Greener Green III: Let Light Reign

by Peter Sowatskey

  "You've won a prize," I said, giving her a small coin, Mary too. "Let's keep it our secret won't you?"

  She ran toward the kitchen.

  I laughed. "We've guaranteed word will be spread before dawn, far and wide." Mary laughed also. We went in, sat at the table and poured water from an earthen water pitcher. Water beaded on the exterior; indicating a cool drink.

  Torken returned as a cousin brought salad came from the kitchen, washed his hands in a basin by the door, and sat. Before I could take a bite someone knocked on the doorjamb.

  Torken called, "Come in."

  Three black uniformed Rangers walked in. The man in the middle of the two females spoke, "You would be Torken. We ask your hospitality be extended to us. We've come a long way, in haste."

  "Come sit, after wash hands, there by the door."

  Mary could hardly contain herself, laboratory escapees, but she let it play out.

  When they were seated, the man continued, "I'm Lewis. To my right is Bonnie and left, Raquel. They are classmates of mine. Actually I brought the whole class, 4239, extended field trip, you might say."

  "That's splendid." Mary said.

  I caught Mary's thought 'Good Lord, help us', before she clamped her mind shut. "Lil, this is the Calvary I told you about."

  I shut my mind in turn and said, "Good that you're here; now Mary and I can attend to some pressing business elsewhere."

  The three Rangers relaxed. Torken choked on his salad, (would he miss us that much?) He kept his thoughts to himself. Leader-wise he would be OK.

  Conversation during the meal consisted of, "Pass that, please." The cousins sat at the table with us during dessert, saying nothing, but taking in everything.

  With the table cleared Lewis brought out a projector and changed views as he spoke.

  "We just landed five personal ships up by the ANNU KI ship, the two Ranger Patrol vehicles you asked for, and two spares plus mine. Mary, you may recall the space liner that you sent plans for. That design became popular among the shipyard geniuses. Naturally they changed it. We brought two along, in orbit, of course. Also a re-education ship for Raquel; she has ideas beyond Standard Operational Procedure she's panting to try. That's the small ship you see on the right. The larger is Bonnie's; and is an accelerated industrialization ship. The SOP is to withdraw the top two hundred of each political group, Torken, and explain to them the new facts of life. The details are up to you. It's your planet, after all."

  I didn't know if he could make the stretch, and I didn't dare say anything; Mary either. He glanced back and forth at each of us; but addressed Lewis.

  "Sometimes killing goes quicker, but try it your way first, always time for my way. Pick up the ringed slaves and put them on the liner. Same time, pick up top two hundred business, government, and military leaders, and their families. Must have families also. I will make a speech to them. If they don't agree that I'm in charge, I'll dump them out an airlock."

  Lewis looked left and right, got nods, "It's done, midnight tomorrow. We'll form a line north to south. Let the planet go by and scoop them up. I like it."

  Bonnie spoke. "We might learn from a thorough going over of the ANNU KI ship. Some built in mind traps are a possibility. I'm more concerned about short circuits in the headbands, which might be activated by the pick-up beam. We'll have to test the possibility on a live subject."

  "Use me, sunlight tomorrow. Please excuse, tired. Stay here if you like." Torken said.

  He left.

  Lewis rose, "Fine then, now, let's get on with our plan. Bring down the Tech and Drives people from each ship, (ladies.) We are going to absolutely 'know' that ship before noon tomorrow."

  Noon tomorrow came. Testing on Torken's headband brought no ill results. All waited for Lewis's conclusions, Throckmorten party also. They, Mary, Torken, and I plus the searchers gathered in the combined function room. Lewis took the only chair. Everybody else settled to the floor and listened to him.

