by Mark Wandrey
She gave a little smile, one that seemed almost unpracticed and nodded in reply. “There are quarters made ready for your men. Please take the wounded to medical immediately. The ships medical intelligence is prepared to begin treating them.
“A couple are critically injured, ma’am.”
That same smile, but this time a little condescending? “Have no concern, Sergeant. They will survive.”
The injured were quickly moved through by stretcher-bearers, all of them surprised at how light their burdens were in the gravity of the ship. None of them realized that Lilith controlled the gravity to make the stretchers weigh only a quarter their normal weight.
Soon after they were past a slow stream of soldiers followed. Like the sergeant they could be best described as beaten by not broken. Many had bandages or wounds that were less severe. Lilith knew the ship would tend to them all in short order.
And then her mother appeared, turning back to look through the main area of the cargo module one last time to be sure that none of her men were left behind, before nodding and floating into the Kaatan.
“Permission to come aboard, Chosen Groves.”
“Granted, Chosen Groves.” Lilith let out a little coughing laugh and instantly Minu shared one of her own. She stepped closer and Lilith floated to the ground and her body sagged a little as she activated some gravity for herself. “I am sorry about Pip.”
Minu got a strange look on her face, as if she was fighting a battle within herself, and then glanced over Lilith’s shoulder. “It is okay mother; they are all down the hall.”
A single sob escaped Minu’s lips; almost a hiccup and Lilith could see the battle was one she herself had fought a couple days ago. She made an intuitive leap and did something she rarely did: she moved forward and embraced her mother.
“It is okay,” she whispered into her mother’s ear, “I feel the same pain.”
“Oh Lilith,” Minu cried and disintegrated. There on the Kaatan, her men safe and everyone out of danger, including herself, Minu finally allowed herself to grieve. “Pip is gone, and so many of my men, those young b-boys and girls, dead! And I c-couldn’t save them!” She nearly screamed in almost a whisper as she lost control of herself.
Lilith nodded and carefully ran her hand through her mother’s long, dirty hair, carefully avoiding the bloody gash on her forehead. She did the only thing she could; she shared the loss and cried with her mother.
Just around the corner, the sergeant could hear the hard as nails Chosen weeping uncontrollably. He heard her words, about the loss of her men. Without being seen, he turned to face her and came to attention, then saluted before spinning crisply on his toes and marching to see to his men, her men.
From that moment on, Minu Groves was as tall as a giant.
Interlude
May 14th, 534 AE
Unidentified Star System, Contested Territory, Galactic Frontier
A Kaatan ship of the line docked with the remnants of an Ibeen class transport, gently nudging the savaged hulk into a stable orbit as the two fell around the dim massiveness of the systems brown dwarf, its emissions feeble but enough to hide it from prying eyes.
Asa-Oto was the captain of a T’Chillen warship. He’d had no training in this endeavor, being raised from an egg to be a warrior and lead swarms into battle. That mattered little though because most of the ship was shattered junk flying away at varying speeds. He only commanded because the bridge had been near the exploding ship and the true captain thus vaporized.
He’d commanded the surviving crew and technical females to evaluate their condition and see what was possible immediately. They were in no danger of imminent death, the fragment of the cruiser he led had life support and consumables enough for weeks. He was also informed that through a strange quirk of fate the ship’s star drive was attached to his section and the leading female technician optimistic she could get it functional.
Unlike the commander of the T’Chillen star fleets, Singh-Apal Katoosh, Asa-Oto had little use or respect for the females of his species. If they could prove useful with their annoying skills to assist him in a military action, than for the better. If not they could be used for whatever else he found amusing, be that breeding or target practice. Matings of his species always produced a surplus of females anyway, so much the better to thin them out a little.
“Inform the technicians that restoring quantum communications with high command is the first priority,” he told his new first assistant (the original assistant was floating atoms where the alien ship had once been).
“Swarm commander, ahead of navigation and weapons?”
“What did I say?” he snapped, his fangs dripping venom and dualloy coated tail spike glinting in the emergency light of the improvised command center. He still wore his combat armor lest a sudden failure of a weakened bulkhead catch him unaware, as had happened to a damage control party just hours ago.
“As you command,” the cowed subordinate hissed and lowered himself level with the deck in respect. Asa-Oto waved him away with his tail spike and resumed studying the evolving schematic of the ship.
His section represented about thirty-two percent of what had once been the cruiser. His problem was there were too many things to consider in the last few days events to fully bite and swallow without pause. The alliance with the disagreeable beasts, the Mok-Tok, made sense in a certain sort of way to him. They were very strong in close combat and were technologically savvy to a fault.
While the fleet commander had briefed the lower commanders that the beasts had fewer capital ships than the mighty T’Chillen, they possessed large amounts of fighter craft and that would help his own species create a ‘more dynamic space combat element’, whatever the curses that meant.
Thus when the squadron he was part of – all brand new ships from the fabulous construction center only recently opened – was deployed to assist the Mok-Tok to take Planet K from mercenaries aiding the Akala in a squabble with the Leesa, he understood. And then had come that ship.
