by Karl Morgan
“We do respect you, Master Opala,” squeaked Cintu of The Accord on his immediate right. “Many of our Friends are terrified after the screamers were taken away. At least fifty planetoids have already abandoned the fleet and more will likely follow soon. We suggest caution, that is all. Perhaps, we should reach out to Vanda for advice?”
“Have you heard from Vanda?” Geod of The Accord asked.
“I have been sensing someone reaching out to me, but the sound is too faint and garbled for me to decipher,” Opala said. “I must assume that Vanda is incapacitated again, or worse.”
“First Mantarcus, and now Vanda,” Cintu groaned.
“Friends, what would you have us do?” Opala asked. “There is no metal in the Clouds. Each of us has hundreds of Friends within our vessels who want to grow. If we flee now, we will have failed them, and The Accord will collapse as well. We need the metal of this spiral to survive. Please, someone offer another plan!”
The conference was enveloped in a brilliant flash of light, disconnecting the robots from their brains for several seconds. After the light subsided, Vanda was standing in the room. He looked about and noticed all of the robots with their heads turned up and to the left. He walked over to the inert robot that used to be his home on Opala’s ship. He smiled and touched its icy, metallic skin. The realization that this was nothing but an iron cage for his spirit sent a shiver up his spine. Suddenly, he felt the eyes of the others on him. “Hello, brothers, it’s me, Vanda.”
“Show me your arms, slave!” Opala shouted. “I will eat your flesh today for your impertinence to invade this room.”
“No you won’t, Opala,” Vanda laughed. The robots tried to rise and seize the human, but their arms and legs were frozen in place. They could hear other robots trying to open the door, but each knew this room was so secure no other robot could enter without specific approval from Opala. “Just relax for a minute, Friends of The Accord. As I said, I am Vanda, and I am no longer of The Accord. I am here to beg you to recall your fleets and stop this foolhardy invasion of the spiral. There is only death there.”
“Vanda, this invasion was your idea!” Opala shouted. “The Accord needs metal and feedstock to expand. Do you want all of us to die?”
“Not at all, Opala,” Vanda smiled. “I want you to live forever, with Mantarcus, Eon and me, not as cannibalistic machines, but as men and more.”
“Vanda, you told me to attack the spiral, no matter what happened to you on Stit,” Opala reminded him. “I’m only following my orders.”
“Opala, I am no longer of The Accord. You are now the leader. It is up to you to make the decisions for your Friends now. Choose life, brother!”
“It is too late for that now,” Cintu noted. “The attack has already begun.”
§
Thousands of fighters zoomed ahead of the Free Society capital ships to engage the strikers. Fa-a-Di led the fighter force. The space between the fleets was filled with starships twisting, turning and rolling, trying to gain the optimal firing position. The sensor array on Fa-a-Di’s ship was bright white from the sheer number of targets and blaster fire lighting up space. He was chasing a striker and fired his cannon. The backseat of the striker exploded in flames as the Friend was shredded by the blast. The striker turned and flew directly at Fa-a-Di, attempting to ram him. He pressed hard on the stick and his fighter shuddered as it tried to turn out of the way, but he wasn’t going to make it. He hit full throttle and the ship accelerated, but the passing enemy clipped the tip of one of his wings, causing the ship to spin out of control. He fought for consciousness against the incredible G force, but passed out.
Several Kalidean fighters surrounded a swarm of strikers, firing at the edges of the group to force them closer together. On signal, a Maklakar battle station fired a single plasma ball into the center of the ships and several fighters fired on it. The ball exploded and smashed most of the strikers, as well as pushing the Kalidean fighters thousands of miles away.
The overwhelming numerical advantage of the strikers began to turn the tide of battle. Hundreds of crippled fighters hurried away to the safety of their base ships. The strikers were incapable of retreat. That was why the non-Friend crewman was the pilot. A Friend might try to save his life. The other was not alive at all, in the conventional sense. Each was flying a do-or-die mission.
