by Chris Hechtl
“True,” Anna admitted.
“I can check out the nearest one. Did you see where it landed?” Luca Hawk asked. Claudia shook her head. “A general heading?”
“I can point you to a few I suppose,” she said as they went outside. She pointed to the general direction of where she thought something had come down.
“Did it come down fast or slow?” Adam Ursini, their host asked.
“Fast like a meteor,” Claudia replied.
“It could have been a shuttle, but I dunno. I'm thinking it was a drop pod. If you saw it, then it wasn't an orbital strike,” Adam replied.
“So, we should check it out?”
“One way or another we need to know. I'd rather know and be prepared than not know,” Adam answered. He turned to Luca. “Kid, you think you can hang glide high enough to see anything?”
“I can try. The morning thermals are the best,” Luca replied.
“Then get some rest,” Adam said, waving them back into the caves. “We'll get you off at first light,” he growled.
“Right,” Luca said with a grin. He was finally going to be able to fly again. It felt good, almost like things were returning to normal.
Chapter 8
February, 2237
Eden
Governor Jack Lagroose sometimes lost perspective of the things around him or thought he did. So, whenever he felt a bit overwhelmed he took the time to go walk about. There were some people who bitched about his sticking his nose into things and not being available for endless meetings, but that was tough for them. He needed to stretch his legs and show himself to the population from time to time.
He regretted not sneaking Alyssa out of school to check out the Tauren shuttles with them. She might have enjoyed the quality time with daddy he reflected guiltily. He shook such thoughts off with difficulty.
Each of the shuttles as well as the Terran shuttles were hidden from eyes in the sky in half-buried hangars Paul and Sharif had constructed. They were surrounded by a Faraday cage in order to keep them from transmitting or being seen.
Engineers and techs had poured over each ship, practically taking them apart and putting them back together in the process. He was confident Paul and Sharif's engineers had learned all they could from the craft. He still wanted his own eyeball look. Call it playing hooky, call it being a tourist, it didn't matter. Rank had its privileges.
Thankfully Magellan had given them a warning of the invasion, he thought as he inspected the shuttles. Each was a delta shape, not quite a classic Terran design but close enough. He could see the alieness though, from the gray pitted metal and undercoat of ceramic to the massive airlock door. He paused when he looked at the controls. He held his hand out. The Taurens had three fingers and a thumb on each hand, but each digit was twice the thickness of his own. No wonder the controls were spaced out.
He touched the airlock threshold as he went inside. It was brightly lit with a blue and white ceiling. The interior resembled more of a dome than a fuselage he noted.
There were seats, but they could be folded and put away for easy cargo storage too. So the craft was a multipurpose vessel. He nodded. That explained the shuttles they'd seen; did they have specialist versions? He shook his head. It didn't matter.
He made his way to the cockpit and was surprised by the mechanical controls. Apparently, the Taurens disdained electronics. Questions churned in his mind as to why.
When he exited the craft, he whistled as he walked over to the nearest militia member. The Neochimp stiffened to attention. “The prisoners, did you have any of them help explain the shuttles?” he asked.
“No, sir,” the corporal replied.
“I'm wondering why,” Jack said thoughtfully as he looked off into space.
“I think it might be a security consideration, sir,” the Neochimp ventured, tugging on his ear. Jack shot him a thoughtful look and then nodded.
“Okay. If anyone asks if you've seen me, I'm headed to the internment camp,” Jack said.
“Yes, sir,” the corporal said with a nod.
Some might think Jack was just enjoying the ride or was moody as he sat silently on the ride to the internment camp. Anything could be further from the truth. He had a series of questions he kept adding to a notepad file in his implant memory. He accessed and dealt with some of his emails and then considered his next move.
He hadn't anticipated Jeeves being able to pull off the hack completely undetected, let alone actually pulling a Skynet and turning the Tauren ships on their owners. That bit of good fortune had given him and the population of Eden a much-needed breather. It had also given them some priceless intelligence.
Jeeves was still working on translating the captured Tauren records. He had bots running scripts to go over the priority material first and then work his way down through the various files. About 80 percent of the translation matrix was working effectively. Every time he found something new, he added it to his lexicon and sent a bot out to find those untranslated words to convert over.
There might be something missing in the translations, but Jeeves had the basic engineering, chemistry, math, and navigational databases covered. But Jack's questions on why the aliens had been hostile lingered somewhere in their past. He considered bumping up the priority to pick through their historical databases but reluctantly decided against it.
The A.I. had enough on his plate as it was at the moment he reminded himself.
When he got to the internment camp, he was surprised that they had their own pasture. There were a few aliens here and there in the grass. The wind fluttered some of the stalks. A few seemed almost content as they chewed on stalks or … were they chewing their cud? He wasn't certain. He snorted.
“How's it going?” he asked as he nodded to the militia guards. They easily signed him in, it wasn't like he wasn't recognized, then let him through the series of gates. There was a walkway, a 2-meter-wide space between the inner and outer fence. The fences had signs warning that they were electrified. He wondered briefly if the aliens understood that. “I want to try to talk to one of them,” he said.
