by Frank Carey
"Hold your fire!" Sana ordered as she ran over to the edge of the hole and threw in two large grenades. Moments later, the floor shook as the ordinance detonated, sealing Tregga's fate.
Aerith and Torren ran up to Lucien as Sana called for medics. Soon, the four of them were evacuated to the base camp as the troops mopped up the facility.
The threat to the Earth was over.
###
Jewel woke up in a dark hospital room. She looked over and saw Marta sleeping in the bed next to her. She scanned the monitors and sighed in relief as she saw her sister-in-law had normal vital signs. Through the window, she could see the lights of a city, its inhabitants none the worse for wear.
"Hey, sleepy head. How are you feeling," Lucien whispered from a chair in the corner where he sat, a romance novel lying open on the table next to him.
"Sore, like I went ten rounds with a large boxer. How's Marta doing?"
"I'm fine," Marta said as she opened her eyes. “Rejoice, sister, for the two of us get out of here in the morning."
"How is that possible? You were shot."
"The med shuttle had a class 4 medbed, which fixed Marta right up," Lucien said.
Marta sat up and raised the bed so she could sit and talk. "It was just like the one Lucien installed on the Elfling, the one Colonel Reese carried you to. He figured you would get into mischief."
Jewel's eyes grew brighter. "He did that for me? What about the other wounded?"
"Nothing more than scrapes and scratches on both sides," Harm explained. "The bots took the brunt of the damage. The crew of the corvette was shaken up when the Septar took out her engines, forcing her to hard land near the facility. The civilians in the facility sheltered in place once the alarms started. Only you and Marta were injured badly enough to warrant medbeds."
Marta leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "I feel like such a fool."
Lucien got up and walked over to her bed. He leaned over and kissed her. "You are not a fool. The people who did this to you could have done it to anyone. Remember that asshole movie star Rogers Hammersickle?"
"Yeah."
"Remember that woman he married, the one who nobody thought would even look at him?"
"Yeah?"
"Aphrodite's Kiss."
"Nooooo. Really?"
Lucien nodded. "It seems the bartender that dosed you did a lot of side work and kept meticulous records in his apartment. There's a big court case coming up which will decide what to do now that Losi and her crew created an antidote."
"Damn!"
"You two are just so damn cute," Jewel said. "So what happened? I remember talking to Chief Downing, then waking up here."
"Remember the story I told you about Cleth and the kids?" Lucien asked.
"Yes?"
"Well, it seems that you, your siblings, every neoLogash, and every Tyen in the League were vessels for the demon Neresta, and you were the primary. She transferred into your body where she and you fought Tregga while everyone else lay unconscious."
"Did I, I mean did we win?"
"Nope. Tregga was one mean demon." He explained what happened. "Everyone, except you, came to as soon as Tregga was killed. You did good. You gave me enough time to stop the overload."
"He is dead, isn't he?" Marta asked.
"We all hope so, but just in case, the president has ordered the whole facility be encased in a couple hundred cubic yards of concrete. We'll leave it to the roos and the dingos." Lucien's comm beeped. "I have a meeting to go to. You two get some rest and I will see you in the morning." He got up, kissed his wife, and hugged his sister before leaving them to the night.
"How are things with you two?" Jewel asked as she lowered her bed.
"We're fine. He knows I love him unconditionally, and I know he loves me with all his soul and both his hearts."
"What's it like?"
"What's what like?"
"Being in love?"
Marta lay back and thought for a moment. "It's a feeling of being complete. Lucien and I are one." She looked at the clock. "Now, where is that moron going this time of night?"
Jewel laughed.
"What?"
###
Lucien walked into the restaurant where he was met by a young hostess who led him to a room in back. He noticed the absence of people in the front of the house. Walking into the room, he found his sister waiting for him. They hugged before he sat down across from her. On the table in front of him sat a glass of white wine. He took a sip. "What brings you to Earth?"
"I wanted to congratulate you on saving the planet. How are Marta and Jewel doing?"
Lucien raised an eyebrow. They're fine. Both will be getting out of the hospital in the morning. As for saving the planet, I panicked. I had no idea how to stop the overload, so I reached in, grabbed what I could and pulled with all my might. I was lucky. Now, why are you really here?"
"Project Valera"
Both of Lucien's eyebrows headed north. "Valera is designed to rehabilitate criminals by making them face their own mortality and forcing them to work together to survive. You're suggesting we try to rehabilitate the top echelon of Adrestia?"
She nodded. "Twenty-two highly trained sociopaths who are too dangerous to keep around. Lucien, I'm tired of the killing."
"They tried to destroy my family and a planet I happen to like. My preference would be to give mother a hand dealing with the problem."
"Yet you went back to work for OffSec."
"What's your point?"
"OffSec screwed you over, yet you went to work for them. For more than ten years, you put your life on the line for an organization that tore your family, and you, apart."
"That was different."
"How?"
"Ciara. When she looked into my soul, I had a glimpse of hers. I knew I could trust her and that has never changed."
