by Saxon Andrew
Gregor waited and heard a few minutes later, “No; I find it hard to believe it wasn’t but at no time was it mentioned with him present.”
“See if you can contact Madellee and link me in.” Gregor stared up at the stars and they didn’t seem as beautiful as they did when he was a child. So much danger out there. Suddenly, he heard, “What may I do for you, Gregor.”
“Do you have any images of the Filament Makers in your archives?”
“No, I don’t.”
Gregor’s head went back, “I thought they met with Cartians many times in the past.”
“They have but they were incredibly shy of being recorded. We adhered to their wishes.”
“Why would they not want images taken?”
“We didn’t press them on it. I suppose they were embarrassed by their appearance.”
“HUH?”
“They were so pale and overweight; I can understand why they didn’t want images taken.”
“Oh, ok. Thanks, Madellee.”
“No, problem. Come back and visit.”
“Has the issue with the datacube been resolved?”
Madellee’s tone was almost musical, “YES IT HAS! Thanks for asking.”
“Talk to you soon.”
“By-the-way, we’re ready to remove Bellingham from the filament map.”
“I’ll let you know when.”
“Bye, Gregor.”
“Bye.” Gregor stood there in silence and thought furiously.
“Gregor?”
“Yes, Computer.”
“Do you know what this means?”
“We need to get back to Bellingham.”
“Just checking.” Gregor nodded and walked back to the firepit. He sat down beside Kaylee and began speaking softly to her; she looked at him with wide eyes. He continued talking and, after a few minutes, she calmed down and began nodding.
• • •
As soon as Angel arrived on Bellingham, Sam rushed up and hugged her, “I’ve been missing you; why did you stay gone so long?”
“I’ve something to discuss with you in private. How have the Filament Makers been doing?”
“Fine, they keep to themselves for the most part and don’t intermingle with the clans. I think their leader is impatient for Gregor to arrive. What’s going on?”
“Sam, let’s go take a walk in the forest and I’ll tell you.” Sam’s eyes crinkled, and he followed Angel into the giant trees. Angel knew there was no way they could he listened to by any devices; the metal in the giant trees would block them. After a couple of hours, they returned, and Angel went to visit Mackle, “I hope everything is satisfactory.”
Mackle smiled, “Your citizens have treated us well. Have you heard when Gregor might be returning?”
“I think he’ll be back in two-weeks. At least that what Kaylee thinks. He’s taking a different filament to get here.”
Mackle smiled, “Good! I’m looking forward to seeing him.”
Mackle walked away, and Angel thought, I imagine you are.
Angel headed back to the community and saw Kaylee leaving the Clan Center. She looked at her, and Kaylee nodded before turning toward her home. Now it was up to Gregor.
Chapter Twenty-Four
A week later, just before daybreak, Elena went to Mackle’s residence and knocked on the door. Mackle opened it and Elena smiled, “Gregor just got back and has asked me to take you to meet him at the fire. He requested you come alone.”
“Why?”
Elena rolled her eyes, “How would I know? That man is confusing and, if I had to guess, I think he wants to see if you still want to avoid seeing our mad-scientist.”
Mackle smiled, “Lead the way. It’ll be good to see him again.”
Elena led him through the trees and arrived at the fire in the clearing as the horizon began getting lighter. Gregor was sitting against a large log and smiled as they walked up, “Long time no see, Mackle. Sit down and make yourself comfortable.”
Mackle sat down in the sand in front of Gregor and returned his smile, “How was your trip back here?”
“Uneventful, just long,” Gregor replied. “Have you been treated fairly by the community?”
“Yes, we have. Other than your crazy scientist, everyone has recognized our privacy. I have been wondering about an issue you mentioned before we were moved here.”
Gregor nodded, “What is that?”
“You asked if there were any other survivors and I said I didn’t believe there was. I’ve been wondering if there’s a possibility I might be wrong.”
“Go on.”
“You promised us a ship to go where we wanted and I’m hoping you will lead us back to where you found us, so we can search for survivors.”
Gregor smiled and scratched the back of his head. Elena stood up, “I need to be going, if you will excuse me?”
“Mackle, do you think Elena needs to be here for our conversation?”
“No, no, go and do what you need to do. Gregor and I can discuss my request.”
“See you!” Elena said and skipped off toward the community.
It was still dark, and Gregor held his hands out toward the fire, “I’ve missed the fall season, while I’ve been gone. It should be daylight shortly. Now, what it is you want me to do?”
“Provide us a ship to go and search for other survivors. I will need you to provide a map on how to get back or, even better, perhaps lead us back.”
“Do you want all of you to leave to do this?”
“Yes, Gregor. We’ve discussed this and all of us want to take part in the search. You can understand that, can’t you?”
The corner of Gregor’s mouth went up, “I can.” Gregor’s sword was out too fast to follow and the chain holding the medallion around Mackle’s neck was cut and the medallion fell into the sand. Mackle instantly reached for it, but Gregor’s sword was at his throat in an instant, uh-un.” Mackle sat up straight, and Gregor used his sword to flip the medallion out of the sand to the log under his feet.