  "Gather round, subjects, and I'll tell you a tale of this vessel. Its original design called for a crew of ten. Now it is a one person ship, because of this room. Disconnect this room and it still needs a ten person crew, or at least four mad monkeys. Perhaps we can deduce a body shortage exists in the ranks of our enemy, one explanation anyway. The science behind its preservation field is known. It has many interior fields, which we don't know, and will copy to our advantage. The body tanks are their attempt to nullify the effect of their spinning drives, 97% effective according to their manuals, which could be disinformation. We can use this ship and its four saucer observation craft, and not immediately die. In a cautionary sub-note they might have done this utilization factor on purpose and we'll all turn into ANNU KI. Joking, but many routine safeguards, like we use, could have been built in, but weren't. Ranger bodies won't withstand more than 30% speed. In your case, Lil, Mary you could survive at 60% operational capacity. So, unless we get renegade ANNU KI to help us, we're better off with our own ship design. Case closed."

  No one disagreed, so I proposed, "Let's put this on hold until Mary and I return from our mission. There's plenty to occupy us, other than this ship."

  "Indeed, so let's get on with the 'other'. Bonnie, Raquel, we're off."

  I looked inquiringly at Mary as they departed. She shrugged. "Let's say goodbye to Torken and be on our way."

  We found him in my new Ranger Patrol ship, playing with the remote viewer that showed observations from satellites the Rail Gun Ship had placed at fixed intervals over the planet.

  He looked at us.

  "Didn't get much, distant land facts, in the slave barracks; can I get a view screen in my house's bedroom?"

  Mary went to a locker and took out a Ranger laptop, dialed it into the satellite network, and showed Torken how to turn it on and off, and how to move the view point around. He held it to his chest. I would miss him, and his man/child manner.

  "We're going to lift now," I said. "Give us a kiss goodbye. We'll be back soon. Take care of your business quickly. We have a lot of planets ahead of us after this one. Lots of slaves to free."

  He kissed each of us long enough that we both questioned the rush to leave. Then he strode out the door, into his world, calling for Throckmorten. We took deep breaths and slowly faced our task.

  "I'll check the airlocks on the ship connection tunnel one more time, from both ends, and then we'll both lift. Torken's group will still make it to the Capital by afternoon. Lewis will see to it. He'll be fine. We made a copy of him for our ships Med Bay files if he isn't. And we have extra headbands."

  Operational Area Terba Rim Worlds Space

  Chapter Five

  Granger

  That looks like a regal lady, I thought, while the busboy splashed me with soapy water. That and the dishes took my mind off the person in question.

  Later I looked through the slit in the wall, even more restless people milling about. An approaching sandstorm effected people differently, some eat to calm their nerves, some just order food to play with. Either way it makes more work for me. I wash dishes, mostly to pass the time until my friends arrive. Also because I have a big appetite; and the boss gives me plenty of food and a place to sleep.

  Shortly before the outer and inner doors closed for the night, four Snake Menches with all their war gear walked in. They mostly stayed in the Southern Swamps. Their being here boded ill. The boss didn't want them here but he had little choice. Everyone found an open door when sheltering from a storm. Besides they appeared sober from where I stood over my sink surrounded with dirty dishes and platters.

  They took a table not far from two women who were guarded by a dozen guards recruited from among the local youth. The women were freshly off a star liner via the local spaceport shuttle. Supposedly they were to travel to some Lord's holdings in the Northern Mountains. Good luck, I wished them, amateurs, guards, and all.

  The snakes drank steadily as the evening wore away and the storm started spitting against our building. I knew t
he building would stand. It had withstood countless storms over the centuries. But the people inside were another matter. At the height of the evening the snakes made their move. They approached the women and their guards from four different directions. The local guards were well armed, for that locality, with shock rods and anti-theseal needlers. But they had no training, and not enough common sense to direct their firepower at one snake at a time. Consequently they died earning their pay, as their weapons had little effect on the snakes when used in such a diffused manner.

  Suddenly tired of being the dishwasher, I wiped my hands dry and walked out of the kitchen. They saw me approaching and laughed. I came up to only six feet, short of their eight feet, and didn't show much muscle. I caught a remark in their language about some appetizer, then an argument about who would hold me still while the rest raped me over a dinning table.

