“Spoiled?” Lucy asked.
“No ability to fertilize eggs.”
“Oh, great then,” Loka said.
“Some are sempoc also,” Reta said.
“Crazy? Really? Interesting,” Lucy said.
“Lucy, I have another idea,” I said, as it hit me.
“What?”
“Have Reta’s people broadcast that the sempoc is caused by a new gene we are adding to all new humans.”
She caught on instantly of course and Reta received orders. “Tell them we are spreading it throughout the galaxy through our new gate system.” She smiled, then she frowned. “Damn, so freaking simple, all these years and so simple. The billions upon billions that died, for what? Damn it!” She was mad…obviously.
Garth relayed a message; El had been shot in the leg with a 45, from behind. She’d be okay but there would be a new private soon. Only officers carried the 45s.
Although not funny, at the same time it was hilarious. I found I was laughing almost to tears. I think it may have been nervous tension releasing but it still cracked me up.
It slowly dawned on me what Lucy said. “What do you mean?” I asked her.
“Nothing, later, get these people back to the gate,” she said, and left with the latest loaded chopper.
Loka gave me a questioning look and I shrugged.
For our group, the rest was anti-climatic. We finished loading all the choppers and withdrew to the gate. As the last of the captives were hustled into the gate El’s army called for additional cover for their withdrawal. I told Garth to go ahead and use as many choppers as needed to allow a safe retreat—we were done, mission accomplished.
We returned to the gate and ensured all the people rescued were moved to Honor Central. Except Tici. He asked we say nothing to El for now. Once I finally saw him I noticed he looked terrible. The tips of his right fingers were missing, leaving nasty scars, and he was sickly looking, almost starving. He came up to Loka and I and asked some questions about El and what all happened after he was captured. I filled him in on the rough time line.
“I am not sure what happened myself. I know we were repelling another wave of attacks, and I remember seeing a pincer swinging and that is all. I woke up in a cage with the fingertips missing. They actually knew I was a leader somehow. So why the rescue? I know it wasn’t for me, you didn’t know I was alive.”
“No, it was a twofold plan. We need a spaceship and we found you captives so we sent a main force to disable the ship and a small quick strike force to rescue. Now we need to eradicate as many of the MKs as we can and see if we can get space-borne. All a bit complicated.”
“I need to get back into shape. They wouldn’t let us do more than stand around, get all the women pregnant, and watch as they ate the damn kids. They used most of us for feeding and raising the cattle, some new plan they are trying. Still, they left at least a hundred-fifty thousand behind when they left. Sure our people can handle them?”
“Have a couple new tricks to try,” Loka said with a smile.
“How’s El?” he asked.
“Wounded, one of her officers shot her in the ass from behind.” I couldn’t help it, I cracked up again.
“They did not! She was hit in the leg,” Loka told him. “They are retreating back here now. Garth is moving some chopper support to help cover the withdrawal but we will stand here and fight I guess. Not sure what is up with Lucy, she went off in a huff. The comlinks to El’s group are down, I think to keep it tight with their elements. We should see them soon.”
Almost on cue I could see choppers firing missiles in the distance then, like ants, a swarm of specks slowly were heading our way. As they closed the gap between us I saw they were quite orderly. We moved back out of the way as the leading edge filtered past the ring of 20s and needlers.
A Col. said, “We are to march straight to Olgreender II. General El and five thousand troops will hold the gate. I think we killed at least fifty thousand of those bastards!” He smiled.
Loka told him, “Good job, Col. Now follow orders and get your men safely inside.”
“Yes ma’am.” He saluted and hollered to his men to keep moving as they went back through the gate to safety.
We wound up moving back and even further to the right as litters started coming in with wounded. It wasn’t a sterile fight. Lucy had told us of the perfect fight, which meant it was a totally one-sided fight. You killed the enemy while you lost no one at all. I’d give a very rough guess and say three thousand wounded came by, then several hundred walking wounded, most with gashes and missing hands or the like. Then it was back to regular, orderly troops.
You don’t appreciate how many a hundred thousand of anything is until you see them. Battalion after battalion, their individual flags flying, marching by in good order.
The choppers were almost overhead, some shooting, some firing missiles as the tail end of the troops came into view. They were slowly walking backwards, firing into the packs of MKs now also in view, but not the masses like at the fort, more cautious. Near the rear, hobbling along, was El. She had her 45 in one hand and using a rifle as a crutch in the other as she retreated.
As this last group came in toward us, Loka said, “Why not go help her, Tici?” He smiled and took off at a fast pace, he wasn’t strong enough to run.
I could see El, then Tici came up behind her to offer support and El shook it off, never turning to see. He tried again and finally El turned, obviously to chew him out then saw who it was and stumbled. Her 45 dropped in the dirt then she recovered as Tici handed her the 45 back and smiled. We were too far away to hear anything but the shooting.
I had Loka position herself next to one of the 20s and I stood near another as the remainder of the troops fell behind the line of cannons.
