“Everyone ready?” Cain asked, forcing himself to smile. Stinky panted rapidly. Penelope had probably already shared what the humans outside were feeling. As the most alien-looking of the non-humans, Black Leaper was anxious. “Go time.”
Cain popped the hatch and made to walk out first, but both Brutus and Carnesto jumped down and bolted through. The group outside watched curiously as Cain left the shuttle, then offered a helping hand to Ellie. He normally wouldn’t since she was perfectly capable of disembarking on her own, but this meeting was about the show.
As Cygnus VII’s first couple, they had appearances to maintain. ‘We’ll laugh about this later.’
‘I sure hope so,’ she replied, relaxing with his calming smile.
They turned, hand in hand, and faced the group. Together they waved and strode boldly to the gray-haired person standing in front.
“This is Ensign Ellie and I’m Major Cain.” Cain offered his hand and the older gentleman took it. They’d established with Brayson that hand-shaking was still an acceptable greeting.
Cain’s grip was firm, but he took it easy on the older man. Brutus and Carnesto appeared and stood by the side of each of their humans.
“Oh!” one woman exclaimed. “We don’t allow pets except in licensed areas.”
Cain looked down to see Brutus’s narrowed eyes as he sent visual hate daggers her way.
“I am remiss,” Cain said to the group. “This is my friend Brutus and the large black Hillcat is Carnesto. They are sentient and are life-linked to us. Let me introduce the rest of our party.”
‘And we don’t allow stupid humans to tell us where we can’t be,’ Brutus quipped.
Cain moved aside so the welcoming committee could get a clear view of the shuttle.
“Your crew from the Ganymede Seven who met us at the edge of the heliosphere, Captain Mel Brayson, Navigator Astral Star, and inside with our pilot is Tian Mahjing. Our navigator is Ensign Kalinda. Next is my deputy, Lieutenant Black Leaper. He is a Wolfoid, one of many intelligent species on Cygnus VII.”
“I’m pleased to meet you,” Stinky said pleasantly through his vocalization device.
“It talks,” another woman said.
“He. Of course he talks. What do you think I meant when I said intelligent species?” Cain asked abruptly. Ellie squeezed his hand.
“Next is Lieutenant Pace, our pilot, and last, Private Ascenti, our representative from the Hawkoid Nation.” Ascenti popped through the hatch and spread his wings, beating hard to gain altitude, circling and landing on Cain’s outstretched arm.
“I am Ascenti. I’m pleased to meet you,” he said, turning his feathered head to study the party before them.
The old man, two women, and two other men stood with their mouths open.
“These sentient species all evolved in the Cygnus System?” the old man asked.
“No,” Cain answered, looking the old man in the eye. “In order to colonize Cygnus VII, humanity needed more help than they could provide themselves. Dr. Warren, a geneticist from Earth’s Resettlement Vessel Traveler, used gene splicing to change the evolution of a number of species who traveled on the colony ship. He also worked with some native species and these are a few representatives from those evolutions. The planet fought a rather substantial civil war over this and other things. That war destroyed most of the technology and most of the people. Since then, we have grown up with these species, side-by-side. We are equals in many ways.”
The man looked to the others in his party. The looks they gave each other were not pleasant. When the man turned back, he was smiling.
“I am Garth Hansen, Prime Minister of this world. These four are the provincial heads. Andes Turkyn is the administrator of Outer World One. Gladys Ironside is the administrator of Outer World Two. Inner World One is Agnes Menster, and Inner World Two, Tomas Espinoza.” The administrators nodded congenially, but they weren’t smiling and they made no attempt to shake hands.
Ellie wasn’t having any of that. She let Cain’s hand drop as she walked from one person to the next, forcing them to shake her hand as she smiled warmly and gripped their hands in both of hers.
Winning them over was one of the tasks that Daksha had charged him with. He joined Ellie and worked his way around the party of government officials.
They gave him the willies from their limp handshakes to the phony expressions on their faces to their air of superiority when they stole glances at the Hawkoid standing on Cain’s shoulder.
He felt like an old-time pirate from the movies, but he was trying to acclimate the earthers to the presence of intelligent non-humans.
‘Being genetically engineered is a crime here,’ Brutus told him.
‘But you can’t control what you are and the people who did it died centuries ago,’ Cain argued.
‘Doesn’t matter. These people are trying to figure out how to arrest the Wolfoid and the Hawkoid without upsetting you.’
‘I’m pretty sure that’s not possible. Let’s bring this out in the open. If nothing else, they can get back on the shuttle and return to the ship,’ Cain replied.
“Prime Minister Hansen. It’s illegal to be genetically engineered? Don’t you mean that it’s illegal to conduct genetic engineering?” Cain directly asked the leader of their government, standing close and looming slightly over the man.
“That’s not it. How do you know that?”
‘The prime minister is worried that you’ve been in contact with one of the administrators and working behind his back,’ Brutus explained.
“He told us,” Cain said, pointing at Tomas, who instantly started sputtering. “I’m just kidding. It was really her.”
Gladys’s eyes shot wide as the finger of accusation pointed in her direction.
