I pulled a cartridge from the mummified hand of one of the dead. "Scan says that these are packed with data held in a crystalline structure. Hold on, I'm trying to read the data through the scanner. It's low density by our standards. The question is ... hold on. It's a video recording. Jack, I'm sending you the scan. See if the Talisans can convert it to something we can watch."
Jack replied, "Roger that. Got it. I'll see what we can do."
I continued, "I'm moving on to the next room."
Garrett joined the conversation. "I've been looking over the scans of this area. It definitely took a number of hits from the nukes that got launched here. The scan data shows hundreds of large craters, each of a size to have come from an explosion based on two hundred kilograms of material.
"Those same craters are covering all continents but Apaka. No hits there. The problem is that with the number of nukes that went off, you would have global extinction within a year, two tops. And the scan data shows two distinct grades of material were used. This continent and three others show one type, while the continent Knog is on shows the other. Looks like they annihilated each other."
Go came on the comm. "I've seen all there is to see here. Where to?"
Garrett replied, "Since Apaka is the only continent that wasn't pummeled, I say we head there."
I said, "Pick out a reasonable target and I'll meet you there. The rest of this bunker appears to be unused. Looks like it was for supplies, and those supplies are unopened. Jack, can you give me a pick-up?"
Jack replied, "On my way. Oh, and your boys just called up. They have the recording decoded if you want to watch."
I nodded. "Stream it to each of us."
Olivi, this is Fergin. We've done everything we can here. Dasik is dead, Looxen is dead, Carlmot has gone unconscious and I am unable to eat. The blisters on my skin continue to grow and ooze. I thought we would make it here for much more than two months. I hoped at least until transportation could bring us to you. I know nothing is flying now, and no radio is working, but one day they will be, and we will have come home.
I know it will be hard, but you must stay in the complex until the radiation levels subside. As you can see, even with the shielding in this bunker, we were unable to survive. I hope you fared better. It seems … when everything becomes deadly … there is nowhere to run. This will likely be my last broadcast. Olivi, if you get this, I love you more than life. Take care my love, and be strong for little Grod.
Garrett was the first to speak. "Wow, that was powerful, and painful to watch. I hope you noticed that the four of them were gray."
I replied, "I did. These were my people. It appears they gave their lives here in this bunker while others were on Apaka."
Jack said as the Garmon landed, "Before you come out of there you should scan those other cartridges. We might just get a decent picture about what went down here."
I nodded slowly as I took one last look around the bunker. "I have them. Transferring them now."
Garrett had landed in a mountainous region of Apaka. Scans had shown deep tunnels dug into several mountainsides, with many hollowed-out spaces. A quick estimate showed that tens of millions of Gruntas could have taken refuge there during the nuclear war. After landing, I joined Garrett and Go as we approached the first of four massive bunkers.
Garrett looked over the immense metal door that closed off the mountain fortress from the outside world. "So how do we get in there?"
Go replied, "Uh, hello, I can drift through and open the door for you."
Garrett scowled. "Well you don't have to be snarky about it."
Go countered. "I wasn't being snarky, I just—"
I pointed at the door as I looked at Go. "Please, just open the door."
Go stopped, nodded and blinked out. Several minutes later, the massive door leading into the bunker began to open as Go pushed hard from the inside.
Garrett laughed. "No power in there, is there?"
Go took a deep breath as he came to a stop. "No. And I couldn't find a manual mechanism for the lock either."
Garrett asked, "How'd you get it open?"
Go smiled. "I used the suit to make the locking cylinders vanish. After that it was just give it a push."
Garrett shook his head as he walked through the partially opened door. "Well, why did you bother to push it open? Why didn't you just blink in and out and dissolve us a doorway?"
Go was quiet for a moment as he thought. "Guess that didn't occur to me."
I looked over my shoulder as we walked. "Should I expect this from the two of you for the rest of this journey?"
Garrett laughed. "OK, I'll stop if he does. Sometimes a little banter helps to break up the task at hand."
We traversed several long halls with multiple metal doors separating the interior into large sections. In the cafeteria, decayed food sat as dust piles on the tables, as if whoever had been eating had gotten up and left. There were no mummified remains, no bodies, no skeletons. Every room we entered looked as if the occupants had just dropped what they were doing and left. Only in a morgue room did we find the remains of any of the Grunta citizens.
Go looked puzzled as he came out of a doorway. "What could have happened to them? Where did they go? That outer door was definitely locked from the inside."
Jack listened to our comm and watched our video feeds. "Maybe what you are seeing is the exact aftermath of an encounter with the Duke. This might be the last place all of your people were before the Duke swept them away to the Triangulum."
As we walked into a generator room, I said, "Go, do you think you could get these running?"
Go replied, "Maybe. Looks like they ran on a hydrocarbon fuel. Let me drift for a bit. I'll try to follow the fuel lines to their source. Maybe they kept some in reserve—though after three thousand years, it may not be any good."
I continued to explore the many rooms with Garrett as Go did his thing. Fifteen minutes later, the lights in the hallway flickered on.
