That’s when his desk buzzed. “Prime Minister. Prefect Chuumdar is waiting to speak to you.”
I was wrong, so, so wrong… “Send him on through.”
There was an audible click and that was his cue to speak. “Prefect, to what do I owe the honor?”
Chuumdar cut straight to the chase. “Colony One was destroyed today by a F’Rosian fleet.”
“What?” Puar yelped. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Indeed. The fleet jumped in, opened fire and destroyed it.”
“By the Founders!” he gasped. “How many people?”
“Approximately four billion.”
“Is there anything we can do?”
“Prepare for war,” he said bluntly. “If they have our coordinates, then they surely have yours.”
“How did they come across this information?” Puar asked.
There was a long pause, then Chuumdar spoke. “We had a ship out on the Fringes… mapping your spysats. After our last encounter, I felt it necessary to prepare for all-out war again. So I dispatched a ship. That ship was captured. Two brave souls escaped to tell me what transpired.”
Anger boiled up in Puar, but he swallowed it down like a little pill covered in razorblades. His heart still broke for all those innocents who were killed. “So it would appear we have kept things from each other. I feel that needs to stop—here and now—should we have any chance of finding a lasting peace.”
“Indeed,” Chuumdar agreed. “With that, I will be dispatching two fleets to Seryys to help defeat this common threat. They will be coming. We had some success fighting them. The commander of the fleet protecting Colony One used his Eve’Zon drive to open a black hole in their battle formations. It then caught them unaware and took several ships in the process. I cannot guarantee that it will work a second time, but it is something.”
It is definitely something, Puar thought. Was Chuumdar finally extending the olive branch? Why now? What changed? “May I ask something of a personal nature?”
“You may.”
“Did you have family on Colony One?”
There was another long pause, longer than the first. “Yes,” he said softly. “Braac and I both had loved ones on Colony One.”
“Did Sibrex?”
“Not to my knowledge, though I find it curious that you ask. Have you not written him off as a casualty?”
For the first time during this conversation, Puar grinned. “Prefect, if I’ve learned anything during my time in office, it’s to never underestimate Khai’Xander Khail and Sibrex. They’ve cheated death more times than I care to count. So, no, I have not written any of them off just yet.”
“And what of Ambassador Khail’s wife?”
That was a weird question, Puar thought. “She’s still in a medically-induced coma, but has made a lot of progress. The doctors tending to her are optimistic.”
“That is good to hear. Have there been any more attempts on her life?”
“What do you mean?” Puar asked suspiciously.
“Before Ambassador Khail left abruptly, he had mentioned that there was a threat on her life. Was it carried out?”
“Ah, that. Yeah, two Kil’Jah Assassins killed the hospital administrator, someone particularly close to General Khail, and failed at getting their target. They met a very violent and untimely death I’m sure.”
“Never underestimate Khai’Xander Khail,” Chuumdar echoed. “Have there been any more since then?”
“Not to my knowledge,” Puar answer, still puzzled by this line of questioning.
“It seems odd that the Resistance has suddenly fallen silent.”
Ah-ha, Puar thought. “I agree, it is awful suspicious. Perhaps with the surfacing of this new enemy, they’ve decided that we need each other if we’re going to survive.”
“Not likely, but I am hopeful.”
“Well, maybe this is first step to repairing the damage they’ve done. Thank you for committing some of your resources to our protection. They will definitely be welcome.” Puar decided to change the subject. “So, this method of using the Eve’Zon drives to open black holes near enemy ships is brilliant. Where did you come up with it?”
Puar thought he heard what he might have been a slight chuckle from the stoic Prefect, but couldn’t be sure. “It was actually my design, but it was rarely employed.”
“I was going say that I don’t ever remember seeing it,” Puar admitted.
