Stars & Empire: 10 Galactic Tales

by Jay Allan

  “Keep an eye out as the rest of us move up,” Wade ordered as he eyed the tree-covered slope ahead. “If you detect any movement, destroy it!”

  “Everyone up the slope,” Wade commanded as his marines stood up and advanced in a long staggered line, weapons held at the ready. He knew that to an enemy the sight of the nearly black battle suits coming toward them would be a frightening spectacle.

  Suddenly, up ahead, Private Dawson rose up and fired explosive rounds from his rifle into a small grove of trees, causing a series of explosions to hurl rocks down upon them from the slope above.

  “What is it?” Corporal Stern yelled as she gestured for her advancing squads to take immediate cover.

  “Two energy beam emplacements popped up,” replied Dawson, breathing heavily. “But I got both of them. I don’t see anything else.”

  Corporal Stern and Corporal Perry resumed the advance, and soon the line of battle suits were even with Privates Dawson and Russell. Everyone stopped and spent a few minutes examining the slope ahead. The battle suits had a number of optic and sensor systems that allowed the wearer to detect even the movement of a cockroach if the marine so desired. Everyone was quickly becoming familiar with the advanced capabilities the suits furnished them.

  “Slope ahead seems clear,” Corporal Stern reported. “No visible movement.”

  “Keep a close watch,” Wade ordered. “There are bound to be more of those damn pop up weapons hidden on this mountain. Marken wouldn’t have made it this easy.”

  They continued their slow and methodical advance up the small mountain, taking advantage of cover whenever possible. Over the next two hours, two more marines suffered injuries from hidden weapons, but at last they reached the top. Upon reaching the summit, Wade strolled over and pressed down firmly on the large green button that rested on a metal pedestal. Upon pressing the button, all other embedded weapons that still remained on the mountain were disabled.

  “Well done, Lieutenant,” Marken’s pleased voice came over the com channel. “You made it in record time today. The exercise is over, so you may descend the mountain and bring your wounded to the infirmary.”

  Wade sighed. He knew that tomorrow it would be the same thing for William’s platoons. During the night, new automatic weapons would be hidden upon the mountain for the next drill. They were never put in the same place twice.

  -o0o—

  Once they were off the mountain, Lieutenant Nelson had his people jog back to the barracks. He then went to the infirmary with his three injured marines. One thing about the battle suits, they allowed even a severely injured soldier to keep on fighting. All three injured had made it to the top of the mountain and then jogged back to the base. The suit was a miracle of engineering. It would inject drugs and could stop bleeding to allow the marine in the battle suit to continue to function.

  Reaching the infirmary, the three marines exited their battle suits and two of them immediately collapsed to the ground as the suits were no longer protecting them from their injuries. Several orderlies rushed up and took the three inside. Wade quickly opened up his own battle suit and after stepping out, followed them into the infirmary.

  Inside were several Human doctors, a few nurses, as well as four members of the Kivean race. One of them Wade recognized as Harnett. She seemed to have taken a keen interest in the Humans and made sure that the injured received the best treatment possible.

  “What do we have?” she demanded as she went from bed to bed checking on the injured marines. She saw there were two men and one woman.

  “Two energy beam wounds, one to the leg and one to the arm,” one of the Human doctors replied as he administered a sedative to one of the marines. “The woman has a projectile wound in her shoulder.”

  Harnett instantly went to the woman as her injury seemed to be the most serious. She quickly used an advanced medical device to scan the wound.

  “Damn this hurts,” the woman complained as she winced when Harnett touched the edge of the wound, probing it with her long, supple fingers.

  Harnett motioned and one of the Human nurses came over and injected the marine with a painkiller.

  “That should ease the pain,” spoke Harnett, hating these war games that resulted in these types of wounds. She had complained to Marken about the injuries, but he had only shook his head and answered that they were necessary.

  “Will I have a scar?” the woman asked as the pain began to lessen.

  “No,” replied Harnett, patting the woman’s hand reassuringly. “I will make sure there is no scarring.”

  Harnett finished her examination seeing that the bullet had gone all the way through, damaging both bone and muscle tissue before exiting out the back of the woman’s shoulder. Shaking her head, she walked over to a sealed cabinet and after entering a special code, took out a small vial filled with a gray, watery substance. Placing the vial in a small receptacle on top of her medical computer, she began tapping on the control screen.

  She spent a few moments entering information and then, once she was satisfied, removed the vial and placed it on an injector. She then injected the woman’s shoulder with the nanites that she had programmed to repair the injury. They would help to regenerate the skin, bone, and muscle tissue and close the wound. When the nanites were done there wouldn’t even be any scar tissue. When the reconstruction was complete, the nanites would shut down and die, dissolving in the bloodstream.

  When she was finished with the woman, she went to check on the two men. The Human doctors treating them had already implemented similar procedures under the guidance of another Kivean doctor. Harnett and the others were spending much of their free time training the Human military doctors on how the Kleese’s advanced medical technology worked. She also knew that it was against the rules for races like the Humans to be exposed to this type of advanced technology, but Marken had assured her that the Kleese would never know.

