by Chris Hechtl
That wasn't like him though she knew. Besides, he really did have important work to do she reminded herself with a trace of guilt in her thoughts. She nuzzled the little girl and then groaned softly as she got her feet under her.
“This was easier when you were in my belly and lighter,” she muttered. Alyssa was limp and snored slightly, oblivious as only a child could get in such a state. She smiled tenderly again as she carried the little girl off to bed.
Once Alyssa was settled in, she stretched, rolling her hips and shoulders in appreciation at getting some of her blood circulation back. She yawned and then stretched her hands over her head. She debated hunting her husband down and dragging him off to bed for some quality time. She knew he had important work, but damn it, she wanted someone to snuggle against too.
Sleepily she went through her evening absolutions as she toyed with the idea of showing up in his office in something sexy and revealing. Her lips twitched in a grin as the fog of sleep lifted. When she heard the door rattle and his entry into their small apartment, she banished the idea for a later time and happily went to get her evening kiss.
(@)()(@)
Private Tom did his best to keep his face impassive as he stood his watch as guard. His night vision easily picked out the people moving around. There were no lights; the base was still operating under blackout conditions. Most of the people outside were Neos who had night vision. He could hear them laughing and playing as they got away from the smelly confines of the cave, even if for only a few hours.
He was not thrilled about being in militia, but he had to admit it had its perks. The ladies loved his stories of derring-do. He rarely had to exaggerate any of them. He was getting more pussy than ever before and he liked it. He sniffed the air as one of the female Neocats passed his way. She was in heat, he could tell, but way out of his league since she was a Neocougar.
But, when she turned and gave him a sizing-up look, he puffed up slightly anyway. She might tear him up, but it might be worth it he thought happily.
(@)()(@)
Sergeant Maltese made the usual evening rounds and stopped to see Tom puffing up. He wondered why until he noticed the cougar flirting her tail and acting all coy. He snorted softly. He should have known he thought with a resigned shake of his head. Not that Tom was going to get any on duty.
When the Neocat flicked the tip of her tail to get Tom to follow her, Tom started to move. A rumble from the white Neogorilla made him freeze. He stopped bending to look to swivel his head at the Neogorilla.
“What? I was only looking,” the Neocat replied, ears back.
“Sure you were. No leaving your post, Private,” the sergeant replied, glaring at the Neocat.
“Spoil sport,” the cat muttered under his breath as Benny walked away.
Benny snorted again but didn't round on the cat for the complaint.
Chapter 9
Janus star system
Broken Jaw stomped his way through the narrow corridors of the alien vessel. He hated his assignment, but he was a dutiful bull, bound to the defense of the herd. When the Fleet Herd Alpha had left the alien ship, the Santa Maria, in orbit of the conquered world, he'd also left a small crew and a group of bulls to guard the ship and world. Tauren thinkers and tinkers were supposed to come to examine the ship and world. The Taurens did not trust or understand enough of the alien tech to fly the prize ship home to take it apart he knew. It was just as well.
“Hyperspace emergence. A large hyperspace emergence has been detected,” a voice said of high pitch. Broken Jaw winced. In order to get the alien intercom to work they had to pitch their voices unnaturally high to get what they were saying across. The microphones didn't pick up the lower frequencies at all well. He wasn't certain as to why. Speaking like that tended to irritate one's throat over time.
His momentary diversion ended when he realized that relief had finally come. He closed his eyes and thanked the heavens and the bull gods for the relief. Soon he would be off the stinking dark tight ship and on the ground or in one of his people's ships he thought.
(@)()(@)
The first Tauren colony ship arrived in Janus orbit under escort two eight of days later. She brought with her a standard task force for reinforcements, as well as her own escort of cruiser class warships. An additional eight support were within the protective perimeter of the herd defenders. The ships were also there to build the infrastructure for the colonists on the planet below while also building a new fleet base for the defenders to use and draw resources from.
Such things would take time since the star system was bereft of large concentrations of rocks. The herd would have to hunt far and wide across the solar system in order to bring in what the support ships needed, or they would have to draw the raw materials from the moons and the planet below.
Many eights of families were onboard the colony ship. The majority of the adults were cows. Since the defenders had secured the world, they would have priority in the next series of mating festivals that would soon follow once the colony was secure and prospering.
For the bulls in the warships, it was the payoff they had all been looking for, a chance to plant their seed for the next generation and establish a herd of their own. Morale skyrocketed overnight. Playful debates began to spark up here and there as to who would earn the best mates and father the best children.
(@)()(@)
Governor Cristi Lee Gaston-Verkolje-Schotte and her surviving people were dismayed to see the aliens landing fresh shuttle loads of their kind. She sent out her two sisters to a hillside overlooking one of the landings to find out what was going on.
Rachel and Bogi had become somewhat adept at getting around unseen. Each of them had experience during the A.I. War, experience that had come back to them in a hurry after the alien invasion. They'd also spent time in their youth hunting with their dad, so it felt natural for them to skulk around.
