The Raygin War

  She felt sure the computer did it to keep an eye on the Ogarii fleet. The computer worked nonstop for twenty-five years. Its tendrils were everywhere in the second ring. She didn’t trust Portus, not at all.

  The Ogarii had grown too dependent on the massive computer. It didn’t make a move without performing unending simulations. The computer ‘s influence over the Varn would come to an end once she had a voice in the elite group. As overseer she supplied black market items to the Ogarii. She had acquired more wealth than most ruling caste members. It was time to make her move. A victory over the humans would put her in a position to force a vote. Everyone likes a winner, even the Varn.

  All these distractions were becoming dangerous. She needed to refocus on the humans. Unlike the Raygin, they were not stupid. They had proven to be quick to learn and seemed to be adaptive. She glanced at her guest and caught him watching her with lust in his eyes. Her nose flared in disgust. How dare he. The fluid pressure between the lens of her eyes and her retinae increased. Her eyes glowed bright orange. By the time he saw the involuntary evolutionary warning to males, it was too late.

  Her body became a vaporous blur as she moved with the speed of a striking Cave Cobra. Before Iscar could react, he felt the tip of a blade beginning to pierce the skin of his throat. He remained motionless. He could feel drops of blood traveling down his neck. “Wait,” he screamed, “I meant no disrespect, Overseer Wineena. I am still not used to your customs. Forgive me.”

  “Beg.”

  Without hesitation Iscar said, “I beg you for my life. It will not happen again.”

  Wineena placed her knife back into its sheath at her waist. She ran her right hand though her long hair as she paced back and forth. “Navigator, take the Raath to Aghasur Point.”

  “Yes overseer,” said the ship’s navigational droid.

  “I thought you said – ”

  Wineena waved her hand in the air, “Your son will be safe with his kind, Mr. Phlop. If he succeeds in his new task, he will become rich. In either case, we already activated a memory-blocking drug. It is beyond human capabilities to counteract. So long as your people believe he may have valuable information, they will not harm him. Rest easy.”

  She surveyed her crew. They were all watching her and waiting for orders. “I am moving the timeline up. Time to spring the trap. Karii, dispatch the transports to the breeder planets to pick up the Raygin Warriors. It is unfortunate we have missed an unexpected opportunity, but the plan will still work. Activate the nests, via sub space frequency. The invasion begins.”

  “Yes, overseer,” said Karii

  “What nests?” asked Iscar Phlop.

  “Come now, you didn’t think we would sit around for twenty-five years and do nothing? All the information you gave us proved to be useful. We planted nests of Raygin warriors on several key planets. Once the attack begins, the planets will call for assistance. Your fleet will split. The diversion will clear the way for an attack on the human leader. Once he falls, you will make the announcement to end the war and help to organize the surrender.”

  “I still don’t understand, what use could we be to an advanced race such as the Ogarii?” asked Mr. Phlop.

  “Hundreds of years ago the Ogarii attacked the Drahce. They are the dominant race in the universe’s fourth ring. We could not get by their defenses. Unbeknownst to us, somehow, they unleashed a tiny zepto sized virus. It was inactive at first. It carried with it a hidden code placing itself into Ogarii genes. Once the virus spread throughout our space, the Drahce activated the code. All Ogarii pregnancies in progress self-aborted. Our women can no longer become pregnant. Doom faces our race unless we find the hidden code.”

  “So, you need us for sex?” asked Iscar.

  The all-female Raath crew laughed at the prospect. They began to chide in.

  “Humans stink,” said a crewmember.

  “They are too chubby. Look at him,” said another.

  In an attempt to outdo the other crew members a third one said, “I would rather skonk a hairy Neemar.”

  Everyone laughed except Iscar. The translator didn’t work for the word skonk, but he understood its meaning. He didn’t realize how much the Ogarii looked down on the other races.

  “For us to mate with a human would be equivalent to humans mating with wild pigs,” said Wineena.

  “The problem must be you can’t afford a war of attrition. Is it you need us to assist the Raygin in your war with the Drahce?”

