by Mark Iles
Selena was delighted to see the Queen’s attempts to recruit workers from the AOW were already paying dividends. Hundreds arrived daily and she found huge satisfaction in the rate the new construction sites were progressing. The thing that concerned her most was saboteurs. They’d already struck once when they’d disabled the defence platforms and assassinated the general. Despite all efforts they were no closer to identifying the culprits. Then an idea struck her.
“Shadow? Do you think your people could help us?”
By now the lenar had grown to her mid-thigh. When it looked up at her she knew he understood and would ask his kin. He got up and left the room on his way to the forest. An hour later he was back and sat looking up at her, with all six paws on the floor. She could feel their agreement, on the understanding the lenars were only loyal to the penal regiments. It was them they trusted. She immediately spoke into the battle-net. “Lieutenant Roberts, my office.”
The small slim, dark haired officer soon stood in front of her.
“At ease, Lieutenant, take a seat. I have a task for you.”
Robert’s looked surprised as she selected a chair. “Anything I can do, Ma’am, just let me know.”
“Just so you are aware, Roberts, I did some research on you. I was curious as to why the general kept you so close.”
Her dark eyes chilled. “And?”
“You were a professional assassin, employed by criminal gangs. I was actually quite surprised by that. Never caught, the only evidence against you came from someone who squealed to save themselves. Strangely he’s dead now, I checked.”
“It was a miscarriage of justice, Captain. They never proved anything but sentenced me anyway.”
Selena ignored her and carried on. “It says here you’re responsible for at least seventy kills. Quite a record you have. Now the reason I’ve said all this is I might need to call on you one day, although it won’t be anything too dramatic. How would you feel about that?”
Roberts watched her closely. “It all depends on what you might want.”
“We’ll discuss it when the time comes. Anyhow, all this has nothing to do with why I called you here today.” She eyed the multitude of tattoos from the top of Robert’s right shoulder down to her elbow, and then ignored them. “I understand you have an affinity with animals, not that Commander Muller would have appreciated it. Given your gift I want you to create a small group of twenty people or so, to work with the lenars. We’re going to use their empathic powers to root out these saboteurs. The ball is entirely in your court, Lieutenant, but I suggest you start by selecting between fifty and a hundred people from our ranks. Not all of them will be suitable.”
She glanced at Shadow, before returning to Roberts. “There will be twenty lenars waiting outside the city walls in a couple of hours. Handpick your team as soon as possible and start work. I’m not interested in how you do it, only in success. If you need any help then say so. In the meantime there are other things I need to be concentrating on. Shadow here will go with you to put people at their ease, but bear in mind that each lenar will only bond with one person.”
Roberts looked somewhat daunted but then her face relaxed and she reached down to stroke Shadow. “He’s really quite cute.”
Selena hid a smile. “Somehow I’m not sure he’ll find that a compliment.”
*****
Within two days Roberts made her selection, which included herself. The training really was getting the lenars and humans used to working together, accepting their partners as an equal and learning to read each other. She set each team tasks, starting with patrolling the city.
Late on the second day there was a knock on Selena’s office door, interrupting her assessment of how well the work fared at the new defence establishments. “Come in,” she said, turning away from the screen. “Ah, Roberts, some good news I hope? Take a seat.” The lieutenant did as she was bid and Selena noticed she was almost bouncing up and down.
“Yes, Ma’am, I’ve very good news actually. Your idea’s working, we’ve already caught two saboteurs.”
Selena breathed a sigh of relief. “Excellent. Tell me about it.”
“Both are civilians but one is Federation through and through. He’s ex-military who settled here some time back. He’s the one who killed the general, says it was his duty and he was just following orders. The other is a young lady who was being blackmailed. They have her family imprisoned on Mars. She says he had no choice and either she did what they said or her family would suffer. She’s already admitted sabotaging the platforms.”
