by Terry Mixon
He waited almost five minutes and then decided that the path across the plain was as clear as it was going to get. With hand signals, he got both teams into motion and made certain that they had people on both flanks to catch any stray aliens as they raced across the grassland.
The aliens they’d been fighting seemed disinclined to attack a force as organized as his. That suited him fine. It took ten minutes to cross the field and get to the tree line.
Just as they were entering the trees, the woman overseeing drone operations called him over his radio. “The alien leadership is on the move. It looks like they’re headed off to your right under heavy guard, while the remainder of their protective forces is moving into the forest to engage you. Should we intervene?”
“If you can drop some mortar rounds into the forest ahead of us, that would be good. We’ll hold position for sixty seconds and then cut off to our right. We’re going to need you to vector us in.”
“Copy that. Stand by.”
Harry stopped both teams and informed them that mortar rounds were on the way. Less than twenty seconds later, he heard the unmistakable whistling sound of incoming munitions, followed by some pretty intense explosions ahead of them.
The mortar teams at Firebase Alpha would have the benefit of using the drones as forward observers. They’d continue to chew up the area where the enemy was while Harry took his forces around and tried to intercept the Asharim before they broke contact.
“Take us around to the right,” he ordered Rex and Danvers.
With the enemy unable to see their changing course, they might be able to skirt even the outliers of the reaction force coming after them. That would be the best option. It wasn’t likely, but he’d take it if he got it.
There was some small-arms fire off to their left as some of his troops engaged a few of the aliens. None of his people seemed to have been hit by the few black powder shots that came their way, and within three minutes, his people had broken away from the enemy.
“I’ve detached a squad to interdict our pursuit,” Danvers said as they ran through the woods, jumping over fallen debris and dodging around bushes and trees very similar in form to what they’d find on Earth, even if the exact plants were different.
Before Harry could respond, he got another call from the drone operator. “We’ve got incoming to your position,” she said. “New forces coming out of the city. Looks like three airborne units. Something open topped. Must be some kind of antigravity, because I don’t see any engines.”
“Are they headed for our position or to pick up the Asharim fleeing the area?” he asked.
“I can’t tell. Could be either.”
There was only one way to find out. “Everyone advance at full speed and be ready to fight airborne units with high-tech weapons,” Harry ordered. “It looks like we’ve got company.”
30
Brenda sat in one of the base’s conference rooms and listened as people on the ground in New Zealand reported the destruction of the base there. They weren’t speaking to her, but Molly Goodwin was kind enough to allow her to listen in.
The weapons had been nonnuclear, but that hardly mattered. The cruise missiles had smashed into the mesa one after another, each one digging deeper than the last before it exploded. They wouldn’t know if the lowest levels survived the attack for quite some time, but Brenda privately bet they hadn’t.
The only way to find out faster would be to try the gate there. She hadn’t suggested that yet but would bring it up when the time seemed right. She expected it was destroyed, but there was only one way to be sure.
The pictures of the destruction didn’t leave much room for anything to still be intact. No, far better to count the base lost. Frankly, in as bad a shape as it had been in, that might actually save the alliance a lot of work. They’d been trying to decipher what amounted to wreckage. Now they could focus their attention on other locations that might prove a lot more productive.
Joining the alliance had proven a lot simpler than Brenda had anticipated. It turned out that she and her people had a lot to bring to the table. Yes, they’d been helping Humanity Unlimited with their know-how, but her people still had far more intimate knowledge of the Asharim technology and their history than Harry or Jess at this point.
Speaking of them, while Harry hadn’t answered his phone, Jess had. It turned out that Molly was correct in her assumption that they were in the middle of pitched battle on Volunteer World. Going through the tunnel from the New Zealand base would have been the wrong call. They might not have gotten everyone out alive. With the assurance that Jess would call her back once things were settled, Brenda had let the other woman be about her business.
And now that the report on the devastation in New Zealand was complete, things were shaping up to get pretty ugly as both the New Zealand and Australian navies were confronting their Chinese counterparts and ordering them out of the area with the other option being their destruction.
That was a lot more restraint than Brenda would’ve had. She’d have just started shooting. It was probably a good thing that she wasn’t in charge.
Part of her was angry enough at how those heavy-worlders were manipulating the Chinese people to be in favor of shooting. Unfortunately, the people on those ships wouldn’t be heavy-worlders. They were witless dupes, thinking they were following the orders of their duly appointed superiors, when almost certainly the heavy-worlders had overthrown the rightful Chinese government.
Now that her people were members of the alliance, she needed to guide this burgeoning confrontation into something a bit more constructive. Somehow.
Molly rested her head in her hands once the call was over. “I can’t believe the bloody bastards actually started shooting. I get it. They were mad at the Americans for blowing up their shiny new spaceport, but the Americans were never a large partner in the alliance. They’re going to be ejected now, which is going to cause all kinds of unanticipated complications. Idiots.”
