by H. T. Kofruk
Ten years ago, his mother passed away and that was when he decided to lay down his weapons. He hadn’t spoken to his mother for years; she refused to talk to him as long as he was still a soldier or worse, a mercenary and killer. Unlike his Zulu father, his mother’s ancestors had come from North America, when blacks were being deported en masse. One of her ancestors was supposedly a major figure behind the African Enlightenment, a period of rich reflection mostly instigated by black intellectuals from America or Europe, which had led to an unprecedented era of Afrikan peace and prosperity. His father, proud of his people’s military exploits, supported his eldest son’s fighting. But his mother was a strict pacifist and abhorred all violence. Her disappointment in him was like a knife through his heart. And now he would never have the opportunity to please her again.
After quitting from his only known occupation, he bought a ship and started smuggling goods, resources and slaves. His friend David, a descendent of black American immigrants, was an accountant-turned bomb expert during the war. Their competences complemented each other and they had built a relationship that spanned many years now.
“Just sedate the fuckers, sleeping aliens will give you no trouble” he said to David.
“Our sedatives don’t seem to work on these guys. The only other kinds of sedative we have are for tsatay, and that might kill them” replied David, referring to massive carnivorous aliens that they sometimes smuggled for game.
“Just test it on one of them first”
A red danger light suddenly started blinking on the control panel. He switched the view on the holograph projector to see what it was about. On the screen appeared a hacked image of a small planet half a day from their position. There was a fleet of several destroyers and one large mothership in orbit.
“Funny, there are rarely Pacific fleets of this scale in this area” commented David.
“They’re here for a reason. What’s that planet their circling?”
David sat down next to Bongani and started looking up the planet on the ship’s database. After a few minutes searching, a holograph of the planet appeared and a woman’s voice started explaining.
“Planet S-2130 or Kheut of the Pacific Federation. A planet roughly two thirds the size of Earth with similar atmospheric composition, Kheut was discovered and claimed as Pacific Federation territory in 2613. The life forms on this planet remain relatively primitive, similar to the Cambrian period of Earth’s prehistory, with no known intelligent beings.”
“What kinds of minerals or resources have been discovered on Kheut?” asked Bongani.
“There are sizeable deposits of copper, zinc and coal. Pacific Federation presence on this planet is largely for scientific, particularly biological research purposes.”
“In other words, nothing special” said David. “What about the military presence on the planet?”
“Due to the relatively neglected nature of Kheut, military presence has been kept to a bare minimum. There is one military installation on the surface with personnel numbering in the lower hundreds. No data can be retrieved on what kind of weapons systems they have.”
“This is weird. What is a fleet like that doing around a planet that seemingly has nothing?” thought aloud Bongani.
“Perhaps they’ve found something. Who knows, they may have made a discovery. Do you wanna go check it out?”
Bongani’s curiosity got the better of him. “We’ll observe for now, let’s wait until they leave. I’m putting the ship on low-detection mode.” The heat signature of the ship became so small as to be almost nothing while the reflective panels changed colour to merge with the surroundings.
Within a few hours, however, things turned even stranger. What seemed to be a single large Atlantic Alliance ship appeared through a wormhole. It scanned the surface but soon left after apparently finding nothing interesting. The Pacific fleet lingered on for a few more hours but also left through a large wormhole.
David looked at Bongani and knew immediately the dangerous expression he had.
“With fleets from the Pacific Federation and the AA lurking around, we’d better get a move on to the wormhole station. Our liaison will be waiting” said David, hoping to steer clear of whatever was going on down on that little planet.
“Why would the Pacific permit an AA military vessel to enter their territory and scan one of their planets?” asked Bongani, mostly to himself. “It’s like they’re telling the Atlantic that they’ve got nothing to hide.”
“The Pacific Federation is the AA’s bitch. They’ll do whatever those crazy fanatics ask of them, including spreading their legs.”
“Last I heard it was the other way round, when the AA was begging for some terraforming technology. But I think the Pacific may be hiding something down there. Let’s go have a quick look what those imperialist bastards were all looking at.” Bongani’s curiosity got the better of him.
“You’re a bitch to your curiosity” sighed David. “Meanwhile, I’m gonna go and smoke to the Rastafarian god.”
“You’re a bitch to your bong” responded Bongani with his middle-finger up.
Chapter 20: Shital Niwas
‘We fought literally to the last being, rejecting the notion of domination by an alien being. In Renden history we will be a forgotten people who stupidly resisted when acceptance would have been so much sweeter. My only hope is that our plight and our almost assured extinction as a species will not discourage other peoples in the same predicament from fighting.’ – Chin Sawak Tsuba, Shinwakha freedom fighter, final holograph recording, year 2742 (est.)
The Home Planet Defence Condition was put on level three. All military leave was cancelled and all personnel were to report immediately back to their command. Armed satellites sought out their pre-designated target cities.
