by Elliott Kay
“Our people changed the planet so we could live there. The people of Dust hid underground. They changed themselves to be like us. We look almost alike now.”
“Then you are more alike than we knew,” said the Krokinthian. “You are more likely to make common cause.”
“Not when they’re attacking us!” Naomi snapped. “How crazy is that?”
“You have always fought your own kind. Why would this be any different?”
“Because it is!” She shook her head. “We fight to stop the people of Dust. We fight to save our own. If you attack, we will fight you, too.”
“Ambassador,” Khatri warned under her breath.
“Is she wrong?” Young shrugged.
“If you fight us, it will mean war,” said the Krokinthian.
“Sure does,” said Naomi.
“Okay, we’re done,” Young said. He put one hand on Naomi’s to gently bring her arm down. “We’re good.”
“Understand this,” said the Krokinthian. “The people of Dust destroyed three civilizations before we ended them. You have seen their remains. They drove two more beyond our space. They tried to end us. Even the last battle could have ended us instead of them. We will not allow the people of Dust to rise again.”
Naomi’s jaw dropped. Her arms came up. “Who? Who did they drive away?”
“Yanra. The Kaelos. Others fled beyond these stars. Your space is small. You do not know them.” The Krokinthian paused. “We will not allow it again. We do not want war with your people. We will give you time.”
Young stepped in front of Naomi and brought his arms up. “How much time? How long?”
The Krokinthian’s image vanished.
Breeze answered: “They will not say.”
“Thank you, Breeze. What of the Nyuyinaro?”
“We will wait. We do not want war. We want less fighting, not more. But we are with the Krokinthians as well. This is complicated.”
“Yes, it is,” said Young. “The Union is fundamentally against the death of entire species. Even if they are enemies. There must be another way.”
“Yes. Complicated. Defend your people, Union.”
“That’s it,” said one of the signalmen. “They’re done.”
“Then we get back to it,” said Khatri. “Thank you for your help, Miss,” she added, barely looking to Naomi. “It seems to be a day for unexpected help. Admiral Branch, let’s pull back to the planet. We’ll leave Java in place.”
“Was that sarcasm?” asked Naomi, ignoring the orders for others.
“Not really,” said Young. “You got the Krokinthians to admit more about other alien species than we’ve ever gotten out of them. And you made them listen.”
“You couldn’t do it better? You’re a diplomat.”
“They have trouble telling us apart, but they know a middleman when they see one,” Young explained. “They know conviction when they hear it. That’s what makes diplomacy with them so hard.”
Naomi looked back to the main screens. Minos was still wrapped in dark clouds. “So how are we gonna fix the rest of this?”
“Hell if I know.”
* * *
She had good cover—solid, thick, tall enough to hide behind. The weird little spread of stone-like obelisks guarded her from the center of the room and the archway. A hologram of the planet hovered over her head, creating a distorting light effect around her. It was a good position.
She didn’t know how the hell she’d get out of it again.
Malone’s fight with the tall woman on the other end of the room bought Dylan time to take down the few other remaining targets with her riot gun. The Minoans all seemed distracted and concerned by the brawl. Dylan could only assume this woman was the empress. She also figured Malone could fight better than that, though, so she’d been wrong once already.
She never got a clear shot at the empress. As soon as Malone went down, enemy fire rained down on her position from the entrance. Dylan had to duck down, spending the last shots of this magazine on return fire. On the bright side, at least one Minoan in armor went down inside the archway. Unfortunately, others swept in behind their shields to take up spots on the other side of the room. To her right, the last Regent climbed down the steps from the pavilion on unsteady feet, charred and shaky but still moving. Rather than advancing, it backed up toward the other end of the room. She could only assume it was to protect the empress.
Dylan grabbed for her last magazine. Even with this one spent, she still had a Diamondback. It would be tough for them to get a clear shot at her amid the cover and the holograms. She had clear lines of fire to cut down anyone who got too close. She could hold these assholes off a little longer… unless they ran out of patience.
It wasn’t as if they feared death the same way humans did.
“You are the last,” came a woman’s voice from across the room. She sounded entirely too pleasant. “Do you want to live?”
“What?” asked Dylan. She glanced at the magazine for her riot gun. It was another loaded for disruption and distraction rather than direct harm. She held back a curse.
“You hide. You seem interested in survival, despite coming here. I gave this one the same option earlier tonight, but he threw it away.”
“Yeah, that one isn’t too bright,” Dylan replied. She loaded the riot gun and unslung the Diamondback, setting it down beside her. “Hold on,” she said before firing a smokeshot into the hallway. It was better than letting more bad guys in unchallenged.
Others took the cue to shoot again. Another barrage of enemy fire cut into the obelisks and the wall beyond it, though none hit Dylan. She spotted the Regent looking her way and fired the next round up high, blasting the ceiling with a shower of chaff that rained down in every direction.
She didn’t know how to get out of this.
* * *
Something was on his face. It dragged him out of sleep, nagging him from darkness to light. Something was on his face, the side of his face, at his cheek, wouldn’t leave him alone even if he shook his head. He batted it away only to feel the same problem on his hand. It hurt.
