Stranded Justice (The Justice Trilogy Series Book 2)

by Steven L. Hawk

  The insistent tug of Aank’s grip on his wrist broke the spell, and Eli allowed himself to be pulled toward the ship.

  Up, up, up!

  Climb, climb, climb!

  Of course. The Chih didn’t live on the surface. Their home was accessed from the jungle level, two layers up from where they currently walked.

  We need to go up, Aank. The Chih are two layers above us.

  Will you carry me, Eli?

  Eli considered the request. The Waa wasn’t capable of climbing between layers, and it was clear he didn’t want to wait for a safety line to be set up. A mental vision, courtesy of the tiny green alien, entered Eli’s head: He would climb while Aank held onto his back.

  Fine, but you’d better not fall.

  “Sergeant Jerrone,” Eli transmitted. “Slight change of plans. Bring Ming, Wagner, and Aquino. We’re going up two layers. Everyone else hold your positions.”

  “Copy that, captain. We’re headed your way now.”

  Eli didn’t wait for the team to arrive; he didn’t need to. They would be right behind. Instead, he sent a mental note to Aank and crouched down, ready to receive his passenger.

  The Waa engineer didn’t weigh anything, thanks to the suit. Once settled into position, Eli crossed to the nearest tree trunk and began the ascent. A few minutes later, the pair—now joined by the three other rangers—were once again atop the jungle layer of the forest.

  The ship was thirty meters from their position, and as they had on Eli’s previous visit, three lines of Chih began streaming from the cracks in the ancient hull.

  Eli motioned for the three rangers to wait and strode toward the lines of Chih, Aank still on his back.

  Welcome, welcome, welcome!

  Waa, Waa, Waa!

  Eli stopped halfway to the ship and crouched again. Aank dismounted, took three faltering steps, then fell to his knees. His arms were held wide and Eli felt the joy pouring from the Waa’s body and mind. It felt like liquid heaven and the ranger couldn’t help but gasp at the weight of the emotions the alien felt at the sight of so many Chih rushing forward to meet him.

  Eli, Aank exclaimed, the silent words overflowing with excitement, joy, and love. These are the Chih!

  The ranger watched, tears suddenly leaking from his eyes as the Chih reached, surrounded, and swarmed over Aank. The licks, yips, and tail wags he’d been offered on his first trip here were nothing compared with what was now being lavished upon his friend.

  Waa, Waa, Waa!

  Waa, Waa, Waa!

  Chapter 31

  Drah paused to steel himself before entering the portal room. He had no desire to enter the heated wetness that waited on the other side of the doorway, but he had no choice. He’d been summoned.

  With a final sneer of determination, he straightened his back, thrust his chest out, and pushed through the entryway.

  Oinoo stood beside the portal on the far side of the room. His gaze was focused on the dark, wet room that existed through the gateway—it was the portal room aboard one of Oinoo’s Zrthn ships, Drah knew.

  “You requested my presence,” Drah announced.

  The diminutive alien’s body did not move, but the giant head that sat atop the slime-covered tentacles and trunk rotated slowly away from the portal until the black, beady eyes found Drah’s.

  “I didn’t request your presence, Drah. I commanded it.” The Minith words were like mush coming from the creature’s thin, lipless mouth, but Drah understood them well enough. This thing was reminding him of the boundaries that defined their relationship. Oinoo was the master. Drah, the minion.

  The Minith swallowed the growl before it escaped his lips, but he couldn’t still his ears from vibrating at the anger he felt. The knowledge that more than two hundred thousand of Oinoo’s forces were now on the planet helped him to further rein in his emotions. The gelatinous mass of guts that stood before him was a lesser being, but he had numbers on his side.

  Patience, Drah reminded himself.

  “Of course, Oinoo. I meant no disrespect,” Drah whispered, with a dip of his head in the other’s direction. The movement caused the first hot bead of perspiration to roll from the Minith colonel’s brow, along his nose, and onto to the floor. It was quickly followed by a second. He knew from experience that more would soon follow and suppressed another growl.