“There’s always a choice. Okay, I want an immediate high-profile military trial. It’s to be televised and both are to be found guilty. The girl will be sentenced to five years imprisonment. The man is to be executed immediately the trial is over and his family are to be sent the bill for the bullet. If his family have any assets here I want them confiscated.”
“Very well, I’ll see to it.” Roberts watched Selena closely.
“Examples need to be set, Lieutenant, but this girl was trying to protect her family, which we can all understand. Now, as your search teams are working so well together I want two teams assigned to each city or base. Send the others up to the battle-stations and ships in orbit. I want all of them searched. After all, we can’t be too careful. I’ll clear it with the admiral. Once they’ve completed those tasks I want them back down here.”
Just then the wall screen burst into life. “What is it?” Selena snapped, angry at the second interruption.
“Captain,” a harassed private began, “Loreen’s under attack.”
Selena sat bolt upright in her chair. “Are you sure? That world’s far too well defended. They wouldn’t dare risk those defence platforms, I’m sure they’re aware of their firepower.”
“That’s precisely it Ma’am, there are thousands of crab-like robots coming out of the tunnels. They’ve already overrun the base camp on Eden. Most of our people managed to escape but it was only the auto-guns and troops we placed in the tunnel here that stopped them breaking out of the rabbit hole. The admiral’s rushing reinforcements there right now.”
“Keep me informed of all developments,” Selena snapped. Turning off the screen she thought: Damn it, I should have foreseen that. By coming up through those damn tunnels they bypassed our planetary defences. God, how stupid can I get? She dismissed Roberts with a wave of her hand and immediately called Admiral Van Pluy.
“Selena, you’ve heard?”
“Just now Sir, I’m sorry. I should have seen it coming. It’s obvious when you think about it. No wonder Arthur was so confident they’d get Loreen back.”
“Well, don’t blame yourself. We should all have seen the possibilities, especially me, although I don’t think the enemy realise how many people we have here. All being well we should be able to contain them in the tunnel. It’s if they get out we’ll have a problem. I’ve told our people to set up fall-back positions and overlapping defences all around the entrance, and to mine it in case everything goes pear-shaped. It’s interesting the ForeRunners are using the caretakers rather than risk themselves. Thankfully they seem quite limited and are just trying to break out. The fact that there are no Federation troops with them suggests they’ve still not been informed about this rabbit hole technology, or they can’t get them to the other end of the tunnels. Either way’s quite lucky for us.”
Selena thought for a moment. “The caretakers previously recognised us as ForeRunner descendants and followed our orders. They must have overwritten those settings to make the machines see us as enemies, which also suggests they’ll see any Federation force as enemies too. Perhaps that’s why there’s no humans at all amongst them.”
“Excellent point,” Van Plus replied, “and worth considering. By the way, Lieutenant Phillips is in the thick of it. He’s a good man.”
“Thanks for letting me know, Sir. Tell him to keep his head down. I have to go now, but I look forward to catching up soon.”
*****
Selena had the new bases on Capulet built quickly by focusing on three main areas: the perimeter walls and power rings to protect the workers from any attack, basic shelter and a landing pad, then weaponry and power supplies. In the short term the workers’ families remained in Capulet City, at least until the basics were completed. Food and water was flown to the stations daily. All in all it worked very well.
It was early evening when Selena received a call from a major, speaking on behalf of Admiral Van Pluy. He introduced himself as his new personal assistant. “Forgive the intrusion, Captain, but the Admiral asked me to call and update you on the situation here.”
“All’s well, I hope,” she replied.
“Not really. The caretakers are still coming through the tunnels in their thousands. They have some kind of beam weapon that incinerates our men. A simple touch and they burst into flame. You could be standing next to someone then suddenly find him burning to death besides you. It’s horrendous what they’re going through out there.” The man shuddered for a moment before continuing. “They’re like a constant wave, clinging to the walls and even the ceiling. The firepower pouring into the rabbit hole is horrendous. Your Lieutenant Phillips has thirty men constantly firing streams of grenades down it. All they’re doing is firing, reloading and firing again. Even with those explosions and the heavy weapons we’ve got in place, plus the troops’ personal weapons, we’re only just keeping them at bay. Kes asked the admiral if we could bring a sun beam weapon down from one of the ships and use it to fire at them.”
