by Mark Tufo
“Betar, your death will accomplish nothing,” I said softly. I did not need to speak loudly to be heard, tension was the only thing filling the room and of course aliens.
“When my superiors crush this rebellion, you will be the first one that I hunt down and kill,” Betar said attempting to salvage some of his pride.
“You’ll probably have to get in line,” I told him.
“What… what does that mean?” he asked, angry and confused.
“He is saying there are plenty that want him dead, Betar, and if you want to accomplish that you will have to find your place among them,” Urlack said.
“I will then!” he yelled.
“How have you conquered the stars without humor?” I asked. Nobody answered. “So I take it your surrendering?” I asked Betar.
***
I’ll say this, the Genogerians were efficient. Within an hour, all of the pilots were housed in the gladiator cells.
“What now?” Urlack asked as we leaned against the far wall. A Progerian was glaring back at me through the force shield. I had made sure to move away from Betar’s cell. His glares were beginning to burn holes in my insides.
“Are the men—I mean, Genos—in place?” I asked.
“They are,” he answered.
“You know this is going to get messy, right?” I asked him.
“I did not know from watching the games that your kind were so squeamish,” Urlack said. “There is no such thing as a clean rebellion. True change requires a steep price paid in blood.”
“Wisely said, but there’s something different about killing in the heat of battle and then cold assassination.”
“Death is death, Michael.”
“I know that too. I know what we need to do. The Mutes are buried in deep as a fat tick. To attack them head on would be our folly, but that only makes what we need to do next only marginally easier to swallow. Have your men linked into the ship’s surveillance system yet?”
Urlack looked down at me with his head cocked to one side. I might have thought he looked somewhat cute like a puppy if he was maybe one-eighth his present size.
“You must know, Michael, that it is not I that leads the Genogerians. It is you,” he stated without a hint of malice.
It was sort of a shock, I had never really thought about it. I guess it made some sort of weird sense, but it still left me a little bit dumbfounded.
“And yes, we have tapped into the cameras. We have blocked their ability to watch us. Unless we want them to,” he added at the end.
And we did want them to. That was the key to our plan.
“Well, let’s get this show on the road then,” I told Urlack, I wanted to hold my head high, but right then it seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. “Will this be two way communication?” I asked.
“They will be able to reply over the ship’s intercom system.”
Urlack pointed a device at me that looked suspiciously like a toaster oven, but I guessed was their version of a handheld camcorder. Made sense. If theirs were as small as the ones we were using, they wouldn’t be able to operate them.
“You are on,” Urlack said.
“It would be nice if you had given me a countdown or something,” I told him angrily.
“You are on,” he repeated.
“Shit. Hello, Supreme Commander.” I tried my best to not sneer. “My name is Michael Talbot.”
“I am aware of who you are,” blared over the speakers.
“Can we get that lowered?” I asked Urlack as I rubbed my left ear.
“Why are you not deceased?” the voice asked again, but at a much more pleasant volume.
“You could always come out and give it a go,” I taunted.
I heard a hiss on the other side. Good, I was pissing him off, my specialty!
“We have your pilots locked up,” I told the commander.
“I am well aware of that.”
So he was not going to be forthcoming. “We demand the surrender of those that are resistant to the freedom of the Genogerians and the humans alike.”
“Savages aligning with savages. I wouldn’t have thought it possible. But your small victory in the feeding hall, at a high price I might add, has done little to alter the course of this vessel or its mission.”
“Oh, I’m not so sure,” I told him. “These pilots will not be able to fly anymore, and right about…” I waited for Urlack’s signal which was taking longer than it should and ruining my dramatic build-up effect. He finally gave me a small bob of his head as he received some communication through his earpiece. “…now, you’ve lost communication with the planet.”
“It is so,” I heard someone telling the Supreme Commander.
“So, right now, you’re probably thinking, worst case scenario, that you cannot be the first ship in your history to fall into the hands of the Genogerians. Sure, maybe a half hour ago you could have flown this ship right into the Earth, but since we have disengaged your drive, you are really kind of limping along in space right now.”
“That is also so,” came the bearer of bad news to the Supreme Commander again.
“This is not possible!” the Supreme Commander bellowed.
“Don’t let your arrogance get the better of you. It has happened,” I emphasized. “We are demanding your surrender.”
The power on our deck flickered for a moment and then came back on.
“Life support,” Urlack said. “They can shut down wherever they want.”
“We can’t get a hold of that?”
Urlack shook his head.
“Your pilots will die if you do that,” I told the commander.
The commander eerily echoed my earlier words. “It would be the sacrifice of the few for the many.”
“You cannot!” came another forceful voice. “The Senate will hang us all!”
“And what will they do if we hand the ship over!” the commander said. There was some rustling, but I think it was more of a posturing than a scuffle.
