The man was very similar. He had stripped off his suit. His eyes drifted to green and he was taller than me, darker brown hair. He also held what clearly was a pistol.
Lucy said, “Everyone meet Hamel something or other. I told him he could keep the weapon until he felt safe.”
I nodded, so did Garth, and most of the others. Lucy helped the woman out of the box, who was in discomfort and was clearly far along. As she moaned I saw Reta wince.
“She is called Fawnelia Flemdon, they are not married or anything. She feels she will deliver in a few days at the latest.” Lucy was talking to her for a while as she sat on the bench.
Reta said, “It isn’t her I am sensing.”
“Not her?” I asked.
“No. No organized thoughts, it is her baby, and it is in pain,” Reta said.
Lucy hooked her to the med kit and started running tests, the guy was concerned but wary as Lucy kept asking him questions. I saw Lucy run her tests, give the woman a shot of something, then she and Loka carried her into the engine room and closed the door.
I would guess it was less than thirty minutes later Loka came out smiling. “It is a wonderful baby boy. Alive and well.”
Reta said yes, birth seemed to hurt quite a bit. I hadn’t noticed she was biting her lip and sweating.
Loka went near the guy who held up his weapon and said, “Suta pela. Suta pela.”
“Pela?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s a boy.” He relaxed.
Finally Lucy opened the door and said something and he went inside. I could hear a baby crying.
Loka smiled. “They are so precious when born,” she said. Talk about a subtle hint.
Lucy came out and closed the door. She handed the pistol the man had been carrying to Garth. “I’ll be back. He said they recorded a lot of the final battles, I’ll get them off their station.”
It took forty-five minutes and she was back, arms full of gear. “Okay, from initial viewing, when the MKs arrived the station was saved because the heat was broken. Everyone alive was in thermal protective gear wrapped around their space suits while they tried to fix it. Some had already died and were put out the hatch. They never showed on the MK heat sensors. Unfortunately the other station did show. When they saw what happened below and realized they were never to be rescued all but these two committed suicide. If they hadn’t the supplies would have run out long ago.
“I’m guessing here, but it looks like there was a huge main force that attacked. I suspect this planet just happened to be in the way because soon after the planet’s armies were defeated the majority of the MK force loaded up with food, which was them of course, and moved on in a hurry. They left about 100,000 MKs behind.
“We know they caught and ate rodents, nothing I can see in the vids. They finished off the people and moved on to Reta’s planet.
“I am afraid we have two more refugees. Three if you count the baby. She was not supposed to be able to get pregnant. He said it was rather a shock to them both as they waited to die.”
“You asked about the rodents?” one of the scientists asked.
“Not yet, been rather busy. I will wait until he relaxes. They have been under terrible strain. Everyone dead, no transportation, no supplies, station falling apart, and her having a baby. Let them be for a few hours.”
Lucy dropped the gear on the worktable behind the commander’s chair and was studying it as we watched a planet die on the videos. This MK group had huge ships that they herded people into like cattle, then took off. With luck maybe these rodents got aboard too. From the vids everything took place in a few weeks and a once pretty planet was a deserted orb, floating in space.
“Darn, nothing new in technological ideas here. They were quite a bit farther along the discovery trail than Olgreender, but not as far as you are now on Olgreender II. Still, a few ideas here for factory improvements,” Lucy said.
“Pilots, take us to the planet please? I want to be near, but not in, a big city.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Garth said, and started talking and working some checklist with Loka. As we started to move the man came out, eyes clearly bloodshot but a bit more relaxed.
He and Lucy exchanged words. I had the impression Lucy was still learning their language. He watched the various goings on in the ship and stared out the port at his now extinct planet and he cried, quietly and alone. Finally he talked a bit more to Lucy and went back inside the engine room with the woman and child.
“He said he has no idea what rodent we are looking for. All are pests and none are poisonous that he is aware of. If the MKs identified it early then only it would be alive, if it found enough food to continue to survive. Since most ate vegetable matter when needed, I feel that a good probability.”
