Kali's Children (Kali Trilogy Book 1)

by Craig Allen

  “Could they be engineered, doctor?” the admiral asked.

  Dr. Donaldson shrugged. “Possibly. I’d have to study them more. It could explain why so many of them are intelligent, but right now, I just can’t say.”

  The admiral stared at the corpse for a moment. He then walked toward the controls by the containment chamber and ran his hand through them. “Bridge.”

  The XO’s voice drifted into the medical bay. “Bridge, aye.”

  “I want deep scans of every inch of this planet. I want to find every piece of technology down there. If there’s a mouse trap down there, I want to know.”

  “Understood, admiral,” the XO said. “I’ve had some cursory scans done, and they are coming up inconclusive. The planetary core is very dense and spins pretty fast. Magnetic readings are much higher than normal.”

  “Do your best,” the admiral said. “When in doubt, assume it is technological and mark it. Also, send a signal to UEAF and inform them of the situation.”

  “The nearest base is eclipsed behind the local star,” the XO said. “We’ll have to launch a remote transmitter to send the signal. Take about forty-eight hours.”

  “Do it. Out.” The intercom chimed off. The admiral glanced over at the doctor. “Thank you, Dr. Donaldson. Dr. Brenner, I suggest you get some rest.”

  The admiral started to leave, and Cody went after him. “Wait, what are you going to do?”

  Dr. Donaldson stared at Cody, alarmed. Cody didn’t care whether he was out of line or not.

  “I can’t allow these creatures to have access to advanced technology,” the admiral said. “That makes them a threat.”

  “A threat? You destroyed everything they have out there.”

  The admiral narrowed his eyes at Cody. “What makes you think that’s everything they have?”

  “Well—” Cody stopped. The anger welled up in him. He couldn’t allow the admiral to do this. “There are vast cultures down there. We don’t have the right.”

  “Oh?” The admiral didn’t take his eyes off Cody. “Doctor, may we use your office?”

  Dr. Donaldson nodded and gestured toward a side door. Cody followed the admiral into the office, shutting the door behind them. “Admiral, you can’t just wipe everything out.”

  “Who said anything about that?” The admiral went to the doctor’s desk. He activated the holo-viewer and pulled up a file. A three-dimensional image appeared. Cody recognized the overlay the admiral had created showing an image of the battle-damaged Washington on top of the Kali.

  Cody shook his head. “What does this mean? How does this give you the right—”

  “You need to learn to control yourself, Doctor.” The admiral maintained control of his tone, unlike Cody. “You don’t see it because you don’t understand. And you don’t understand because you’re angry.”

  Cody forced himself to lower his voice. “Admiral, it’s amazing that intelligent life develops at all. Within a thousand light years of Earth, we’ve seen two other sentient species.”

  “I already know all this, Doctor.”

  “Then you know the value of this world,” Cody said. “If it’s true that every living thing here is intelligent, we could learn about the nature of intelligence and how it evolves.”

  “If everything on this world is intelligent, then we are in a lot of trouble.”

  “I don’t understand.” Cody was sure Dr. Donaldson could hear him outside, but he didn’t care. “Why does that matter? How—”

  “Doctor.”

  Cody gritted his teeth, staring at the admiral. It took effort for Cody to calm down.

  “I know you’re angry,” the admiral said. “Life is precious. No one knows that better than a military officer.”

  “I’m sorry, Admiral, I find that hard to believe.” Cody regretted saying it, but the outburst didn’t anger the admiral. Cody felt like a child under the admiral’s gaze.

  “I know you do. And I find it hard to believe you would sacrifice human lives to save this planet.”

  Cody blinked. “What? How could you say—”

  “Think about it, Doctor. All living things feed on each other. We have the luxury of telling ourselves the life we feed on does not think for itself. But on this world, they don’t have that. If they want to survive, they have to commit murder every day.”