“What’s going on?” Mackle asked.
“Give it a minute. We have some more guests to welcome.”
“Who?”
Gregor smiled, “The rest of your crew.” Mackle looked over his shoulder and saw the rest of the Filament Makers being herded from the village to the clearing with their hands behind their heads. They were being escorted by men with swords and a large group of archers, with arrows notched in their bows. Elena walked up and said, “Ten of them went for their blasters and had to be killed. The others learned from watching them die that attempting to use a blaster is a big no-no.”
Mackle stared at Gregor and suddenly, the blaster in the holster on his belt, fell to the ground. Elena walked forward, picked it up, and sat down beside Gregor. Mackle noticed that she now had a bow slung over her shoulder. “Were you the one that killed them?”
“I killed eight of them. The other two hid blasters and were killed on the way here. I must say that your crew left hundreds of them in the sand, after that brief demonstration.”
The huge group of Filament Makers arrived and were instructed to sit behind Mackle in rows of a hundred with five-yards between the rows. Mackle listened to the instructions and Elena said mater-of-factly, “The separation between the rows allows us to only kill the ones that think they can do anything about this.”
“About what?” Mackle asked.
Gregor looked over his shoulder, “Toren, have you been able to look at that medallion and see if it’s stored anything of interest?”
“It appears that the one commanding Mackle and his warriors wants to know the location of Bellingham. So far, he’s been frustrated, and Mackle has been ordered to make it happen.”
Mackle stared at Gregor in silence, and finally asked, “What gave us away?”
Gregor tilted his head and shook it side-to-side, “There were so many clues that gave you away, but I didn’t see any of them. It was only after Angel commented on you carrying blasters tha
t everything fell into place.”
“When did she do that?”
“Last week. I arrived more than two-months ago but stayed away. Angel and Kaylee came to visit and that’s when I realized you weren’t who you claim to be.”
Mackle smiled slightly, “Then who are we, if you’re so smart?”
“You and the others are members of a Greng Special Forces unit.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. How could we be what you suggest?”
Gregor snorted, “Do you really want to hear all of the things you did to give yourselves away?”
“Humor, me. I’ll show you how you’re wrong on each of them.”
“You said that the warriors attacking the shuttles have every right to attack them because you were intruders on their planet. You didn’t wear a blaster there, but you do here. Now tell me you are in more danger here than there.”
Mackle was silent. “Add to that, the leader of those warriors commented that you had finally stepped out; you never had before. The reason you never stepped out before is because you weren’t in those shuttles.”
“Just how did you come up with that delusion?”
“Well, after we were confronted by one of your warships, it went into normal space before leaving at high speed. I’m not really certain that ship didn’t detect us…”
“I heard them say they weren’t seeing anything?” Toren interrupted.
“They said what they wanted heard, Toren. Did you look at their thoughts?”
“You told me it was impolite to look at other’s private thoughts.”
Gregor snorted, “I was stupid to do that. You would have heard what Mackle was thinking and this would have never happened.” Gregor turned back to Mackle, “But, after I thought about it, I wondered why that ship left so suddenly.” Mackle continued to stare at Gregor and he smiled, “You knew the Filament Makers in the past and spent time communicating with them.” Mackle’s expression didn’t change. “You don’t need to deny it; the evidence proves you did. That ship went into normal space to see if the communication cube the Greng put there was taken out of the Filament Maker’s derelict. It wasn’t there, and the commander of that warship knew that the long-anticipated rescuers had arrived. That ship left and went to one of your planets, picked up your unit, and transported them to the shuttles you landed on that planet.”
“That’s doesn’t jive. How could it have done all that before you arrived?” Mackle retorted.
“Simple, they had another warship sent to the filament leading to that planet intending to delay us until your unit could get in place. Once you were in place on the shuttles, the ship left. You were taken down to them at night because the warriors left and didn’t attack at night. It was a coincidence that we stopped somewhere else, before going there.”
“That”s crazy! Why would we do something like that? It makes no sense.”
“Mackle, your species did kill the Filament Makers, but not before learning everything you could about them. You learned that if they stopped communicating with the ones making the filament maps, that an advanced civilization would come looking for them. If you managed to destroy them, you’d still have no way of knowing where they originated. You trained your unit to be consummate actors against the time they might one day be needed. Your mission was to find the location of the ones that would come to rescue the Filament Makers and get it back to your leaders. You didn’t count on being teleported to that location. You had no idea how to get there and where the galaxy it was in is located.” Gregor paused and then continued, ‘I’m certain that when you told your leaders that you were being teleported, they insisted you go along with it and get the needed information, along with any information you could gather about the teleport technology.”
“I suspect teleportation had them worried,” Elena added to the conversation.
Gregor nodded, “And I think my promise to give you a starship and allow you to go wherever you chose is what made them make that decision,” Gregor continued.
“Is there more?”