It burned.
The pain woke him up. Tanner brushed harder at his face, frantically scraping away the bit of burning metal that tried to dig into his flesh. He lay on his back without any kind of pillow or blanket or anything but this hard, smashed-up control room and his ears filled with the sound of enemy weapons fire.
Oh shit.
“Stop, stop,” the empress snapped. “No more. Wait for my order.”
“Kind of you,” came Dylan’s voice.
“You chose your refuge well,” said Amara. “Enough damage has been done. I would rather not lose my view of the skies beyond. You are the last, so it seems worthwhile to talk for at least a moment.”
Tanner held still lest movement give him away. Amara was close. Others were in the room now. They had to be, given all the weapons fire. He heard the steps of a Regent. It had to be farther than Amara. He risked lifting his head and glancing around.
He couldn’t find his Diamondback. His pistol was gone, too, lost somewhere in the scuffle. His knife lay close enough that he reclaimed it without a sound.
He had one other weapon left.
“Skies beyond, huh? Doesn’t look like it’s going so well for you there,” said Dylan. “Looks like the Union Fleet is winning.”
What? Tanner rose to a crouch, still low behind obelisk fixtures, looking across the room. Most of the holos had gone dark amid the fight. One at the other end of the room showed Minos—and ships in orbit.
Human ships. Warships, and others. Some he didn’t recognize, but it looked as if they’d had the worst of it. A couple others he recognized all too well. How long have I been out? Tanner wondered. Concussions didn’t usually clear this quickly on their own.
“And yet a common enemy has arrived,” said Amara. “This will alter the situation.”
“Common enemy? You’re attacking human colonists. You’re the common
enemy.”
“Enemies need not be forever. Humanity understands this. The others do not. You may join with us, or they will crush you.”
“They could’ve crushed us before in the Expansion Wars. They didn’t.”
“By their choice. Not by your strength. You do not know their weaknesses as we do.”
“Looks to me like you lost your war with them,” said Dylan.
“That war, yes,” said Amara. “We will not lose again. We are prepared. We are ready to fight the Krokinthians. Much more than you.”
Tanner moved slowly, staying as low as he could to follow her voice. He didn’t feel woozy. It couldn’t have been a serious concussion, not unless he was delusional now. He had to go with it, anyway. Too much depended on this. At least Dylan kept her talking.
“Lady, you’re attacking our people,” Dylan pressed. “You already wiped out a city. We’re not making deals after that.”
“I understand your anger. I could even sympathize, I suppose. Yet you know this will be only a memory for your people soon. Easily mitigated, easily dismissed, easily forgotten. An alliance with us offers too much to ignore. Technology. Science. Knowledge of the galaxy. Aid against our enemies. This planet will be forgotten.”
“Holy shit, listen to yourself. You could stop the killing and start talking any time you choose. All you have to do is give the order.”
“Yes.”
“Then how is this so important to you? How is killing everyone here more important than an alliance against the Kroks and Noonies?”
“This world is mine!” Amara snapped. “My people died here. Yours desecrated our land. Our skies. You perverted our memory. Some of your people would call them souls. We will take theirs as payment and then we will deal with the rest.” Amara inhaled sharply and released her breath. “Peacefully.”
The outburst gave Tanner all the cover he needed to get in behind her. She stood only a few meters away behind a sentinel, who held up his shield as cover against Dylan. A badly burned but still functional Regent stood nearby, focused on the last remaining opposition. The rest were scattered around the room.
“Uh-huh,” said Dylan. “Only a handful of people knew anything at all about your ‘memory.’ You know that, right? And even they didn’t understand what they were doing. Nobody else knew a damn thing.”
“Their ignorance is no excuse. Their leaders knew. All shall pay.” Amara let out another breath. “I would have your surrender. I wish no more damage to my chamber. I promise you will not be harmed. It is a small price to pay for this convenience. I will not ask again.”
“Okay, then,” said Dylan.
A grenade flew up from behind her console, followed by a hail of bullets from her Diamondback. The Regent leaped into the air with power Tanner never expected to batter the grenade away toward the pavilion. Amara ducked behind the sentinel’s shield. It was far more distraction than he thought he’d get.
She still saw him coming. Amara turned to face him as he lunged in. She couldn’t stop his knife-wielding hand from planting a solid punch in her nose. The handle of his knife added to the impact. A slash would have inflicted more pain, but she seemed immune to that. He needed her disoriented. It bought him a second, long enough to put the knife into the sentinel’s neck under his helmet and then jerk it back out again. He stomped at the side of Amara’s knee, delivering a solid blow, buying himself one more second.
Amara swung at him with a powerful fist. Tanner twisted it up with his free hand, opening her for a deep slash of his knife against her armpit. She winced with pain, countering with the other hand. He sucked it up to bring his fist down in a hammer blow against the collarbone connecting to her good arm. He felt the crack he needed so badly.
The empress flailed at him, screaming. Neither blow crippled her as they should have. They only gave him a chance. It was now or never.
Tanner battered one flailing arm over his head, ducking low, darting around her. Amid gunfire and bright flashes of stranger weapons, Tanner swept in around the empress’s back. He put one arm under hers and bent it back. His other hand held the end to it all.