  “You know why I am here,” Oinoo replied, obviously choosing to ignore the lie and get down to business.

  The Minith didn’t know the reason why. At least, he didn’t know for certain. He assumed it had something to do with the empty assembly area outside the building. The sudden cessation of Zrthn troops moving through the gate had been noted, obviously. The reasons for that cessation had not. Drah didn’t feel a need to express his lack of knowledge, so he clamped his mouth firmly shut. He had no doubt the small slime bag would fill him in on the details of his visit without delay. One thing he appreciated about Oinoo was the Zrthn’s habit of getting quickly to the point.

  “The misters that were assembled along our pathway to the ocean have been sabotaged,” Oinoo said, proving Drah’s assessment of the other’s directness correct, while also highlighting his own complete ignorance of the situation. Until this moment, he’d had no clue as to why the procession of Zrthn soldiers had ceased. “Would you care to explain why?”

  Drah’s mind reeled with possibilities. His initial notion was that the deserter Drek and his team of traitors, might be responsible. But there was no way he would ever tell the Zrthn about that event. He searched for another explanation and found it.

  “The Alliance scout ship we destroyed,” the Minith finally replied. “There were survivors that escaped before we could reach the ship’s wreckage. They must be behind this.”

  Oinoo’s tiny black eyes searched Drah’s face. The Minith colonel got the feeling the Zrthn was trying to determine if he was lying or not. He rushed to embellish his contention before the other could come to a less-than-advantageous conclusion.

  “There were three Alliance carrier vehicles in all,” Drah offered. “My forces tracked them to the eastern ocean, but they disappeared into the forest before we could apprehend them.”

  “Why was I not informed of this problem, Drah?”

  “I did not think it was a problem, Oinoo,” Drah answered. “There were—”

  “Silence!” The Zrthn had no problem clearly enunciating that single word. Raising his hand tentacles at the same time reinforced his message, and Drah angrily held his tongue.

  “We will repair the misters and resume our troop movements,” the Zrthn announced. “We will place guards along the roadway to prevent future sabotage. Unfortunately, we cannot seek out and destroy the Alliance survivors ourselves. This is a large world and our individual misting units don’t have sufficient range. We will need your forces to handle that task.”

  Drah opened his mouth to respond but was cut short by another curt raising of Oinoo’s hand tentacles. He was figuring out the other’s mannerisms and wisely clamped his mouth shut.

  “Do not fail me again, Drah,” the Zrthn slithered. “Find them. Kill them. Do you understand?”

  Drah merely nodded. His agreement was full and complete. At this moment, he wanted nothing more than to kill the slimy creature standing before him. But that wasn’t possible.

  Not yet.

  For now, he’d gladly turn his anger to crushing the survivors from the Alliance scout ship. His hands clenched in anticipation.

  Chapter 32

  Eli was lying prone beside Lieutenant Benson. Together, they surveyed the buzz of activity that was taking place in the mining facility two levels below them. Thirty or so Minith soldiers were currently boarding half a dozen troop carriers. They appeared to be moving out, and Eli could guess why. The damaged misters had temporarily curtailed the Zrthn advance, and Drah had been ordered to find the perpetrators. Either that, or they were assigned to guard the misters that were still functioning. The latter explanation was unlikely, though.
Thirty soldiers to guard nearly two hundred kilometers of trail would never get the job done.

  The ten kilometers of road that Eli and his teams had destroyed was only a fraction of the road’s path from the mine to the ocean, but it had been enough to stop the Zrthn advance. For now.

  “We have two choices,” Eli said to his friend and second in command. “We can lay low until rescue arrives, or we can become a problem for the Zrthns.”

  “EJ, when you say ‘become a problem’ you mean we continue to destroy the mist generators?”

  “Exactly,” Eli confirmed. “Unless they station a platoon of squids at each misting station, it wouldn’t be all that difficult to disrupt their supply line.”