“I’m sorry. My way of defusing the tension, because I refuse to believe that my friends are illegal just for existing. That makes no sense to me. I figured it out by the looks on your faces when I mentioned Dr. Warren,” Cain told them.
The administrators glared at Cain. He returned their looks with a cordial smile and tip of the head.
He was ready to go to war with these people. Ellie grasped his hand tightly, knowing that his fight or flight response was one hundred percent geared to fight.
‘Let’s go home,’ Brutus suggested.
“I have to say that I’m not pleased with the welcome we’ve received. Thank you. Keep your people. We’re leaving.” Cain twirled his finger in the air for the crew to load back into the shuttle.
Stinky let out a long breath and nodded to the earthers as he turned and made his way back to the shuttle.
“I’m afraid not, Major. That won’t do at all,” Garth Hansen said in a low voice.
‘Run!’ Brutus yelled a moment before cables shot out of the ground and wrapped over the shuttle. The ‘cats scattered--Brutus, Carnesto, and Penelope ran in different directions on the landing pad. There were other small ships, a transshipment style facility with cargo neatly ordered, and there were walkways leading away from the pad, heading downward toward the outer cylinders. Apparent gravity was lighter near the hub, like it was toward the spindle of the Cygnus-12.
Cain and Ellie never moved. Stinky leveled his spear at the prime minister, but Cain caught the spear tip and moved it away from the welcoming committee.
“Interesting move, Prime Minister. I have to say that Earth has grown pretty crappy since the colonists bound for the Cygnus System departed. All of our literature suggests that Earth was kind and gentle. But you? You guys are a bunch of pricks.”
Ellie gave up trying to squeeze sense into Cain through his hand.
“Seize them,” the prime minister said flatly.
“Fly, Private. Save yourself,” Cain ordered in a whisper. Ascenti launched himself at the prime minister, forcing the man and his administrators to duck. The Hawkoid beat his wings furiously to gain altitude and escape the mess they found themselves in the middle of.
‘There was nothing you could
do,’ Ellie told him over the mindlink. ‘There was nothing any of us could do.’
Cain clenched his jaw. He was done talking.
“Wait, wait!” Captain Brayson called out, running past Cain and Ellie to stand before the prime minister.
“Sir, we cannot arrest them. They are here because I gave them my word that we would meet as friends, welcome humanity’s children home,” Brayson pleaded, trying to sound profound.
“You don’t speak for the government. I do. Next time you meet aliens, maybe you should remember your place. Then again, there probably won’t be a next time.” The prime minister watched as security men carrying short rods approach. “Take them, too. All of them. And find that damn bird!”
The prime minister seemed a different person from the one who initially greeted them. ‘Brutus, are you safe? Can you tell anything from this clown?’
‘I am in the cargo area. There are a lot of places to hide in here, so I’ll be fine. He has a genetically-altered mind and can partition his thoughts, it appears. That is why he champions demonizing the altered, even those who had nothing to do with something that happened hundreds of lifetimes ago.’
‘Stay out of sight, Brutus, and thank you. We’ll get out of this. I just don’t know how, not yet anyway,’ Cain replied over the mindlink that he shared with Ellie, Carnesto, and Brutus.
“You don’t want the others to know that you’ve been genetically altered. Will you be in jail with us then?” Cain said accusingly. The look of panic on the prime minister’s face was quickly replaced by pure hatred. “Ooh. I guess I struck a nerve, huh?”
“Get them out of here!” the old man screamed.
“Toward the ramp, prisoners. And you, give me that.” Stinky glanced at Cain, but the major shook his head. Stinky handed over his lightning spear. After the incident where the southerners had stolen a cache of Wolfoid lightning spears, they’d been keyed to Wolfoid hands only. Jolly had modified them so any of the Marines could use the spears if necessary, but not strangers. The earthers wouldn’t be sending lightning bolts anywhere.
One of the guards jabbed his short club into Leaper’s side and activated it. The Wolfoid howled in pain as electricity coursed through his body. Cain took one step toward the man before the major was struck down, clubbed by another stick-wielding guard. The man sent juice coursing through Cain’s body while he lay on the landing pad.
Cain refused to scream, but the pain came in waves, worse and worse. He thought he heard Ellie scream. Then his world faded to black.
What Next
“Jolly. Play back the images, please, slowly, with audio,” Commander Daksha requested while floating next to the captain.
They watched the scene unfold, starting with the introductions.
“Ten minutes. Our people were on board the station for ten whole minutes before they were taken. Brutus must have told Cain what the prime minister was thinking. He knew things were going bad and wanted us to have the information.”
“Politics? You’ve got to be kidding me. We come thousands of light years and all they can do is play politics. Fear monger the aliens? I can’t believe any of this,” Rand complained.
“How are we going to get our people back?” Daksha asked.
“I will lead an assault team and we will recover them through force of arms,” Lieutenant Peekaless suggested.
“We’ll keep that as a last option, Pickles, but have your Marines ready to go. We can’t let this go on for too long. Too much time and they’ll hide our people in that monstrosity where we’ll never find them.” Daksha didn’t blink as he watched the replays, seeing the information from different angles.
