by Terry Mixon
The air was still heavy with the scent of detonated explosives, sharp and unlike anything found in nature. The floor of the passage was covered with small debris jarred loose in the blasts that had closed the cave system off from the world outside. The small stones and bits of rock crunched under his boots as he made his way forward, his weapon up and at the ready. Just in case.
Commander Krueger and his Navy SEALs were right behind him, and a strike force of New Zealand special operations men and women backed them up. There was an even larger force in the base behind them, prepared to hold the gate room if he was forced to retreat.
He hoped that didn’t happen, because it would make getting back onto this planet extremely difficult. Not impossible, but they’d have to lead with an explosive large enough to clear an entrenched hostile force, and that would likely bring the roof down onto the gate. Not the best possible outcome.
To his relief, it appeared that the diggers had not yet reached the cave system itself. Though from the sound of it, they weren’t all that far off.
One of the New Zealanders gestured toward the pile of rocks covering the entrance. “This still looks about the same as it was before, but I can see some signs of shifting. Whoever’s doing the digging is close enough to be pushing the rock forward. It won’t be long.”
Harry nodded. “That gives us a chance. We weren’t ready to fight them while you were retreating, Commander Krueger. This time we can set up a defensive line in here to force them back once they clear the entrance enough for us to do so.
“We’ve basically got an unlimited supply of ammunition and as many support troops as we need to form a perimeter. All we have to do is push them off the hill.”
Krueger grimaced. “That’s going to be some ugly fighting. No matter how we play this, we run the risk of having an unstable ceiling come down on us as we try to push them out. We’ve got to have some experts right behind us to finish bracing the tunnel.
“Once we get out there, you’re right about us having enough firepower to keep them back. It certainly seems as if their weapons systems are primitive, and that’s a big help. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them. When they overran the Volunteer camp, it was a never-ending stream of those aliens.”
“Do we have any idea what the alien slaves are like?” Harry asked.
Krueger shook his head. “It was dark, and they never got close enough for us to get a decent look. Bipedal, about our size in general, two arms and two legs. That’s all we were able to get during the firefight.
“We had a drone up, and it got some IR images. Those back up what I remembered, but they didn’t give us any real information, other than the fact that the aliens had a slightly lower average body temperature than humans.”
“What about weapons? Were they using black powder like the Volunteers?”
The Navy officer nodded. “The weapons seemed different, but the rate of fire was similar, and the sound of them firing was very much a black powder sort of affair. That doesn’t mean that the Asharim leading them don’t have access to high-technology weapons, though. We’ve got to assume that they do, otherwise we’re putting ourselves at great risk.”
“True enough, though I doubt we’ll see the Asharim leading a charge into this cave. They’re going to send their minions in first. That’s going to give us a chance to shove them back with our superior firepower. Once we get outside, then the Asharim and their potential weapons come into play. Do you have anything that can scout from the air?”
“We’ve got several drones, but they’re not armed,” Krueger said. “We’re going to need more space to assemble and launch the larger, armed drones. The top of the hill would be perfect for that, but that means we’ve got to capture it first. Unfortunately, I suspect we’re going to have to do this all the hard way.”
The pile of rock shifted, and some loose stone slid to the floor. Whoever was on the other side was probably just about through the blockage.
“Everybody back behind some of the outcroppings,” Harry said. “We’ll wait for them to clear the opening enough that they feel safe coming in. They’re undoubtedly bracing as they go, otherwise the ceiling would’ve collapsed on them. That means we only have a small section to brace on our end.
“When I give the signal, I want everyone to attack with small arms. No explosives, grenades, or rockets. Short, controlled bursts. Keep their heads down and force them back.
“Commander, when I give the command, take your team forward and clear the tunnel. Get out of the cave and form a bridgehead. Hold it until we get the heavy weapons in place behind you.”
“Copy that,” Krueger said, turning to give his men orders.
Harry turned his attention to the New Zealand commander. “Be ready to take your forces out and secure that bridgehead once they’ve cleared it. Place the heavy weapons in whatever locations make the best sense at the time. We can always move them once we’re more secure. Be sure to get as much cover as you can for your men, because we can’t count on the enemy having only primitive firearms.”
The man nodded and turned his attention to his people. That left Harry contemplating the rockslide, which was continuing to flow slowly down toward the floor of the cave. It wouldn’t take long before they broke through and had a useful opening. Then the real fun started.
Queen sat in his office, surrounded by his principal deputies, and smiled coldly. “It’s time to make those Chinese bastards pay for what they’ve done to us, but we’ve got to be careful. We can’t let this publicly blow back on us.”
“It’s about damn time,” Darryl Dickman said, his tone pleased. “We can’t just let them get away with making monkeys out of us. We’ve got to make them hurt before they have a chance to recover their confidence.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Lana Bohannon said, her expression aghast. “We’ve got them on the defensive. There’s no way they can credibly come up with a reason to attack us openly, and you’re going to give them one? We should be thinking about the long game.”
