The Raygin War

  “Open fire,” yelled Commander Coleman.

  Laser rifles lit up the passageway. The unarmed bugs kept coming after the human invaders. Tal estimated there to be about two hundred bugs. Beetle bodies began to pile up so deep it was becoming hard for the human team to move over them. The surviving bugs regrouped and clustered in front of a second closed hatch. It was obvious they were protecting something deeper inside.

  The bugs began to move as a massive spear shape of beetles toward the humans. Killing the unarmed bugs was easy. The attack was a ploy by the bugs and it worked. The bugs behind the dead ones used their bodies for a shield. The humans couldn’t stop the spear. It was a clever hive type move.

  “Blow the barrier, blow the barrier,” yelled the commander.

  Waooom. The grav shoes held as air rushed out of the passageway, carrying the bugs along on a free ride. Within seconds, the bug bodies lost all their oxygen. The moving shock wave carried their now lifeless bodies into the darkness.

  “Let’s see what they were protecting,” said the commander.

  The engineers set up a temporary interlock. They vented the pressure in the double sealed oxygen filled room. When they opened the inner hatch, a security officer was the first to enter the room. The lights were still on, which meant the room had its own power supply. Tal could see the chamber was expansive. Bigger than any room on a human ship. It looked to be at least 400 meters long.

  When Commander Coleman entered the room, he whistled at its size. “Are you seeing this captain? There must be four to five hundred operating tables in here. It looks like a human body is on each table.” Cables, hoses, and lines ran from beneath each table to the body on it. The commander walked up to a table to take a closer look. Tal couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a child. As he looked at other tables, his vid link showed they were all children. A few boarding team members could be heard gagging as they tried to refrain from vomiting.

  A female doctor walked up to a body for a better look and made sure they had vids to evaluate later. The aliens had cut off the top of each child’s skull exposing the brain. It had the looks of an assembly line.

  “We attacked them while they were in the middle of some sort of operation,” said the doctor. “Look here,” she said pointing to the open brain of a child. “There is a soft piece of tissue… no, it’s webbing of some sort. It is connecting the cerebrum, cerebellum, and the brain’s limbic area.” When the doctor touched the tissue, the child’s eyes opened, causing the doctor to reel backwards. She stumbled over her own feet. Other medical personnel rushed to check on her.

  “I’m all right. I’m all right. It surprised me. That’s all. They are still alive. Check the other children. Check the children.”

  The team used med scanners to evaluate the children. “They’re alive. How can this be?”

  The doctor stood up, established her bearings, and checked the pupils of the nearest child. “No eye movement.” She checked the arms and legs. “No response to limb movement.” She tapped on the wrist. “Reflex movement confirmed.” She pinched the child’s arm. “No response to pain.” She looked at the med scanner readings and tried to figure out what flowed in the lines hooked up to each child.

  Tal couldn’t wait any longer. “I need your speculations doctor.”

  Tal watched as the doctor touched the membrane while reading the med scanner. The eyes opened again.

  “I want you to understand this speculation is way out there captain. I’m guessing all the children seem to be in an induced coma. The webbing they have installed seems to use the brains electrical activity to power itself. This is far beyond anything we have. I’m guessing it’s a data receiver. Why? Here’s my guess, and as I said it is way out there. The older we get, the more our memories impact our decisions. Try to remember back to when you were a child. Most of us can’t remember events that happened earlier than about two and a half years of age. We use memories to help protect our bodies. We also use them for speech, problem solving, movement, perception, recognition, etc.”

  “The human brain takes about twenty-two years to develop, give or take a year or two. Let’s say you take a young developing brain and input a computer-generated task. If you reward the brain with a good feeling it would learn to complete all tasks assigned to it. I believe it might be possible for such an individual to operate at high cognitive levels. This webbing attaches to the cognitive brain pathways and it also hooks up to pleasure areas. I bet whoever did this wants the children to take data, assess it, manipulate it, and solve problems. Essentially, someone would have a perfect slave.”