  Wineena looked at her crew and smiled. “And, that’s why we will win the war with the Drahce.” She looked at her human guest and nodded her head. “The Raygin are stupid bugs. They are nothing more than a delaying tactic. Our computer is working on the reproductive code quandary.”

  “The Varn did not want me to waste time searching in the first ring for answers to our problems. I insisted. We discovered and evaluated your people. We realized with some minor modifications, you make better warriors than the Raygin. The best news is Portus believes with humans fighting for us, we tip the balance in our favor. We win the war with the Drahce. The drawback is Portus moves too slow. I will force the computer to move the timeline forward.”

  Iscar swallowed hard, but he didn’t regret his actions. After all, it looked like power and greed were driving the entire universe.

  *****

  The humans on Rayne continued with their journey to the Wasp. Mac and his two new partners broke off to investigate the underground chamber. The pile of rocks drawing his attention seemed out of order from the rest of the local area. Underground caches are often used by the military to avoid prying eyes. He hoped they weren’t walking into a barbed hornet’s nest.

  “Follow me and stay close,” said Mac. He turned around and began an easy jog. He followed the markers from his earlier exploration.

  Spaz heard Tews laboring to breath behind him. He stopped and without asking took his friend’s rucksack and carried it for him. Mac smiled. The two made a good team.

  When they arrived at the cavern entrance Mac said, “This is it. “Put your visors on. I’ll go in first. Spaz, I want you so close behind me that you become my shadow. Tews, you’re last, but most important. Stay close and figure out what’s going on in here. Ready?”

  Both Tews and Spaz nodded their heads as they followed close behind Mac. They moved further and further into the cavern. If not for the visors Mac brought, they wouldn’t be able to see in the darkness below ground. They came upon what looked like a wide pulverized rockslide. Mac half surfed and half walked down the twenty-foot long rocky slide. Spaz mimicked Mac as he slid down the slide too. Tews wasn’t as athletic, so he moved next to the wall, placed his hand on it for stability and walked down the sloped rockslide.

  Tews stopped part way down. “Wait, I can feel a vibration coming through the rock. There’s equipment running somewhere near.” He looked around and reassessed the path they were following. “This isn’t a natural rockslide were heading down, it’s a stairway for the Raygin. We’re in some kind of underground complex. There is no sign of visible mold. Smell the air. The odor of decomposition is strong. There must be a ton of decaying vegetable down here. I’m guessing we are entering a Raygin nest.”

  “We have to go in,” said Mac. “We know so little about the enemy, I can’t pass up the intel. We may never have another chance like this.”

  “Okay, but as you walk shuffle your feet in an un-rhythmic pattern. It will draw less attention. If you have to kill them using your knife stab them below their neck in a downward motion.”

  The three companions turned a corner and moved deeper into what they believed to be a Raygin breeding area.

  “We’re getting closer,” said Mac. “The decay smell is making me nauseous.”

  Spaz started laughing. “What you smell is not decay Mac. Tews shit his pants. Didn’t you, Tews?”

  “Sorry. I developed a bad reaction to the pig slop the Raygin fed us. By the way, the smell of decay is constant. It already permeates
the air. It doesn’t get worse as we get closer.”

  “Will the smell coming from your ass give us away?” asked Mac.

  “I don’t think so. They translate the smell as a form of communication.”

  “What does it mean?” asked Mac.

  “I don’t know what it means. As big bug attacked me on the ship it stopped when it smelled what I did. It was shocked I spoke its language.”

  “Well, try to hold it in. You may be telling them, ‘Hey, here we are,’” said Mac.

  The three continued to make their way down the passage. In a short time, they came upon a huge wall, containing about fifty holes set up in columns. Each column had several holes in it. There were three groupings of columns. Each grouping contained four letter characters over the column. Mac looked at Spaz and Tews. They were both recording everything with their visor vids. Between the three of them they could record most everything.

  “Looks like the holes lead to three different locations. Are the bugs left or right handed? Did you notice?” asked Mac.