  The admiral gestured outside. “Imagine if we lived the way they do. What if we ate other intelligent beings as a way of life—say the Spicans—or if we reverted to cannibalism. What would we be like, Doctor? If the only way to survive was to kill each other, what sort of society would we have?”

  Cody’s mind raced, trying to find something, anything, that would counter what the admiral said. The admiral had to be wrong, but Cody couldn’t explain how.

  “Well, Doctor?”

  Cody sighed, hating the answer. “We wouldn’t respect life.”

  “That’s right.” The admiral walked around to the front of the desk. “How can you respect other intelligent beings when you eat them? If you do, you perish.”

  “The fliers don’t live that way,” Cody said. “They don’t kill. Maybe they could teach the toads?”

  The admiral nodded, pursing his lips. “Good point. But why would those things you call toads listen to the fliers? According to your report, the fliers’ numbers are dwindling. They’re dying out. I’m certain the toads and other predators have something to do with it.” The admiral shrugged. “Why would they listen if their food told them not to eat it?”

  “Fine,” Cody said. “Maybe they can’t learn, not yet. But they’re stuck down there now that we’ve defeated them. Can’t we just leave them in peace?”

  “We’ve defeated them? Really?” The admiral gestured at the doctor outside. “You heard Dr. Donaldson. This sun is half a billion years older than ours. They’ve had plenty of time to learn about war. I wouldn’t commit every ship in my arsenal against an enemy. I would keep reserves. I’m certain they’ve done the same. They’re not so foolish as to risk everything, even on something as important as this.”

  “Important as what?”

  The admiral gestured at the image on the desk. “Haven’t you wondered why they attacked us? Why go through all the trouble?”

  Cody shook his head. “They perceived us as a threat. They’re protecting their territory.”

  “Then why did they wait two weeks to attack you on that plateau?”

  “Maybe they didn’t know where we were.”

  “Hardly.” The admiral brought up a report, along with a schematic of a viewer. A section of the schematic was highlighted. “The viewer you took from the Kali had a tracking device. They knew where you were all along.”

  “Why would they just let us go?”

  “The logs of Kali’s bridge-sat indicated a signal was sent back to the planet after you used it to call for help.” The admiral folded his arms. “They were waiting for us to show up. They had a hopper of their own, so they knew what they were. They probably reasoned a hopper would arrive to rescue you, and they planned to commandeer it.”

  “Why? Why do any of this?”

  The admiral stared at Cody for a moment before continuing. “We found the remnants of the bridge-satellite in orbit launched by the Spinoza shortly after you arrived. We also found debris from Spinoza herself. Examination of the debris confirmed UEAF weapons hit her. Probably one or more of the Kali ships fired from inside the atmosphere.”

  Cody shrugged. “They are tribal. They perceived us as outsiders and sought to defend themselves.”

  “I wish it were that simple, Doctor.” The admiral highlighted parts of the image showing the Kali overlaying the Washington. “Look at the battle damage of the Washington.” The admiral pointed at areas along the ship. “They didn’t know the layout of this ship, but they did know the layout of the Kali.”

  The admiral highlighted areas near the center of the Washington. “They were, or thought they were, avoiding the engine core, particularly the ex-mat co
ntainment pod. We found the remains of the Spinoza, as well. She was hit in a similar fashion.”

  The image didn’t make sense to Cody, but he wasn’t an engineer. He took the admiral’s word for it. “They wanted the ex-mat?”

  “Obviously. Torpedoes targeted fore and aft. They avoided the central area. Their grasers did the same. They assumed the design of the Washington was similar to that of the Kali.” The admiral shrugged. “It’s a reasonable assumption. They wanted to disable us and get to the ex-mat.”

  It finally occurred to Cody. “They understand how the Daedalus engine works.” He rubbed his chin. “They know how to go faster than light.”