The third person at the table, Philip Judge, shook his head. “I can see reasons why it might be in our best interest to kick them in the balls when they’re not looking. If the end results can’t be traced directly back to us, they’ll still be limited in what they can do.
“And if you think that they aren’t going to be acting against us covertly, you don’t know the Chinese like I do. They’ll smile to your face while they get ready to stick a knife in your back. You can’t trust them.”
“I agree,” Queen said. “We don’t have to go overboard, but we need to take at least some of the pieces off the board while we have an opportunity to do so. Specifically, the Yucatán spaceport.”
Darryl grunted in agreement. “That’s a good one. It’s not something they directly need right now, but them having a presence on our continent is unacceptable. If they moved nuclear weapons to the spaceport, they could have a straight shot right up our skirt.”
Queen rubbed his eyes, trying to get the mental image of Darryl in a skirt out of his head. “First of all, Darryl, that’s incredibly sexist. I don’t care if people have been saying it forever, it’s not going to be said in my office. Second, I agree with you. We can’t let them have weapons of mass destruction just south of our border.
“I mean, who knows what they have. Nukes are just the beginning. Maybe they’ve got alien weapons that are even more destructive. Do we want to give them a base to launch attacks on our country that almost certainly would kill millions of people?”
Darryl frowned at him. “And kicking someone in the balls isn’t sexist? Whatever, you’re the boss. How do we go about making sure they can’t trace this back to us?”
Lana rolled her eyes. “Of course they’re going to trace it back to us. There’s no way that anything that happens there is ruled an accident. I don’t care if a meteor fell from the sky right now and made a big crater where the spaceport used to be, we’d be blamed.
“The key is making certain that
there’s enough reasonable doubt that our allies will still support us. If we can argue that it was something the Chinese did, or some other party, our allies will stand by us. If they do, the Chinese won’t be able to act overtly.”
“They’ll be able to act covertly,” Judge said. “But, as you say, they’re going to anyway. We might as well do what we can to secure our borders and make certain that they don’t pull another trick like blowing up Area 51. Speaking of which, this would be a tit-for-tat payback. I like that.”
“Speaking of Area 51,” Lana said, “where are we on getting some additional alien technology to study? I’m given to understand that you made an agreement to get some of the nonmilitary tech. Where is it, and where are we keeping it for study?”
Queen grimaced slightly. “We haven’t gotten any new alien technology. At this point, Rogers and the alliance are claiming that they have too many fires to put out to hand over the technology they owe us.
“I’m willing to let that go for a little bit, but not too much longer. They’re going to need our help getting weapons capable of defending Mars against the Chinese when they show up. If they want those weapons and troops, they’re going to have to pony up some juicy tech for us to start studying.
“As for where we’ll keep it, I think Area 51 is still a good location for us. It’s isolated, and we can control who goes in and out without any question. We just need to vet whoever is there a lot more thoroughly.”
Darryl scowled. “Have we gotten anywhere on catching the bastards that did this to us? I’d like to see somebody executed for treason. That’ll send the kind of message we need to be heard around the world.”
“Focus, Darryl,” Lana said. “We need to figure out exactly what we’re going to do at the Yucatán spaceport before we start getting ourselves involved with tech and traitors. You said you had a plan, Josh. What is it?”
He grinned at his subordinates. “Something we can thank Clayton Rogers for. He built self-destruct charges into every critical component on that base. I’m quite sure the Chinese have been diligently disarming them, but from what I’m given to understand, they aren’t easily removable.
“If we can get a team to go around rearming the charges, we can blow the spaceport up and blame their own incompetence for the loss. Something like what they’ve done with their public reaction to the attack they made on Area 51.”
“Getting into the buildings is going to be challenging,” Judge said. “The launch gantries and other exterior facilities are probably easier to access, but there’ll be guards everywhere. In any case, whatever we do to them, they’re going to be able to rebuild. It’s just going to be a matter of time.”
“What’s that old saying?” Queen asked. “‘Ask me for anything but time.’ Well, that’s how damaging the loss of time would be to the Chinese. They need those facilities operational and useful now, not a year or two in the future. If we can take it out of play, then they’re going to be scrambling, and that’s exactly what I want.
“Now, let’s figure out who we can send that has a reasonable chance of getting in and out without being caught, and who has the technical skills to be able to rearm these charges and blow the spaceport up.”
21
Jess looked around the temple’s foyer and was impressed. The entrance was filled with small works of art set in nooks, paintings, and either precious or semiprecious stones set into the walls and ceiling. It should’ve been gaudy, but it meshed together in such a way that it worked.
The dominant theme, of course, were the Asharim. The aliens were represented everywhere. They were inside the paintings, doing things that looked like either helping humans or dominating them. It was hard to tell which. They were the little statues. Even the semiprecious stones showed hints of the Asharim form inside them. That was kind of spooky.
The priest called Gavin led the way to a small sitting room deeper inside the temple. He gestured for the other two priests to go get something called Veristar juice and cakes. Once they were alone, he motioned for Jess to sit in one seat and Vera in the other. He took the third and didn’t seem concerned that the guards were forced to lean against the walls.