This was not turning out exactly as I had planned. “Captured pilots, you have heard the words of your leader. He has deemed you as expendable. One of your own kind has left you to fend for yourselves while he has threatened to shut off the very air you breathe.” I could hear some grumbling, but I thought the Progerians were probably in a bit of shock as they tried to assimilate the new information. “I will release any of you that decide to take your chances with us and fight.” It was truly a long shot and nobody had quite bitten, but my guess was that I’d get a few converts when the air began to thin.
Urlack let the toaster oven drop down. “They are coming,” he said with as much inflection as if he were talking about the mailman. Urlack and I ran for the far end of the corridor where the Mutes would most likely hit first.
“We will be free soon, hu-man!” Betar shouted as we ran past his cell. “You will be in my stew for dinner.”
I flipped him the bird as I went by. I didn’t know if he understood the gesture, but he howled in anger all the same.
The firefight had begun, I could hear muffled explosions all around.
“Grenades?” I asked Urlack.
“They are actually your flash-bangs. One of our first reconnaissance patrols grabbed a box when they overran a police station. The Mutes have been making their own version and playing with them since.”
“Playing?”
“They made them stronger and now see how many they can detonate at their feet before they are overwhelmed.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“It is not,” Urlack said. “The concussion is strong enough to kill a man.”
“Urlack, I think that you have a low estimate of just how strong we are.”
“I am telling you, Michael, the concussion is strong enough to rearrange a man’s internal organs. They die a terribly painful death.”
Urlack wasn’t speculating, he had witnessed it. I didn’t want to know if it was a test or Mutes merely playing. Either way, I hated them and the
y would have to pay.
Intense fighting was concentrated to our front. We were still a good two hundred yards when a door to my left opened up. Not sure which of us was more surprised, the huge Mute nearly fell over me. Urlack put a round in its shoulder. I don’t even think it noticed as it saw me tangled up in its legs. My rifle was not going to be effective, I let it go, the sling kept it from clattering to the ground. I reached into my holster and pulled out the Colt. Urlack was hesitant to shoot as the Mute bent over to get at me. I twisted away from his hand as I placed the cold blue steel of the .45 against the exposed back of his knee. No padding there. I thought as I pulled the trigger.
Urlack jarringly extracted me from the Mute as he collapsed, a three-inch around hole blown into its knee pad.
Bet that fucking hurts. I was thinking, but even with that crippling wound it was still seeking to aim its weapon at me.
Urlack put a shot in its forehead. If it didn’t die now, I was thinking of maybe joining their side. I was saved from that decision as it slumped to the floor.
“He sure is ugly,” Urlack said.
He looked bigger sure, but they all looked ugly to me. Except Dee. And I was wishing he was with me right about now.
“Has the barracks been breached?” I asked Urlack.
The Genogerians were housed across the hallway from the Progerians combatants in the arena, that more than anything let the Genos know their station in life.
“Perhaps not. It is a large area to defend with not enough troops.”
“Well, we can’t let them get behind our guys,” I said, heading into the barracks.
“Agreed,” Urlack said as he waved a few Genos to come with us. I didn’t think it was enough, but I didn’t voice my concerns. We ran into the barracks. This end was far quieter than it should have been. It had that air of expectation. Our troops were already stretched thin, so we had the foresight to cripple a bunch of the doors forcing the Mutes into a choke point.
A few Geno guards had been posted at every few doors just as back up, but I didn’t see them. My guess was that they had abandoned their posts when they had realized all the action was happening elsewhere.
“Something is not right here,” Urlack said.
The air smelled of ozone from all the blue shots arcing throughout the ship. We moved slowly forward. Right at the edges of my hearing, I thought I could hear muted whispering. I motioned for our small band to hunch down. You really don’t get the desired effect when an eight foot Geno stoops, still looking at about a six and a half foot silhouette. That would have to do.
“What is it?” Urlack asked softly.
“You don’t hear that?” I asked.
“From our studies of your species we have deduced that one of the few attributes that you possess better than us is hearing. But our scientists attribute that to the fact that you were hunted for the majority of your evolution, whereas we have been at the top of our food chain for untold millennia.”
“Yet you still have absolutely no tact or humor. Go figure. Anyway, there is some low talking up ahead and I don’t think it’s our side.”
“Then the one we killed was a scout,” Urlack stated.
“It would appear that way. Any thoughts?”
“Attack,” he said.
“Well, I guess we’re in agreement. Let’s get in as close as we can, though. Make our shots count.”
“I hear them now,” Urlack said after another fifteen feet of slow moving.
I slowly peaked my head around an upturned bunk. One of the heavy doors had somehow been pried open slightly. By ‘slightly’ I meant I could walk straight through and have room at both shoulders to spare, the Mutes were having difficulty getting through. The ones already on our side were pulling the others in.
“Twelve and counting,” I told Urlack coming back around to him. “They have two keeping a lookout and the rest are starting to get themselves ready for battle.”
“I will ask because I must. I told Drababan I would look out for you. Will you stay behind?”
“Not a chance,” I told him.
“I have fulfilled my obligation,” Urlack said.
Our shots had to count. Even with the element of surprise, we were clearly out matched in numbers, training, weaponry, size, demeanor. But the one thing we did have on our side was a cause. We were fighting for something and that had to trump all else or we were in a world of shit.