“You sound like this is your personal problem,” Brenda said as she reached out and squeezed the other woman’s shoulder. “This is what those governments of yours actually have to negotiate and figure out how to respond to. You’re just the representative on the ground.”
“Now that the base is destroyed, I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to be representing.”
Brenda laughed. “That’s easy. You’re the diplomatic envoy to the Families. We’ll do what we can to help you understand the Asharim and their technology, and you’re our point of contact. Almost an ambassador, really. You should push for that title.”
“God forbid,” the other woman said fervently. “I absolutely do not want to be responsible for negotiating anything. I think I might just retire to a small sheep station in the middle of nowhere.”
They sat in silence for the next several minutes. Brenda was about to invite the other woman to take a tour of her new base when her phone rang. They’d set up a repeater so that they could make and receive regular cellular calls, though with some encryption and other tricks to hide exactly where they were. A quick check showed it was her least favorite person in the world: Secretary of State Josh Queen.
She considered not answering but sighed. She’d end up dealing with the bastard one way or the other.
“Are you happy now?” she asked in a tone that she hoped conveyed exactly how displeased she was.
“We don’t have time for this,” he almost snarled. “I made a mistake and I’m going to pay for it. Hell, I’m already paying for it. The president wants my resignation on his desk shortly.”
“Good!” Brenda said. “That’s the first piece of positive news I’ve heard recently.”
“Ha ha,” the man said in a flat tone. “Like I said, I don’t have time for this verbal sparring. If I’m going to make the deadline that the president set, I’m going to have to type up that resignation letter and leave here in twenty-five minutes or so. The question is, do you want me to do something for you be
fore I go?”
Brenda frowned. What the hell did that mean? “Go on,” she said cautiously.
“I’ve been queuing up a number of things since this whole alien affair started to offer in exchange for technology. Things like personnel with specialized know-how, money to put together real research teams, and equipment that might be useful in some way. All approved by the president ahead of time, mind you, if I decided to proceed.
“We’re talking thousands of people from universities, high-tech firms that can be paid to subcontract and assist, and other organizations that have the scientific and educational know-how to help decipher that frozen planet and so many of the other things you found. All of that can be yours in exchange for one thing.”
Dreading the answer, she nonetheless asked the question he was waiting for. “And what exactly do you want in exchange for that assistance?”
“Why, the same thing that every government employee wants when he leaves Washington: a cushy job. If you bring me into your organization with a contract that’s good for five years at top-tier pay, then all of this can be yours. But only if you decide you want it right here and right now.”
Well hell.
“The administration will never stand for that,” she said. “They’ll see it for exactly what it is and cancel everything. It’s illegal.”
“You underestimate their hunger for this new tech. I’m exchanging all of these things for the purpose of getting the United States all the current nonmilitary data you’ve gathered. It isn’t as if we’ve received anything from Humanity Unlimited at this point, and we’ll get kicked out of that damned alliance for sure. This is their only way to get what they want. They’ll let it stand.”
Inviting him into her organization was the absolute last thing she wanted to do, but he was right that they could use those resources. Was it really worth it?
Then she smiled. “I hope you can type fast, because I have a few conditions of my own. Everything that my organization has in its possession at this time remains in our possession—full ownership, mind you—no matter where it’s located or what it is. You either agree to that, or no deal. Also, I get to decide which information and tech is suitable to share and when we share it.”
“That’s no skin off my nose,” he said with a sniff. “Deal. Give me a fax number, and I’ll have the contract to you in five minutes. Read fast, sign it, and get it back to me so I can get it certified and filed. And remember, you’re on the clock.”
As soon as she gave him the number to the fax machine in her old base in Washington, Queen hung up.
Brenda really didn’t want to have to deal with that man, but getting title to the base they’d just found would be worth almost any level of inconvenience.
Oh, the US government would scream when they finally found out, but she’d have an actual agreement in hand from their secretary of state. If they tried to undo it at some later date, there’d be hell to pay with other countries that worried their deals would be unilaterally canceled as well.
And it wasn’t as if she had to admit that she had possession of the base up front. She could append a general list of facilities and equipment that they had in their possession. It didn’t even have to list everything out and could be very general. “Asharim-style base with all equipment in US wilderness, concealed facility underneath American city, and the appropriate number of residential buildings with facilities.”
That was going to make somebody start demanding to know where exactly their facilities were located, but she could say that wasn’t required information. This was proof that they had possession of these facilities when the deal was signed. She’d make certain to have Queen sign off on the addendum so that there would be no questions later about whether or not she had revealed the existence of this base when the deal was signed.