“It was used in certain… desperate situations. The reason you never heard of it is because there were never any survivors from such an attack to relay that information. But it was costly. As I’m sure you know, Eve’Zon drives take time to recharge, we were already taxing our ships’ power supplies by sending two ships through a black hole at a time, so it was only used when we knew the mission was suicide. Plus, it defeated the purpose of our most effective attack strategy. If we jumped in and used the black hole, there would be no escape for several hours.”
Puar digested that, it was a rare occasion to get inside the head of tactician who, until very recently, was bent on his destruction… or so that’s what he was raised to believe.
“That really is a brilliant tactic. What’s the range on something like that?”
“That is the varying aspect. In most cases, several thousand miles, but you must be careful. Pushing the particle accelerator too hard to where the particles collide further out taxes the Eve’Zon drives greatly and could cause it to overload. We lost several ships that way. A safe maximum distance is two thousand miles.”
“That’s good to know,” Puar said. “Thank you for the warning and extra help.”
“My two fleets should arrive within the hour along with my liaison, Braac,” it was good thing it was an audio channel only; otherwise Chuumdar would have seen him cringe. “Good luck, Prime Minister. Chuumdar out.”
And with that, the channel went dead. Puar pushed a button on his desk and his aide-de-campe answered.
“Get me Admiral Ryynaall.”
“Right away, sir.” There was a long pause and then a click. “Admiral Ryynaall.”
“Admiral, prepare for incoming friendlies: two fleets of Vyysarri ships.” Before Ryynaall could respond, Puar continued. “Boy do I have a story for you…”
It was nothing more than a blink of an eye and they had made it to the outskirts of the Seryys System.
“Sibrex,” Khai called out. “Open a channel to the Defense Fleet.” Sibrex gave him a nod. “General Khai’Xander Khail to Defense Fleet Command, do you copy?” Nothing. “I repeat: General Khail to Fleet Command, come in please.”
There was a long pause then a loud crackle over the speakers “Uh, Command here, General. We read you loud and clear. What is your situation?”
“Alive and well, actually. We come bearing gifts!”
“What is your location?”
“Just outside the Seryys System. I didn’t want to give you all a collective heart attack. Permission to come home.”
“Permission granted. Though Prime Minister Puar wants to speak with you immediately.”
“Patch me through.”
“Khai, you crazy son-of-a-bitch! Is my brother with you?”
“I’m right here, bro!” the World Leader’s younger brother called out.
“Oh!” he gasped! “Thank the Founders! What of the others?”
“We’re all here, sir,” he assured his Prime Minister. “Even the engineering teams that came with us into the asteroid field.”
“Well, that’s something. I hear you have something for me.”
“You could say that.”
“I’m positively tingling with excitement. Come home quickly, we have much to discuss.”
“You got that right!”
“I wish I could’ve seen the look on your face when you saw all those ships jump in,” Khai laughed walking into Puar’s office.
Puar’s response was not as jovial. “Have a seat, guys. We have a lot to discuss.”
/> Khai’s jovial demeanor vanished instantly. “Yes, sir.”
They all sat, save for Sibrex who stood behind them, arms folded.
“First of all,” the Prime Minister started. “Colony One was destroyed a few hours ago.”
The stoic, cold front that Sibrex nearly always carried, broke completely and utterly. The stunned, angry, devastated expression he wore was one that Khai had never seen in the four years he’d known him. His knees buckled and he dropped to all fours, placing his forehead on the floor. Khai was next to him in a heartbeat. “Four billion people…” he whispered, barely audible even from Khai’s close proximity. His whole body began to shake with a terrible tremor that, at first, Khai thought was a seizure. After a few seconds, Khai realized that Sibrex wasn’t caught in the throes of a seizure but in the throes of uncontrolled rage. A deep and deafening roar boiled its way up from the depths of Sibrex’s soul that was surely heard several decks down from the Prime Minister’s office.
When the echo from the roar died away, he was able to sit up on his knees. A truly demonic look twisted his usually wise-looking features. “Who did this?” Sibrex demanded in a low, menacing tone that made Khai’s chest resonate.