  -o0o-

  Wade watched approvingly as his marines seemed to be well on the way to recovery. One thing he had noticed was that the female Kivean doctor, as well as several of the others, seemed genuinely interested in his people’s health and were teaching the Human medical staff how to use some very advanced medical equipment.

  “How are they doing?” Wade asked once he saw that Harnett was finished treating his people.

  “Fine,” replied Harnett, seeing that it was Lieutenant Nelson that was addressing her. “They will all make a full recovery and will only need to be under medical care for twenty-eight of your hours.”

  “That’s good,” Wade replied with a friendly smile. “If Marken is correct, we could be seeing our first deployment in another few weeks. I want everyone ready.”

  Harnett nodded as she watched Lieutenant Nelson turn and leave the infirmary. He didn’t know that she was Marken’s mate and neither had bothered to tell him, at least not yet.

  Wade walked over to another long, innocent looking building and was allowed entrance by the two marines standing guard duty. Stepping inside, Wade blinked at the brightness in the room. Over a dozen military engineers mixed in with a few military research scientists were busily tearing apart certain high tech devices Marken had furnished them. Wade didn’t know what kind of hand Marken was playing, but he had a strong suspicion that the Kleese had no idea that these devices had been made available to the Human scientists.

  “This stuff is amazing,” Brent Adamson spoke as he saw Wade walk up. Brent was the lead scientist working on the alien technology.

  “What’s new?” asked Wade, curiously. Brent was a brilliant research scientist and had been enthusiastic when these devices became available for them to experiment with. It seemed as if every day the engineers and scientists were discovering something new and amazing.

  “Marken gave us one of their portable computers, which describes how their star drive works,” Brent replied with a big excited smile. “It warps space directly in front of the ship, which decreases the distance between point A to point
B. The more power that is applied, the greater the warp effect is.”

  “So that’s the secret to their star drive,” said Wade, thoughtfully. “Do you understand it well enough to build one?” Wade only had a vague idea as to what the scientist was describing. His strong point in school had not been science.

  Brent laughed and shook his head. “Not from scratch! The quantum math involved is far above any of us here, though there might be a few people on Earth that could understand it. If we had one of their ships, I firmly believe we could duplicate the drive.”

  Wade nodded. If someday they did manage to escape and return to Earth, the secret of the star drive would be essential. “Anything else?”

  “Yes,” the scientist replied. “We found some star charts on one of the computers and we know how far from Earth we are.”

  Wade stepped back at hearing this bombshell. “How far?”

  “A little over six hundred and twenty light years,” Brent announced, pleased that he had surprised the lieutenant.

  Wade was silent as he mulled this surprising information over. “That’s a long ways from home.”

  “It’s a start,” Brent responded with a nod. “At least we know where we are.”

  Wade spent anther thirty minutes walking through the large building, talking to the different engineers and the few scientists they had at their disposal. Most were making progress daily in understanding the science and technology they were being exposed to. As he left the building, he was still confused by one thing. Why had Marken made all of this available to them? In the four weeks they had been here, not once had a Kleese put in an appearance. The only aliens they had been exposed to were of Marken’s race. At some point in time, Captain Jenkins was going to have to confront Marken and demand an explanation. Wade just hoped he was there to hear it.

  -o0o-

  Harnett finished her work in the infirmary and after checking on her three patients one final time, left to go to her quarters. As she walked down the long wide corridors of the station, she was surprised at how easy the Humans were to work with. They learned very quickly and were full of questions. Reaching a small hatch, she keyed in her code and it slid open. Stepping inside, she took a deep breath of the fresh air and gazed out over the small dome and the vegetation that was visible. The trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers all came from the Kivean home world. In the center of the dome was a small city where nearly six thousand Kiveans lived when they were on the station.

  Harnett had never seen her home planet. She had been born on the station and taught early in life how to serve the Kleese. Later, Marken had chosen her as his life mate, and they had been together ever since. Harnett stepped over onto a moving walkway, which would take her to the heart of the city. Marken and she lived in a small apartment building which they called home whenever they were not called away to serve upon a Kleese ship. If Marken’s plan worked, neither of them would ever have to serve on a Kleese ship again.

  -o0o-

  Marken was in a meeting with several other members of his race. It was a small group, and they still had much planning to do if their plan to escape the clutches of the Kleese were to become a reality.

  “We risk much,” Taalon commented with a concerned frown. “The Kleese must not be allowed to suspect what we are doing.”

  “We must continue to hide what we’re attempting,” Kalarn agreed. “The Kleese will not grow suspicious as long as we don’t give them a reason to.”

  “The Humans are learning rapidly,” Marken informed them. “We were fortunate to have abducted several of their military research scientists as well as a few engineers. They are already studying the technology we have furnished them for experimentation.”

  “We have three chosen groups of Humans,” Larnell added as he thought over Marken’s words. “Nearly one thousand Humans are going through advanced training.”

  “Normally they would not receive this training until we knew they could be trusted to serve the Kleese,” said Kalarn, showing some worry in his voice. “What if they turn against us?”