“Fire!” I yelled, as all hell broke loose. Those 20MMs started exploding among the MKs, the new needlers finally went into action and the MKs actually formed a wall out to the front, a wall of dead getting higher and higher. As the 20s finally ran low on ammo they were pulled back through the gate and it left the two needlers firing nonstop along with, I would guess, 5000 troops as rear guard, we stood and held the gate for what seemed hours. As the 20s came back with fresh ammo loads, the choppers were taken down and moved back through the gate and runners brought more ammo for us. Tally came through the gate and found us about the same time as El and Tici showed. I saw Tally almost pass out when she saw Tici, and smiled.
“El, Lucy said to slowly withdraw everyone and everything and leave the gate open for the last few MKs please.”
“What?” I think we all said it about the same time.
Tally wasn’t sure either, but she repeated, “She said to slowly withdraw and leave the gate open for the MKs, honest. She wants to try something. The inside is covered with 20s and the other two needlers as well as fresh troops, but honest, it’s what she said. She’ll meet us just inside.”
“No,” EL said. “I won’t allow those damn bugs inside, I’ll die first! I override her now. They still have thousands of them.”
“I’ll go tell her then.” Tally took off at a run back through the gate.
Almost a minute went by and Lucy came out and up to us. “Hi Tici, heard you’re back from the dead, congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
“El, it was so simple, stared everyone in the face daring us to see it for two-thousand years. It was so simple that almost no one needed to have died. The Warpfield Generator, it was all right there and so simple! Trust me, not a single MK will set foot in Honor Central. Pull back and see,” Lucy said.
I wasn’t sure what she meant, the warp core generator was what kept the gates open, actually created the permanent fold in the space continuum. I was trying hard to catch up on the thousands of years of science we were behind. Still, how could that help?
“Are you sure? No surprises? No bugs popping up and marching through?” El asked.
Lucy looked at us all. “If I am wrong I
will sit on top of the damn nuke that blows up Honor Central, with no backups. I am positive! We can even reopen the gate to Olgreender. It was all so simple that no one saw it.”
“I don’t know—Tici?” El was back to having him around for advice.
“She’s been on the up with us, I believe her. Unless something changed while I was gone?”
“No, no changes. Okay.” El looked around and talked to her earpiece as I saw officers talking to their men.
“Garth, get the last two choppers back through now.”
As they landed the maintenance crews went into action, collapsing the rotor masts and folding the blades over the rear, then placing the little dollies under the skids, and lastly hauling them back through the gate. They were a lot faster than the first time in the desert. Training actually did make a huge difference in time.
All but the two needle guns were moved back, then there was one gun as the MKs came close enough to see the gate. They knew what it was and that it was open so they pushed even harder. Loka and I helped push the last needler though the gate and I turned and watched with El and Tici, Lucy, and Garth. We all waited to see this miracle.
They were on the run, right at the gate. I saw them getting closer and just as they were to burst in upon us they simply vanished. Lucy said, “YES!! I knew it!”
I stood and watched as hundreds and hundreds ran at the gate and vanished. I couldn’t believe it. What’s more was they kept coming.
“They aren’t coming in, where are they going?” I asked.
“Honestly not sure yet, just not here,” Lucy said. “Let’s get all the wounded treated and get ready to move to the ship. It is an eight man light cruiser so I want Garth, Eldon, Loka, Reta and any other three El wants to send. Leave both needlers here and a guard force but don’t close the gate unless something goes wrong.”
With that we all withdrew to the Lab. Lucy took El and Tici—she soon had him hooked on the medical machine.
Lucy looked at all the telltales. “He’ll be fine other than the fingers. Weak and low on vitamins.
“Tici, what happened?” Lucy asked.
“Still not sure, we were being rushed. I shot a couple then stabbed one, then was knocked out and woke up in that damn cage with a massive headache and short a few fingers. Took me a while to realize these people were telepathic, but two could tell me things after awhile. They thanked us for saving a few of the children, which I didn’t know about. They helped keep my hand clean and they told me things about the MK as time went on. We all tried to stop them from eating the children, but it wasn’t to be.
“Turns out one of them gave the MKs the idea to raise the cows and such for food. We were just kept alive for slave labor. We cleaned pens, fed the livestock, harvested the crops, so it went. They made us keep the women pregnant and when they birthed the MKs let the babies live until the mother’s milk stopped, then the children became snack food. Meanwhile, many MKs left, but the ones who stayed appeared to all be sterile or something. Not sure what it all was about, but apparently something affects them.”
“Yes, we know about it. Some rodent they ate on the planet before Myla’s. We raided to capture a ship to go find the rodent, see if we can isolate what it is, synthesize it and eventually spread it to all the MK planets,” El told him.
“Well good. Glad to hear all the deaths weren’t in vain.
“They know of Lucy. I was told about the walking robot that killed. There is supposed to be some special reward for those who capture or kill her.”
“Well good luck on that,” I said.
Lucy smiled. “We now have two weapons in less than three years to use against them. More than all humanity had for two thousand.”
“Two?” Tici asked.