“Yes, there is. It’s the most obvious clue about the whole thing, and we missed it.”
“What, pray tell, was that?” Mackle asked.
“You had a probe far inside the filaments keeping an eye on that planet. That had to mean the Greng had to know the Filament Makers had survivors there…or…they were waiting until you were needed to be sent there.” Mackle opened his mouth and Gregor stopped him, “There’s more!” Mackle closed his mouth. “When we investigated the Filament Maker derelict an important thing was missing.”
“What was that?”
“There were no bodies. They would not have decayed in the vacuum of open space. Further, there were no shuttles in the derelict. The missing rear of that derelict could not have held more than three of the shuttles on that planet. The hologram you left for us to find said that six-ships had sent shuttles down to the planet and then sent the ships away. There should have only been eighteen-or-less-shuttles on the planet. There were thirty.”
“Other ships could have arrived and sent shuttles down?”
“The ships you sent away sent destruct signals to you. No others would arrive if the Greng were that close.” Gregor paused and said, “There was one other small clue that didn’t make sense until all these other things fell into place.” Mackle stared at Gregor in silence. “Toren could hear what was being said inside the shuttles but he did sense that there was great anger by all the beings in them. Now, I realize that all of the warriors in your unit were ticked off that they were going to be forced to leave their families, for who knew how long, and they were cursing that it was during their assignment that we showed up.” Gregor paused and lowered his eyes, “The final thing that blew your cover was your refusing to communicate with our, as you call him, crazy scientist. You knew he would ask you about when you put the filaments in our space and you had no way of answering his questions. You also refused to communicate with the Cartians; you knew that spelled disaster if you did. Still think I don’t know what I’m talking about?”
Mackle shook his head, before answering, “I see you’ve put it all together and we weren’t very smart in setting this up. We should have taken some of their bodies to that derelict. We also should have never been ordered to come here.”
“One more thing you neglected,” Elena added.
“What is that?”
“There were no females among you.”
Mackle sighed and closed his eyes, before responding, “No…there weren’t.”
The Greng warriors listened to what was being discussed and started looking around at how to get out of the situation. An archer shouted, “YOU WILL BE STILL AND SIT ON YOUR HANDS NOW!!” The warriors saw thousands of bows being pulled back and they complied with the order.
Mackle looked over his shoulder and turned back to Gregor, “So, what happens now?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“You telling the truth. If you answer my questions honestly, we will send you back to your territory.”
“Just how will you know if I am telling the truth?”
A tall yellow being walked up behind Gregor and smiled, “Because I will know if you aren’t.”
Gregor smiled and pointed to the being, “This is Jek and his species is telepathic. Lie once, and all of you die.”
You may as well kill us; I will not reveal anything that would threaten my civilization.”
“I’m not going to ask you anything about your technology…or numbers of warships…or anything like that,” Gregor responded slowly.
“Then start asking and we’ll see where this goes.”
“Suddenly, a Greng Warrior jumped to his feet with a throwing knife in his hand, yelling, TRAITOR!!”
Elena moved too fast to follow and the warrior collapsed to the ground with an arrow sticking out of his head. She glared at the Greng warriors and said slowly, “ARE…THERE…ANY…OTHERS?” No one moved, and Elena sat down. J
ek had warned her about the warrior and she was watching him closely for him to make his move. It was good to have a telepath present.
Mackle sighed, “May I speak to my warriors?”
“Go ahead.” Gregor replied, and Mackle turned around to face them. Gregor glanced at Jek and saw him nod.
“I will not betray the Empire. But if there is any way I can get you back to your families, I must make the effort. You’ve seen the skill of these beings. Don’t waste your lives…just yet.”
Mackle turned back around and sat down, “Go ahead.”
“Why did you kill the Filament Makers.”
“They were building pathways into our Empire that would allow other civilizations to attack us.”
“Why would they…” Gregor paused. “You must have attacked them before.”
“We have conquered some civilizations in our past.”
“Are you still doing it?”
Mackle glanced at Jek and answered, “Yes, we are expanding the Empire.”
“How did you manage to get the Filament Makers to reveal their technology and provide information to you?”
Mackle hesitated and exhaled slowly, before saying, “We did not make friends with them. We captured a large number of them, and tortured the information out of them. In some instances, we used machines to take their brains apart to find what was needed. They were not able to stand up to our interrogation techniques.”
“That’s because they were one of the most peaceful species in the universe and you brutalized them!” Gregor said through clenched teeth.
“You told me to be honest.”
Gregor wanted to kill every one of them, but heard Elena say, “Gregor!” He turned to her and lowered his head. After a moment, he collected himself, looked at her, and nodded.
He turned back to Mackle, “If you make a promise, are your leaders bound to keep it?”
“No.”
“Are you bound to keep it?”
Mackle shrugged slightly, “I won’t make a promise I can’t keep.” Elena flinched at his statement. “What are you trying to make happen. If you’re asking me to promise not to attack you, I won’t do that.”