I thought Urlack was gonna go with the whole stealthy thing, so I was wholly unprepared for his battle cry as he rushed past me and leapt over the bed, immediately followed by the four other Genogerians. I had time enough to see Tantor and about a squadron of Genos heading our way but this fight would be decided one way or the other, before they had time to get there.
We caught them unawares, but they recovered quickly. Return fire was already heading our way. Had I been any taller I would have been decapitated as I made my way across the bunks.
Four Mutes lay dead or dying as the first of our band took a round. His body armor was ineffectual against the heavier rifles the Mutes were using. The bolt it shot looked to have a greenish hue to it and was thicker in appearance. Didn’t matter much to me, either one would cut me in half. And I wasn’t overly concerned about them not being able to identify my remains, considering I was the only human around.
The greater numbers and greater firepower were beginning to sway the tide of the battle, but still Urlack pressed on, overturning furniture as he encountered it, trying to make himself less of a target.
Another Geno dropped. We had to stop but there was no cover. Ahead was certain death and we couldn’t move back, we were being pinned down. The cavalry was on the way, we just had to hold on for a few more seconds.
“We cannot stay here,” Urlack bellowed.
I was going to have to make up a nick name for him. Maybe General? Colonel? Major? Captain? Yeah, that worked, he was Captain Obvious! The Mutes’ fire was ripping through the overturned furniture Urlack had spread around. It was only a matter of time until they got lucky.
The corner of the bed I was hiding behind had landed on a small table and was propped up maybe a foot at best. I ducked down and could see what appeared to be some type of leather-clad feet coming toward us. It wasn’t much of a target but I was going to make the most out of it.
My first shot sheered off the foot of the approaching Mute. His face landed less than ten feet from mine as he hit the ground heavily. His face contorted in pain and still he made no discernible noise of his agony. He turned up to look at me just as I drilled him in the skull with another shot, the hiss as the blue round cooked his brain was a little too visceral for my liking. The Mutes had not yet learned where the shots were coming from and another one immediately stepped into my field of fire. I didn’t get as clean a shot off this time, but the effect was the same as he landed on top of the one I had already killed.
Hands reached down and were pulling their injured comrade up and away. I had halted their advance for the moment. I was just about to pat myself on the back when my table burst under a couple of rounds, the only thing saving my life was the bed crashing down to fill in the void.
Urlack gave me a thumbs up and pointed behind us. Tantor was fast approaching with what looked like a full platoon. I saw a few green shots come over our position but those were immediately drowned out by a high volume of our fire.
Tantor stopped as he got up to our position. “They have gone back to rethink their strategy, I believe,” he said.
“Fortuitous for us,” Urlack said.
“Understatement,” I said, finally feeling safe enough to stand. “Thank you, Tantor,” I said as I reached out to clasp his forearm like Dee had shown me. He seemed hesitant at first, maybe he thought he would break me or he had not yet fully come to accept our alliance. In the end he accepted my thanks.
We had lost three Genogerians in the brief but intense fighting. The Mutes lost seven and had at least one injured and out of action. Those were better o
dds, but this was going to be a costly battle.
The next hour was a stand-off. The Mutes attacked at every point available to them, but were thwarted. We tried to reason with them when we could, but they seemed extremely happy with their lives especially now that they were actually doing some fighting. Didn’t matter in the least to them that they were in a battle with their own people—killing was killing.
The only good thing I could say about the whole affair was we were blooding them. It was close to a near even exchange and should have been much better considering we were in the defensive position, but one-for-one right now was still sustainable numbers. I knew the Genogerians were now my allies except for a select few, however, I still carried a great deal of animosity toward them, maybe if I got real lucky they would all take each other out.
I was safely away from the action, pouring over the diagrams of the ship, looking for a way to get around our adversary when Tantor came over with a periodic report.
“The ‘Mutes’ as you call them are not attacking with as much vigor as they once were. I believe it to mean we are winning,” he said.
“Possibly, but I’m thinking they are trying to find a way around us much like we are. I don’t think they were expecting so many casualties. My concern is if they stop attacking completely that the high command will stop all life support in these sections.”
“They cannot,” Urlack said as if he knew this for fact. “That would mean the death of their pilots.”
“At any time in the history of your race, Urlack, have not some been sacrificed for the many?” I asked.
He did not answer, he didn’t seem too thrilled that I had painted him in a corner.
“What do you propose we do?” he said indignantly.
“I think we have to do exactly what the Mutes and the Supreme Commander are thinking we won't do. We need to go on the offensive. They will not be expecting us to do that and if we can overrun them we have a straight shot for the bridge and this whole thing could be over.”
“It is a solid plan,” Tantor said. “Many families will be honored with a war widow today.”
Urlack looked at me and snorted. “That is a compliment in our culture,” he said with merriment. “Hu-mans are very sensitive,” he said to Tantor who still hadn’t seemed to grasp Urlack’s words.