"Do you trust me?"
"Of course."
"Then I think we should do this."
"Including Alex and Hera?"
"Especially with Alex and Hera. The ship is in orbit around Ventos Prime waiting for final load. They have just enough room to fit our little group of miscreants."
"Jacob and Tayla will have a fit." He sighed. "You really think we can persuade these elves to give up their murderous ways?"
"Yep. I've arranged for you to meet with all twenty-two assassins and try to convince some or all of them to become colonists. They’re being housed at Berrimah Prison, on the other side of the city. You will find dossiers in your room. Each and every one of them will have the choice of becoming a colonist or a corpse."
"Well, if you put it that way, how can I refuse?" Lucien finished his wine. "Feel like a late dinner?"
She shook her head. "Royce and I are going to check on Marta and Jewel. I have a full day tomorrow apologizing to Earth for a bunch of elves almost blowing it up."
She held out her hand, and he took it, linking with her in the process. After a moment, they walked out to attend to their tasks.
Chapter 25 - Cleaning Crew
Lucien sat in the middle of the meeting room and waited for his guests to arrive. He sipped water from a paper cup and watched a news story play out on one of the room's two built-in view screens--something about a team called the something-or-other Demons winning a quarterfinal match. "They really need to change their name," he said quietly. The screen next to it was dark.
The room door opened and twenty-two elves of both genders and various ages walked in, led by a guard. They sat down on chairs scattered about the room.
There was no table.
Once seated, the guard walked out, locking the door behind him.
At first, Lucien said nothing, opting to watch the viewer instead. Then he saw Alex and Hera walk in and sit down.
"Hera, Alex, nice to see you two are on the mend. Hera, how's the wrist?"
She looked at him with eyes wide. "All fixed."
"Good, you're going to need it. I bet you're just waiting for me to
pull out my sword and lop your and Alex's heads off, right?"
They nodded.
He stared at them. Everyone in the room stared at them, then Lucien.
"Not today, so you can relax."
The room took a collective sigh. The elves talked amongst themselves. Finally, one asked, "What's going on, guv?" He had spent most of his life on Earth, in London, a city he and his friends had helped to almost destroy.
"I bring you an offer," Lucien said as the viewer switched to a view of a large open area. At one end stood three members of R-Sec and three-members of EarthSec, each holding a single-shot slug-thrower. At the opposite end was a large post with an individual wearing a black robe and hood standing next to it.
The elves went silent.
"Sorry about the melodrama, but we haven't had an official execution in decades," Lucien explained. "After I'm finished, you will be taken down the hall where each of you will be sentenced to summary execution for crimes committed against Ventos Prime, Earth, and the League of Planetary Systems. These crimes include, but are not limited to, the attempted murder of seven billion sapients on the planet Earth, and collusion with the demon Tregga to commit said murders. Once that formality has been dealt with, you will be walked down the hall and out into that courtyard, he said while pointing to the active viewer, "where members of R-Sec and EarthSec will kill you the old fashioned way, with rifles.
"Wait a minute! I have rights..." one of the elves said.
Lucien held up a finger. "You gave up your rights when you set foot on Earth with the express purpose of destroying it. In effect, your employer, Adrestia, declared war on Earth, and by extension, the League and Ventos Prime. Under the war crimes act, we have the right to try you and end your miserable lives any way we see fit. Sure, we could seal you in a cell for the rest of your lives, but that seemed just a little too nice."
"Who the hell are you anyway?" another elf asked.
"Really, Vern?" Alex said. "I knew you were out of touch..."
"For those of you without vid access, my name is Lucien Irithyl, Prince of Ventos Prime, which means I snap my fingers and all of you will face those six officers before the sun goes down. Now, how many of you want an alternative to the firing squad?"
They all raised their hands.
"Good." The second screen lit up with a feed from an orbital camera. It showed a large ship of Martok design with Ventos Prime turning slowly beneath it. "What you're looking at is the Ventosian Century Ship Valera in orbit around our home planet. She was named after the woman who first ventured out into the great ocean to find the second continent."
"What's a century ship?” a woman asked. Lucien recognized her as one of the women who had kidnapped Marta. He thanked God he didn't have a blaster with him.
"A Century ship is an extremely-long-range colony ship and the Valera is the first of her kind. She can travel at FTL speeds for up to one hundred years and carry a passenger and crew compliment of over one thousand. With this baby, one can have a full-blown colony up in a week, complete with InterWeb, fusion power plants, and infrastructure. As an added bonus, the passengers and crew will experience Crystallainian learning tech along the way. They will have the equivalent of two PhDs by the time they land."
"So, what does this have to do with us?" another woman asked.
An image of a planet appeared on the second monitor. "Welcome to Alyson, a Ventosian-like planet fifty years out from here. We built a hyper-speed probe ship--imagine a Protector-class warship with massively oversized engines and fuel tanks built around a freighter-sized probe--and sent it out to this planet after an exhaustive radio, optical, and XUV search. We found Alyson and several other planets suitable for colonization. This is where you come in."