  The two friends looked at each other and said, “Right.”

  “Why?” asked Tews.

  “I am guessing they would use the left column of holes for low traffic areas, like sleeping or birthing areas, and right side for common use traffic areas.”

  “I should have thought of that,” said Tews. “Are you a psychiatrist?”

  “No. I’m a killer and notice details others sometimes miss. Follow me.”

  Mac climbed into a low hole on the wall’s left side. Once in the tube, they felt air being drawn into whatever was on the other side. If the air was being drawn in, it was also exhausting somewhere. The tunnels looked about twenty feet long. When Mac got to the other side, he saw two bugs with plasma rifles. One guard stood on each side of a large passageway. There were no other bugs in sight. The passageway joined to several open-air cavernous rooms. He could hear machinery running but couldn’t see it.

  Mac gave simple hand signals to Spaz and Tews. He would take out the guard on the right, Spaz would take out the guard on the left, and Tews would wait in the tube. Mac jumped out and moved to his target using a stealth approach taught to him by a Tao monk. He looked at Spaz, running at the guard. He forgot to shuffle.

  Mac killed his bug by slitting an opening downward through its thorax. He began to run toward the other bug in a full sprint in case Spaz needed help. Spaz was about fifteen feet away from his bug when it felt his presence. It turned, but not before Spaz jumped high in the air while firing a little handgun. Mac didn’t hear any noise, but the guard dropped.

  A second later Mac was looking at the dead bug, then at the needle gun still in Spaz’s hand. “Look at you. You haven’t even used your fancy laser gun yet. I told you it’s the person, not the weapon. Nice job. Let me know if you’re ever interested in spec ops.”

  It was every ground pounder’s dream to be in the elite forces. Spaz grinned. In truth, after seeing Mac in action, his wildest dream would be to work on his personal team. Mac had a way to always bring out the best in those around him.

  Tews interrupted Spaz’s thoughts as he walked up to his two friends. He looked at the dead bug smiling and gave Spaz a big thumbs up. They dragged the dead guards into the first vast room. It contained enough decayed food to feed an army. As they threw the dead guards on the pile, Tews could see the individual decay pile contents. He threw up. The pile of degraded vegetation contained some animal parts along with a few human body parts.

  Wiping the vomit off his lips, Tews said, “We have to stop these sons of bitches, Mac.”

  “That’s why were here Tews. Come on, let’s keep looking.”

  The next couple of rooms contained more food at various stages of decay. They found a room loaded with thousands of large larvae in gigantic trays. Each tray held a mix of decay puree and liquid.

  “The hatchlings must suck up nutrients through their soft skin. I would call this the third and final phase of larva development,” said Tews.

  “How do you know?” asked Mac.

  Tews reached down and used two hands to hold the oversized larva. Rolling the slimy body over, he showed Mac. “Look, the head and arms have developed, but the body still looks wormlike. The exoskeleton won’t develop until after the pupa stage. It won’t harden until the young adult stage.” To prove his point, Tews squeezed the larva and it squished in his hands like a rotten tomato.

  Mac looked at the goo as Tews flung the slime off his hands. “Mahpee’s grandfather is wrong. This isn’t a feeder planet. Its purpose is even more insidious. It’s a breeder planet. They are growing soldiers right here in our universe! I’ll bet there are more planets like this hidden within our sector of space. Can you kill all these bugs without making a lot of noise?”

  Tews searched the room and found tubes leading from some kind of mechanical device to the trays containing the bugs.

  “It looks like an old heat pump,” said Spaz. “It removes warmth from ambient air and moves it wherever it’s needed. It’s old style technology.”

  Each large tray of larvae contained a control device, hooked to its own heat pump. The controller contained two side switches. Mac and Spaz watched as Tews pushed on the top switch. The characters on the display changed and the heat pump turned on.

  “I’ve got it!” said Tews. “We cook them in their own food.”

  Mac guarded the open-air cavern entrance while Tews and Spaz dialed up all the heat pumps. Tews placed a larva into a sample bag and placed it in his rucksack. When the two finished, Mac led them to the next room. More vegetation.