  Stopping in front of them I answered in their language, "You are invited to go out and walk in the sand. Now!"

  The women sat frozen in fear. Probably didn't even have a grasp of their surroundings anymore. Guards bodies lay about, dead, and bleeding their last. Some still in their death throes. The snakes didn't worry about the women running. To where? They stood, and one advanced, picking up a bench to swat me with. He approached swiftly. I almost didn't have time to metalicize, almost. The bench broke across my back. I turned back to face him, he knowing I should have been mash. A moment of sanity crossed his features as he realized he wanted to be elsewhere. But the moment passed and he tossed the broken bench ends and reached for my throat with both hands, opening his mouth wide to bite my head off, like I'd seen him do earlier.

  Before he reached my throat I grabbed both of his arms and tore them out of his shoulders. I tossed the arms to his friends to confuse them while I rearranged this one's chest to be about a foot behind where it normally existed. I turned to the others as he collapsed to my right. They tossed away the first one's arms, which they'd caught, drew their swords, and rushed me. I squatted and grabbed the middle one's ankles, pulled him up and swung him around beating the other two until they were still. My 'weapon' died sometime during the moments so I released him to land atop the others.

  Stillness enveloped the room, which you could have cut with a knife.

  "Boss man, come here."

  He came and stood before me his body slanted away in preparation for running.

  "Throw this snake meat out through a leeward door to be cleaned by the sand. After, your people make bundles of their belongings. Also post a guard on their room. I claim all that they possessed. And you'll need another dishwasher."

  "Granger, did I mistreat you, did I?"

  "No. You didn't, even when I ate too much."

  He visibly relaxed. "I will not fail you now. And I will put the dead guards in the cooler. Someone will claim them."

  He left, and I heard a 'thunk.' I turned and saw the tall thin regal woman had fainted. Her head hit the table as she fell forward. I righted a chair and sat down at the table with a heavy set mature woman regarding me.

  She said, "Metallics don't usually stray much from Gorstofhen. Usually."

  "Learned one, you might say thank you for rescuing you two."

  "I would, and do, but then I ask what greater harm could befall us than to be raped all night and be eaten alive for breakfast? I can't think of any greater harm, yet, but still I have much to learn about the Universe."

  I laughed, and she almost laughed with me, but then she saw the laughter didn't reach my eyes. I don't remember the last time my eyes laughed. For sure, not since I'd learned the fate of my wife and son and other family members.

  Making the necessary mental adjustments, I waited patiently for my body to return to a muscle and bone state. That varied depending on the level of exertion. The lady-in-waiting tried to bestir her charge.

  "Leave her be. She'll come back when she's ready."

  "I know. She's a strong girl. I'm to deliver her to Lord Faulenstein in the Kraullocken Mountains. Evidently he controls some high valleys and has many mines."

  My interests quickened but I hid it, only saying, "So I've heard. Are you to deliver her experienced?"

  "It's no business of yours, but yes. But now, I'll never be able to hire enough youths to accomplish that. In fact the guard’s families won't allow me to go on before they're compensated. I don't have funds for that. Why oh why, couldn't the unmothered snakes have picked another establishment to terrorize?"

  "I'm not sure the whole thing could be considered an accident."

  "The wedding arrangements were completed on Bersten. We came as tourists as far as anybody local knew."

  "People on Bersten knew."

  "That's true. I'll make a list of them. But also her intended's family knew."

  A waitress approached skittishly, and we ordered drinks. She came back with the drinks, accompanied by two men with net sack containers containing the four snake's weapons and belts.

  The elder one said, "We tried to wash off the blood. Their green slime sticks to everything."

  "Steam gets it off, but you've done enough. It's good."

  "We owe you our lives. I recall a very long storm when such as these went crazy. When the storm ended one snake survived, barely alive, out of eighty seven people. They shouldn't be permitted to walk among us."

