by Chris Lowry
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Lick Commander lounged on the chaise and tried to find a comfortable position. After decades in space, he still wasn’t used to earth’s gravity. The constant weight and pull on his muscles made his bones sore, and yet there was only one way he could find relief.
Hot tubs. But they were impractical, and so he saved them for the conclusion of daily matters.
He missed space. Missed the feeling of flying. The only thing he enjoyed about his exile to this backwater planet was the entertainment. He used the tip of his claw to control a monitor on the wall playing what was called a television program.
A story about a ragtag fleet of human survivors attacked in their home system and fleeing to another, hunted by the androids they created.
“Commander,” a soldier entered his private chamber.
Lick Commander hissed at the interruption. The impertinence of a common foot soldier bursting into his room unannounced. This would not happen with any of the others on his same level. No, they commanded a respect among the troops.
He, on the other claw, did not.
“Speak,” he ordered.
“The human raiders have assaulted the train.”
The Lick Commander hissed his pleasure, his momentary anger supplanted by a feeling of accomplishment. His work to pacify the human resistance had several setbacks of late, but this new plan would satisfy his Eminence that the choice for him to lead here on earth was the right one.
“And?” he awaited the rest of the report.
“It has gone as you predicted,” the soldier bowed his head, a small measure of respect in his yellow eyes.
Lick Commander flicked his tongue into the air, tasting the scent of a victory.
This plan still had a way to go before it would be complete, but if it worked, then he would be rewarded. Failure meant nothing to him. There were only a few who knew of the plan, and if it failed, he could rid himself of them.
“That is all?” he asked the soldier still standing there.
“Eminence Command awaits you,” the soldier said.
It wasn’t respect in his eye then, thought Lick Commander. It was another form of impertinence. He watched the underling’s tongue flicker out to taste for fear from his leader.
He wouldn’t give the soldier the satisfaction. He touched a control screen on a tablet inset in the chaise lounge, a hasty addition, but necessary. His first claw tapped on the screen and a holographic image of His Eminence glowed on the floor between the soldier and Commander.
The Soldier dropped to one knee and bowed his head, as was proper for his station. Lick Commander was only required to bow, and he did so, but not before catching a glimpse of several of his peers in the same chamber with his lord and master.
“Sir?” he hissed in greeting.
“I hear rumblings from Earth,” his Eminence used the human name for the planet. “My will does not progress.”
“These are rumors,” Lick Commander didn’t raise his head even though he wanted to glare at the men surrounding his leader. They were the ones spreading the lies, or half-truths couched to highlight his failures and ignore any success he might have had.
“Your will is being enacted, Sir.”
He could feel the burning eyes of His Eminence burning into the back of his head, the yellow slits unblinking and intimidating, even as a glowing band of energy.
“See that it is,” the Leader hissed, menace in the static laced transmission. “I am tempted to send my nestmate to oversee my will.”
Lick Commander bowed lower. A nestmate would act as the eyes and ears of His Eminence, but not necessarily disrupt his plans.
Besides, he calculated. A nestmate would make a powerful ally.
“By your command,” he hissed and looked up.
Of course, the joke of it would be lost on His Eminence. But the meaning would translate.
He saw a spark of satisfaction in the hologram’s eyes, an acknowledgement of his allegiance. The Lick Leader lifted his clawed hand and motioned for the connection to be cut.
Lick Commander turned to the soldier.
“Prepare for an arrival,” he said to the Soldier.
“She has already arrived,” the commoner informed him.
Lick Commander drew the blaster from his holster and seared a hole through the subordinate’s thick skull, spraying black gore across the chrome walls of his private study.
“You should have informed me sooner.”
He folded himself off the chaise and went to greet his new arrival, the nestmate sent to spy on him.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Bonney stared at the back of the trio’s head as they walked. It would be dark soon, and he was wondering how they were going to do what needed to be done with the extra people around.
Especially people he didn’t know.
“Lt?” Babe said in a soft voice next to him. “What are you planning to do with them?”
“You know what I like Babe? I like the fact that we been working together so much you are practically reading my mind.”
“Not really,” shrugged the big man. “I saw you staring at the back of their heads and figured that was what you were thinking about.”
“Now you’re just plain hurting my feelings,” Lt said. “I figured I had me a pretty good poker face, but now you’re telling me I better not play any hands with you. You can read me like a book.”