“Stop! Stop!” Tanner shouted. He dragged her backward, tucking his right hand under her chin. The Regent and every sentinel who looked back to him could see the grenade. “Everybody stop, right now! You know what this is.”
“Release her,” demanded a sentinel. Even Dylan’s gunfire had stopped.
“Fuck you, clown. You know what this is. Figure it out. If any of you shoot, this goes off and she dies. Anyone comes near me and she dies.”
The Regent stood taller, stepping in close.
“You know what this does,” Tanner warned. “It’ll burn straight through both of us. I’ll be dead, but you’ll lose her and her memory.”
“Stop,” ordered Amara. She sounded far more angry than afraid. “Is… is he correct?”
“The weapon is a thermal grenade,” said the Regent. “It generates intense heat. He is likely correct.”
“Everything burns if you get it hot enough,” said Tanner. “It happened to your civilization when you lost your war, right? Everything burned to ash. We’re not as advanced as the neighbors, but we can burn stuff real good. Don’t try your laser, buddy,” he added, watching the Regent’s glow. “You can’t hit me with the precision you need. You know it. You’ll burn her down, too. And this will still go off.”
“Holy shit. Malone, get these guys out of here,” said Dylan.
“Getting to it,” he replied. “Send your people out of here. Now.”
“What is Malone?” asked the Regent.
He glared at the stone man. Then it clicked. “My name. Tanner Malone. Look through that crystal memory of yours for Tanner Malone. Look at all the media you’ve absorbed. Ask yourself if I’ll do it.”
He felt Amara stiffen before he finished speaking. “Is it him?” she asked.
“Yes,” said the Regent.
“No such thing as bad publicity after all,” Tanner exhaled. “Get out. Everyone drop your weapons in here and go out into the hallway. Now. Do it now.”
“What happens to me?” asked Amara.
“You live until you do something stupid.”
He felt the barest flinch of her head. Sentinels around the room released their shields and pulled the blasters from their wrists. The Regent stepped back, its glow diminishing.
“We’re done,” said Tanner. “Get out.”
“Do it,” Amara confirmed.
They obeyed. Looking back with a mixture of discomfort and fear, her subjects filed out of the room. The Regent left with them. “Dylan?” he asked.
“Get over here. I’ll cover,” she said.
“We’re moving,” Tanner told Amara. The empress complied, staggering awkwardly with him, but never trying to escape his grasp.
“What the hell is going on over the planet?” he asked as he got around the ring of obelisks with Dylan. “How long was I out?”
“Out? I don’t know. Less than a minute,” said Dylan. “Those are Union ships. Looks like others, too. They had a joint patrol planned for the sector. I don’t know how they knew to come here so fast, but they did.”
“Contact them,” said Tanner. “Amara. Tell us how to contact them.”
“No.”
“You realize how this works, right?” Tanner pressed.
“You would have me surrender my people to yours. I will not.”
“Lady, you don’t have a lot to bargain with here.”
“I have your lives as much as you may have mine, human,” said Amara. “I have my armies. Your cities hang by a thread. If I am to die, you and all of yours will die with me.”
“So she’s still crazy,” Dylan grumbled.
“This world is mine. Mine to rule and mine to end if I wish. I did not hide my people from the others to surrender them to you. Even by your own laws, what you did here was sacrilege.”
“Point,” said Tanner.
“Irrelevant,” said Dylan.
/> Tanner’s jaw set. “I don’t think it is.” His eyes turned to the image of ships and wreckage over the planet. He couldn’t believe the markings. Other images showed cities and settlements across Minos, where some fought for their lives and others still knew nothing of the true danger yet.
In the capital, the slums burned. No one there had a clue what their leaders had done. They only suffered for it.
“Hate to admit it, but we can’t hold her forever,” said Dylan. “This gig really went to shit.”
“My people will not be slaves,” Amara seethed. “I will not allow it.”
“Yeah. I can sympathize,” said Tanner. His eyes turned from the holo images to Dylan. “You might want to keep a closer eye on the entryway. Maybe take a couple steps away.”
Her brow darkened. “Why?”
“Deniability.”
* * *
“Three more robots coming down the street. Infantry behind. Get ready.”
Footsteps rushed through the alleyway. Shootouts from only blocks away echoed through the narrow passage. One marine carried a missile launcher across her chest, extended and set up to fire. Her partner stayed close, ready to cover. Others awaited at the end of the alley.
“Not here,” said one. “Get behind that traffic barrier at the corner. The dark masonry holds up better to enemy fire.”
“How do you know?”
Janeka turned back from covering the street to look at the private. Even the darkness of a blacked-out city under ash-filled skies could not hide her disapproval. “You are supposed to pay attention to your environment, Parker.”
“Sorry,” he grunted.
“Olsen?” asked Janeka, looking to his partner.
“Yeah. We’re good to go.”
“Don’t stay there if you can move,” Alicia told the pair. Like Janeka, she crouched low in the alley with her weapon pointed down the street. “Fire and go. We’ll lay down fire from here and pull out after you.”