  The admiral nodded. “But they don’t have the exotic matter that would allow them to do so. They haven’t been able to get to the ex-mat inside the Spinoza, at least not yet. Hopefully, we’ll retrieve that before they can get to it. We can’t locate the Kali’s ex-mat containment pod. It’s possible it leaked from its chamber. Its density would cause it to sink to the planet core, making it unreachable by anyone. Regardless, without the ex-mat as a catalyst, they can’t form an Alcubierre field and go super-luminal.”

  “What about the bridge-satellite?” Cody asked. “Doesn’t it have ex-mat?”

  The admiral nodded. “In trace amounts. Not enough to allow them to build an Alcubierre field. They’d need fifty bridge-sats to even get close.” He shrugged. “We’re taking the bridge-sat, just in case.”

  “So they’re stuck,” Cody said. “Even if they have this technology, they can’t go anywhere. The nearest human settlement is dozens of light years away.”

  “Again, I wish it were that simple.” The admiral manipulated the controls, and the image changed. It showed the nearby globular cluster.

  “There was an old report about this cluster,” the admiral said. “It was set aside after we starting making our own ex-mat in particle colliders. Back in the day, when miners collected it, they would have found a fortune not too far from here.”

  The admiral pulled up a document and laid it on top of the image of the cluster. Green highlighted parts of the report. Cody read one of the highlighted sections aloud. “Natural occurrences of degenerate quark matter are extensive within the cluster.”

  The admiral nodded. “There is more natural exotic matter in that globular cluster than anywhere else. And it’s only about two light years away from our friends.”

  “Exactly,” Cody said. “They still need to go superluminal to…”

  The admiral finished the thought for him. “You understand now, don’t you? The Kali could travel at relativistic speeds with just its main impellers. Special relativity dictates time dilation at hyper-velocities would make relative time on board considerably shorter than the two years of actual time.”

  “They don’t know how to collect it,” Cody said. “They don’t know how to safely transport it.”

  “No, they don’t,” the admiral said. “But they have the technology to do so. They just need to figure it out.”

  The admiral turned off the holo-console. The images of the Kali, the Washington, and the globular cluster faded away. “It may take them fifty years, or five years, or less. Left to their own devices, they will find a way to activate a Daedalus engine. They have all the pieces but one. Once they get it, they just have to put the puzzle together. When they do, they’re going to look for us—the most prolific source of food in the galaxy.”

  Cody stared at the desk, even though the admiral had switched off the image. “They made mistakes, and they were defeated. We can do it again.”

  “They are masters of warfare,” the admiral said. “They have to be to survive. They made mistakes today because they are new to space warfare. Frankly, for their first attempt at a space battle, they did very well. I’m sure they learned from it.”

  “So you’re going to destroy them.”

  “No. I’m going to find suspected locations of this technology and take them out. We’ll have to come back later and clean up any missing pieces, but we need to hit them now before they decide to bury what they have out of reach or move it off world.”

  “You’ll still kill a lot of them.”

  The admiral nodded. “I know. But if I don’t, then I’m putting billions of humans at risk.”

  “Maybe,” Cody said. “It would still take them years to become a threat.”

  “You aren’t listening,” the admiral said. “They can entrench themselves now. By the time they do make their move, it will be far more difficult to stop them. If we start now, we can end it before it begins.”

  “We defeated the Spicans,” Cody said. “They had a vast amount of resources this world doesn’t. What threat could they possibly be?”

  “To be clear, the Spicans surrendered. They weren’t defeated,” the admiral said. “I can see why you would think that, but you’re wrong.” He let out a long sigh. “This isn’t common knowledge, and the brass doesn’t like it getting out. But I don’t have a lot of time, as you may have seen.” The admiral pointed to the gray in his hair. “Two hundred and twenty years is enough time, I suppose. That’s why they chose me—not because I’m an admiral, but because my time is running out. I can live with difficult decisions because I won’t live long. They need me to make that difficult decision.”

  “To destroy this world if necessary?” Cody shook his head. “With the entire fleet, what possible threat could they be?”