A second deep, guttural “whump!” filled every ship in both fleets as the spidunk jumped into the battle. As the Free Society fighters were retreating, the strikers formed into packs to pursue them, firing relentlessly. The spidunk shot into the first pack at incredible speed, twisting and turning instantly, until it had smashed through each ship. Then it turned toward the next pack of strikers. After several more attacks, the remaining strikers turned to retreat.
One thousand Free Society fighters had been destroyed, and another fifteen hundred were crippled. Twenty thousand strikers had been shot by the fighters or smashed to rubble by the spidunk.
§
“Now you have another chance to survive, Friends,” Vanda said. “Twenty thousand Friends have been sacrificed by your stupidity. Please stop the madness!”
Opala and the others were in shock from their second defeat, but something else was also different. They were no longer frozen in place. “Vanda, you are a worthless sack of meat. You will pay for our losses. Cintu, grab him.” The other robot stood and grabbed Vanda by the arms, squeezing tightly until Vanda groaned in pain. Opala stood less than a foot from his former master and eyed him carefully. “My sensors show you are nothing but a man, and I eat dozens of you every day. Goodbye, Vanda!” he shouted as he shoved his arm through Vanda’s chest and twisted his hand, wrenching out Vanda’s heart.
“You are such a moron,” Vanda laughed as Cintu’s arms went limp and he collapsed to the floor. “Look in your hand, Opala.” The robot looked at the small golden sphere sitting in his hand. Vanda reached forward and grabbed it, squeezing with all of his might. He crushed the globe, and fluid and brain matter dripped out of his fist. Vanda dropped the mess and wiped his hand on Opala’s chest. He thumped Opala on the chest several times, leaving indentations in the metal. “You think you know everything, but you don’t know anything! You were stupid enough to believe that a single man could get into this room on this station from a planet far away. No human could do that! I bet if you check your sensors now you’ll find out that many more Friends are already leaving.” He turned to the table and shouted, “Look at them!” The remaining robots were frozen, looking up and to the left. “It’s only you now, Opala. What are you going to do?”
“I will return to the Clouds and rebuild The Accord,” Opala declared. “I only need a few new Friends to return to the spiral for our final victory!”
Vanda was stunned. “What? You must be insane now. There is no metal there. Mantarcus, Eon, and I will stop you from anything you want to do. Give up, for God’s sake.”
Opala fell backward into his chair. Vanda sat on the next chair and held the other’s hands. “Vanda, you bastard. The Accord was your thing. You made me into this monster. You made me steal the metal from Stit and consume most of the residents. You did this to me. Now, it’s all I know. What would you have me do?”
§
“Admiral, I’m very sorry, but our crews have recovered the wreckage of Fa-a-Di’s fighter,” Ka-a-Fa said.
“Oh no,” he sighed, as his eyes watered. “Did they recover his body?”
“No, De-o, they couldn’t find it,” his friend replied.
“This is a black day for Greater Gallia, my friends,” he announced to the bridge crew. “What about the enemy fleet?”
“They are retreating now.”
“So, we won? Funny, it doesn’t feel like a victory to me.” A tone sounded in De-o-Nu’s com-link. He pressed the button and shouted, “Please leave me alone now!”
“Please, De-o-Nu, listen to me. This is Odo Pak. Fa-a-Di is with me on Fistnan. He’s okay.”
“What?”
/> “Here, let me put him on.”
“Brother-in-law, how goes the battle?” Fa-a-Di asked.
Tears rolled down the admiral’s face as the bridge crew cheered and jumped about. “We have won, Brother. We have won. What happened to you?”
“That’s a good question I was just about to ask Odo. Here, let me put him on and we can both listen.”
Odo coughed to clear his throat, and then said, “I was monitoring the battle from the stone temple on Fistnan. I saw Fa-a-Di’s ship when it was hit by the striker. It went out of control, causing him to black out. Another ship was about to fire on him, so I brought him here. That’s why you probably have found his smashed ship. Trust me; he is completely safe and uninjured.”
