by Josi Russell
“You’re the alien expert,” Nile challenged. “What do you think of this?”
Ethan looked around. The medics were still carrying people away from the first attempt. The trigon wasn’t working. He thought about the life energies he had seen on Beta Alora, thought about the vast realm of experience beyond what humans could see and touch and taste. He thought about the Others of Beta Alora, and how he had to understand them in order to defeat them.
“I think he’s a great master of balance and harmony. I think he could be right.”
Nile’s eyes narrowed. Ethan could tell that he was in a corner. He had a fraction of the troops he needed for this mission, half the troops he did have were untrained, and his enemy was alien in every sense.
“We’re going to try your formation,” he told Yi Zhe. “We’ll pull back if it doesn’t work.”
Sergeant Nile turned to his troops and bellowed: “Listen to Yi Zhe here! We’re not doing the triple trigon!” He gestured to Yi Zhe.
“Move like water!” Yi Zhe cried to the troops. “In waves, together. Be aware of those next to you and stay near them. Don’t break the curve of the wave. We must counter their fire energy with water energy. Water destroys fire!” He walked along the troops, glancing at their uniforms and weapons. Yi Zhe took a weapon from a soldier near him. The weapon was covered with a thick rubber casing, to make it easy to hold and keep it from reflecting light in stealth situations. Yi Zhe pulled it off. The weapon shone, its polished metal reflecting the scene around it.
He turned to the Sergeant. “We should also have them remove the weapon covers,” Yi Zhe said urgently. “Reflective surfaces strengthen the water energy.”
The Sergeant looked at Ethan, and Ethan nodded. As he saw the changes in the battalion, standing shoulder to shoulder, a confidence was growing in him. Yi Zhe was a master of things unknown to most humans, and aliens were certainly unknown.
“Take them off,” Nile ordered. The soldiers stripped the weapons, tossing the covers on the ground.
When they reentered the open chamber, Ethan was sickened to see the cages behind the Asgre front lines being filled with Vala.
“Move in!” Nile cried. “And take them down!” The humans peppered the mass of Asgre in front of them with a volley of shells, which bounced off their suits almost harmlessly. The troops rushed in waves to meet the Asgre mass. This time, instead of the fragmented formations, the humans, like a living tide, advanced forward almost as one, their weapons flashing in the light from the hovering ships overhead.
Ethan felt the wave of humanity crest against the Asgre front line. He was pressed from in front and behind, tripping over the boots of the soldier in front of him as the back waves of humans moved forward.
There was a long, breathless moment, and then the Asgre began to fall.
Ethan crashed into an Asgre as the tide of soldiers pushed him forward. He fired his weapon, but the alien’s suit blocked the shell. He threw a blow at the skeletal face, felt its bones, sharp and lancing, crunch beneath the mask. The Asgre raked him with razor-like hand blades, and he felt the pressure across his torso, but the body armor of Ethan’s uniform held. The creature used two of its arms to reach out and restrain Ethan’s two arms, and then the other two grasped his head.
Ethan knew what was coming. The mercenary would snap his neck.
But the creature suddenly began to blink and turn his head, as if agitated. Ethan saw a beam of light dancing directly across the creature’s eye slits in the mask. The creature released his head to shield its eyes, and Ethan glanced to the side to see Traore catching the light from the ship above with his shining weapon and bouncing the light into the Asgre’s eyes. Ethan quickly landed a hard kick to its abdomen, and the creature let go, staggering back and knocking down two other Asgre.
All around him, the Asgre were falling as the human troops, their weapons flashing, poured forward. They washed through the front line and Ethan angled for the cages. An Asgre mercenary grabbed him from behind. Reaching behind him over his shoulder, Ethan grasped at the thin mask covering the Asgre’s face and pulled. The Asgre grabbed his arm with an extra hand and wrenched it, but Ethan didn’t let go and the mask tore away. The gas from the creature’s suit hissed out, and Ethan felt a tremor shake him. He stopped breathing, trying to turn from the gas. Grappling with the many arms, Ethan ducked and spun, flipping the mercenary over hard onto the ground. The creature lay gasping on the cavern floor.