“Yea gods,” Selena gasped, shocked at the thought. “What did the admiral say?”
“He said ‘no way, the facility was far too valuable and the weapon might destroy it by accident’. He also pointed out that if we win this battle but began to lose the war we can always retreat down those tunnels to safety and blow them up behind us. We’ve orders to hold on all costs. Captain, at this rate we’ll be running out of ammunition in a day or two, although we’re expecting supplies from the colonies.”
She slammed her fist on the desk, feeling helpless and frustration lacing her voice. “Is there anything I can do?”
The major shook his head. “No, you just look out for Capulet. Hang on…” He put her on hold and then came back on the line looking relieved. “I’ve just heard the flow of the enemy is slowing down but we don’t know why. The admiral’s ordered us to prepare a frontal assault, in the hope of creating a bridgehead in Eden. They’re going to be preceded by a swarm of bees to ensure we’re not running into an ambush. Intelligence is concerned that the presence of the bees might tip off the enemy of our intent, so once they’ve shown all’s well our troops will pour down the rabbit holes. Now I’m sorry, Ma’am, but I have to go. There’s so much to do.”
“Yes of course Major, and thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied with a curt nod. “Take care.”
She sat watching the darkened screen for some time. It was no good, she went and found Singh in the dining hall. Sitting beside him she ordered a coffee from the steward and updated Singh on what was happening.
He looked stunned. “They must have lost thousands of those machines by now. Kes will be okay. He’s one tough cookie, and by the sound of it he’s doing a terrific job. The sunbeam’s a great idea, although the admiral has a point.”
“He sure does,” Selena agreed. The smell from the chilli he was eating made her feel hungry and suddenly she realised she hadn’t eaten since the night before. Placing an order with the steward for the same dish and a glass of chilled white wine, Selena said, “Have you heard what the Queen’s calling the new cities?”
“No,” he replied. “But judging from your tone I gather it’s going to be interesting.”
“She has a thing about Shakespeare, keeping in vogue with the rest of this place I guess. The city at the North Pole is now called Roussillon, the southern one is Ephesus and the one directly opposite us on the other side of the planet is Elsinore. To the west is Navarre and to the east we have Messina.”
Singh snorted, a spoonful of chilli and cheesy potato halfway to his mouth. “Are we supposed to remember all that? I suppose it was too easy to name them A, B, C and so forth. Or even North, South, East and West.”
Selena burst out laughing. “You don’t change, do you?” She grew more serious. “I wonder how thing are going on Loreen.”
She found out six hours later. No longer able to stay awake she forwarded her calls to her room, left her office and retired for the night, sleeping on top of the bedding fully clothed. When the screen pinged she wiped the sleep from her eyes and swung her legs from the bed, before sitting at the desk and accepting the call.
“I thought I’d call to update you, as there have been quite a few developments here,” Van Pluy greeted her.
“Thanks, we’ve all been concerned. I was just getting some rest.”
“It looks like you need it, no offence intended. In the meantime there’s good and bad news.”
“I hate it when people say that,” Selena replied, combing her hair with her fingers.
“As my PA informed you, the enemy numbers coming through the tunnels has been reducing but a short while ago they stopped. We sent a swarm of bees ahead of the assault group. They showed us there’s utter carnage in Eden.”
“In what way?”
“The Sken were there in force, attacking the caretakers. Those weird ships of theirs were strafing those robots and our base camp has been utterly destroyed. Many of the trees are...well, shattered. The things those Sken ships fire are unlike anything we’ve ever encountered. Those projectiles don’t explode, they eat everything they hit. That includes trees, foliage, the enemy — everything. There’s a lot of scattered metal and bare earth.
