Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance
Page 20
“There was no plan, remember.” Janice said.
“Serrath was right.” Leethea said with a toothy laugh. “If you had known the plan it wouldn’t have worked.”
“If you had known the real plan,” Serrath interrupted, “we would have failed.”
“I’m the one that came up with the plan.” I objected. “It was my plan from the beginning.”
“We did a little improvising ourselves,” Leethea said, “once you had come up with your plan, that is. We learned that from you.”
“You really aren’t a very successful planner,” Bren said with triumphant smile in place, “but you are the best improviser I have ever met. The one thing I have learned from you is that everyone has their strengths and that it’s perfectly acceptable to manipulate them in any manner to get what you want.”
“What I am is ready to get out of this body,” I said as I downed another and ignored their baiting, “and I can’t do that until I’m dead.” I thought of the human race which I was abandoning…but only for a moment. I was the Emperor of the Alartaw and ruler of the known Universe. Why in the hell would I give that up! I was the dominant reptile here.
It was just about then that I felt the reptilian teeth lock on my ear. It was Serrath and she immediately began dragging me away. “Not without that ultimate high you’ve been craving.” She said with a growl around locked teeth.
Who was I to object!
……….
“Did you know why the Kievor were always so nice to reptiles?” Serrath asked me much much later. “I picked up this little tidbit in the Fsyth data-base.”
“I don’t have a clue.” I said. I was sure I didn’t care. I was in another dimension altogether.
“The reptilian races knew the Kievor’s secret from the beginning. They smelled it in their pheromones- the one thing the Kievor couldn’t hide.”
“Which secret is that?” I asked with my interest growing. If she was leading up to it like this there must be a good punch-line coming and nor was I wrong. “I like secrets.” I added.
“They’re generally not so secret once you find out, but this one is already out of the bag.” Serrath said. “The Kievor were domestic animals a mammalian race much like both humanity and the Alartaw used to ride like humans used to ride horses.”
“The Kievor were horses?” I asked incredulously. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Not this time.” Serrath said with a laugh as she leapt upon me once again. She was luscious bare green skin and venom dripping claws. She pierced me as I pierced her.
Who was I to object?
Epilogue
It was a grisly duty but it was a necessary duty nonetheless. I would take no chances. My Fleet with myself back at the helm visited every known Kievor Trade Station location and destroyed the powerless Stations we found, but we did not find them all. They had not all been infected! Some had run fast enough.
Every Kievor Trade Station which avoided the virus plague vanished without a trace but had we seen the last of them? It was a wide Universe and with rejuv and an endless life ahead- if I wasn’t murdered somewhere along the line- and Time being something that just passed but had no effect- who was to say our paths would never cross again.