Babe smiled and rested the bat on his shoulder. He carried his rifle on a short sling across his chest, hand on the grip with the other. Lt made sure all his boys were ready to fight at an instant. The bat was gripped in the other, the wood dented, chipped in some spots and stained with black blood.
“Thing is,” the Lt continued. “I figure we could just keep on raiding, like we been doing, but that seems like it’s a short-term solution to a long-range problem. Command was saying they wanted some sort of organized resistance set up.”
“What’s our role in that?”
Lt shook his head as they walked.
“I’ll be damned if I could tell you Babe. We’re pretty good at one thing. Killing fucking Licks. If they need more killing done, well, I guess they out to send us in. We done a fair bit of good at it so far. But if they want emissaries delivering messages between fighting groups, I don’t think we’re going to make that good a pony express.”
Babe thought about this as they kept walking through the woods. He hadn’t grown up in the country, not like the Lt who sounded like his parents put gravy in his bottle. He was a city boy, born and bred on the Southside of Chicago. He was on a car ride to Memphis when the aliens invaded, and never made it back home.
Not that there was much home to go to. The Licks pretty much destroyed the coasts and every major city in between. Smaller towns escaped the wrath of the invasion, but suffered infestations of their own as survivors and refugees poured into them.
Then the Lick set up occupation forces and things got really bad.
“I think you’re selling us short, Lt,” he offered.
“How you figure?”
“I figure we built a good reputation for doing what we do over the past six months. People hear about it and it makes them want to fight back.”
“You think we’re inspiring folks?”
“I think so. And if we showed up at your doorstep and said it was time to fight differently, they might listen. To you.”
“To us, Babe. I’m pretty damn good at killing Lick cause I fuckin hate ‘em. But you boys is a damn sight better than me. Better than I could be.”
Babe doubted it, but he held his tongue. He felt a small tingle of pride at the praise.
“But if we go Paul Revere and knock door to door to drum up the fighting,” Lt continued. “What are we going to do with these?”
Babe shrugged again.
“Guess that’s why command pays you the big bucks, Sir.”
“You getting paid Babe?” Lt grinned. “You must got a better agent than me.”
“Find us a camp for the night, Danish,” he ordered and sent the man ahead to scout for a clearing and water. “I’m going to have to do me some hard thinking on our next step. Now I’m open to your suggestions, but the say so is mine. Lutz, you want to go scare up some dinner?”
Lutz nodded.
“You got something to add before you run off?”
“I’m with you Lt. You say go west, I’m going west young man. You say dance, we do the dance.”
“Good man Lutz. Now how can you argue with blind obedience like that,” Lt joked with the others. “Would like me some other opinions though.”
“What are the choices Lt?” Leroy asked.
“What to do with this here lot,” he pointed to Jake, Steph and Doc. “What to do next for a mission. We can keep raiding and killing. Or we can set up an organized fight.”
He ticked them off on two fingers, watching the trio as he did so.
“Should we be saying this in front of them?” Crockett asked.
“What are they going to do? Run off and tell?”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid they’ll do,” Crockett answered. “We don’t know them.”
“You want to shoot ‘em then? That it?”
“No Sir,” said Crockett. “Not yet.”
Lt motioned them to follow in the direction Danish took off, picking up his trail.
“My nature ain’t normally to trust,” Lt said now that they were packed closer together. “But I can’t just pull you away and leave the three of them all alone out here.”
They found Danish a few minutes later in a small opening in the trees. A large pine knocked over by a storm formed a wind break near a shallow running creek that disappeared into the woods.
“It’s not perfect,” he said. “But it will do.”
Each man in the squad attended to a specific duty. Leroy gathered wood and started a small, smokeless fire and put three pots of water in the coals to boil. Crockett and Danish cleared off branches and rocks to smooth out a sleeping space.
Lutz came back with two squirrels already skinned, and began making a thin stew from the meat and one of the pots of water. They refilled all of the canteens and a couple of plastic water bladders once the water had been purified and cooled.
They worked in silence and ate in silence under the watchful eye of Bonney. He made sure the trio of rescued prisoners had a cup of food, then leaned against a tree as he ate his own.
“What are we doing out here?” Doc Webber asked.
Lt glanced up at the darkening sky. Twilight turned the air around them a soft shade of gray, hints of sunlight still on the horizon with purple and orange bruise colored bands.
“Getting ready to bed down, Doc.”
“No, I mean your group?”
“My squad? This here is an elite killing unit in the business of Lick killing and let me tell you, business is good. Lutz, bought how man licks you figure we got under our belts?”