  “Mac, we’ve been in here twenty minutes already. We’ll never have enough time to explore this whole underground complex,” said Spaz.

  “You’re right. A little more scouting, and I’ll be ready to go. Let’s move to the second group of holes.”

  Mac thought it was odd. There were no guards posted inside the wall containing the middle set of holes. The set up was similar to the first cavern. They could see rows of open-air rooms. The three explorers peaked around the first corner. It contained thousands of pupas. They were all sitting in decayed food.

  “This is the next life cycle of development, isn’t it?”

  “Yep. The worm like body is transforming into a beetle.” Tews picked up a pupa and squeezed.

  Mac heard Tews say, “This is for my brother.”

  The wiggling body soon went limp. Tews threw the dead husk back onto the decay pile.

  Lifting his arm up, Spaz pointed down the oversized hallway. “Hey. Look over there. The room lit up. Something is going on.”

  “Let’s find out what,” said Mac. “Stay close, follow me, and hide in the shadows where you can”.

  When they reached the opening, Mac peeked around the corner. The open cavern looked like the large operating room on the Raygin ship. There were three orange-eyed female Ogarii in the room. They were preparing to operate on what looked like hundreds of beetles with their skulls open. These were smaller than the ones he was used to seeing. They could be young adults.

  Moving back and away from the entrance, Mac motioned for Tews to look.

  Tews looked in the room just as a female looked up. He pulled his head back. Too late, the humans heard clicking noises like Raygin talking but in higher softer voices. Tews’s eyes were wide and all the color left his face. In the same instant Mac knew what happened.

  With his rifle up and ready, Mac slipped around the corner. He saw three orange-eyed aliens. They must not have gotten a good look at Tews and thought he was a bug because they were shocked to see him. It’s too late to duck back. The closest female grabbed a bladed instrument from the table. She turned and began to give a command to the other female. Before the one speaking finished her orders, Mac shot the furthest female in the head.

  The one giving the orders turned to look at Mac and Tews. She lifted the instrument, smiled, and disappeared in a ghostly flash. Mac had seen this trick before. He fired his gun one foot away from T
ews as she reappeared, still smiling. The laser burned a hole through her chest. The third female freaked out and made a move towards the wall. Mac fired three times in rapid succession. The last shot hit her as she materialized.

  The lanky entomologist was still standing wide-eyed. Spaz could see Tews’s mind hadn’t grasped what occurred within only one second.

  Spaz looked in awe at Mac. “How did you do that? I was still lifting my rifle by the time you shot the third one.”

  Mac shrugged his shoulders, “I told you. I’m a killer. I don’t think about it. The leader gave orders and picked up a weapon. I assessed the situation. There was no time to talk them out of whatever they planned to do. Sometimes it comes down to kill or be killed.”

  “How did you know the one with the weapon was going to appear next to me?” asked Tews.

  “I shot her friend while she was talking to her. I did it on purpose to piss her off. I didn’t want all three running in different directions to escape. When I saw the smile on her face after she looked at you, I knew she was coming. Being right handed, and wanting me to watch you die, I guessed where she would materialize.”

  “And the third one?” asked Spaz.

  “I was lucky. The last one got scared after seeing the leader get shot. She ran straight for what I assumed was some kind of alarm on the wall. I kept firing until she appeared.” Pointing to the ceiling Mac said, “Thermal detectors. They may have picked up the heat flashes from the laser rifle. Let’s get out of here and head back to the ship.”

  Tews gained his composer and was rummaging through his rucksack. “Wait. Give me a few seconds.” He pulled out a battery-powered aspirator the engineers designed on the fly. He began to spray it over the young adult Raygin. Remembering the need to learn about the bugs he ran into the room with the pupas, grabbed one, slipped it into a sample bag, and placed it in the second rucksack. Now they have a Raygin larva and pupa. Tews sprayed the pupas and reloaded a new supply bottle. “Okay, lets go.”