High Chancellor Giovanni Morgante, head of the Atlantic Alliance executive branch and loyal servant of the One God pope, walked nervously down the corridor of the Shital Niwas in Kathmandu, Nepal. As a neutral state, the former presidential residence of Nepal had been used for the past three hundred years as the meeting ground for the heads of the Six. The former monarchy was known for providing fierce soldiers for the Pacific Federation and the Peace Alliance but had a policy of strict non-interference. Though small, the independent state had exceptional soldiers and the other empires didn’t see the point in annexing it.
Before attending the meeting, Giovanni was to meet his opposite number of the Pacific Federation, as was custom, in order to align their interests. With four of his bodyguards and assistant trailing him, he reached the bare, grey room where the Pacific Federation president was waiting. His dark hair was perfectly trimmed and combed, his skin was the right slightly tanned colour and his dark grey suit was well worth the price tag. He even wore the ceremonial blue sash which he thought brought out his eyes.
Upon entering, a solid-looking male bodyguard and three women were already seated. Only one bodyguard, a sign of confidence. His own head bodyguard turned on his insulator, a small handheld device that not only rendered all bugs, cameras and other electronic devices useless, but also created an invisible bubble that blocked all waves and pulses from outside. But Phuong Tran, his opposite number, waved her hand, a gesture signalling that there would be no need.
“That won’t be necessary. We’ve already got one working” she said, pointing to a similar device on the table.
Giovanni looked at her with a sense of mistrust. He knew he should have been there earlier. The insulator on the desk could well be a hidden spy equipment. His instinct told him to turn his on anyway but that would not be diplomatically courteous.
He noticed the tall woman standing to the right of Phuong. Upright, slender yet muscular, she looked right back at him with piercing eyes. A Phantom. She was surely not there to act as a bodyguard but probably to gather intelligence and detect any deceit. The shorter, younger woman standing to the left of the Pacific head-of-state was almost definitely just an assistant who looked nervou
sly at the Phantom every so often.
“Please sit, Giovanni, we have much to discuss before the main meeting” said Phuong.
He resented a woman calling him casually by his name. He glanced at her, not bothering to hide the discontent in his eyes. But from his mouth, however, came the formal greetings for the sake of diplomatic courtesy.
“How lovely it is to see you again, Phuong. I trust your poll ratings are up, especially with the recent riches you are bringing back from your territory. Last I heard, you’re mostly likely going to get re-elected.”
Phuong winced her eyes, almost as if to say how sick and tired she was of all the diplomatic mumbo jumbo. “I know you think that I’m a godless, satanic whore, so why don’t we cut all the crap and get to the point, Giovanni”
Giovanni sat down deliberately slowly, to show how at ease he was. He managed a slight smile. “I do love your straight-forwardness. What have you got for me?”
Phuong’s eyes opened wide, but she soon put on a neutral face and even managed a snigger. She was well aware that he was treating her like a junior partner. “You’ve been keeping information from us, Giovanni. I thought we had a certain arrangement?”
This interrogation infuriated him. Who did this woman think she was? “My dear Phuong,” came honey-coated words however “what would we have to gain from keeping secrets from you?”
“My thought exactly. What indeed would you have to gain from not telling me that an entire invasion force was massacred by an unknown alien army, of which we have no idea of the whereabouts or abilities?”
Giovanni’s face turned to a scowl for a split-second before he regained his slight smile, something he had perfected looking hours into the mirror, his Mona-Lisa smile he liked to say.
“And something tells me” she continued “that this may have something to do with the arming of all your satellites as well as mass mobilization of your troops. Would you like to share something?”
“What a fascinating story. But I can assure you that no one would dare engage our forces in such a manner, much less destroy them.” How did this leak? “And besides, I’m not quite sure why I should report anything to you. I only report to His Holy Father.”
“So did His Holy Father pray your alien army away when he heard the news?”
Giovanni scowled at the jab at the Atlantic theocracy. “I’m not sure I appreciate that jest, my dear. Anyhow, I assure you that we will find the perpetrator of this false, malicious rumour.”
“If it’s false, why the mobilization? What is the mighty Atlantic Alliance afraid of?”
“Though I have no duty to tell you, I shall for being such a dear friend. It is simply a training exercise, one of the largest in history in fact. Just to keep our men on their toes and to send a message to anyone if they think they can touch us.”
Phuong suddenly stood up. She looked down on Giovanni with an expression that was something between angry and confused. If this was as serious as she thought it could be, why on Earth was he not telling her anything? Looking at China’s almost simultaneous preparations for war, she was certain the powerful empire had something to do with it. Does the Atlantic think it can take on the Chinese Empire alone? If the Han Imperial hand was responsible for the viciously efficient attack on the Atlantic planet, then it could mean a sudden rebalancing of the Great Empires was not far off.
“I see we have nothing further to discuss. I’ll see you at the meeting” she said as she turned around to walk away.
Giovanni knew he had only a couple seconds to make his mind up. The masses of faithful could not know of any cooperation with the Pacific Federation. Their firm belief of the invincibility of the Atlantic Alliance military forces could not be put into question. After all, armed with God’s will, who would dare, let alone succeed in annihilating a full Atlantic Alliance invasion force?