Ethan glanced up to see Jin Feiyan, Yi Zhe’s wife. She was fast, and she had moved quickly to the first Vala cage. She stood almost reverently amidst the chaos, staying close to the human soldiers on either side of her. She reached up and swung wide the gate. The Vala streamed out around her. She had freed them. She looked up, toward her husband, with an expression of newfound admiration.
Ethan gestured to the Vala, wishing he had not left his translator in the cottage. “Run! He said in Ikastn, pointing to the lights of the transport ships behind the troops. “Safety!”
As they liberated the Vala one cage at a time, the Asgre began to retreat. Many of them lay on the ground, littering the flowstone room with their bodies.
Three cages remained, each containing a few Vala. The Asgre began to raise the remaining cages, and Ethan broke from the group, leaping and scrambling up the flowstone, trying to reach the last few sad-eyed Vala who they’d been unable to save.
As the cage-draped Asgre ships left the atmosphere, Ethan slid down the flowstone, hunching on the rough, shining floor.
Around him were the remnants of battle—fallen Asgre and fallen humans lay across the room. Red stains seeped into the white flowstone, dull in the weak evening light.
But as he looked past the battlefield, Ethan saw the safe Vala, peering out of the transport. Their fragile, shimmering forms caught what little light there was and cast it out from them, giving them the ethereal glow he remembered from the cave.
They had saved him, had saved the whole crew. And now, he had been able to take part in saving them. He felt, in his soul, a balance, a harmony.
The troops were reassembling. Ethan stood and worked his way through them. He sought out Yi Zhe. Searching for the right words, he found none. Instead, he placed his hands together and dropped his forehead to the master in a sign of respect. All the troops followed his lead. Yi Zhe placed his hands together and returned the gesture.
Chapter 43
When Reagan cleared his immediate vicinity, he looked up to see that Unity was down, drifting like an empty sumna fruit shell across the battlefield. He opened his mouth to speak an order to go get them, but Asgre ships had moved in around him again and his attention was drawn to dealing with them.
There were, Reagan realized, just too many. The Minean fleet was too badly outnumbered, and even the advantage of their superior weaponry and maneuverability was not enough to defeat these odds.
A transmission from the ground forces came. “Galo’s ship is readying weapons! We need backup!”
“Daring!” Reagan remembered the enormous batteries of guns on Galo’s ship. Champion was the only battleship they had that had hope of matching them. “Turn us around. We need to get down to Coriol!”
“Wisdom, give us some cover,” Reagan called, but it was too late. Six Asgre cruisers, apparently recognizing that Champion was making a move, warped in, surrounding them in every direction.
The flash of the weapons nearly blinded Reagan as the Asgre opened fire simultaneously.
Reagan had time for a single command before the volley hit. “Warp us out of here!”
Champion shuddered as the shells found their target, nearly simultaneously. The weapons chief returned fire, and Wisdom sprayed two of the ships with fire from behind.
Reagan braced himself for the warp, but Champion stayed where she was. “Insta-Warp us to safety coordinates, Daring.” Reagan repeated the order, but Kaia’s voice caught his attention.
“The YEN drive is off-line, Admiral. We’re not going anywhere.”
Time seemed to slow for Reagan in that moment, as the endless barrage of shells pummeled the ship and the flashing of the YEN-drive warning light lit the bridge with an eerie red glow. The faces of the children in Coriol, including the two he thought of as his grandchildren, flashed before him as he frantically tried to think of a way out of this.
And then, suddenly, he felt a rumbling. Snapping back, he glanced at his screens and saw it: Vigilant had warped in above them and engaged e-links.
Reagan felt the ship shift as it warped and watched the Asgre ships around him blur and disappear.
The last few shells landed, having warped with them, as he looked out at the tranquility of the safety coordinates.
Vigilant disengaged the e-links and warped away. “I’ll be back for you, sir,” Nieman said.
“Good work, Captain.” Reagan called into the comms after him.