  “Can we move the bodies?” asked Tal.

  “Maybe. But it will take days to move so many children.”

  “What if we stabilized this section of ship and towed it with us – ”

  The doctor froze as a gargoyle like creature came from nowhere and leaped at her. It swung its sharp, clawed paw at her leg. She screamed in pain as claws ripped through her Oxie suit into her skin. Security personnel began to fire their laser rifles at the creature. It winced in pain as it dropped, either dead or unconscious. The power to the room shut off. The children’s bodies started to convulse. Seconds later, all movement stopped. The med team scanned the children. They were all dead. Something had killed them.

  “The animal attack was a diversion,” said a security team member.

  “Look for the power feed to this room,” said Commander Coleman.

  The engineers began to search the room.

  “Found it commander” said an engineer, as she flipped the switch returning the power to the lights.

  “Stay sharp. Something is in here with us. Teams of three, search the room.”

  A flash of white wispy smoke appeared in near the commander. A woman with an elongated hairless forehead and long white hair appeared as the smoke dissipated. Her skin was a light pinkish cream color and her ears had points. Her eyes glowed orange. Though she looked a bit odd, Tal thought she was still beautiful.

  The newcomer looked at the humans as if amused. “There is no need to look for me,” she opened her arms wide, “I am right here.”

  “Who are you?” asked the commander.

  “I am called Wineena. In time, I plan to become your overseer.”

  “What if we don’t want an overseer?” asked the commander.

  Wineena laughed. “It is not for you to decide, commander. Soon, you will learn to take pleasure in any command I give. I have seen enough to realize my colleagues are wrong about you humans.”

  “Are you human too?”

  “Are you Ogarii? The answer is no. Please don’t insult me.” Wineena could see the commander looking her up and down. “I know. You think we share traits, but so do you and a baboon. You impetuous humans have much to learn.”

  “How is it you speak our language?”

  Wineena turned around and lifted up her hair, exposing her neck. Everyone could see a small port. “Data port,” she said, dropping her hair back into place.

  “Why did you kill the children?”

  “Because you would not. I did it to save you. You must leave soon, or the others will be back.”

  The commander held out open arms, “Why do all this?”

  Wineena looked at the doctor while crewmembers were placing a repair patch on her Oxie suit. “You have already guessed at what I am doing. The Ogarii are at war with the Drahce. The Raygin fight for us but, they have proven to be slow to learn and remain uncreative on the battlefield. They require too much attention. You humans however, show much potential.”

  Tal told the commander via direct com to ask her why she was telling them her plans. The commander said, “If all this…”

  “Save your breath, commander, I heard,” said Wineena. She looked into the commander’s vid camera. “Good job captain! You ask the obvious question. If I want to enslave your race, wouldn’t I be better advised to keep it a secret? The answer of course, is yes, but it’s not my short-term goal. Many Ogarii argue you a
re too brash, impatient, and too willing to gamble. They believe your traits make for bad warriors. They think your role in serving us would be better suited to become workers. They are mistaken. I am sure you will make good warriors and I aim to prove them wrong.”

  “How do you plan to do that?” asked Tal.

  “My strategy has already begun. War. Humans must fight against the Raygin. The winner has the honor of becoming our warriors, and as far as the losers go, they will support us in other ways. Don’t waste time trying to bargain with the Raygin. They wouldn’t understand. Their programming has made humans an enemy of their collective nest. There is no alternative, you must go to war.” Wineena spun around and disappeared in a blur of movement.”

  “Block the doors, search the room,” said the commander.

  The crew searched and searched for several minutes but couldn’t find a trace of her.

  “Captain, a small ship accelerated away from the debris field,” said a bridge officer on Dagger. In the same breath he said, “It’s gone.” The officer manipulated a few scanner controls and said, “There’s no trace of it, captain.”

  “Commander Coleman, a small craft has departed near your location. Get out of there right now. Take the bodies of two children on your way out. Now, move it!”

  “Aye captain, we are heading out.”