Go blinked in beside us. "I found their reserve tanks. Probably only a week of supply, but that's more than we need. As I was leaving the generator room I noticed some of the computer systems coming online. If we go back to that command center we saw earlier, it might just be up and running."
We backtracked to a large room that had been centrally located in the bunker. Small screens were lighting up on several dozen consoles that lined one wall. The rest of the room had failed to power up.
Garrett sat at a terminal. "Give me a half hour and I'll have this thing figured out."
Go pulled on my shoulder. "Come on. Let's give the rest of this place a once-over."
The massive underground bunker was divided into thirty-two sections. Each section, carved into solid rock, spanned for what was probably two square kilometers. A long hall with several dozen smaller rooms opened into an expansive cavern that was lined with row after row of bunks. Wherever you turned, it appeared that the occupants had just dropped what they were doing and left.
After inspecting six of the chambered sections, we returned to check on Garrett's progress.
Garrett said, "I scanned the entry logs and came up with these three short videos out of several hundred from before they all left here. Given all of our history, it's kind of surreal. I'll run them on this monitor. You will want to sit."
As the first video began to play, a Grunta female took a seat in front of a camera.
It has been seventy-two days since we destroyed our world. Our spirits remain good, but signs of depression are beginning to show. We must, however, hold on. Our determination as a people will be needed now more than ever. Our food stocks and other daily requirements are sufficient to last us for another three years. Our scientists are predicting the contamination from the fallout could last for thirty years or more before radiation levels drop to a moderately safe level. We will have to make do during that time with what we are able to decontaminate. We are working vigilantly on those processes as always.
Contact continues with the other groups, and all but one are faring well. It seems proper shielding and filtering weren't applied to the water supply for complex twenty-two. They are doing what they can, but at some point, unless they can filter large quantities of water, they will be forced to consume water that has been contaminated. The elders have put a lottery system in place that heavily overweighs the elders’ chances of having to consume it. If at all possible, we will attempt to find a way to share.
Garrett switched to the next video. "I just grabbed a sampling to watch, but these three say it all. That one was three weeks before the final. This one is a week before."
We have much news today. Word has come in that the Grotus colony on Malybay has survived. Their numbers are small, but the colony there is self-sufficient. Perhaps one day we can again be brothers and sisters with them in peace.
And now for the more important news. The explorers on the temple world of Gorgal sent word of meeting up with other species. As we have long suspected, and as the temple proved, we and the Grotus are far from being alone in this universe.
The news, however, does not stop there. The two other species who arrived at the temple have managed to get inside. It seems that we are being offered sanctuary, should we choose to accept it, on another world. The Council is meeting to discuss this. The details are few at this time. We hope to have more that we can share as news arrives. Let us pray that the news is good!
Garrett flipped another switch. "And now for the day of the last broadcast. This is the one that says it all."
Good morning all! As you know, the Council voted on whether we remain here on Jorus, or if we accept the offer of sanctuary from the temple. I am certain that all of you have awaited this announcement as eagerly as I have. The Council has decided to accept the offer! We were told that transport to the new world will begin at mid-day.
We do not yet have the details of how this will happen, but I have been told that it will not be necessary to pack food or clothing. And personal belongings will have to be kept to what we can carry on our persons. This will be a new beginning for our people on a peaceful world, with an abundance of resources sitting at the ready for us to make use of. We remain more than four million Gruntas strong! Go, be with your families to celebrate and prepare. A new life awaits us!
Garrett spun around in his chair as the video ended. "That was the last broadcast. The data logs for other events end abruptly about an hour later. That is the point where your people were swept away by the Duke to eventually fight in the War of Wars."
Garrett continued as I sat in deep thought. "I've copied the other recordings. We need another fifteen minutes or so for the other data. I think it best that we take that back to your Council for them to look over. If they want, they can send more teams out here to investigate."
The ride back to Odenta was full of study of my people's brief history. We were indeed farmers, but farmers with a will to survive. We, along with the Grotus, had destroyed our own world. Somehow, the android Duke, with his evil War of Wars, had spared us from almost certain death.
Chapter 18
* * *
The trip back to Odenta was spent watching videos and reading historical texts from the data files. An extensive history of the Gruntas and Grotus, that went back several thousand years before the apocalypse, told of two species who had warred repeatedly in the early years, only to then become peaceful when their civilizations became industrialized.
Only after a space race ensued did tensions become strained. Minor colonization disputes elevated to all-out war and the complete destruction of Jorus in under a year's time. The Grotus had said that Grunta spies had infiltrated their ranks using artificially dyed skin. Those spies had then set off two small nuclear weapons on Grotus soil.
Grunta investigations found no incident of skin color being successfully altered, and no incident of government involvement in such a scheme. I was left to wonder if it had been a ploy of the android Duke to pit one of us against the other, all as part of his evil game. I had no doubt in my mind that it would be a mystery that would never be solved.