She’d send them select images so that the bases and facilities could be positively identified later, just as an insurance policy. She’d also list the sarcophagus while not mentioning all its capabilities. Taken all together, that would get Karl off the hook for concealing things, too.
In fact, she’d appoint him as the verifier of their possessions with a clause that he couldn’t reveal the details beyond confirming that the Families had them.
Since this was a deal with the United States government, they were granting her ownership and possession of the base in their own federal lands. She imagined Congress might scream if they had a clue, but those idiots hadn’t had any real power in decades. All they did was beat their chests about their ideology and get embroiled in whatever corruption was handy.
Yes, this was going to be worth it, even if she had to accept that Queen would be in her face for five years. She could find some way to shunt him off into doing something that wasn’t going to be dangerous or give him information that he shouldn’t have. She’d just have to deal with the ass whenever he complained. Compared against having title to this base, it was completely worth it.
All of those thoughts had gone through her head in just a few seconds. Molly Goodwin was still staring at her with narrowed eyes.
“Was that who I thought it was?” the other woman asked. “Was it that idiot Queen?”
Brenda nodded even as she rose to her feet. “It was. It looks like he’s being fired, but true to form, he’s going to stick a knife in the president’s back and give us a lot of resources in exchange for the nonmilitary information and technology we possess.
“The bad news is that I have to give him a job for five years. The good news is that whatever we have in our possession as of right this moment we get to keep, including this base. That makes it worthwhile.”
“What a nightmare,” Molly commiserated. “I can barely stand speaking to his subordinates. You have to deal with him for five years? I’d hang myself.”
“We all have our crosses to bear,” Brenda said as she headed for the door. “If you’d do me the favor of coming with me to witness me signing this, then the alliance will be in on the details of what we’ve agreed to and can stand witness to the fact that I had this base before I signed the agreement.”
Molly stood and stepped out into the corridor behind her. “Of course. After all you’ve done for us, it’s the least I can do. I find it rather particular that since Queen did something that’s going to get the United States thrown out of the alliance, their only access to Asharim technology is going to be through you and Harry’s people.
“The United States used to be so powerful, and now they’ve gotten themselves into a position where they have no influence on events that are currently taking place, unless they work with a group that’s been infiltrating them since before their government was formed and what amounts to a rebel company.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s never to underestimate how ironic things can get,” Brenda said. “They can always get stranger. In fact, it might be best if I show you one of our secret bits of technology that I’m going to list on the addendum but not explain in any detail to the US government.
“You remember how Jess was critically injured in the fighting at the base in France? When we recovered her, she was in a healing unit shaped like a sarcophagus. We found out after the fact that it does so much more.”
The two of them continued toward the gate room as she explained. If the woman was amenable, Brenda would offer her a session inside the sarcophagus. It would be good if someone else in the alliance really understood what the Families had to offer.
If Queen ever found out exactly how she’d used the deal to her advantage, he was going to be super pissed. Maybe she should tell him herself. Or just let him figure it out on his own. Either way, that aspect of the situation was going to be delicious.
31
Jess had to restrain herself from questioning the captured alien while the medics moved him to the area near the ropes. Exactly how they were going to get him up the hill was beyond her, and she didn’t want to interfere and cause an accident.
At least
Harry’s forces had pushed the aliens back so that no one was shooting at them.
She felt relatively confident that he was going to tear a strip off of her as soon as this was all done. Still, it had been worth it. They had someone that she could question. Perhaps the prisoner wasn’t as good as an Asharim would be, but she still wasn’t ruling out getting her hands on one of the aliens. It could still happen.
The medics worked as quickly as they could and got Lastark on a tethered stretcher and up to the top of the hill in about fifteen minutes. While they were pulling him up, several other men and women were helping her follow along behind.
Her plans of following the wounded alien to wherever they were taking him were shattered when an extremely angry Sandra confronted her.
“You snuck off!” the other woman almost shouted, waving her finger in Jess’s face. “You intentionally distracted me and then snuck off so you could go down and join in the fighting. If you weren’t my friend, I would punch you in the face right now.”
Jess had no doubt that Sandra could do exactly what she was threatening. The woman was a warrior and Jess was not, even counting the weird alien training in her brain. None of that seemed to contain any hand-to-hand muscle memory.
“I’m sorry,” Jess said raising her hands defensively. “I shouldn’t have done it. I won’t do it again. I promise.”
Sandra’s eyes narrowed even further. “I don’t believe you. I think you’re going to string me along until the next time it suits you to do whatever you want.
“Dammit, Jess. You’re the leader of the entire company. If you die, everything we’re doing could go up in flames. You need to figure out that you’re important to the rest of us as well. Seriously, how could you do these things? What were you thinking?”
Jess shrugged slightly. “I’m not really sure. I didn’t set out to ditch you. I just saw all the fighting going on down there, and I felt like I had to be there too.”