“We saw the ships stop their assault and thousands of Sken came out of the forest and engaged the caretakers. It was an incredible battle. Those beam weapons the caretakers carry are horrendous. Our people went through and joined the fight. Apparently a group of ForeRunners tried to flee in a dozen or so small craft, but the Sken ships bought them down. Here’s the feed from the bees.”
Selena watched the screen, as it showed a few survivors climbed from the wreckage of the ForeRunner ships, only to be incinerated by the caretakers. “Looks like they couldn’t tell the difference between our DNAs after all,” she said. The battle lasted a little while longer, but before long it was all over and the filming stopped.
“What happened then?” Selena asked.
“Several of the Sken approached our people and told us they’d found the rabbit holes on Arcadia and followed them back to Eden. Seeing the caretakers invading Loreen through the tunnels they stuck to their word about mutual defence and attacked. For the first time our forces fought side by side. The bad news, of course, is the Manta will be aware of the battle and will now know the tunnels can be used to bypass our planetary defences. If they decide to turn against us again it could prove our undoing, if they could find a way to get to one of the worlds with rabbit holes.”
“Well,” Selena replied, “on the flip side maybe it’s a good thing. This indicates we can actually work together for the common good.”
The admiral nodded. “Yes, well, let’s hope so. Either way there’s nothing to be done about it now. We just have to be on our guard. I’ve had the troops begin construction of major defences on Eden and here at our end of the rabbit hole. I guess that’s about all we can do. We’ve been resupplied too, thank heavens. Hopefully we can take a well-earned rest.”
“How’s Lieutenant Phillips? The men are bound to ask.”
The admiral gave her a warm smile. “He’s okay and a damn fine officer. I’ve put him in charge of Eden’s base camp. It’s a relief to know it’s in such capable hands. Now, if you don’t mind Captain, I need to get some rest. No doubt we’ll chat in the morning, when I’ll expect a full update on the situation on Capulet.”
“Good night, Sir,” Selena replied, releasing a sigh of
relief. Not only had she been concerned about her friends, but losing control of Loreen itself didn’t bear thinking about.
Chapter Twelve
Selena fretted. She wasn’t a diplomat or a desk jockey; she was a field officer and wanted to be in the forefront of the action. Sitting behind a desk kicking her heels was frustrating, but she knew the admiralty was correct. She was the right person for the job and had to accept it.
She’d expanded the search teams to forty and things on that front were going well. Selena had thought about the admiral’s suggestion about creating colonies of lenars on other worlds and asked Shadow to discuss it with his people, but as far as she knew they were still thinking it over. Going through her mail she saw the other worlds in the Assembly were already requesting search teams and knew it would be hard trying to deny them, no matter how much she explained the lenars would only serve the Penal Regiments. Both groups now understood and trusted each other implicitly.
Selena pondered the problem for a while. If she could overcome this issue several possibilities occurred to her. If the lenars could be incorporated into police forces they would change law enforcement dramatically, and there were unlimited commercial possibilities. Companies would pay tremendous sums to know what their competition was doing or even whether people attending meetings were telling the truth, and then of course there were politics. Yes, things would change a lot, if the lenars were interested.
Shadow slunk into the office. He’d been down to the forest again. She could feel the waves of emotion, as he stared up at her with those dark almond eyes. She jumped as she understood what he wanted, then got up and left her office, taking Shadow with her.
It was a dull cloudy day outside, as she and Shadow walked through the streets. It had rained only an hour or so earlier and she loved the damp smell of the city. She paused to watch children leaping in and out of the puddles to see how far they could splash the water, or more likely who they could drench.
To Selena’s surprise people stopped to watch them pass, mostly with smiles, whispers and even pointed fingers. One or two turned and fled immediately, and Selena knew it would be a long time before prejudice and fear left all of her people. Too many had lost relatives to the lenars. It was only when a young girl reached out and stroked Shadow that Selena realised things were already changing. Fear of the Forerunners and FOM meant that for the first time people were starting to accept the lenars, and from the warm glow emanating from her companion she knew he felt it too.