But he needed the Pacific’s intelligence gathering abilities more than their military strength. The Pacific, due to the fact that many of them had similar appearances to the Chinese, had thousands of spies infiltrated within the Chinese Empire. And whether this new force was a Chinese military project or truly an unknown alien army, their knowledge of biology could be crucial in finding a weak point.
“We think it’s the Chinese” he said suddenly.
Phuong turned around and took her seat again.
“Why?” she asked
“They’re the only ones with both the technology and resources to build such a force. Also, a recording of the briefing was found on Janpu just before the attack and apparently, they witnessed a turtle-shaped destroyer in orbit. We have reason to believe this was a meticulously planned attack, a result of at least years of scheming.”
Phuong nodded. “Then it was a test.”
Giovanni opened his eyes wide. “A test of what?”
“They’re testing a new weapon. What better field test environment than a newly invaded planet with thousands of well-trained soldiers? It was audacious and they surely didn’t think they could have kept everything under the lid. That means they’re confident enough of the advantage it brings.”
“We should attack first before their new weapon is completely ready” said Giovanni while nodding his head in agreement.
“If they pulled off such an attack, I’d bet that it means that it’s already ready, or very near being so. We need to get an idea of what we’re up against. Do you have any specimens of this alien?” she asked. But Giovanni merely shrugged his shoulders.
She knew that he was probably lying. But once they realize their scientists weren’t up for it, they’d come calling for help.
Chapter 21: Connection
‘The discovery and attempted taming of the Nikruk will be marked as one of the biggest mistakes Rendens ever made. Their lack of understanding and will to understand this strange species changed their relationship with other intelligent aliens forever.’ – Thireliusu of Dlailum, Thalian politician and political scientist,
Terry wanted desperately to fall asleep. Every muscle in his body was aching and he still had a chill in his body. Heera was sleeping with her head on his shoulder. He was grateful for their good fortune. An hour later and both of them would probably have perished.
The interior of the cargo area of the ship was full of pressurized crates of herbs, minerals and gadgets. Cages lined one of the walls; some were filled with exotic pets; most of them held small humanoid aliens who showed some intelligence, though they seemed wary of Terry and Heera. A foul, acrid smell permeated the air, even with the air filters working at full strength.
Terry didn’t trust the captain of this freight vessel. He tried to act as though harmless but the way he moved, the way he talked, even the way he observed everything sent an alarm ringing in Terry’s head. There was no doubt that he had received the highest levels of military training. And it was the scar on the back of his neck that gave him the final clue, a round scar that had been made to get rid of a tattoo. With tissue regeneration, there normally shouldn’t have been any scar. Its presence indicated that it had been removed the dirty way; by scraping it off with a knife. And he knew what had been erased, the black fang of the Black Berserkers.
Was Afrika involved in this? That could be a distinct possibility. Were they trying to spearhead a new colonial empire for themselves? Had they finally decided to end their obsession with their lofty ideals? But then he decided it wasn’t the case. Things just didn’t add up.
This was purely by chance. This Bongani was certainly ex-military, perhaps even a deserter. But now he was just scum living off smuggling. He could even be a black market banker, lending money with the unholy, corrupt idea that he could receive interest payments. Lots of ex-military did that, since they usually had the muscle to enforce repayments.
The other one, David, entered the cabin quarter, holding a tray of food. This one was also almost certainly ex-military but he didn’t have the look of an infantryman or marine. Upon seeing the food, Terry’s stoma
ch began to grumble. The few bites of the sandwich that he had taken before the attack on Kheut seemed a lifetime ago. Could there be anything in the food? Perhaps a truth-telling agent?
“Don’t worry” reassured David, reading Terry’s expression. “There’s nothing in the food. I’m sure you guys are famished.”
With a nudge Terry woke Heera who was trying to stay awake but kept on nodding off. Terry had to be impressed by her endurance and strength during the ordeal; he knew marines who would have perished. When she woke, it seemed as if from a dream, eyes dreary with sleep. Within a few seconds her eyes grew intense and looked at the food and then at Terry. He gulped down a glass of water to reassure her. She immediately took a jerky and started chewing on it voraciously.
“So what are you? Smugglers? Slave traders?” Terry asked between his own chews.
David merely chuckled. “Just two guys making a living on the universe.”
“Ah, yes, very often the words uttered by your kind during trial” retorted Terry.
The other man’s hand glided over his bald head, wiping the perspiration. Heera gave a scolding look at Terry. “We’re indebted to you for helping us. But we need to head to a wormhole station as soon as possible” she said after gulping down a bite of an apple.
“Before making such demands, I have some questions of my own” was David’s response. “What could an Atlantic Alliance soldier have been doing on a Pacific planet, and why would a Pacific fleet and an Atlantic vessel convene in the orbit of such a fringe planet?”
“Such business is strictly classified, especially to smugglers and pirates” replied Terry sternly.
“So classified as to keep from your saviours?” boomed a fourth voice. The dark, towering figure of Bongani entered the quarters. “Our business is in making money from whatever sources, be that minerals, slaves or information. And something tells me that you may have a wealth of the last.”