Kren of the Mitchegai

by Leo Frankowski

  By late summer, the machinery for the armor-building project was completed, and mass production had begun. Soon, thousands of sets of nicely painted red and lavender armor were being issued to all of Duke Dennon's soldiers, starting with the officers so that the troops would think that it was a privilege, and not a punishment. They were required to wear this armor constantly, and most of the soldiers soon hated it, considering it to be a pain in the tail. Which, of course, it was.

  * * *

  Also, at this time, the "exploratory tunnel" was approaching Duke Tendi's land, ahead of schedule. For secrecy, Dol had kept the same six-worker team constantly at the small tunneler, sending food, water, and instructions to them on the same specially designed truck that delivered the metal coils. They were paid triple time for this arduous duty, but they complained constantly anyway. The only possible security leak was the truck driver, a trusted old sergeant who had been with Duke Dennon for many regenerations.

  * * *

  Kren held another party at the end of the summer, and two more in the fall and early winter. His theory was that there's never enough unless there's too much.

  * * *

  Bronki and Dol had each managed to make enough money on their gambling to buy more stock than Duke Dennon had in the corporation, despite all of the stock he had received for his machinery, for the use of his army, and the stock he had taken in place of his payment for his military protection.

  This stopped Dennon from being made a member of the board of directors, which made Kren uncomfortable. The duke was too important to offend.

  He phoned the duke and explained that his two fellow board members had gotten into a stock fight so severe that Kren had had to buy more stock himself, just to maintain his majority.

  "Your Grace, would you like me to enlarge the board of directors to four, so you can have a seat, too?"

  "Now, why would I want a thing like that, Kren? I am only interested in war, and in my army. I thought that I'd made that clear to you. Everything else is a nuisance! As far as I can see, the three of you are handling this commercial venture just fine. If I become unhappy with your management, you will certainly be the first to know of it. At that point, I will expect you to take such actions as are required to make me happy again. Until then, I don't want to be bothered."

  "Yes, Your Grace."

  Kren decided not to tell Bronki or Dol about this conversation. And the corporation could always use the money that they had effectively donated.

  * * *

  The new school year started, and Kren changed the white belt of a freshman to the yellow belt of a sophomore, even though most of the classes he took were for freshmen. At least, he was no longer confined to remedial classes.

  With the director's permission, Kren dropped the javelin tennis games, and only won at one of his other three major sports once every three to five weeks or so. However, he trained in one of the other three dozen collegiate sports for typically three weeks each, and when he had become sufficiently proficient at the sport, he was brought in at the last moment as an "emergency replacement." He invariably won the gold, whenever he competed in a new sport, and then he never repeated the performance.

  This meant that most of the gamblers on the planet never had a chance to bet on him, and the odds were fairly high, often a dozen to one. They were that low because the small In Crowd was now in a position to bet fabulous sums. The money rolled in, and Kren gouged his bookie twice more during the year, forcing her to buy more stock that never paid any dividends.

  * * *

  By winter, the exploratory tunnel had been finished, the corrosive gasses had been released to give the tunnel an ancient-looking patina, and enough time had passed for these deadly gasses to react with the tunnel walls and be safe.

  When the tired group of small tunneler workers finally came home, Kren made a point of being there to greet them and the sergeant who drove them their supplies.

  Dol, along with Bronki, who of course had figured out what they were up to, encouraged Kren to kill these soldier-workers for security reasons, but Kren had decided that one of his major long-term goals was to increase the planetary population. Unnecessary killing was therefore to be avoided.

  Also, the duke was very attached to his soldiers, and Kren thought that killing some of them might offend His Grace.

  Kren told the workers, "I wanted to personally thank you for the long and arduous job that you have done for my corporation. I have your pay envelopes here, three times what it would normally be, and in cash money, so that you won't have trouble with the income tax goons. We carefully examined the dirt you sent out, and since you are interested, yes, you did find some very valuable mineral deposits. However, these deposits are such that the corporation won't be in a position to exploit them for many years. It is therefore vitally important that word of this does not get out, ever! Some have suggested that the most expedient course would be to kill all of you immediately, but you know that I am a soldier myself. Know that I know of the honor and the integrity of Duke Dennon's warriors! However, you all have doubtless heard of my prowess as a warrior, and I promise you that if any word of what we have done does leak out, I will find all of you, and I will kill you."

  The soldiers looked at each other apprehensively.

  Kren continued, "That's the down side. There's an up side, and it too is a secret. I have a bonus for you. This coming Saturday, I will win at the pole-vaulting competition at the University of Dren, even though I'm not presently listed as being entered in it. If you bet on me, you will make a lot of money."

  "This is a sweet deal," the old sergeant said. "Triple pay and a tip on a bet that will make us at least a dozen times more than that! You guys ain't been watching the news lately, but Kren's wins really has been paying that much! And all we got to do is keep our stupid mouths shut!"