Since they were some of the few hunters and scouts in the survivors, they had the best equipment that the refugees could cobble together. Both of the ladies had camouflage outfits made out of handsewn materials. They had burlap ghillie suits to help disguise their figures once they found an appropriate nesting spot.
“Well, there goes the neighborhood,” Bogi quipped softly as another shuttle flew overhead.
“I know. Real estate was so good up until they came along,” Rachel drawled. “Any idea on what's going on?” She, like her sisters, like all of the Terrans, had lost weight due to malnutrition. That happened when they were on a starvation diet for so long. She'd long since given up joking about wanting to lose weight. She had started to dream of cheeseburgers and pizza.
“I think …,” Bogi frowned as she looked through the binoculars. She saw the usual bulls out on the perimeter with weapons and harness tack, but there were other Taurens coming out of the shuttles. It took a bit of studying before she saw what looked like a group of small Taurens playing with a butterfly.
“No. They are landing colonists. Families,” she said, lowering the binoculars.
“Hey! This is our world! We were here first! We paid for it fair and square! Well, for some of it, I mean the banks own part too,” Rachel said indignantly.
“Try telling them that,” Bogi drawled.
“All right I will,” Rachel said. Her older sister turned to look at her in disbelief. “Well, not now,” Rachel squirmed. Bogi snorted.
“Sure, I can just imagine you walking up to one of them, kicking them in the shin …”
“I'd aim a bit higher actually,” Rachel drawled.
“Yeah. Nice way to continue our relations with our new neighbors,” Bogi sighed. “So, for the sake of our already sour relationship with them, I say we keep you away from them.”
“I could take one of them. Give me a cattle prod and a fifty-caliber rifle,” Rachel said with as much dignity as she could muster.
“Sure. Like we've got many of either of those just lying around,” her sister said as she went back to studying
the aliens.
(@)()(@)
The Tauren version of a propaganda machine fed the new colonist population images of the various Terran species as a way of warning them to avoid encounters and to report any that they saw. They warned the new colonists to be wary of Terrans still alive on the planet; they could be dangerous since they were alien and desperate.
The warning went on to add a note of urgency to watch out for their calves. The public was horrified by images of the Terrans eating cattle. It hit far too close to their species for comfort. Their species had always been defensive of the herd and their young.
Security teams swept each area before it was cleared for a colony landing. There was growing concern though that the perimeters of each herd were too much for the small security herds to patrol and protect over time. Security asked the colony leaders to mount expeditions to hunt down the aliens, but with so much more to do before the winters came, the colony leaders didn't see the need. Besides, there was no current threat; there had been sightings of Terrans but no hostile encounters in an eight of days.
(@)()(@)
The colony expedition had also brought thinkers and tinkers, Tauren scientists and engineers to inspect the captured alien ship as well as some of the equipment preserved on the ground. One of the oldest and wisest of the head healer thinkers was shocked by all the diverse species in the crew and in the stasis pods. “I had heard the reports but to truly see them … how many are there? I mean in total?”
“Here or the species?” Broken Jaw asked.
“The species,” the old one asked impatiently.
“There are an eight and three distinct species that we know of here in these tubes and in the crew. The healers and those who have gone through the alien databases claim there are more, but that is in dispute since there are so many that seem similar.
“So many,” the elderly thinker murmured as he scratched behind an ear. “So many different beings … how do they get along? How do they eat? How do they interact?” he demanded.
“I believe those are questions you are tasked with answering,” Broken Jaw answered with as much dignity as he could muster.
“Wise. True,” the thinker replied with a snort. “But I have so many questions! Like, where did they find them all? Why are they together? They are not even grouped by species!” the thinker said.
“It is puzzling. Some say they have leaders too,” another healer said. “Their own individual names.”
“That is … strange,” the elderly thinker said. “But not unheard of in our own kind,” he said, indicating Broken Jaw.
Broken Jaw shrugged. He had been tasked with remaining behind to watch over the world and captured ship and to interface with the thinkers and tinkers. He wished he'd been allowed to go on the invasion, but when he'd heard reports of the first cows being unloaded on the planet below, his thoughts had changed. In a short time, there would be a mating festival he knew, and he should be able to spread his seed to a new generation.
“I don't know. I am a guard; I protect the herd. I ask the questions of their ship's Alpha. We haven't gotten that far; the translations take time.”
“I'd like to observe one of these conversations.”
“Understood, thinker,” Broken Jaw replied with a nod. “By the way, their ship's Alpha is a female.” The thinker blinked at him in confusion. “Females can do many things in their herd,” he expanded.
“That is … truly alien. They do not wish to protect such a valuable resource to the herd?”
“I don't know. Perhaps you can ask her.”
“I would prefer to watch her interaction with you first,” the thinker stated.
“This way,” Broken Jaw replied, indicating the path to the compartment where the aliens were kept.