“A F’Rosian fleet,” Puar’Kin said quietly.
“Did they die?” he asked.
“A good number of them, yes.”
“But not all of them?” Sibrex asked. “I mean to say… every. Single. One of them?”
“No,” the World Leader said. “Some of them escaped, but your people put up a hell of fight and took several of them down using, shall we say, innovative tactics.”
“Do you where I can find them?”
“No. They jumped without a trace. But don’t worry, Sibrex. You’ll get your chance for vengeance. Chuumdar said that we should be expecting them soon. He has sent two fleets of ships to aid us in our defense so that we don’t suffer the same fate.”
“Good,” growled Sibrex.
“In the meantime, I have another assignment for you.”
“What’s that?” Khai asked.
“I have an… operative planet side working on something of great importance. He’s landed himself in quite a bind and I need you to assist him.”
“We’ll go where we’re needed, sir,” Khai said.
“Good. We’ll get engineers working on these ships pronto and work on getting them crewed.”
“They should be working at seventy-five percent efficiency,” Sibrex added. “It was the best we could muster in such short time. Weapons, shields, propulsion and life-support were the most essential systems for functionality.”
“We could not have asked for more, Sibrex,” Puar complimented. “However, we could use your expertise up here helping to get these ships up to a hundred percent.”
Sibrex looked at Khai. Khai nodded.
“I would be delighted to stay up here and help where I can.”
“Excellent,” the older Prime Minister said. “The Bolt Bucket is fueled and ready for you to depart.”
After a short debriefing on their time in the asteroid field, they were dismissed to their respective assignments. Sibrex followed them as his shuttle was departing from the same hangar headed for the Cerys II.
“We could’ve used you down there, but I think they need you more,” Khai said.
“Indeed. I’ve built quite the rapport with these engineers. We work well together. Furthermore, I have to program the defense fleet’s computers much as I did the Splitter’s and the Bucket’s to detect the F’Rosian ships.”
“Well, then you’ve got your work cut out for you,” Khai said, slapping him on the shoulder.
“Indeed,” Sibrex agreed. “Be careful, my friend. Those Reapers are not to be underestimated.”
“Pft! Don’t I know!” Khai spoke from experience.
“Admiral Sibrex!” a young deck officer shouted. “Your shuttle is leaving!”
“Understood!” he shouted back. “Good hunting!”
“Thanks,” Khai said extending his hand. “Keep the skies clear while I’m down there.”
“I will,” he responded, taking Khai’s hand in firm handshake.
With that, they parted ways. Sibrex jogged over to the shuttle that was warming up and Khai stomped up the ramp of the Bucket where he joined, Pual’Brennan Puar, Brix and Dack’Tandy Dah. He sat down in the seat behind Puar, who turned with a quizzical look on his face. “Does anyone else think it’s weird that my brother was so dodgy with who this ‘operative’ is?”
“Yeah, that was a bit odd,” Brix chimed in.
“Well, the longer we spend jabbering about it, the longer it’ll be ‘til this mystery is solved,” Khai said, strapping himself in. “Let’s go!”
“The Prime Minister had the deck hands punch the address into my computer so…”
“What’s wrong, Dack?” Khai asked, detecting his friend’s concern.
“I know this address,” he said. “It’s Kay’s address.”
“So the operative is Kay?” Khai asked, clearly puzzled.
“Why would my brother be so dodgy about that?”
“I don’t know,” Khai said, fastening the last buckle. “But I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”
“All right,” Brix said, getting fired up. “So, what are we doing?”
Chapter Seven
“You can’t possibly tell me that Puar purposely left you there!” Kay said angrily. She knew as well as anyone that Puar was a good, honest man, and one of the best Prime Ministers Seryys had seen in decades.
“I’m not saying the he purposefully left me there to die, he just didn’t care that I was left behind!” Brawl shot back with an equally angry tone.
“Well, you lived to tell about it,” Kay pointed out. “So why are you bitching about it?”
