, the polls...he’s planned this out very well, I’ll give him that.”
“And haven’t we played into his hands?”Jerry asked.“We need to consider a different tactic.”
“Gilroy,”Alexander said, spitting out the words as though the taste of them offended him.“He’ll destroy half of the city if it means killing Jonah.”
Jerry paced across the room.“We could turn over control to Admiral Knight.”
“You’d be better off trusting Gilroy,”Donald said, breaking his silence.“I served with Knight during the New Eden expansion. He got his post puckering up to the right people. That Gilroy earned his stars by being better than anyone else.”
Arthur shook his head.“The man’s a lunatic. It will do more to polarize the people of Earth than it will help. If we want to fix this, we need to consider more diplomatic options?”
Jerry couldn’t believe his ears.“Are you suggesting we actually sit down with Blightman? Go on a live broadcast and talk to a mass murde
rer?”
“It may end up being our only choice,”Arthur said.“We’re behind in the polls by a significant margin. The best we can hope for now is a peaceful resolution to the election. If we resort to violence, we’ll start a civil war. And this time it won’t be a few million miles from Earth. The colonies will rebel, without a doubt. But the strongest support will be right at home. And then, there won’t be a home to go back to.”
Alexander opened the minibar and poured himself three fingers of scotch, downing the glass and starting the second pour before swallowing.“I’ve got an intergalactic war to fight, a planet being invaded by an alien virus, and xenophobic demonstrations against our only allies. I just don’t need this right now.”He sipped the amber liquor, savoring the smoky taste.“Send word to Gilroy. I want to know our options for a quiet intervention.”He turned and stared hard into Jerry’s eyes.“But don’t rule out a loud one.”
“Sir,”Arthur began.“We need to think about this politically.”
“Fuck politics,”Alexander said, slamming his glass down.“We’ve gotten to this point playing bullshit games and trying to please the masses. It’s time to think about the end game. We can’t all come out smelling like roses. Sometimes you have to get a little dirty.”He turned to Jerry.“Get me those options.”
Jerry nodded and pulled out his phone.“There’s still the matter of the banquet.”
Adeline perked up, pulling out her tablet and accessing a large file.“Most of the Centurial Council will be available, but only a majority of the Colonial Delegation. Still, it will be a very large affair. We do still need a few guests from the military.”
“I don’t want to talk about that right now.”
Arthur sighed.“We won’t have much of a chance if we can’t pull the Pillars together on some key issues. We need to gain support for the Alien Rights Act if we hope to curb this spread of violence. If the Nangolani don’t think they’re safe, they’ll run. Then we’ll get the Boxti all to ourselves, and so far that hasn’t worked out so well. If our gray friends can be believed, no civilization has ever stood up to them and won.”
When the Stars Fade (The Gray Wars) Page 37