  The team entered the shuttle with a few bodies and some equipment taken from the alien ship. The shuttle pilot started up the ion drive and activated the shields. The once mighty remnant of a ship exploded sending the small shuttle off to ride a mini shock wave. The small pieces of alien technology would not be retrievable. They would travel for years until captured by some planet’s gravitational field. They had lost the alien technology. Wineena had robbed them of their bounty.

  The commander reported everyone was safe and they were heading back to Dagger. Tal fired off a video to both Mac and the admiral. They had to see this new information for themselves. The Ogarii appear to be humanoid. I wonder if there is some kind of link with humans? I’ll bet the whole verbal exchange with the orange-eyed alien was done to buy her crew time to prepare for a quick getaway and to plant explosives. Clever little bitch!

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Spies

  Imagine, a floating head with no body, telling you you’re in big trouble. Anyone else would have laughed but Mac learned long ago when someone says you’re in danger, you better listen. He needed to get to the bottom of this. Before Mahpee could respond to the comment, Mac asked, “What is the trouble?”

  The head of Uzumati turned to Mac. “We entered the captive Raygin’s mind. The alien’s memories are images, not words. It is difficult to understand. The captive holds pictures of a fleet of warships so large it blots out galaxies. We estimate the length of their day to be twenty-five standard hours. We don’t think their fleet has arrived, but it is difficult to tell.”

  “Have they crossed into our universe?” asked Mac.

  “Since the alien had memories of traversing the great void, we believe the answer is yes. Your captive envisions the attack will occur like a swarm of locust, destroying everything in their path. This Raygin’s memories seem to indicate the planet you call Rayne is a feeder planet. It is one of many such worlds they created to support the war.”

  “Do you know where they will focus their attack first?” asked Mac.

  “A memory of a star map calls the planet by a human name. We saw the word Esharra,” said Mahpee’s grandfather.

  Mac leaned his body backward and tilted his head. “Are you sure it was Esharra?”

  “The Raygin mind is not like the human mind. It’s a jumble of pictures. The map we viewed in its memory showed a planet labeled Esharra at its center.”

  “What is Esharra?” asked Ayashe.

  “After the mining wars the government decided to keep the parliament’s location secret. They moved to a planet called Petri on the star charts. Its code name, Esharra, is from a long dead Earth language. It means the ruler’s home. Its existence is known by a select few. Since the aliens know about Esharra I know they have spies in high places.” The new information completed the puzzle Mac had been working on. He turned and looked for Lieutenant Phlop.

  When he spotted him, it was too late. The lieutenant had already managed to break free of his bindings. He grabbed his pistol while everyone was watching the conversation with the floating head. Phlop pointed the old pistol at Mac’s chest.

  “Why Lieutenant Phlop?” asked Mac.

  “Money. I’m going to be rich. The Ogarii are going to reward me well. I’m so glad you came here. Before I kill you, I want you to experience a little pay back for all my humiliation.” The lieutenant swung his arm toward Ayashe and fired his pistol.

  Years of plyos training prepared Mac to respond with unbelievable speed and power. Before the lieutenant lifted his weapon, Mac had already forced his heart rate to increase. It supplied his muscles with massive levels of oxygen. When the lieutenant’s arm swung towards Ayashe, Mac sprung into the air matching the arc created by the lieutenant’s arm with his own chest.

  By the time the lieutenant pulled the trigger, Mac was horizontal in front of Ayashe’s face with his feet curled behind him. His feet snagged her body, dragging her down and out of danger. At the same instant he leapt, Nidawi flung a three bladed circular knife at the lieutenant’s arm. She couldn’t stop him from pulling the trigger, but she did stop him from doing any more damage. Mr. Phlop’s forearm and hand holding the gun separated from his body and dropped onto the soil.