  The admiral nodded. “Our military is not what it used to be. The Spicans kicked our asses pretty good. We won in the end, but we are still trying to rebuild our navies. Mix that with governments splitting from the United Earth Treaty altogether, old conflicts between worlds rising again… the odds are if we get into another protracted war like the Spican War, we won’t come out on top.”

  Cody chewed his lip for a moment. “I don’t like it. I understand what you’re saying, admiral. I just don’t like it.”

  “Neither do I.” The admiral leaned on the table edge. “I know why you’re angry with me, and I understand. It’s commendable to stand up for what you believe. But to do nothing here today would sacrifice countless lives. Would you sacrifice human lives for what you believe? If it comes down to me destroying whole swaths of this world, you and others may view me as a devil today. But a century from now, people would see you as a devil for stopping me.”

  Cody’s face went hot, but he restrained himself. You know he’s right, Cody thought. “Yeah.” Cody sighed deeply. “The people of this world will hate us for what we do to them.”

  “For a while. The only written language they have is what they learned from us. The viewers they have will only have power for another decade. If I do this right, it’ll be thousands of years before they develop the technology on their own. By then, we’ll be a legend, mostly forgotten.”

  “So we hope,” Cody said. “If they do remember, we may be creating future enemies. We may be giving them a reason to come after us.”

  “They already have a reason, Doctor, as I just described. If we stop them now, they may hate us in the future. If we don’t stop them, they will come after us now.” The admiral shrugged. “Assuming they ever come up with the technology on their own, of course. They’ve probably been around longer than we have, and they haven’t developed it. They only have it now thanks to us.”

  “I just wish we didn’t have to bomb half the planet out of existence,” Cody said. “I heard the XO. There’s so much interference, you’ll probably have to in order to be sure.”

  “I know,” the admiral said. “If you have an alternative plan, I’m open to suggestions.”

  “You’d listen to me?”

  “I’m listening to you now, aren’t I?” The admiral pulled up a visual on the controls. It showed the time. “It’s forty-eight hours before we can get a message to the UEAF. I’ll send my plans to them at that time. I’m certain they will grant the fliers asylum, especially after they helped you and the other survivors. As for the rest of the planet, you have until we can
send a message to UEAF to come up with something better.”

  The admiral turned to leave. “Find me a solution, Doctor. Find me a way to do this without blowing this planet to hell.”

  ~~~

  Cody ate his soup in silence, sitting by himself in the mess. Most people looked at him strangely, so he learned to eat during unusual mealtime hours.

  At first, he was thrilled the admiral had given him time to come up with a solution, but the responsibility of saving an entire planet was a crushing feeling. Criticizing solutions was a lot easier than coming up with them.

  Sonja walked in and went to a dispenser to grab a sandwich. When she spotted Cody, she gave a little smile and came over. She slid into the seat across from him. “How you feeling?”

  Cody shrugged. “I’ve been better. You?”

  “Better than you, apparently. Weight of the world on your shoulders, and all that?”

  The few people on the mess deck wouldn’t look him in the eye. It had been like that for a little while. “Does everyone know?”

  “Your conversation with the admiral carried throughout the infirmary.” She took a bite of sandwich. “At least the loud parts did, anyway.”

  “Oh. That explains a few things.”

  She swallowed. “Some are kind of pissed you questioned the old man like that. That’s a big breach of protocol.”

  “They’re mad?”

  She shrugged. “Mostly, they just think you don’t belong here and that whole event was proof of it.”

  “Oh.” Cody pushed the rest of his soup back. “Do you think that?”

  “You don’t belong,” she said. “But I still like you. Even Bodin sticks up for you.”

  “Really? I must have made an impression.”

  She smiled and took another bite.

  “By the way,” Cody said. “I’m sorry.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “About bringing up the, well…”

  She sighed, and then gave him a weak smile. “Forget about it. It was a long time ago.”

  “It still matters.”

  “Of course it does,” she said. “It always will. Which is why the old man has to do what he’s going to do.”