We spent several hours working entry calculations with Lucy. This ship wasn’t strong enough to go straight in to planet; we had to shed heat along the way. Overall the trip was uneventful, thermal scans all came up empty, and we touched down a mile from a partially damaged city. A few thousand MK skeletal shells were scattered around, all picked clean, also a lot of human bones picked clean as well.
From the vids the MKs didn’t land outside and attack—they literately landed on rooftops, in parks, on streets, almost everywhere in every city. I’d estimated billions of them. In, munch, roundup, and gone in a few weeks. It was graphic and tragic. It also left the possibility that some life might have hid and survived. For whatever reason, these MK moved on faster than what Lucy felt was normal for them.
Once on the ground several things came together as a plan. Lucy reiterated that time was of the essence. Not for here, but to get back to Honor Central before the MKs returned.
The scientists would camp near the city with Loka and me as guards. I thought the man would join us as a guide but Lucy said no. They would spend the time scanning for any survivors on the planet. What was known was the ocean life remained intact. Lucy said she had been informed of several arctic projects as well as several ocean farming sites that had been touted as being viable when the man and woman had went to space.
We were there less than a week. The scientists found three distinct types of vermin. Two were rats and the third was like a roach with hard outer body armor, but with a skeleton. Five sites had been found where the people of the planet survived and our three were added to an ocean farming site. Lucy spent time filling them in on what we knew and what we suspected. Unfortunately, the MKs were the first space visitors they knew of. Lucy did the calculations for them. If they all kept in contact physically, there were enough to continue their population safely. She told me there were fifteen thousand left alive. Many felt there were others in caves or mines.
“When we get back we will once again need MKs to study and experiment with,” the biologist said.
~~~
All in all several weeks had passed and we finally were back to Myla’s planet. The MKs had not arrived yet. We landed just outside the gate and soon were swarmed with people. Lucy guided the efforts as we unloaded. To my surprise, she had them partially dismantle the ship. The tail-fins and motors were removed and Lucy used the mining lasers to carefully cut the ship in half front to rear, then she halved those again and with careful maneuvering they fit through the gate. Lucky for us Lucy had insisted we move all four needlers out the gate, as well as twenty of the 20MM cannons…as the MKs arrived before we were done. Only a few hundred thousand in a few ships. Two tried to land next to the gate and were destroyed, three more landed off in the distance. I’d guess sixty-five thousand attacked. Lucy, Garth, El and ten thousand troops surprised them from the side as they charged us at the gate. We hit them hard, El had secured several dozen MKs and cut off all their pincers. They were moved by the gate and secured.
These MKs had more small arms than before and we lost several hundred people in the battle. We finally slipped the last of the ship through the gate.
“Meeting now, inside the gate please,” El said.
Leaving fres
h troops on the various guns we popped back inside. El made it short. “I want those extra ships. Garth! Tici still isn’t fully functional, take twenty thousand out to the right and try to circle behind. I know you can’t hide, fight your way through, disable those ships and hit the MKs from behind. Questions?” She only paused a few seconds. “Good, let’s do this.”
I was on a 20MM, reloading for what felt like hours. Others were as well. We hauled box after box of shells to try to keep them reloaded. The needlers were working flawlessly. Garth managed to take his troops and bust out through the ring of MKs. I think they sensed what he was trying to do—a lot tried retreating toward the ships and became the primary targets of those deadly 20MM bursts. Two days and nights later we had victory and secured three large ships along with twenty MKs. They lost one-hundred thousand, we lost eight-hundred dead and wounded. Now that we understood their tactics and how to kill them, we were far better than the first time.
As all the wounded were moved back to Central and the 20MMs on their new electric trucks were again moved back inside, Lucy and Garth set plans for the three captured ships. El called for a full Commanders meeting in the mess hall in Central in the morning. Lucy reprogrammed the warpfield generator to get the MKs in, then again to keep any others out.
Next morning Loka and I and all the rest were there, including reps from both our new planets. We all knew it was a meeting for war.