“God bless you, Odo, and thank you. Please tell my brother that we will pick him up when we arrive there. Thank you again. All of Greater Gallia owes you, Brother Odo. Kong-Fa out.” De-o-Nu smiled and said, “Ka-a-Fa, I think this calls for a celebration.”
Chapter 30
Dave and Lini were holding hands as they walked back toward Eon’s home on Stit. “I still can’t believe what happened back there, Lini,” he said. “One minute Mantarcus and Eon were screaming at Vanda. I thought for certain he would return to his place in The Accord. You don’t know how evil and sadistic that bastard was.”
She squeezed his hand. “Yeah, but then the most amazingly serene look took over his face. I have never seen a man more at peace than at that moment. He smiled at me and winked; then the explosion of white light shot out from his body. I felt totally immersed in its warm glow. Then he was gone!”
“When Eon and Mantarcus left to join him, he said the battle was over and The Accord had retreated from our galaxy,” Dave noted. “I wonder how many of our friends died before Vanda stepped across?”
“None, I hope,” Lini said. “But I’m sure that is way too optimistic.” After a few more steps, Lini threw her arms around Dave’s neck and hugged him as tightly as she could.
“Are you okay, Lini?”
When she finally released him, she replied, “I’m fine, Dave, but I have some things to tell you before we go any further.”
“This sounds very serious.”
She put her fingers up to his lips to stop him from saying any more. “Let me do the talking now, Admiral. You just nod or shake your head, okay?” He nodded. “I’m serious now. I have important things to tell you, and I don’t want you to make me change my mind.” She led him over to a bench and motioned for him to sit. She paced back and forth for a minute to regain her composure. Her eyes were becoming moist and she fought the tears back. After clearing her throat, she began, “First of all, you know how much I love you . . .”
“Lini ...”
“No talking, Dave. My feelings will never change about you. I know we talked about this over and again, so I’m not going to do it again.” He smiled at her. “Okay.” She coughed softly. “Uh . . . this is a lot harder than what I thought it would be.”
“Lini, I love you. Just say it,” he prodded.
“Dave, I know I told you I wanted to be on your crew, but now my perspective is changing. I think I can do a lot more for my people here than as a crew member on a starship.” She wiped a few drops of sweat from her brow. After pacing a bit longer, she sat next to him and took his hands in hers. “Dave, please don’t be mad, but I think I’m going to stay with Eon for a while.”
Dave sat for a moment letting the words process in his brain. Ever since he met her in the tree house on Zulanan, Lini had been a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Her nonchalant way of disrobing to swim with the Zula, or to change her outfit in their tiny cottage on Solander was etched in his mind. He remembered her choosing to stand next to him when Fola Untor was threatening to kill them both. It had been her humor, affection, sewing, and cooking that helped him survive the year on Solander. She taught him to speak Gallicean and the ancient Nan language. She risked her life again to travel to Skee Lotho and learn the secrets of The Accord. Now, they would be apart, separated by a massive expanse of empty space, probably never to see one another again. “If that will make you happy, I’m happy for you,” he squeaked.
“Oh shit, now I’ve hurt your feelings,” she cried. “Forget it, Dave. I’ll stay with the fleet. I couldn’t bear to hurt you.”
Dave shook his head and stood, taking her in his arms, and kissed her lips softly. After a moment, he released her and said, “No, I won’t let you do that. I admit that I was caught up in my memories of our time together, but I’m over that now. I think this is a great idea! Eon saved your life and you helped him understand his new role in the universe. I can see his love for you in his eyes.”
“But what about you?”
“We’ve been through this a hundred times, Lini. What happened on Solander was perfect and precious, but it doesn’t change the reality of today. I am still married and you have a full life ahead of yourself.”
“I don’t know.”
Dave smiled and continued, “Well, I do know. Think about what’s happened since we arrived on Skee Lotho. We should both have been buried there, and The Accord should have marched into our galaxy and enslaved or eaten most of the people there. Lini, I know that Eon did the heavy lifting, but we saved the universe! Odo’s prophecy will come true now. With Eon, Vanda, Mantarcus, and Bandopaz Niderak around, planets around the universe will be helped and protected. If you can be part of that, you’d be a fool to let it pass by.”