Reagan soon found that being on the outside of the action was worse. Sitting in the dark, watching the battle rage on their screens, the crew sunk into a tense and somber silence.
Wisdom continued to fight, and Vigilant engaged the first ship she met when she warped back.
“Team up!” Reagan barked into his comms. “One behind, one in front. Use your company ships, Captains!”
Advocate went down, and then Tenacious. Reagan saw how this was going to end.
“Evade,” he said into the comms. “Run evasive maneuvers and try to save yourselves.”
***
Aria and the Vala Svetal had taken the children to the empty school playground, just to give them a little outing. It would have been a glorious time if not for the suddenly descending Asgre ship.
Aria tried to get them in the school, but it was locked. Looking frantically around, she saw Reverend Hardy’s little church two blocks away. She took the children there.
The reverend welcomed them in, and she saw they were not alone. Minz was there, and Hannah, and a few straggling adults who were too old or too infirm to be standing ready to fight the Asgre ground troops hand to hand.
She settled the children on the benches just as Luis burst in the door. He came to Aria, and his presence was strong and reassuring.
Reverend Hardy slid his missive in his pocket. “I’ve talked to Coriol Defense Headquarters,” he said. “They’ll send help if they can, but we can’t stay here. We must go. Now.” His big voice rang in the little church. “The Asgre will be upon us. We must get the children to the safety of the base!”
Aria herded the children, human and Vala, through the bare streets as the last fingers of light began to disappear from Coriol. She carried Rigel and held Polara’s hand as they moved.
She had to get them to the base. All of them. It was the only place that could withstand an Asgre attack. But it lay across the city, and the Asgre would be monitoring every sol train line. The Vala parents had left these children in Aria’s care.
Aria moved with the children down the street. They were nearly to the water plant, halfway to the base, and they were moving quickly.
The reverberation of Galo’s engines above echoed off the buildings around them. Aria glanced up to see the big ship moving over the city.
As his ship drew nearer, Galo’s voice, amplified by the communication system, rattled the windowpanes in the buildings around them. “Deliver us the Vala children and your own will be saved.”
She heard a commotion behind her. She turned to see a limping man dragging a Vala child from the group, striding toward the sound of Galo’s voice. Aria raced toward him, leaving Polara near the other children and shifting Rigel. She moved faster than she thought she could.
“Stop!” she grabbed the man’s arm with her free hand.
He tried to shake her off. “Lemme be! Let ‘em take their slaves and leave us in peace!”
Luis was suddenly beside her, scooping the Vala child into his powerful arms and knocking the man backwards onto the street. “You’ve never been a slave,” he said threateningly. “Or you wouldn’t be so eager!”
“Well, then, I’m not staying with you,” the man said from the ground. “I hope they catch you all.” He scrambled to his feet and limped off down the street.
As Luis strode back to the group, Aria got a look at the Vala child’s face. So terrified before, its wrinkled face was now relaxed in sleep, and tears were rolling down its cheeks. That was it. When frightened, their safety mechanism was to go dormant. And it was then that they were, somehow, useful to the Asgre. That was why the monsters kept the children scared. The cruelty of it brought a wave of anger.
Galo began a countdown, every number like a blow on their ears.
Aria clawed at Luis’s arm. “We’re not going to make it to the base! We need to get them inside! Now!” She gestured to the hulking mass of the water plant a block away. Luis nodded and the group began to run. Minz was the quickest, and he got several of the children into the water plant just ahead of the Reverend, who was helping an old woman and speaking softly to several Vala children, who seemed to derive serenity from his words, though Aria knew they couldn’t understand him.
Aria waited for Svetal to enter, then herded the last of the children into the water plant just as the Asgre started strafing the streets outside.
Aria watched from a window, cradling Rigel in her arms. The Asgre lead ship, maneuvered, she knew, by Galo, was heading straight for the water plant. How had he found them? How had he done it so quickly?
Their shelter shook under the barrage of the Asgre’s shells. Suddenly, Rigel’s small hands were pawing her face. She pushed them aside, trying to think.