“Yes, I didn’t have time to explain to anyone. Not sure if it just popped in or one of Myla’s people put it there. The Honor Gates are all programmed. Once I saw it, it was so simple!” Lucy was beaming. “Why don’t poison gases or deadly viruses come through the gates from all the planets we visited?” She only glanced around a second, sure we had no clue.
“Because the gates are programmed through the Warpfield Generators to only allow certain biological life and non-bio materials through. It is all based on their chains of DNA and chemical compounds. It stops anti-matter, known deadly viruses, poisons, all things dangerous to the inventors at the time of invention, which was the pre-MK period.
“All I did was tell the warp generator that the MKs’ DNA strands were dangerous and needed to go to very cold places where they belonged. By that I mean the middle of space. Since they aren’t cold proof it means instant annihilation where ever they went because the generator doesn’t care.”
“If it was that simple why didn’t others think of it?” Loka asked.
“The group that made this gate center here did. Remember they had a virus they were worried about spreading to Earth, but they couldn’t identify it. A virus is a non-living thing that hides inside a cell and replicates, eventually killing the cell. Honor and her group were stranded here until they could isolate and block it, then they had the reactor trouble, it piled on and effectively prevented their return to Earth. She knew how, but she died here, her Center isolated from the rest of the galaxy.
“When the MKs showed up through the other gates everyone panicked, blowing the gates in fear. If they would have just shut off the warpfield generators and thought on it awhile, someone would have realized it, I’m sure. Still, all it would have done is slowed them down, forcing them to use regular ships.”
“So what do we do?” El asked finally, coming back to join reality as a medic cleaned and bandaged her wound. The bullet passed through her leg and did little serious damage.
Lucy thought a second, doing her billion or so functions. “We find that rodent, identify what it is that sterilizes the MKs and see if it is safe for you humanoids. If it is, we start plans to seed our galaxy, then theirs, and hope they find no cure before they become extinct. That is the basic plan.”
“Hm, no way,” I said. I think they all looked at me so I explained. “We were barely into space before Lucy came. We have come a long way, but we no longer have Lord P’s factories, we have no ability to replace them yet, and we are one small group of humans. You want us to take on two galaxies with one small ship?”
Lucy said, “You’re right, but we aren’t alone out there. Before we crashed I received a flash of various groups on other planets from the records. I know they exist, but I didn’t have time or room to upload it all. I barely had time to get me uploaded. No, we need to find what it is that hurts them and try to get the word out. We can also open more gates now. I just need a few scientists versed in the theories of the Honor search procedures and a smidgen in Warpfield Dynamics would help.
“First we need to go find that rat. That is a major key to getting our galaxy back.
“Have the MKs quit attacking the gate?” she asked.
El was on her earpiece talking. “Looks like it. They think the last ran through it about ten minutes ago.”
“Good, have Garth take a couple choppers out to make sure. I don’t know how far away any planets the MK own are, so we need to press the advantage. I am pretty sure the MKs, realizing fresh meat waited, did not hesitate to send all of them through the gate. I am also sure they blasted the message to the rest of the universe as well so we need to try and get the rodent. If any are alive we need to capture them and beat the MKs back here to the gate,” Lucy said. Clearly she now had a full plan developed.
“Hmm, that warp thing you did, it works on all the gates or just the one to Hum-Li?”
“All of them. Why?” Lucy asked.
“I want to open the rest we haven’t finished exploring yet. But needed to ensure we wouldn’t get invaded.”
“No, should be safe, the warpfield applies it to all gates, which brings up another subject. You need to have solid plans in place to evacuate all your people from either planet if the MKs should attack from
space. For now I’d limit how far away from the gate they can settle,” she said.
“Good idea. Olgreender II would be the problem,” I said.
“Not really. Like Olgreender, they have to find it, identify it as having life, then call their forces. Should have enough time now that we know how they communicate and have people that can identify that communication when close,” El said.
“Correct,” was Lucy’s comment. “Just make sure everyone knows if the whistle blows it is time to run. No heroic stands.”
“Find Reta, then you guys take off. I’ll handle the evacuation setups and I will get the choppers to explore the rest of the worlds this center is linked to. Garth, just add a crew of Lord P’s scientists to fill the ship,” El said.
With that we broke up and headed to our various duties.
Lucy reworked the earpiece links so the ship’s crew was separate. “Loka, bring a reader, spare sticks, two spectral analyzers, the high band and low. Umm, see what Lord P’s guys need for equipment and get everyone to the gate in, say, three hours?”
“Be a bit tight,” I said.
“Okay four then, but I want to be off that planet before more MK reinforcements show up. We may need an interdiction crew when we return.”
Three of Lord P’s scientists volunteered. One was a biologist, one was a chemist, and the last was studying microbiology. I felt we might be able to use all three.
It took a little under four hours and we were all at the gate, two choppers loaded with gear and us.
Loka asked Garth, “Got the part?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” he said, patting a small box.
We saw no MKs on the way, but we found a lot of cleaned out exoskeletons as we neared the ship. No doubt, they ate their dead.
We landed near the ship—it was nothing like the one we found Lucy in. The outer skin was a dull brownish color, with weird black and green symbols on its side. The hatch and several panels along its hull stood open.
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