I also wondered how my own people would take the news of our home world being found. Our whole lives had been spent in the Triangulum, calling Balimus II home. Would we strive to return to the Alpha sector, or would efforts be made to resettle on Jorus? Our bigger problem: either outcome had a big war standing in our way. A war with the Grotus or a war with the Saltons. Neither would be a certain victory.
As we flew into the Odenta system, Go drifted onto the bridge and blinked in. "The missile launcher construction is complete. We managed to squeeze in two additional aft tubes. That gives us six total, with racks for four missiles each. We could kill an entire planet."
I replied, "Let's hope it doesn't come to that. After witnessing the result of that on Jorus, I can't say an attack using fission weapons is desirable."
As we entered orbit, Garrett pulled up a sensor diagram. "I don't like this. The destroyers and transports are all gone. I'm not seeing any signs of conflict, and the Odentas appear to still be down there."
We landed and were greeted by several Odenta diplomats. "We are sorry, Mr. Beutcher. They left no other word than that they decided to go to Doomlight. They took the first six nuclear missiles with them after giving one of their ships the ability to launch. We offered what support we could to get them underway. Our people are grateful for the assistance they offered while they were here."
Jack shook his head. "If they are going off to Doomlight to fight, they will be in for a rude awakening. Those destroyer pilots and crews are largely Human. While they may not be fond of the Saltons, they have no loyalty to the Grunta. I think your Council made a big mistake if they are relying on those destroyers."
One of the diplomats said, "Your engineers came to us the day after you left with a design for an ion inhibitor field. They relayed that the only thing missing from the design was a non-ion power source. Our engineers offered up a small nuclear reactor design in exchange for several of your ion generators to study. After that, the autobots were re-purposed to build the reactors, and your engineers and ours designed a delivery vehicle for the inhibitor."
Jack replied, "Any idea what their plans are for the inhibitor?"
The diplomat nodded. "The Grunta forces are on transports. As ground forces, they plan to deploy the inhibitors on the surface of the planet, and then invade with ground troops. The destroyers will be used for any space battles."
Garrett shook his head. "I don't like the sound of any of this. What happens if Salton's people show up? They aren't prepared for that and your Council knows it."
I sighed. "They are aware of the risks. One thing you should know about the Grunta people, if you had not already figured it out: while we have a great deal of patience, we don't like to sit idle if we feel there are tasks that can be done to move us closer to our goals. Perhaps if we had arrived a day earlier with the news of Jorus, they would have reconsidered their options."
I turned to the diplomats. "Are the nuclear missiles we were previously constructing with the autobots ready?"
The diplomat opened a comm channel, checked, and replied, "Fourteen of the missiles are ready to be loaded. If you can wait until tomorrow, we will have three more, and one per day for each day thereafter."
Garrett placed his hand on my shoulder. "I think it's worth the delay for those three. We might have to use them if they mass a space fleet against us."
Jack stepped up. "I say we go now. We do have a slight speed advantage over those destroyers. I don't know if we can catch your people before they arrive at Doomlight, but our chance of doing so will be much better."
Go offered his opinion. "I agree with Jack. Let's load up the missiles they have ready and head out. All this information we have might be enough to make the Council reconsider their decision."
I stood silently in deep thought for several seconds. If they were successful in taking Doomlight and defeating any fleet the Gr
umar and Grotus had nearby, what would they do for a follow-up plan? What possible strategic value could Doomlight have? A thought quickly came to me.
"They are planning to rejoin the Salton forces," I said. "They would not move without having a plan in place for what to do after Doomlight. I believe they intend to team up with the Saltons against the Grumar and Grotus. After the Doomlight attack, a follow-up assault will be conducted against the Grumar home world. They intend to wipe out the Grotus.
"I would agree with Garrett in this instance. We have to be as prepared as we can be for whichever path is taken. If we arrive at Doomlight to find they have things in hand, I believe it to be in our best interest to attack the Grumar world with the missiles we will have available on the Garmon. We could end that portion of the war before it gets underway. The troops on Doomlight will not be an issue. However, the Grotus on the Grumar world will be."
Garrett looked at me askance. "So you're suggesting we go for the kill on the Grumar world before the others get there? If we are successful, which I'm not saying we would be … but if we were, will they be upset that we attacked before they got there?"
I replied, "That is a possibility that I am willing to accept. I do not desire to see my people fight the Grotus."
Jack scratched his head in uneasiness. "I don't know that I'm up for just destroying a world if there aren't any negotiations first. We are basing these hostilities on a three thousand year old feud that may have intentionally been started by someone else. I would want some further indication that they would not accept peace. Don't get me wrong, I have no love for the Grumar, or the Grotus, after what they have been doing, but we are talking genocide here, not surrender."
I nodded. "Your points are well taken. Unfortunately, with war, morals are often set aside. It is good we have some who question our actions from time to time, but if those questions have no good answers, actions that are less than ideal must sometimes be taken. If we do go to the Grumar world, I will attempt to offer them the choice of surrender before unleashing the horror that will come from the missiles. I don't believe those efforts will bear fruit, but I will try nonetheless."
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