  "Yes sir," the senior corporal said. "But what if he loses?"

  "Soldier, if I lose, I will personally reimburse all of your losses three fold," Kren said.

  "Then we are your silent but obedient servants, sir!" the corporal said.

  * * *

  Without Kren's knowledge, Bronki and Dol had visited the duke two days before. They had told him very privately about Kren's intentions of releasing the tunnelers, and that they both felt that it was an unnecessary breach of security.

  Duke Dennon thanked them, and said that he would think on it, but warned them that they should remain silent on this matter. He secretly considered killing both of them for the very same breach of security.

  A few minutes after Kren left the tunneling team, a lieutenant with six soldiers behind him stopped the workers. The officer told them that the duke was granting them an extended leave, with full pay, but that he wanted to talk with them before they left to enjoy it.

  The lieutenant and his troops escorted the workers back to the duke's palace and waited with them in a certain small room as he had been instructed. The duke was to call when he was ready.

  The door locked after they went in, and could not be opened. The same corrosive gas that had been used to give the secret tunnel an ancient patina was released inside of the "waiting room." The old sergeant, six tunneler workers, the young lieutenant, and his guards all died quickly, and then the room was permanently sealed.

  A palace repairman had secretly fixed the room's door lock for the duke, released the gas, and then plastered over the door.

  This repairman died in an unfortunate accident the next morning.

  It turned out that the amount of gas used was sufficient to kill the soldiers in the room, but not enough to kill the eggs that the Mitchegai always spread about them. And one of them was a male. The resulting grubs soon ate the dead bodies of their parents, and then each other, when that food supply ran out. Eventually, nothing was left but a single mummified pollywog who was never able to get to water, along with some scattered weapons, and seven well-filled pouches of currency.

  Duke Dennon would have been happier if he c
ould have killed Kren, Bronki, and Dol along with his own troops, but on consideration he decided that he had entirely too big an investment in the Superior Food Corporation to let it collapse without its management team. But he would keep an eye on them. Perhaps forcing Bronki and Dol to accompany Kren to the battle would increase their commitment. . . .

  And anyway, the duke said to himself, Kren is entirely too softhearted to worry about.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  The Tellefontu

  New Yugoslavia, 2215 a.d.

  The last of the lost planets, New Gambia, had been found. In this case, Earth's forces had won early and easily. They were running the place as a fairly benevolent dictatorship until our ship arrived and told them that despite everything, they had lost the war. It took months before our diplomats, and Earth's, could convince them to just go home. Even then, many of the occupying troops decided to stay where they were, especially those who had married local girls.

  * * *

  The Tellefontu were extremely reticent to talk about themselves, their customs, and their history. Still, over the years, a great deal was learned about them from casual remarks that they made privately, in conversations, in formal interviews, and on talk shows.

  They were an ancient race, far older than even the Mitchegai. Their recorded history went back more than thirty-five million years, and their legends went back even farther.

  They had a wide variety of art forms, including music, dance, the graphic arts, drama, literature, poetry, architecture, and at least nine others that were completely incomprehensible to humans.

  They were capable of redesigning their own bodies, and indeed their own equivalent of DNA, to make themselves into whatever they wanted to be. They did this without the use of external machinery. Yet such was the extreme conservative streak in their nature that they were not at all interested in looking like anything else than what they were.

  "Well, yes, of course," one of their representatives said to a talk show hostess. "I could, with considerable time and effort, make myself look like a human being. Even a very attractive human being like yourself. But, why would I want to do that? I am contented to be myself. Also, ask yourself, Would you want to make yourself look like me? I am, you know, a very attractive member of my own species. At least my spouses have always said so. I think that it is best if humans remain looking like humans, and Tellefontu remain looking like Tellefontu."

  While by no means immortal, they did not have a definite life span. They could rebuild their bodies as necessary, and they had conquered all possible diseases. Many of them were thousands of years old. Death, when it came, was normally by accident, or other misadventure.

  They were hermaphrodites, with each individual being simultaneously male and female. During mating, both partners were impregnated. The partners produced a single clutch of typically twenty eggs, one half of which was produced by each of them.

  They then alternated, taking turns caring for the children and making a living. Once the children were raised and educated, a process that took several hundred years, the parents departed in a friendly fashion, and rarely saw either their former spouses or their children again.

  As one of them put it, "After three hundred years, you get very much sick of them."

  They did remain close to their siblings, however, and said that when the Mitchegai invasion finally came, they would fight in small platoons made up of siblings.

  While they were perfectly capable of building and using machines, they generally preferred not to. They liked their existence to be as natural as possible.

  While they were capable of living on land indefinitely, they felt most comfortable living an aquatic existence. "You humans go swimming on occasion, and you are enjoying the experience certainly very much. Yet you soon are wanting to get out of the water. We Tellefontu are just the same, but quite the opposite, you see. I think that we can definitely share this planet very nicely, without interfering with each other, but lending each other a hand when it is thought to be appropriate."