(@)()(@)
Captain Lauren Kendrick was in a special slice of hell, and ironically, it was aboard her own ship. She and about a third of her crew were captives, like the thousands of colonists asleep in the stasis pods in the holds.
If they were alive too, she thought bleakly. There was no way of her knowing. None of the crew had been brought to the stasis holds in months to find out one way or another.
Of her officers, she only knew that Bob her navigator was still alive. Everyone else was dead, either due to suicide or some ailment that the aliens could care less about treating. Many were dying simply due to the alien's indifference.
Recently though the aliens had started to take more of an interest in them again. They had even started to talk to them in a way. She had shown them how to use the ship's computers to translate different Terran languages and to set it up to learn their own. It had taken a bit of effort, but once the aliens, Taurens, she reminded herself, once they had caught on, they'd taken the concept from there.
The translations were still pretty much hit or miss. She got a bit more information through by pantomime or drawing. But they still wouldn't answer her questions. It was all a one-way street, and she needed that to change.
The Taurens, as the crew tended to call them, or bull bastards when they were alone had captured their colony ship the Santa Maria with her crew, colonists, and database when they'd invaded the Janus star system.
She knew intellectually the conversations she occasionally had with her captors was a form of prisoner interrogation. Undoubtedly, they also had the compartment wired for video and sound too, so that way they could take advantage of unguarded conversations between the prisoners.
Some time ago, she wasn't certain any more about the passage of time anymore, they had been thoroughly asked about Sol and their civilization. Each of the surviving prisoners had compared notes later. A few like Shirley had been broken when they'd realized that the aliens had tripped on the realization that Sol had no navy or defensive force. Sol and every colony was wide open for invasion.
It had been too much for Shirley to endure. She and her captain had helped the aliens into their translation database in order to facilitate better communications with the hope of getting better treatment and eventually smoothing over what she had thought was a big misunderstanding. The idea that the aliens were intent on not only conquering Sol and all of the colonies, but were also planning to exterminate all of Terran civilization and turning the worlds over to their own kind had been too much for the woman. She'd drank some industrial solvent and had died an agonizing death as her internal organs had shut down.
Lauren had been tempted to follow the woman into death. She had admitted the manner had been brutal; it wasn't so much cowardice that had stopped her as much as the idea that her crew would be bereft of a leader afterward. And she didn't want to put them through that sight. No, for their benefit, and perhaps a small linger of hope, she hung on.
When the big bull came into the compartment wearing the translation headset, she nodded. He had a square jaw, a bit lumpy on his right side. He had something of a Mohawk and wore a guard harness, but he seemed interested in her and her kind.
“What does he want?” Bob growled.
“I'll find out,” Lauren said as she patted his knee. She walked over to the Tauren and stopped. She had gotten over most of her fear of him. She'd seen his kind casually kill a few of her people when they'd lost it, but this one seemed restrained.
“Talk,” the bull said, indicating his headset.
“Okay. About?”
“Why you here?” the bull asked, indicating the ship.
“It's my ship. You locked me and my crew in here. Oh, do you mean this space?” she asked, indicating the area at large with her extended hands.
The Taurens eyes narrowed.
“Look, if this part of space was claimed by you, we didn't know,” Captain Kendrick said, venturing on. “We can leave if you let us. We don't need to be enemies.”
Broken Jaw puzzled through the translation that the headset was giving him. Only part of it, the most basics of concepts had made it to him of course. He wrinkled his nose and snorted.
Captain Kendrick wasn't certain
if her captor was confused, but she ventured a guess and tried a different way of saying the same thing. “If this,” she paused and indicated the space around them. “Is yours,” she pointed to him. “We,” she pointed to herself, “didn't know.” She shook her head and tapped her forehead. “We can leave,” she pantomimed, pointing to the door and then away.
“World is now,” Captain Kendrick said, finally catching on.
“It is now? But it wasn't before?” the captain asked, frowning.
“We need new worlds for the herds. They fill up over time.”
“So you come and take ours? Why?” Captain Kendrick demanded.
“Because you'd do it to us,” Broken Jaw said.
The translation came out to you do us. She wasn't certain what he meant initially. She decided to take a stab at it and throw it in the invade category. She shook her head. “No, we wouldn't. How do you know that we would? We didn't even know you existed!”
The bull stared at her. She ducked her head and looked away. After a moment she heaved a sigh. “Look, I don't even know why I'm alive. Information you can get out of me … I don't know. If you want another world, why not make your own?”
“Make your own? You talk in riddles,” the Tauren growled as he stormed off.
(@)()(@)
“Fascinating,” the thinker said when Broken Jaw departed the confinement area. “You hold regular conversations with them? Are they by any chance recorded?”
“All are now. The conversations are fed into the computer to translate them. I occasionally read the old conversation scripts to see what the latest translation says as it fills in some of the blanks.”
“Fascinating as I said. I'd like to see those as well.”
“And the alien?” Broken Jaw asked, indicating the hatch.
“Ah, well, she can keep for the moment.”
Chapter 10
Antigua