Brawl had already formulated a retort, just not to that statement and he stopped, mouth hanging open trying to find the words. He was not expecting this little cutie to put something so bluntly. He liked her.
“I… I…” he stammered.
“Mm-hm,” Kay said, nodding. “You’re a complainer.”
“Am not,” he argued like a five-year-old.
“Yeah you are,” Kay said with a laugh. “That whole story, the setup, the betrayal, all of it just so you can complain.”
“That’s not… That’s not the normal response I get.”
“Oh,” she sang. “Let me guess. Usually they’re so shocked by this that they say, ‘Ooh, you poor thing! How could they do that to you?’”
“Well, yeah, actually.”
“Mm,” was all Kay said.
“What?” Brawl growled, letting his anger rise. “You reckon you have it so bad that you can’t feel sorry for anyone?”
“I don’t see a need to feel sorry for people who feel sorry for themselves.” Kay responded, not getting angry. “I have more compassion than you realize. I just reserve it for people who deserve it.”
“Well isn’t that just pr—” Brawl was interrupted by his com unit.
“Kay, you there?”
Brawl thought the voice sounded oddly familiar. Apparently Kay found it familiar, too. She snatched the com unit from his hands.
“I sure am!” Kay chirped with a smile. “And you’re even early!”
“Good timing, I guess. What’s your situation?”
“Could be worse,” she said. “My mom and dad are gone, but my brothers are safe for the moment. What’s your ETA?”
“We just entered Seryys City airspace, so a few minutes.”
“Good,” she said. “We’ll be waiting.”
She tossed the com unit back to Brawl. On the outside, she was stone cold. Within, she was a roiling river of lava. She was barely keeping it together for her and her brothers’ sakes. She had lost her half of her family in a matter of minutes, a family that Tran’Ri Trall had used as leverage over her to do his bidding. All the horrible things she did in his name to protect her family now seemed too trivial, if she had just le
t Trall kill them, maybe then she wouldn’t have had to watch them die. Though, knowing Trall, he probably would have made her watch as part of her conditioning.
But, being a former Agent, she was also adept at pushing emotion down into her belly where it would stay out of her heart. She needed to be ruthless, cold, calculating and efficient; sorrowful and pain-stricken were not on that list, nor did they have any business being on that list.
Like a switch, she was back to all business. “We need to be ready when they get here. I don’t want a repeat of the last time.”
“Agreed,” Brawl said, throwing the last bottle of ale into the garbage. He slung his gun while Kay corralled her terrified brothers.
They made the quiet walk down the hallway to the roof access door. As they made it up to the roof, the stench of already decaying flesh assaulted their noses as the dead Reapers baked in the sun. In the distance, something metallic reflected the sun and Kay knew that Khai was on his way to take her brothers to safety.
As the Bucket approached, Kay had to grin at the sight. She flew that ship once before, in an exhilarating romp through the Kal’Hoom Karr Canyon. The ship landed on the roof, squishing several dead Reapers under the landing skids. The ramp began to lower and Khai came strutting down before the ramp could fully open, as if he was waiting in the main hold for the ramp to drop. He saw Kay first and offered a big smile, but then he saw who she was with and his smile vanished.
“General,” Brawl said cordially with a nod. “Nice to see you too, I suppose.”
“Burke,” Khai said in a tone that was almost like an accusation. “So you’re the ‘operative’ Puar was talking about.”
“I reckon I am,” Brawl responded. “And it looks like my paycheck is being gobbled up by a lotta hands in the cookie jar. Who else you got up in there? I know you ain’t working alone.”
“What do you care?” Khai spat.
“I just wanna know how many ways I have cut the reward,” he growled.
“You can keep your reward! I’m doing this for the good of all Seryysans.” Khai snapped. “I’m not a thug for hire.”
“What a coincidence!” Brawl laughed. “I’m not either!”
The Seryys Chronicles: Steel Alliance Page 10