  “True. But what happens when they’ve decided enough is enough and come after us? We’re eleven rangers, six rogue Minith, and a handful of untrained space crew. Drah has—what—eight hundred or so warriors on his side? Plus, there are two hundred thousand Zrthns occupying the ocean two hundred kilometers to the east. We’re tough, but those aren’t the best odds, EJ.”

  Eli considered Benson’s words and knew they had merit. But he wasn’t one to sit by quietly and let his enemy put more feet—or tentacles, in this case—on the ground if he could help it.

  To make the situation even more difficult, the Zrthns had proved themselves more than capable of responding to adversity. Nearly half of the ten kilometers of misters his team had destroyed the previous day had already been repaired. The other half would no doubt be replaced within the next twenty-four hours, which would reopen the flow of alien forces through the transport gate inside the facility below.

  Wait a minute, Eli thought. The gate inside the facility.

  “Benson,” Eli said, reaching out and clapping his armored hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We’ve got a third choice.”

  * * *

  “Any change, Captain?”

  Adrienne Tenney turned away from the mission update board and shook her head. No change in status for the Agate. No change in her orders.

  “No, First Sergeant Twigg. Just another day, like any other day.”

  “It gets easier, Captain,” the senior sergeant replied. He nodded his greenish, large-eared head in the human fashion. “It doesn’t get easy. But easier.”

  Tenney studied her Minith first sergeant. She still found herself feeling a tinge of surprise at how he’d managed the transition from bigoted, antihuman ogre to trusted comrade. Over the past year that he’d been assigned to her unit, she had come to appreciate his talents and skills . He was good at leading the men in the company, always seemed to anticipate her needs, and rarely failed to set a good example for the rangers under his supervision.

  She’d also learned to judge his mannerisms, his moods, and his body language. All of which told her that he understood what she was feeling. She wanted to ask him how he knew, but didn’t want to pry.

  “I lost my mate, Shakla, sixteen years ago,” Twigg offered. Adrienne did the mental math and had to struggle to keep the shock she felt from reaching her face. Sixteen years ago. That meant—“She was on Minith when it was destroyed.”

  “I’m sorry, Sergeant Twigg. I didn’t know.” The apology felt as weak as it sounded. How did a person apologize for her entire race? Humans had killed his wife and destroyed his home world.

  “It is fine, Captain. In the past,” Twigg said, with a dismissive wave of his large right paw. “I live in the present now.”

  “But . . . but, how can you not hate us?” The notion that he—or any other Minith—didn’t want to kill every human he came across seemed incredible. If their roles were reversed, Adrienne knew she’d fight the Minith until her last breath.

  “I did. For a long time, I hated humans,” Twigg conceded. His ears twitched at the confession. “You already know it is our nature to cede superiority to those who have bested us in battle. But for years, I told myself that I hadn’t been beaten by humans, so had no allegiance to their victory. It was my superiors who had failed us. So I rebelled against the Alliance from within.”

  “You were part of Drah’s rebellion.” It was a statement, not a question. Adrienne knew the first sergeant had been aligned with the colonel. Together they had conspired to keep as many humans as possible from becoming Alliance soldiers. “You plotted to keep Eli from making it through basic training.”

  “Both allegations are true, but you already know this,” Twigg stated. He raised his arms to the side, away from his body. Adrienne understood the motion to be his way of expressing honesty. “But I learned from Captain Justice that I was wrong. He overcame every obstacle I placed in his path. Despite my best efforts to ruin and humiliate him, he always found a way to persevere and overcome. I could not have done what he managed to do. No Minith could have succeeded, and yet he did. His actions showed me that humans are more capable than I had ever considered. He showed me that I could—no, he showed me that I had to—accept my place as a soldier in this alliance that is led by humans.”

  “I see,” Adrienne nodded. Eli had changed at least one Minith’s allegiance, and she was grateful. She now had an excellent first sergeant and a good friend as a result.