  Laws had been passed on New Yugoslavia, giving them the oceans, although we were allowed to fish commercially at certain times and places, and to engage in sport fishing provided that we restricted it to hook and line. Also, they were given ownership of those islands that had been declared primitive nature preserves, provided that the original fauna and flora were actually preserved.

  They were familiar with all aspects of space flight, but after some early experiments with it for scientific purposes, they had decided that it wasn't for them. They had been prepared to stay on their own planet for all time, having none of the outward-driving instincts that both humans and Mitchegai possess.

  On their home planet, their astronomers had seen the Mitchegai invasion fleet approaching, and had been able to give their people a few months' warning. In that short time, they had been able to build weapons enough to give the invaders a stiff fight, but not enough to win. Scarcely a thousand of them had been able to escape, and make it to New Yugoslavia, over twelve hundred years ago.

  They were searching the other planets in Human Space, looking for other possible refugee groups, but hadn't found any yet. There was some discussion about possibly colonizing other planets, to insure their racial continuity in the event that New Yugoslavia fell to the enemy, but nothing had been done, yet.

  Once on New Yugoslavia, they had dedicated themselves to rebuilding their civilization, and replenishing their numbers. There were now over eight million adult Tellefontu living here, and seven times that number of children.

  They had resolved that they would not again suffer what they had before. The next time the Mitchegai came, they would be better prepared, and they would be victorious.

  They saw the humans as a way to help them do that.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,

  FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.

  BUT CONCERNING EVENTS OF UP TO

  2000 YEARS EARLIER

  The Start of a Pleasant Little War

  The duke's well diggers had made their fascinating discovery, the tunnel had been surveyed, and Dennon's army was secretly mobilized.

  As a favor to Kren, the duke scheduled the attack to coincide with the two-week-long midwinter break. The scheduled date of the attack would be on Warrior's Day, a major winter holiday among the Mitchegai military.

  Bronki's sales representatives arranged for a major giveaway program designed to encourage sales to the countryside outside of the cities. Duke Tendi was to receive two thousand selected children a week before Warriors' Day, as would eleven other dukes in the area.

  This program had been designed to encourage Duke Tendi's forces to eat well and go into a stupor just before Duke Dennon's attack, and to have all of the other duchies around in no position to immediately counterattack Dennon.

  At least that was the hope. Maybe it would work. And sales were such that there was a surplus of children just now, anyway.

  Kren arrived the evening before the attack was to be launched, and he brought with him an entire trainload of supplies, along with Bronki and Dol.

  "Welcome, Kren!" Duke Dennon said in high spirits while gesticulating with his sword, "But what is all of this stuff?"

  "It's a present for you, Your Grace! First, there are a few thousand baggage carts, with room in each one for the armor of more than four dozen troops, water enough for the trip to Tendi's place and back, and room for two dozen warriors to sleep on top of it while another two dozen pull them along. With half sleeping and half pulling, you can keep going day and night! You've got a five-gross-mile-long march ahead of you, and with these carts you can do it in a week and a half, not the three weeks it would otherwise take you. Also, you will notice that they have lights on them, so you won't have to walk in the dark."

  "You had these made especially for this attack? That must have been expensive! And I can't imagine ever needing them again. Wheels aren't permitted for overland transport over the grass,
although they would be allowed in a tunnel. But, I mean, we will probably get away with pulling this 'discovered tunnel' stunt once, but I wouldn't dare try it again!"

  "The carts were costly, Your Grace, but once you are through with them, I'll take them back, install electric motors in the wheels and new control panels for the operators, and use them for delivering children from the train stations to my underground stores. But as they are right now, they are perfectly legal for use in war."

  "Well, thank you, Kren, although you really should have informed me of this in advance. If your scheme works, it will be a wonderful aid to our advance on the enemy. But if it doesn't, don't be offended if I abandon them all and do it the hard way. And those cages back there?" Dennon asked, pointing with his sword, "The signs on them say that those are young carnivores!"

  "That's exactly what they are, two thousand of them! Please consider that you are inevitably going to take some losses in this attack. With all of these new bodies, you won't have to permanently lose any of your well-trained troops."

  "That's very thoughtful of you, but all of my men have armor now," Dennon said. "We won't be taking that many casualties."

  "Then perhaps we will be able to find some other use for the rest of these young adults. What do you do with captured troops, anyway?"

  "Well, most dukes just kill them as a security risk, but my policy has always been to give them a choice. Once I've killed the opposing duke, his soldiers may either die with him, or they may give their oath to me. They lose two grade levels, and they have to go through my basic training system when coming into my army. We watch them very carefully for the first two years or so, but we treat them very well, otherwise. The great majority of them turn into loyal soldiers. If they don't, well, they still have that death sentence hanging over them."

  "A practical policy. Do any of them prefer death?" Kren asked.