Blank stares.
"Alyson will be colonized by one thousand felons, or like you, worse. The one thousand colonists will be split into five groups of two hundred colonists each. All groups will be given every conceivable skill we think will be required to ensure their survival. The ship is made up of five pods with one group per pod. The pods will be spread out around the planet to minimize the effects of any natural disaster or plague. Eventually, the people from the various groups will link up assuming they survive.
“Due to the distances involved, none of you will ever see the League again. Every colonist will be given every tool they need to fulfill their mission and live a long and happy life, just not one in the League."
"What about the other colonists?"
"Felons of every species will be on this mission. All of them have been deemed undesirable by their respective peoples. These are supposed to be the worst of the worse, so we expect some small amount of attrition."
"No mind alteration?"
"No, only education. Every one of you will go to sleep a sociopath and awaken a sociopath. It will be your jobs to make adjustments to your behaviors. By the way, all of you will receive basic training in psychology. What you do with that training is up to you."
Another one of Meena's companions piped up. "Who came up with this idea?"
"You mean the mission? A bunch of people far smarter than me."
"No, the idea to send us?"
"Let me make this clear. I have an aversion to killing sapients, though I've had to overcome that aversion at least once. I would have no qualms about taking my sword to the necks of several of you for what you did to my wife."
Hera and her three cohorts went pale.
"I agreed with this idea to send you to Alyson because I think elves are better than what you represent. I think that as a whole, we're more evolved and part of that evolution is to find better solutions to our problems of which you twenty-two are a big one. Now, if you are interested in starting a new life on a new world, you may exit though door number two over there on the right."
A guard opened the door to reveal a big numeral two emblazoned on it.
"If you feel lucky and think you can beat this rap, please exit through the door on your left labeled with the numeral one.
A person dressed up as the grim reaper opened the door with the numeral one emblazoned on it--in blood red.
"How much time do we have to decide?"
"None. Pick a door and get the hell out of my sight.”
Twenty-two elves got up and walked out of door number two. The grim reaper was visibly disappointed. Harm understood she had family on Earth. He felt her pain.
"Hera, Alex, stay a moment. Don't worry, they're saving a spot for the both of you."
The two walked over and stood in front of him.
"Have a seat," he said while gesturing to two chairs.
They sat.
Lucien stared at the two of them. "I assume you both know my background?"
The nodded.
"Good. My mother and my wife suggested I leave you two alone with them in a locked room."
"Bring it, elf." Hera said.
"Silence, damn you," Alex yelled. "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for your damn recklessness and hatred."
"Which is why you two are still alive," Lucien said. "Do you have any idea what would have happened to you two if you had carried out your plans. You would have had Smuggler's Cove, the Merchant Space Marines, all the Tralaskan families, the Ventosian royal family, and a hundred other entities, representing thousands of individuals, hunting you down. I estimate your people would all be dead within one month. Alex, you were plarking lucky that you put a screw-up like Hera in charge of this project."
Hera roared.
"Shut Up!" Alex yelled back.
"Both of you, settle the plark down! I'm almost done."
They shut up.
"I am putting the two of you in charge of Pod A. Alex will lead and you, Hera, will assist him. You'll be in charge of a group of the nastiest creatures ever to walk the universe. You two and your elf companions will wrestle control of these miscreants and bend them to your will. Oh, and one more thing."
They looked at him.
"You only have two hun
dred sapients to work with. Each pod is populated with enough cross-breedable individuals to create a viable society. Kill too many of them--your organization's method of operation--and your group will die out. You will have to find a way to lead them. It's up to you. All we're talking about is your survival. You may go now."
As the two elves walked out the door, Lucien looked over at the monitors and wondered if he had made the right decision. He got up and walked out through door number three.
Chapter 26 - After Action Report
Grendel paced back and forth in front of the lounge windows as she waited for Nels to arrive. He had been waylaid by Queen Losira who insisted he and his siblings be checked over after their terrible ordeal with the demon Neresta. "Ohhhh, I hope he's OK," she said to herself as she wore a groove in the carpet. Outside, the tree rats--both true and robotic--watched in amusement as she walked this way, then that, while talking to herself non-stop.
She came to the end of the path and turned, not seeing that someone was standing in her way, she ran right into the visitor. Looking up, she saw a very tall elf, looking down at her. He looked oddly familiar...
"Oh my, Prince Lucien," she said as she curtsied. "I am so sorry. I didn't see you there."
He took her hand in his and helped her up. "Now, none of that. You must be Grendel. Nels told me all about you while I was in transit from Earth. I understand you discovered and unraveled Adrestia for us. I thank you from the bottoms of my hearts."
Gren just stared at him.
"Agent Tavish, are you unwell?" Lucien asked as he led her to a seat.
"She's star struck, Brother," Nels said while sitting down next to her. "Darling, say hello to my brother, Lucien."
She blinked, shook her head, then blushed. "I've read all your files, My Prince. I am so honored to meet you."