  “Now, Captain,” Twigg said, apparently eager to change the subject. Minith weren’t big on sharing their innermost thoughts, Adrienne knew. “What’s on the agenda for today?”

  “Why don’t you decide, First Sergeant? Surprise me.”

  “How about a run after formation?” The Minith’s ears vibrated and his lip curled upward. Humor. The sergeant knew how she spent most of her off hours, and had just “surprised” her by suggesting she do the usual.

  Just great, Adrienne thought. I’m being teased by a Minith.

  Refusing to let the alien get the better of her, she countered. “Excellent suggestion, First Sergeant. It will be nice to have company for a change.”

  “Ahh—,” the Minith stuttered, backing up a step. It was a well-known fact among the company that Twigg hated running. “I was—”

  “Meet me in the outer loop after formation,” she cut in before he could withdraw from the invitation. “We’ll make it a short run today. Only ten or twelve laps.”

  Twigg’s mouth was still hanging open when Adrienne turned and began to walk away.

  “And don’t be late,” she added over her shoulder as she exited the observation deck. She was in a good mood. She’d have company on today’s run.

  * * *

  “Yes, Captain,” Aank said, his large black eyes blinking in confirmation. “Replacing the mine’s comm unit with the one you removed from the Agate should allow us to contact the Alliance.”

  “You said ‘should,’ Aank,” Eli replied. “Will this work or not?”

  Eli reached out mentally to the Waa engineer. His telepathic message stressed the urgency of the need to Aank.

  I understand the need, Eli, Aank replied. In principle, this should be an easy swap. One unit for another.

  “I have no way of knowing if the Zrthns have updated their communications technology since handing it over to us,” Aank said for the benefit of Lieutenant Benson, Sergeant Drek, and Ensign Sheen. Together, the five of them occupied the command center of the ancient Waa mothership. “If they’ve made significant changes over the past eighteen months, we may have difficulty.”

  “Crud,” Benson groaned, throwing his hands in the air. “If we move forward with this and our comms don’t work, it won’t just be a suicide mission. It’ll be a suicide mission with no payoff at the end.”

  “Even if the comms portion fails, we can still destroy the gate,” Eli reminded his lieutenant. “If we destroy the gate, the Zrthns won’t be able to send troops through. That means we won’t have to worry about the misters. They’ll be worthless.”

  “True,” Benson conceded. “Half a payoff is better than none, I suppose.”

  “The chances are very good that this will work,” Aank interjected in a low, calm voice. Except for the large eyes, which moved back and forth from Eli to Bens
on, the diminutive Waa stood unmoving, his arms crossed and his hands tucked into the sleeves of the gray robe he wore. “The Zrthns aren’t known for advancing the technology they possess. Most of their technology is given to them by their trading partners. I estimate an eighty-three percent probability of success.”

  “Eighty-three percent?” Sheen had been standing quietly, listening to Eli’s plan and the resulting discussion. She seemed to perk up when Aank delivered his assessment, and Eli was eager to hear her thoughts. “That’s good enough for me. We have to get word to our side about what’s happening here.”

  “Agreed,” Eli said. “If we want to get off Cerbius alive, we need to warn whoever is coming to get us about the Zrthn troop placements. We can’t have them walking in here blind. We also need to destroy the portal gate so the Zrthns can’t bring more soldiers onto the planet.”

  “There is something else to consider, Captain,” Aank said, focusing his stare on Eli. “If we succeed at establishing communications with the Alliance, we may not wish to destroy the transportation gate.”

  Eli looked down at the engineer and was rewarded with one of his friend’s blatant blink-blink stares. The Waa had something good in mind.

  “Why not, Aank?”

  Blink blink.

  “If we can speak with the Alliance, there is a good chance we can modify the portal,” Aank answered. “We may be able to use it to escape.”

  “Seriously, Aank?” Benson clapped a hand on the engineer’s shoulder. “Why didn’t you say so?”