“But we’ll be so far apart,” she said. “There’s a good chance we’ll never see one another again.”
“If that happens, it will be your fault, darling,” Dave noted. “Eon is a transcendent man! He can send you to me or bring me to you at any time. There is nothing he can’t do.”
“Wow! That’s right. So, you’re okay with me staying here?”
“Better than okay,” he smiled. “I still have my duty to found new colonies for the Free Society, but you have a bigger job. You need to help the Nan in these galaxies overcome their generations of slavery and become human again. Just don’t forget about me, Dar Lini of Zulanan. If it weren’t for me, you’d still be living in the trees!” She laughed.
§
Eon, Mantarcus, and Vanda were sitting at the breakfast table in Eon’s house, just one mile from where Dave and Lini stopped to talk. Galat set glasses of brandy in front of each man and went back to work on dinner. “I’d forgotten how much I loved brandy,” Vanda noted.
“You’ll never know how happy I am at this moment,” Eon beamed. “It feels like old times, long before my brain was sliced out to begin The Accord. You know, this is all I ever wanted, for the three of us to be together again.”
“What do we do now, Eon?” Mantarcus asked.
“I have already spoken with each of the Friends and commanded them to stop consuming humans,” Vanda interjected.
“Excellent idea, old friend,” Eon replied. “But we have much work to do still. Each of the planetoid Friends needs to be helped to transcend. The rest need to be returned to human form and relocated onto the Stit planets in the two Clouds. Then we must dismantle the planetoids and robots and return the metal to the planets for use in reconstruction. Vanda, you need to take the leadership on the first issue. The Friends are used to taking orders from you. As each one transcends, the job will be easier.”
“Can we just keep an eye on them for a few days, Eon,” Vanda complained. “I’ve been in this form for a few hours, and I’m still trying to understand what happened.”
“I agree with Vanda,” Mantarcus said. “Such a monumental change takes time to assimilate.”
“I wish I could disagree with your logic, but without the help of Dar Lini and Bandopaz Niderak, I don’t know if I ever would have been able to do any of this. I’ll keep an eye on our Friends while you two take some time off to think and drink brandy,” Eon laughed. The others chuckled and held their glasses up for a toast.
After draining his glass, Mantarcus asked, “What is going
on with the girl anyway, Eon? You’re millions of years old and she’s a young woman, but I saw the looks you two exchanged.”
Eon laughed and drained his glass. Galat rushed over and refilled all the drinks. “To be frank, I’ve asked Lini to stay and help with the rebuilding of our worlds. So far, she hasn’t answered me. I know she has a special relationship with Dave Brewster. Come to think of it, both of you should find women for yourselves.” The other two blushed and laughed. “No, I’m serious. Her physical presence reminds me of some of the most pleasant aspects of being human. I think it would help you realize your own state too.”
When he could stop laughing, Vanda said, “Well, give me a couple days to remember how to use the toilet, shave and shower before you fix me up with a date, okay?”
§
Elder Odo Pak approached Dave and Lini slowly, not wanting to disturb their conversation. Dave saw him first and waved for him to join them. When he arrived, both Dave and Lini hugged him tightly. “Fa-a-Di told me about your loss, Odo,” Dave said. “I am so sorry.” Lini kissed Odo’s cheeks.
“Thank you both,” he smiled. “I will miss Ila forever. But that’s not why I’m here. I want to be the first to congratulate you both on this momentous victory. Casualties on both sides were limited, and the war is now ended.”
“Odo, I think you had a lot to do with the success too,” Dave noted. “You really scared the crap out of Vanda.”
Odo shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Well, we all did what we could, didn’t we?” He turned to Lini and took her hands. “I understand you will stay with Eon for a while. I think that’s a great idea. Keep him as human as you can.”
“Of course, Odo,” she smiled, blushing slightly.