“No, no, Ri. Mommy has to think.” What could she do? How could she get them out of here?
Rigel grabbed at her ear. She felt the old frustration. It was so hard to concentrate with a toddler demanding attention. “No, Ri!”
And then the child laid his small hands gently on her cheeks. His eyes searched her face. She looked down at him. As their eyes met, Ri clumsily pushed forward and laid his forehead against hers. Aria gasped as Rigel’s frantic thoughts flooded into her mind. She saw the new Taim field, the Taim swaying wildly. They were speaking to Ri again and he had to convey their message.
Through a sequence of colors and pictures, Aria felt the call of the Taim. They wanted the children to come to them. Ri showed her the children, human and Vala, running to the Taim. He grunted urgently.
She shook her head. “No, honey. We have to go to the soldiers.” She tried to send him a picture of Grandpa Reagan in his uniform.
Ri patted her cheeks angrily and wriggled, sending her the picture of the Taim again. She felt that the Taim wanted to protect them, that they wanted to protect her child as she had protected them. It seemed crazy. A wide, open Taim field? What protection could they offer? She tried to send the question back, but she couldn’t know if Rigel even understood it, much less if he could transfer it to the Taim.
Aria choked on the thick, dusty air. She looked around at the little group she was trying to save. She believed the message was coming from the Taim, through Rigel. She believed that he believed there was safety with them. But how could the Taim, even at their remarkable new height, protect them?
Another barrage of artillery fell on the roof above. The sound of the exploding shells was deafening. Chips of concrete fell, raining down in a light shower. The building was strong, but it would not stand up to much more of this. Many of the Vala children were huddled together, and the human children were wailing. Luis encircled several of them, human and Vala, in his short, strong arms. Hannah was singing to a group of them, and she saw the Reverend’s head bowed in prayer. She had to make a decision. If she didn’t get them out of here, the Asgre would be upon them any moment. The question flashed again in her mind: how could the Taim possibly protect them?
As the image of the tall, swaying trees entered her mind, a peace settled over her. Aria knew plants. She had seen, back on Earth, the majestic kapok tree. Its trunk, ten feet in diameter, sheltered animals and other plant
s, and humans, sometimes. On another continent, she had stood inside the protective trunk of a huge baobab as a pack of lions circled outside. Plants had been sheltering humans for eons. Though she didn’t see how they would do it, Aria trusted them.
“We have to send the children to the Taim,” Aria said, as boldly as she could.
“What?” Hannah shouted over the noise.
“Ri says—the Taim say—to bring them the children.” She reached her free hand out and laid it on Luis’ shoulder. “I think they want to protect them.”
There was a moment of confusion among the adults.
“To the Taim?” Hannah’s face was doubtful.
Aria felt the shells as they impacted. She thought of the distance they’d have to cover if they tried to get to the defense headquarters, thought about covering it with these small, frightened children in tow. The desperation of the situation made the decision for her. They wouldn’t make it to the base.
Aria spoke again. She heard the commanding tone in her voice. “This is not up for debate. We are going to the Taim.” She looked around at them. “What I need from you is a plan. How are we going to get there?”
Another shell rocked the building, the percussion throwing them to the ground. This time, large chunks of concrete fell, narrowly missing them. Aria scrambled to her feet.
“How do we get out of here?” Aria cried. “They’re directly above. If we go into the streets we’ll be spotted immediately. But we’ve got to get to the farm!”
The shelling stopped briefly, leaving behind an eerie silence punctuated by her last few words and the clatter of falling rubble around them.
Minz walked close to her and spoke up, his soft voice surprisingly bold in the silence. “After Ethan talked to Saras, I got a job cleaning the filters in this plant a few weeks ago,” he said. “I worked in the maintenance tunnels underneath. They sent me from here through the tunnels to the farm to scrub the filters in the clean rooms. The tunnels lead to the farm. I think we could make it if we went through there.”
Aria reached out and hugged him spontaneously. The little man looked embarrassed. She felt a surge of hope as she turned to the children.