The little ship would have seemed to be no threat to even a part of the Mok-Tok/T’Chillen force. It was a quarter the size of even one T’Chillen destroyer and had no reinforcements. But the squadron commander was scared of it, and this was based on the briefing from Katoosh.
“This vessel is under the control of the Rasa. It should be engaged on sight, but with extreme caution. During the first encounter with this one ship of Lost design, two T’Chillen dreadnoughts were lost.”
Asa-Oto considered this to be hyperbole. He’d served on a dreadnought during his first deployment as a team leader of a swarm. The dreadnoughts were kilometers on a side, huge flying blocks of dualloy with enough firepower to reduce half a planet to molten rock and gas. They were the secret ultimate weapons by which the T’Chillen ensured their position as a higher order species. Even the other higher-order species did not challenge their supremacy in space, and it was because of those dreadnoughts.
So he did not consider this to be a serious account, until the battle was joined. The little ship had mated itself to a huge Lost designed transport and seemed to be easy prey, and yet it had still killed T’Chillen and Mok-Tok warships with alarming ease! The battle had gone on for hours until it led to this star system, where it came to the current conclusion, and revelation.
Humans on the transport. Rasa he’d expected, but not humans. The humans must be doing the Rasa’s bidding.
But there were no Rasa aboard. He didn’t know as much about the humans as the Rasa, only that the humans were deploying mercenaries to fight for other feckless, minor species around the galaxy. Asa-Oto had always assumed that sooner or later they would have to be shown the order of things. So when he offered a deal of surrender to the human commander, an offer any sane species leader would take to save itself, the human refused.
So they had fought, and fought surprisingly well! Asa-Oto had not expected that level of tenacity from a minor almost unknown species, especially one being taught by
the Tog. He’d watched them successfully breach the boarding unit’s defenses and, when his sub-commander moved to counter by sending in reinforcements, the human had sprung his trap. Asa-Oto was forced to admit, it was ingenious. He would have to speak to a technician to see if that could be duplicated some time.
After the explosion though, he knew the humans would have no more tricks so he ordered in almost all his reserves, and even had the ship’s commander add a detachment of his security to hold the rear. Then the Lost transport had exploded.
Speaking with the surviving engineer of the cruiser, a male thankfully, Asa-Oto was told it had could not possibly have been an accident. Someone on that transport had purposefully created a feedback overload within the capacitive bank of the star drive. He explained it would take special programming to override safety mechanisms. The humans had killed themselves to kill him.
He scratched some loose scales under his chin as he contemplated the glowing tablet in the dim bay. The humans were either insane (possible), more dangerous that anyone yet realized (also possible), or simply followed orders to obediently kill themselves if captured (unknown).
He’d never tasted their flesh, so he did not know their strengths. He’d felt their fierceness in battle, but often fierce adversaries proved weak when cornered. The Rasa were just such an adversary. Disappointing since they were fellow reptiles. The Leesa were not much better, but at least had the good taste to lack legs.
“Swarm commander, communications and sensors are restored,” reported a technician over his radio, “ten percent of main power is also available.”
“What about maneuvering?”
“We have attitude control and one impulse engine functioning, but without any avionics, there are no qualified pilots. It will take another few hours to link enough tablets together to create an ad-hoc navigational computer and program it to—”
“Enough, I understand. Continue your efforts and keep me informed.” He flicked off his communicator with one tentacle and called up the systems with another. He had a functioning ship, or at least a piece of one. He initiated a message to the fleet commander.
“Fleet Commander Singh-Apal Katoosh, this is Swarm Leader Asa-Oto Saala, in temporary command of cruiser Gleaming Spike, Squadron 5. We were dispatched to render assistance to the Mok-Tok on Planet K and have met with the small Lost ship we were briefed about. All T’Chillen vessels destroyed. Most Mok-Tok vessels lost as well, it is unknown their complete disposition.
“During the engagement, Gleaming Spike boarded the remains of a Lost transport that the smaller warship was protecting and found it full of humans. These humans appeared to be in command. They fought well, and in the end killed themselves by detonating their starship drives and disabling this vessel.
“Based on this information, it would appear possible that the humans are under the control of, or allied with, the Rasa. It should also be considered that they are now a threat to the T’Chillen and this taken into account for future operations.
“We are attempting to make sufficient repairs in order to arrive at a nearby Portal. Another report will be made in one hour.” He signed it with his code and prepared to send the message when the radio sounded in his ear.
“Commander, another ship approaches!”
“Is it the small Lost vessel?”
“No, this appears larger and there may be two of them.”
Asa-Oto nodded and held off on his transmission. It could well be Mok-Tok or T’Chillen reinforcements. In that case he could make a more detailed report. He was about to examine the inbound ships when the first missile hit.
As explosions tore through the already crippled cruiser, Asa-Oto struggled with, and finally triggered, his message on the tablet he’d been using. As the second wave of ship-killers hit, the transmission was interrupted permanently.
The pair of ships swept the debris field for over an hour, meticulously destroying every remnant of the T’Chillen cruiser. Still on the far side of the brown dwarf, orbiting slowly, Lilith never detected the weapons fire, or the ships for that matter. Had she been able to scan them before they departed, she would have recognized them easily.