  He left before I could remind him there weren't enough armies on several planets to conquer their swamp. Besides that, they were treasured as mercenaries to fight other's wars. The basic problem consisted of the fact that they hatched from eggs, up to fifty in one hatching, every two months, and matured in a year. My mind wanted to figure what it would take to wage biological warfare against them. I yanked it back and examined the belt pouches. Among the usual trinkets therein lay a year’s wages in gold, reckoning that they had a generous company guider. Whoever funded them lacked nothing in finances. I stacked the coins on the table and asked the Lady-in-waiting, "You can pick out whoever paid them, or not, doesn't make much difference to them. Might however, enable you to forestall future trouble. What are your names?"

  "I'm Bertra, and she is Lady Willowesen. And I can't pick out who you are, but assuredly 'someone'."

  Maybe the sound of her name registered on our Lady as her whole body twitched for long moments. Then she slowly raised her head and shoulders from the table. She would have two black eyes. Her forehead turned purple already.

  With much difficulty she said, "Bertra, tell me I dreamt an evil dream."

  "It's no dream. And worse, someone sold us out. Bertra gestured to the coins on the table.

  "Well, we didn't come cheap. But who would want us dead?"

  I interrupted, "I suggest we look at the snake’s room. Then settle in your rooms for a long serious discussion. This storm is expected to last for several days."

  "You suggest, what gives you the right to suggest----."

  Her speech trailed off as she stared at me in horror.

  "You came to our rescue. I'm in a dream again. No one could do what you did, impossible. Dreamland and I'm losing my mind."

  Bertra patted her shoulder, "I'll explain. Trust me. You're sane. Don't ever doubt that."

  Lady W sighed, stood with drooping shoulders, "Lead on. It can't get any worse."

  Bertra gave me a slanted sideways glance, but held her peace.

  The register keeper said, "Four thirteen." In answer to the number of the snakes room.

  We climbed the open center stairwell until we were on the fourth floor and went along the north corridor to the room.

  To the guards by the door I said, "We'll be here a while. Go get some supper."

  "Yes Sir." They saluted and left.

  We went into the room which had four oversized beds, one on each wall. At the ends of the beds were lockers which the snakes favored as luggage. They bragged they could stuff a lifetime in their lockers. As opposed to us lower forms who only built walls to hide from them. I grabbed a battle mace and struck the locks off each locker.


  "Search away. We're looking for who hired them, maybe some group they belonged to, anything relevant."

  Each of us took a locker piling the items out on the floor. I finished mine first and started on the fourth locker which had more decorations on it. On top of the clothes I found a journal and sat on the bed to read it. It took about five minutes to decipher the code the writer used, mainly alternating normal language with priestly language. Among the daily bits of data I found the name of Lord Faulenstein. Why in hell would one want to kill an un-bedded wife? I could agree to kill one too quarrelsome, though I'd never considered it personally. Better not dwell there.

  "Lady W. Why would you be drawn here to be killed by your intended husband?"

  Aghast, they insisted first I had misread. Then thought I had made up the information. Lastly, they didn't have a clue to what they were involved in.

  "We'll go to your rooms, and puzzle over the problem tomorrow. Lead on."

  So many emotions crossed their faces that I wanted to laugh. At the end Lady W simply threw up her hands and stormed out of the room with Bertra and me behind her.

  The guards had returned with plates and tankards.

  "I'll know if anybody steps a foot into that room, and that will disappoint me."

  "No problem Sir. You can count on us."

  On the sixth floor our Lady W put a key in the only door. The pyramid shaped structure came to an apex not far above, so consequently the room we entered compromised the whole sixth floor, minus the interior stairwell. With its four large windows opened, it would have been a magnificent view to the space-port, to the harbor, to the mountains, and for amusement, to Old Town's narrow streets, and their usual non-stop revelry. There were beds beneath each window. I threw the sacks on one, myself on another, announced, "It has been a long day. See you in the morning." And to all apparent indications I fell asleep. Truth be known, I never slept.

  Lady W said, to no one, "Why, of all the unmannerly people, we're witnessing the worst possible."