“The ‘cats all escaped. Ascenti is free and in hiding. Jolly, contact Private Ascenti, please.”
After a few moments, they saw the world through the Hawkoid’s eyes. “Ascenti here,” his voice said as it was generated through the neural implant.
“Report,” the captain ordered.
“I’m in the rafters trying to keep the others in view. They are together and heading down a ramp that looks similar to what we saw on the Traveler.”
The image cleared as the Hawkoid leaned around an obstruction. Far below, a ramp curved downward. Seven humans and a Wolfoid were being force-marched by eight large men carrying the electrified clubs. They jabbed their weapons into the group every now and again to motivate their prisoners to walk faster.
“Cain looks like he’s up as does Black Leaper. Jolly? How long was Cain unconscious?” Daksha asked.
“Less than one minute, Commander. As soon as they removed the electrical shock device, he recovered quickly.”
“They’ve condemned their own people to prison, just for being nice to us,” Rand said, barely above a whisper.
“Jolly. Please find a communication channel where I can talk with the prime minister. The sooner the better,” Daksha encouraged.
“On it,” Jolly answered and disappeared.
He showed up after two agonizingly long minutes. “Coming through now.”
The Tortoid made sure to float close to the camera so he would fill the image screen on the other end of the link. “I am Daksha, Commander of The Olive Branch. We came to Earth on a mission of peace. Please help me understand your actions in taking our people prisoner.”
“I’m sure this is just a simple misunderstanding, Commander,” the prime minister said, wearing a plastic smile.
“Then free our people and let them return with our shuttle. Are you not in charge and cannot do the right thing?” Daksha challenged.
“There is no one person in charge here and that makes the red tape a mess to wade through, but believe me, we will get to the bottom of it,” the old man said in a soothing tone.
“I am so sorry, Prime Minister, but my hearing must be bad. I thought you said for me to believe you when you are clearly lying. Your security men used shock weapons on our people. They did it on your direct orders. There is no misunderstanding. One more thing, Prime Minister, only one of us has faced real aliens and defeated them. It wasn’t you. Release our people immediately or face the consequences.”
Jolly cut the signal. Daksha swam in a half-circle to face Rand. “I won’t give up on the universe, Rand, even though everywhere we turn, someone tries to feed us a turd sandwich.”
“Commander! You are usually the one calling for calm,” Rand stated, feeling the anger that gripped the Tortoid.
“Three in a row, Captain. Three worlds in a row. The people are fine, but those in charge are counter to everything we stand for. I was starting to like Captain Brayson. They condemned him just for treating us like a decent human being should, like any creature should treat another. Shooting stars, what a mess!”
Daksha had never been so agitated. “Starsgard! Tell me you’re in weapons, Corporal Starsgard.”
“I am, sir. What do you need?”
“Give me a firing solution on all available targets,” Daksha said. The captain sat up straight with brow furled.
“Please define the word target,” Starsgard requested.
“Anything we might need to blow apart!” Daksha ranted.
“I think we better choose a different course of action, Commander. I will shut down all the systems before they can be used in a manner that you are describing. We can’t haphazardly shoot stuff until they release our people. It may or may not be a viable strategy, but that one clearly violates every one of my safety protocols.” Jolly tried to get in front of the Tortoid, but Daksha ignored him and swam for the hatch to leave the bridge.
Billy Joe hung on, his mind inundated by over one hundred years of carefully constrained anger, unleashed all at once.
Daksha had been wrong about the nature of the universe. His premise had been that people were fundamentally good. Although that may have been true, the overriding premise was that people in charge were power hungry and saw any contact with foreign life as a direct challenge to their authority.
The Tortoid had always assumed that the Spa
ce Exploration Service would be greeted warmly and that there would be an exchange of information, research, technology, and more.
Instead, their reception was marred by the fact that their very existence was illegal simply because hundreds of years prior, a geneticist had spliced human DNA onto that of their forebears.
Commander Daksha turned around in the corner and slowly swam back onto the bridge.
“Humans are so much better at storming off than I,” Daksha said softly. “Ascenti, my feathered friend. Can you keep our people in view?”
“I think so, Commander. Wait one moment,” he called. They watched the view bounce up and down, then smooth as the Hawkoid jumped from his perch and glided downward.
“Briz, are you there?” Daksha asked while they watched the Hawkoid fly to a place where he could better observe the procession. Jolly dutifully built a map based on the information they recorded from Ascenti.
“Yes, Commander. How can I help?” Briz replied.
“What kind of technical surprise could you whip up for the earthers? Can you slow down the rotation of the cylinders? Maybe cut off power from the solar collectors? How about broadcasting an annoying sound throughout the station?” Daksha was out of ideas. He was flailing.
“I will work with Jolly and we’ll come up with some options for you, Commander. Don’t be afraid. Cain is the best of all of us. The earthers have truly messed with the wrong Marine. I kind of feel sorry for them, but only kind of,” the Rabbit said.
Cygnus Arrives: Humanity Returns Home (Cygnus Space Opera Book 3) Page 24