“Couple hundred Lt. I haven’t kept count.”
“Nine hundred and eight seven,” said Leroy.
“That many really?” Lutz scoffed.
Leroy pulled a tattered notebook from a pocket in his jacket and tapped it with his finger. He pried it open, grabbed a stub of a pencil and added tick marks to neat rows of others on a line.
“I might have missed a dozen. There were a couple of times we didn’t get heads because we had to run.”
“There you go Doc. Almost a thousand of these alien fuckers.”
“That’s a lot of dead,” Steph said without looking up from her cup. “Won’t make a difference.’
“It’s very impressive for such a small group,” Webber said, shooting her a look from the corner of his eye.
“Yeah, well we had two more til today.”
“To Rook,” Crockett tipped up his canteen. The others joined him.
“Hell no,” snarled Lt. “Put your damn drinks down. Rook was a good man and a good man deserves a proper wake. We’ll toast him when we find whiskey.”
“Not much of that left, Lt,” Babe said.
“We’ll find some. I got a nose for it, and a craving now that we’re talking about it.”
“Such primitive weapons too,” Webber stared at their scarred and battered rifles.
“I figure it’d be a little harder with muskets,” said Lt. “But we got one weapon they can’t fight against.”
“Human ingenuity? Cunning?” Webber asked.
“Striking good looks,” said Lutz.
“Surprise,” Lt answered. “They don’t know what we’re gonna do next.”
“It has been effective,” said the Doc. “But I overheard you saying a change of tactics is in order.”
Lt scowled, his frown visible in the growing darkness, shadows from the fire brushing his jaw.
“Nobody likes an eavesdropper Doc. But seeing as how it ain’t easy to not listen in, I’m going to let it slide.”
“What if I could offer to help? Webber looked at him over the rims of his glasses. The small flames flickered in the lens and gave his eyes the appearance of glowing.
“Excuse me Doc,” Crockett said. “But you don’t look too well trained in weapons.”
Webber chuckled without amusement, more of a polite noise of dismissal than mirth.
“And I am not,” he said, shoulders shaking in a self deprecating way. “But my Pede, did you call it?”
Lt nodded.
“Was in nanotechnology and microprocessing,” the Doc continued.
“What’s that?” Lt asked.
“Miniatures,” said Lutz.
“Microscopic robotics,” Doc clarified.
“Well hell Doc, no wonder you ain’t no good at medicine. You’re a damn robot doctor.”
“Like I said, not that kind of doctor. But part of a project I was working with before the invasion might have something that will help your cause. If it’s still there.”
“I appreciate that Doc. All for one and one for all. Beast the shit outta every man for himself any day in my book. But-”
Doc nodded his head, shooting tiny reflections of light across the campsite.
“But what?” Steph snapped. “He’s offering to help you. You don’t seem like you’re in a position to say no.”
Lt squinted at her across the band of darkness. She glared at him, unable to see the top part of his face, just the thin line of a frown.
“He is skeptical,” said the Doc.
Lt nodded.
“May I?” Doc asked.
Bonney waved his hand in an invitation.
“He is trying to determine if one or all of us is a spy. The offer I presented is vague, but full of promise. A mystery technology that could help change the course of the rebellion. He thinks it is a trap. Did I get it all?”
“You didn’t tell me about the course of the rebellion,” Lt said. “But other than that, I’d say you’re pretty fucking accurate.”
“Shoot us and be done,” Jake snarled. “You said that’s what you would do.”
“And I still might,” Lt sighed. “The thing is a good snake oil salesman gets you all excited for the outcome and the Doc here is a damn good salesman. He’s got all of us wonder what kind of tech he knows about. He’s tweaked our curiosity. And he knows we’re wondering things. Is he telling the truth? Is he buying time for the Lick to find us? Is he leading us into a trap?”
“Which is it Lt?”
Bonney shook his head.
“Everybody grab a sleep. I’ll take first watch. Babe, you and Leroy divvy up some blankets for the new folks.”
Jake didn’t wait for a blanket, just rolled over on his side, back to the fire. Steph grabbed a small emergency poncho and huddled under it between Doc and the young man.
Lutz shifted his foot forward and covered dirt over the fire, lowering it to just embers. He watched as the Lt got up and walked out of camp, soon lost a
mong the shadows of the trees.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jake glared at the trees in the darkness, a throbbing at the base of his skull. He had had a headache for as long as he could remember, and listening to the Doc drone on had only made it worse.