The pair of Squeen frigates slid away from the system as quietly as they’d arrived.
* * *
“What’s going on?” Aaron asked as he entered the Kaatan’s medical bay and found Minu waiting with Kal’at and a small cadre of the ship’s crystalline robots. The scene was strange to say the least.
“We have something I think you might want to see,” Minu told her husband and gestured.
On the bay’s examination table was part of the armored combat suit she had worn during the battle on Planet K.
“This would have been more Pip’s department…”
“But he cannot be here,” Lilith said as she floated in on her special isolated zone of no gravity. “I read your briefing mother, if you are correct, this could be fascinating.”
“What are you two talking about?” Aaron asked, looking at the piece of armor then at them.
“It would be easier to show you,” Minu said and moved next to the armor. She addressed the robots. “Isolate this part with a forcefield and include one bot.”
A telltale shimmer appeared around the armor section and one of the crystalline bots. Now Minu spoke to the isolated bot.
“Open the ammo compartment.”
The little bot used its multi-segmented arms to deftly manipulate the tiny compartment on the armor segment. It swung open on frictionless hinges to reveal a dark space inside. “Move clear,” she told the robot, then spoke again. “It would be best if you come out now, noble sir.”
“Who is she talking too?” asked Val’at.
“I have no clue,” Aaron whispered.
“Quiet please,” Minu asked.
Lilith floated in behind and above them to get a closer look. Above and to the side a medical display came alive with biological data.
“You serve no purpose in staying inside there. If you come out, you will be accorded all the privilege accorded to a higher order species.”
“What sort of guarantee do I have of this?” their translators suddenly spoke, even though no-one heard another language being spoken.
“Other than my word, you have no other guarantee.”
“I understand.”
Out from the armor segment emerged a tiny white being, no more than a dozen millimeters long. One of the medical displays caught it and amplified the creature. Kal’at smacked his jaws in interest and the humans, all except Minu, struggled to not laugh. It was eventually Gregg who spoke first.
“It looks like a mouse!” he said, and was correct. The being was bipedal instead of quadrupedal like a Terran mouse, and its eyes were golden in color and its nose flayed out like a mole instead of being black and covered with whiskers.
“I give you the other half of the Mok-Tok,” Minu told the amazed assemblage.
“Such a powerful species,” Kal’at hissed, “in such a tasty package.”
The Mok-Tok stood on stubby rear legs and regarded them, somehow managing to look as powerful as they were, as a higher-order species. A tiny belt around its middle was the only adornment it wore. The medical intelligence zoomed in on the belt and explanations appeared next to the items. Tools, sensory equipment, super-miniature computer tablet, empty food and water containers, and an unidentified energy weapon.
“Please remove the weapon and give it to the bot,” Lilith spoke for the first time.
The being turned its tiny head to regard her.
“An amazing accomplishment, mother. There are no records of the appearance of this part of the Mok-Tok symbionts in my records.”
Minu nodded. “I spotted it trying to crawl away shortly after disabling the mound it was riding.”
“You are the master of this vessel,” the Mok-Tok said to Lilith. The movements of its mouth were almost imperceptible, and none still heard anything.
“I am in charge of it.”
/> It continued to regard her in particular for a long moment then bowed, very slightly, before removing a tiny silver tube and holding it out. The bot produced a pair of equally tiny arms and accepted the item, quickly engulfing it within itself.
“I would request that back if I am ransomed.” Lilith nodded. “I am to assume this is your plan, to ransom me to my people?”
“Are you of any worth?” Minu asked, though she already knew the answer.
This time the Mok-Tok looked at Minu directly, studying her intensely. “Humans are a young species,” it said matter-of-factly, “and have gone almost completely without notice until now. You are the war leader from Planet K, are you not?”
“I am.”
“And, I am making an educated guess now; you also created this mercenary force.”
Minu scowled as she answered. “They are called Rangers, and were not conceived as mercenaries.”
“I see.”
“You have carefully avoided the topic of your worth to us in ransom.”
“So I have. I am Hodo Bapal, War Leader of the Supreme Clan of the Mok-Tok.”
“I see,” Minu said, echoing the Mok-Tok from moments ago. “You are indeed worth some ransom.” The two beings stood and studied each other intently.
Chapter 56
June 3rd, 534 AE
Unidentified Star System, Contested Territory, Galactic Frontier
Moving over two thousand Rangers from the derelict transport to the next closest star system with a Portal, a world humans called Beacon, eleven light-years away, was just not practical aboard the Kaatan, as Lilith explained it.
“Cramming every single person possible aboard and making the best speed would still mean at least ten trips. The only real option is the tactical drive.”
“How long for each trip in that case?” Aaron asked.
The CIC was split in partial gravity as Lilith often did for meetings. Present was herself, Aaron, Gregg (nearly healed from his injuries), Cherise, Kal’at, and Minu. As their leader, Minu listened and worked from her tablet. She’d been obviously preoccupied since the loss of Pip over two weeks ago. She’d also hardly exchanged a word with her longtime friend, Cherise, who was avoiding her.