“My name is Gavin Stone Fist,” the priest said once he had leaned back in his chair. “It seems that I am now the high priest of the People. With the deaths of the priests that went on this ill-conceived outing, there are no others senior to me in rank.”
He shook his head. “Let me be honest. Other than the two under priests that you have already met, I am the only priest left. We were never a numerous lot. There was no need. Considering how much the previous high priest had doubted my suitability to serve the order, there is some irony in me taking his place.”
Jess nodded. “I’m not unfamiliar with that kind of situation. I never expected to be in charge of an organization like the one I control. I certainly never expected to be searching the universe for answers to questions I didn’t even know to ask. The Asharim came to our world a thousand years ago and left behind many mysteries. Ones we’re only just beginning to decipher.”
“I heard Kathleen Bennett speak of this,” the man said in an unreadable tone. “I recall thinking at the time that she sounded as if she were shading the truth. I have always been fairly adept at knowing when someone is lying to me, and the woman just seemed to ooze something nasty from every pore of her being.
“You don’t seem like the same kind of person to me, Jessica Cook. It makes me wonder what falsehoods Kathleen Bennett told us. She was quite convincing. She persuaded the high priest not only to lead an incursion onto your world but to bring the majority of his priests to assist in its subjugation and reeducation. Why don’t we start with you telling me what the situation on your world is actually like?”
Jess smiled slightly. “I have absolutely no idea what that woman told you, but Earth is not the same kind of world as this one. The Asharim never showed their faces to us openly. They took isolated people from our world and used them as servants or slaves—the exact details of the relationship are still somewhat confusing.
“There was some kind of secret rebellion against the Asharim by the humans under their control, and some of them managed to return to Earth with high technology. They then proceeded to build hidden bases and fight some of your ancestors sent to subdue them. Interestingly enough, their descendants still live on Earth.”
She allowed her gaze to grow harder. “And here is where your people once again invade my world, with no provocation and the intent to subdue us for the Asharim. I don’t care whether or not you revere them as gods, but humanity is not their plaything. We will not submit to them or to you.
“I’ve come to seek peace, but if I can’t find it, then I’ll deliver a warning instead: come to Earth looking for a fight and you’ll find it. We’ll defend our home, and if need be, return the fight to you.
“Personally, I’d rather find some kind of accommodation. I don’t see any reason for us to fight over a race that collapsed into a primitive state a thousand years ago. Don’t let the past dictate our future. Let’s forge something that actually works for both of us.”
The young man smiled but didn’t say anything as one of the under priests returned with a tray holding a pitcher filled with liquid cold enough to bead condensation on the exterior. The tray also contained three small cups and a platter with small cakes piled high.
The priest poured for himself and the two women. “I am going to assume that you have never had Veristar juice before, so allow me to warn you that it is perhaps different than anything you have experienced before. It begins with a sweet flavor, but that is overtaken by a rush of sourness. The cakes are quite good at cleaning the palate and preparing you for more. I think that you will enjoy it.”
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Jess took a sip. The initial flavor was very much like apple juice, but it quickly became something far more like lemonade. Tart and sour.
She took a bite of the small cake and found that the sourness faded. The
cake was also quite good. On the whole, the combination was excellent. She suspected trade in the Veristar juice might be quite lucrative if things worked out. People were always looking for new taste sensations.
She nodded her appreciation. “It’s good. Thank you.”
After a few seconds of looking at him intently, she continued. “You’ve heard where I stand, high priest. I’d like to know what you think. Shall we have peace, or shall we have war?”
He took another bite of his cake and shrugged slightly. “It is far too soon to say what is appropriate. Deep in my heart, I would need to believe that war was necessary before I would order such. Yet the state we find ourselves in is already one of conflict.
“No one on this planet knows the code to get to your world, even if the ancient gates could be made to function again. Is there a point in having a state of war where one can never actually strike at one’s enemy? I think not.”
He stared at her with a serious expression. “I shall have to speak with Kerrick Vidar and hear his side of what occurred. Based on the large explosion in orbit—one we were able to see here on the surface—it certainly appears that the ship that Kathleen Bennett arrived in was destroyed.
“That once again leaves us in a state of being trapped upon this world. You have said that the Masters have fallen from their position of dominance. We know that they were engaged in a war with another species. That provides certain… opportunities for the People.
“Yet for us to take advantage of those opportunities, we would have to trust that you are telling us the truth. We would have to have a basis upon which to build a negotiation that benefits us both. Trust is earned, not given. How do you suggest we both earn credit in that column?”
“Small steps,” Jess said promptly. “We’re willing to release the men we’ve captured. Also, if you would like to have an opportunity to see the Asharim in their current state, one of my associates is currently engaged in a conflict with them to control gates on one of their worlds. I believe that could prove my words without too much difficulty. If, of course, you don’t feel the need to rush in and save them.”