“You can try. Most won't talk to us. The ones that do just ask for basic things like food with hand signs,” a Neobear replied.
“Well, we'll try to break the log jam. Anyone who seems to be the leader?” Jack asked.
“That one,” the bear said, pointing a claw at a Tauren sitting on a stump, resting in the dying sunlight. He had a stalk of grass in his mouth, the tip twitching in the wind.
“Okay,” Jack drawled as he walked over with the bear.
“Jeeves, you online?” Jack asked, tapping his ear and connecting his implants to the A.I.
“Always, Governor. I have a series of bots monitoring the Taurens at all times. They do not talk much.”
“Well, let's test out your latest translation matrix, shall we?”
“I'll send a robot,” Jeeves replied.
As they strode across the beaten grass an aerial drone swooped in and then hovered over their heads.
“My name is Jack Lagroose, I am governor, leader of this world,” Jack said as he came to a stop four meters from the Tauren.
The Tauren turned, snorted as he looked at Jack, and then looked away.
“Not a nice fellow I see,” Jack said. He looked up as the drone translated his words. He wasn't certain how much was getting through. “How much of that did you have to leave out?”
“Your name, your rank was left out. Some have specific names; many have names that are descriptive or fit into their hierarchy. It is confusing. The psychologists are still trying to figure that one out. Most do not have a normal name. There is no word for governor.”
“Right,” Jack drawled. “Hey,” he said, waving a hand. “Let's chat,” he offered.
A smaller bull got up and came over, looking at him darkly.
“Shit,” the bear muttered. He leaned his head and keyed his microphone. “We're going to need some backup here,” he growled, putting a protec
tive hand out to push Jack back behind him.
(@)()(@)
Broken Tail scowled at the aliens as he came closer. “Leave,” he puffed, clenching and unclenching his fists. “Now.” He was miserable enough without the aliens coming to poke and prod them. Why they hadn't killed his people he didn't know.
A few of the other bulls rose. He could feel their support through his hooves as they thrummed their anger.
(@)()(@)
Jack realized that most of the aliens were sullen and uncommunicative. Some might try to charge him to get him to back off. He wanted to stand his ground, but he didn't want to get trampled either.
“Careful there, Governor,” the Neobear guard said, inserting himself between the Tauren and the human. “Behave,” he growled, showing teeth to the Tauren.
The Tauren blinked, then glared as he ducked his head.
“I … said … BEHAVE!” the bear roared, taking a fighting stance. That stopped all of the Taurens. A few twitched and then sat down as they saw more alien guards approaching.
The Tauren who seemed to be most pissed at Jack's attempt to communicate snorted, then hesitated. Another bull touched him, and he reluctantly exposed his throat, ears back and eyes rolled before he turned away.
“Interesting,” Jack muttered as he too turned away to consider what he had seen. He frowned, then turned back.
“Do you need anything? Different food? Drink? Blankets?” he asked.
“We copied their emergency supplies in their shuttles, sir,” the bear said as the other guards arrived. “They really don't like us coming to them. They just wish to be left alone.”
“Well, too bad. This is our world. They are unwanted guests and have a lot of explaining to do,” Jack said firmly. He scowled when his implants beeped. “What?”
“You have a meeting in an hour. You have just enough time to get back to it,” Jeeves reported, dipping the drone about in the wind.
Jack looked up to the drone for a moment then over to the Taurens. “Okay, we will try again later,” he said.
He heard alien sounds coming from the drone, then when he didn't get a reaction he shook his head and turned away.
(@)()(@)
“Why did you act like that?” Broken Tail demanded, looking at the former ship's Alpha bull. “It was an action, something different. Why didn't you act?”
“I ignored them.”
“You should have challenged them!” Broken Tail insisted.
“I do not answer to you.”
“You answer to the herd. We must act. We can break through those fences. They are metal but flimsy.”
“They are electrified,” another bull said.
“We shouldn't have to deal with them,” Broken Tail muttered.
“We should be dead. I don't understand why,” another bull said.
“I don't care. We are all dead eventually,” the former ship's Alpha bull said as he closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.
Broken Tail stared at him, flicking flies away from his nose. When the herd seemed to drift away he rumbled a sigh and went back to staring out at the evening sky and the land beyond.
(@)()(@)
Every other day the leadership of the colony got together either in person or virtually to compare notes. Sometimes their conversations turned to their unwanted guests. Trying to figure out how and why they ticked was of particular interest to some around the table Jack knew. He definitely wanted to know as much as he could about the enemy.
One of the interesting things that Jeeves trotted out was that the crews of the ships had all been male. They were not hermaphrodites but functional males as the autopsy had proven.
“They lack a women's touch,” Jack said with a nod to his Neogorilla Lieutenant Governor.
“Women do tend to be a stabilizing influence,” General Elliot said as Debbie and a few of the ladies around the table shot him dagger glances. “What? I'm just saying,” he said defensively.
“Stabilizing influence my ass. And he's the guy who got married. He should know better,” Paul muttered. He winced when Debbie stepped on his toe.