  “They won’t,” promised Marken, confidently. “A few of them already suspect something is going on, particularly several of their more astute officers.”

  “What will they do when they learn that their world has been destroyed?” Kalarn asked his eyes narrowing. “They have no home to go back to.”

  “Not all of them died,” remarked Taalon, recalling the subterfuge they had all participated in. “While their planet is no longer available to them, there are still places in their solar system they can go.”

  “We made sure the Kleese never knew about the colony on the fourth planet of the system or the large one in the asteroid,” Marken added. “The Kleese also ignored the base on the planet’s moon because they believed it would die out on its own without supplies from the home planet.”

  “The data about the fourth planet and the asteroid were purposely deleted from the ship’s computers and scanning systems,” Taalon explained.

  “The Humans on their moon and in the asteroid should have been able to rescue a large number of their people,” added Marken, hoping he was correct in this assumption. “In time they will grow strong and become a viable threat to the Kleese themselves.”

  “Are you certain?” Kalarn asked, his eyes narrowing even further than normal. “Have we chosen the right race? If we’re wrong we will lose everything, including our lives.”

  “The Humans are the most aggressive humanoid race the Kleese have ever encountered,” Marken replied as he crossed his long arms across his chest. “There was always a war of some type going on upon their planet. It frightened the Kleese enough that they ordered the planet to be destroyed rather than risk the Humans developing a star drive.”

  “We have already gone too far to turn back now,” added Taalon, looking at the others. “This is our only hope to return to our own world someday and to free it from the clutches of the Kleese.”

  “It’s a desperate and a dangerous gamble,” responded Kalarn, looking at the others. “If we are wrong and the Kleese learn of what we are doing, they will kill all of our people on this station.”

  “That’s why all of our people will be going with us,” Marken answered. “We will only get one chance at this, so we cannot fail.”

  “When do we enact our escape plan?” asked Kalarn, looking over at Marken. “The sooner we get away from the Kleese, the better.”

  “The Humans must be allowed to learn more of what the Kleese expect of their servants,” replied Marken, sadly. “They will have to go out on several deployments before all is truly ready.”

  “We may lose a few of them,” Taalon pointed out.

  “It will be a small price to pay for our freedom,” replied Marken, evenly. “It is unfortunate, but we all knew that there would be casualties in this, and some of them may even be our own.”

  The group continued to talk and make plans. For years, they had been seeking a race that could be a threat to the Kleese. In the Humans, they had found such a people.

  -o0o-

  Lieutenant Nelson was speaking with Lieutenant Williams about his suspicions. “There is something going on with the Kiveans. I was in the research building earlier and some of the technology our people are studying has nothing to do with war. It’s as if the Kiveans want us to learn as much of the Kleese technology as possible for some reason.”

  “I’ve thought much the same,” replied Beth, letting out a heavy sigh. “Since we arrived here at the dome they seem much more personable, as if they actually care about our welfare. Did you know that the Kivean female doctor in the infirmary is Marken’s mate? I believe they call it life mate.”

  “No, I didn’t,” Wade replied, his eyes growing wide in surprise. “Watching her, she seems deeply upset anytime someone is injured in one of these war games.”

  “I can assure you that she is,” responded Beth, looking intently at Wade. “She treats our own doctors and nurses as equals and never acts as if
she is superior.”

  Wade leaned back and folded his arms over his chest as he thought. “We need to be careful and keep these observations to ourselves,” he said at last. “If we can get some of these Kiveans to work with us, we just might be able to escape and return to Earth. They understand the technology and could probably get us home.”

  “I agree,” Beth replied as she stood up and walked over to stare out the small window in her quarters. Both she and Lieutenant Nelson had been furnished with private quarters to live in. “The Kiveans are up to something. I think it’s best if we just play along for now until we see what it is.”

  “Perhaps you can still attend that wedding someday,” Wade said. He knew that Beth had been preparing to get married but had been abducted by the Kleese instead.”

  “Perhaps,” Beth replied as she turned around with a glint of hope in her eyes. “But a lot will have to occur between now and then for that to ever happen.”

  “We just have to believe,” Wade responded as he stood up and came to stand next to Beth. “None of us can ever give up hope. I firmly believe that someday we will all see Earth again.”

  Beth nodded. Wade was always so positive and upbeat. In many ways, he reminded her of her fiancée. “Let’s go to the mess hall and eat; it’s been a long day.”

  Wade went to the door and opened it, and they walked the short distance to the mess hall. Once inside, they saw it was full of hungry marines and the aroma of freshly cooked food filled the air. Somehow or the other, the Kiveans had managed to get a hold of a number of frozen food lockers on some of the bases they had stripped. He was also glad that excellent army cooks had been abducted as well. The men and woman were talking as they ate, and occasionally laughter rang out. If Wade didn’t know better, this mess hall seemed no different than the ones back on Earth.

  Going down the chow line, he quickly filled his plate and smiled at seeing meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, as well as some baked rolls were on the menu. Good food always helped morale and he knew that, in the coming months, everyone in this room was going to need it.