  The lieutenant screamed in agony as he held up the stump of his arm in disbelief. Bright red blood pulsed in a sporadic stream, soaking into the ground. He waved the stub of his arm back and forth, spewing blood in every direction. Dwain looked at Mac. His injury was already being taken care of so he grabbed a med scanner and rushed to treat the lieutenant. The armless leader’s jaw tightened as he sank onto the ground. Dwain held him down and said, “Did you see that lieutenant? She took your hand off from fifteen meters away. She’s awesome!”

  The lieutenant looked at where his hand should have been and passed out. Dwain had to tear his admiring look away from Nidawi so he could help Mr. Phlop. He managed to battle dress the wound and medicate the traitorous first lieutenant in record time.

  Mac blinked his eyes as he watched from the ground, not comprehending what was happening. The big hands of Mahpee latched onto him and stood him upright in one easy motion. Blood flowed from a wound on the side of Mac’s head. Seeing the blood and feeling Mac’s legs giving out Mahpee laid him on the ground with great care.

  Now Ayashe could see the blood running down his head. With shaking hands, and tears forming in her eyes, she forced herself to check the wound. Mac watched Dwain run to him and manipulated the med scanner near his head. Dwain tilted the scanner towards Ayashe. She read the diagnosis: Probabilities: 95% concussion. 3% brain hemorrhage. 2% intracranial swelling. She breathed a sigh of relief.

  Mac began to struggle to sit upright. Ayashe helped him up as she sprayed a sealant to stop the bleeding. She hugged him at his shoulders.

  “Mac, what were you thinking?” she asked.

  Looking at the lieutenant’s unconscious body, Mac said, “It would have worked. But I didn’t know the son of a bitch couldn’t shoot straight. Who are the Ogarii?”

  Tinker started laughing. “Here I thought you used your head because you know nothing can penetrate it.”

  The troopers laughed. Ayashe smiled and hugged him one more time.

  She whispered in his ear loud enough for her father to hear, “My father is wrong, I have picked well. Thank you, my love.”

  “You do know I can hear what you are saying,” said Mahpee. He smiled, “I admit, I may have been wrong about him.”

  Ayashe tilted her head as she looked at her father.

  “Okay, okay. Don’t give me that look. He risked sacrificing his life, so you might live. It is the grandest of gestures in our culture. You picked well.” Mahpee looked
at Mac and as a second thought said, “I still don’t know if he is intelligent enough to serve at your side.”

  The talking head floated between Mahpee, Ayashe, and Mac. “I found this event to be enlightening. But, I suggest you pack up. We must leave with haste, or you may find yourselves Raygin captives, or worse.”

  “Who are the Ogarii?” asked Mac one more time.

  “Get your people moving. We know very little about them,” said the head.

  At Mac’s command, the three platoons loaded their supplies, the wounded, and all the women onto the skiff. Tinker picked a few troopers to ride along, in case anything unforeseen happened. Everyone else would have to make the short trip on the ground. As Mac and Tinker watched the skiff take off, Tinker felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see his uncle.

  His face beamed as he hugged his favorite relative. “Uncle Jahra, I can’t believe it’s you. Mom and Dad will scream like Mangabee roosters when they find out you are alive.”

  Holding Tinker at arm’s length, Jahra looked him up and down. “Albert, I’ve got to tell you I’m impressed. Tell me, how did you wind up in spec ops?”

  Captain Cutter looked at Smitty, who in turn was watching Mac for any response.

  “I’m not in spec ops, Uncle Jahra.”

  “Told you, Captain Cutter,” said Smitty. “They all deny they are spec ops. They must have been threatened with something horrible if they told anyone the truth.”

  Mac smiled. “I hate to cut this short, but we have to get going.” He looked at Dwain who was talking with Nidawi. “Tinker, take your platoon and cover our rear. Dwain, you and Third platoon lead the way. If she doesn’t mind, Nidawi can be your guide.” She looked at Mac and nodded her head. The response put a big smile on Dwain’s face. “Dreng… shit, I mean, Ayashe. Split your platoon and cover our flanks. I’ll be talking with your father.”

  Ayashe didn’t say a word, but Mac could see a worried stare as she walked away. She was thinking the worst.