“Given that they were on a warship I could see them having an all-male crew. Humans did it before starflight, and there might be something in their psychology to protect their females. For all we know they could be dumb or … small,” Sharif said, cutting himself off with a strangled voice as the women turned their dark glowers his way.
“But they are functional males. Some act as females; they are lower on the pecking order and are treated … roughly. We tried to intervene but …,” Sheriff Tupper shrugged fatalistically. “They didn't want to be separated from the herd.”
“Aliens, yeah, right,” General Elliot drawled.
The sheriff coughed in his fist. “Yeah, something like that.”
“So, they are a herd mentality?” Jack asked, changing the subject. From the looks of the general and sheriff, they were grateful.
“I think we're going to invent some new fields, like Xeno-psychology,” General Elliot quipped with a snort. “The short answer is it seems that way. Long one is no idea. And no,” he held up a restraining hand. “Before you ask, we have no clue if they have a hive mind or something.”
“But they have a pecking order. Caste system?” Jack asked as he processed the information.
“Pecking order we've seen. We're still identifying the players in it. Caste … again, no idea,” the general replied with a shrug.
“Feeding them is relatively easy,” Debby reported. All eyes turned to the Neogorilla. “They eat pretty much the same stuff we do. They get terrible gas from potatoes like us. We're keeping it simple of course, no spices. Besides, they are prisoners; I don't see wasting a gourmet meal on them,” she said with a sniff. Heads nodded around the room. “I know they weren't happy about the steak though,” she admitted.
“Why? Oh, because they look like the cattle and its cannibalism?” Paul asked, genuinely curious.
Sharif snorted. Paul turned to him. “What?”
“It's not cannibalism. Not in the slightest. They are aliens, not from Earth at all. They don't share the same biological tree.”
Paul grunted. “Granted they didn't come from Earth. But if it walks like a duck …”
“That's just it. They are sentient. Cattle aren't. They walk on two legs and have that shell,” Sharif pointed out.
“Okay, you've got me there,” Paul admitted, throwing his hands up in surrender.
“We will continue to observe them. Jeeves, you are working on your database?” Jack asked.
“Even as you speak. I now have some additional processors now that the industrial base is expanding and restoring lost hardware.”
“Not so much lost as destroyed,” Sharif muttered. “All that work, all that investment … just ruined.”
“I know it sucks. Fortunately, we had plenty of advance warning and saved what we could. And also saved who was willing to be saved,” Jack replied. “And, what was built can be rebuilt.” Sharif nodded to acknowledge those points.
“I'd like to come out in the open. Building underground is rough. Confined quarters and all that,” Paul said. “We're tight on space and it isn't easy to fit everything in.”
“We've been over this. Until we've got our own fleet in orbit, we're sticking to the cave system,” Jack said firmly. The general nodded, backing him up. Sheriff Tupper reluctantly also agreed with a nod.
“But you let me deploy satellites again. Why?” Sharif asked.
“That's because I want as much lead time as a warning to get our people underground as I can get,” Jack said.
“Ah,” Sharif replied. “So, you think they will be back,” he said pointedly.
All eyes were fixated on Jack. Jack let them stew as he took a sip of his drink then set it down again. “Don't you?” he asked after a moment. “Eventually that fleet is going to be missed. Someone will come looking. We might get lucky a few times with Jeeve's hack attack,” he smiled in thanks to the A.I. “
But not all the time. Eventually someone is going to realize that this star system has turned into a black hole for their shipping. When they do, I don't know what they'll do.”
“Point,” the general replied with a nod.
(@)()(@)
General Elliot liked to go outside whenever he got cabin fever. Now that the aliens were gone for the moment, just about everyone did. Even the most timid of persons were willing to stick their heads out for a brief gasp of fresh air.
He looked on to a few people moving around in the late evening. Some of those folks wanted to go out again, rebuild, but they were stymied by the situation. Paul had put forth an idea to build homes underground; they were still looking into that option. The Neochimp just didn't like it, and he knew that a lot of people agreed with him.
He realized he should by all rights be happy given the situation they were in, but he wasn't. Sure they'd survived the alien invasion, even gotten the bastards back in some small ways. His smile was brief but arctic cold.
No, what he really wanted to do was what any soldier or sailor would in his position, go on offense. Unfortunately, he was frustrated by their lack of an ability to do so. Jack was right; they didn't have a ship. Besides, his forces were all Marine veterans or descendants of veterans; they weren't trained to fly a ship. And Jack was right again, they didn't have the resources to supply a ship.
“If wishes were fishes,” he muttered, making a puttering sound as he felt the evening breeze ripple his fur.
“Sir?” a tech asked, pausing what she was doing.
“Never mind,” he said, waving a hand. He looked out to the sunset and the kids at play around the cave entrance before he turned and went back inside.
(@)()(@)
Menolly smiled lovingly at her daughter's antics as the little girl sleepily yawned and then curled against her chest. Alyssa was turning out to be a beautiful child. She resented that Jack was missing out on their daughter's development. Such time was precious. She wondered briefly if he was avoiding it because he'd been through it before.