El coughed once and most of the noise ceased. The mess was full, as well as the halls and additional rooms. Rank had its privileges—Captains and below were not present and the lower ranks were stuck in the fringes of the meeting area. Lucy and El had set up remote viewers, of course.
“Ladies and gentleman, attention please,” she said. The already hushed became totally silent. “Thank you. Short and sweet, we are going on the offensive. I want to start kicking these MKs’ asses. Thanks to the efforts of many, including Lucy, Myla, Reta, Loka, Eldon and my staff, all the scientists from both planets, and every single one of you that has done something to help against these bastards. We finally have enough knowledge to do some serious damage to them.” A cheer went up but she called it off.
“We have tons of work to do so let me outline it as quickly as I can—all will get written instructions in time. We secured three large ships on Reta’s world. Garth will take as many as necessary to crew them and he will fly them back to here. Here as in Olgreender. I hope when he gets back it will once again be in our hands!”
Damn, I thought I could yell? The walls were rocking.
“Lucy has studied the charts and said it will take them four to five months to fly from where they are to here. I want to own our planet by then.”
I saw the looks around our head table. I think dreams were fine in their place.
She saw the expressions and someone from Olgreender II said, “We have our new homes and planet, why go back to the terrors and the memories?”
“You are correct, we have done well on both planets—what we don’t have are the factories. The old industrial complex is still sitting there, waiting for us and we need it. I want tens of thousands of those new nail guns, I want ships built, I want to be ready to kick some damn ass.” Again the cheers went up as she shushed them.
“My basic plan is minimum manning for several reasons. We are physically located too high above Olgreender to have any kind of effective escape route, as all of you found out. I want to move and reprogram as many of the earth ‘bots as we can to run the factories. The scientific people are already well versed in Lord P’s operations so we need to replace the human worker with robots.
“Priority is smaller and lighter versions of the nail guns. Until we can make the MKs roll over and play dead for real we need them as our primary defense. I’ll work that out with staff.
“All but battle staff may leave,” El said. “Get the word out, I’d like an emergency meeting of Council in, say, two days, here please?”
Lucy and several scientists spent all the time with the rodents, then the idea on how to identify the right ones was found to be quite easy. She offered them to the MKs. The brownish rat was clearly not the one being devoured by them, so the hunt for the cause was on.
Reta and Myla and several others were spending most of the days studying the MKs, trying to piece them together as an entity. A big thing was Myla’s constant star chart drawings. She was becoming very good at it and Loka or Lucy or one of the scientists would place them on the book of stars from Earth. Slowly the MK expansion into our galaxy was being plotted, just from their memories.
~~~
Time was flying. Myla spoke perfect English now. I was eating the morning of the Council meeting when Reta, now married, came in and asked to speak to Loka and me. I told her sure.
“We found why they just blasted through our planet and the others in this area,” she said. “They just needed food to continue on. Here, look. She handed us another of Myla’s drawings. “This whole section here? It is the center of this galaxy. Every one of these blue dots are unconquered planets found to contain life. Many of them humanoid types. They are trying to get most of their ships to these three clusters for an assault on them. They feel they can control the entire galaxy from there in just a few hundred years. All MKs in this galaxy are supposed to meet there in four years from now. Apparently it was a plan devised hundreds of years ago. From what I read and Myla and the rest sense, we are talking hundreds of millions of MKs. Maybe even billions.”
“Okay Reta, thank you. Can you stand by? We have a Council meeting at 9AM and I want you to report it to them.”
She nodded and grabbed some food and sat in a corner eating.
Myla came from nowhere and bombed Loka’s lap, laughing. “We are good, yes?”
“Yes, Myla dear, you did very good!” Loka said, and kissed her.
Myla sat in Loka’s lap and was helping herself to toast and eggs and a glass of milk. Quite a content scene that I had been thinking more and more about. Hard to believe years had passed since we topped the ledge and found the ice cube.
A while back I had talked to Lucy privately, and El. First I verified that Lucy could fix Loka’s problem of sterility, then that El and the rest of us could, in-fact, do without her if needed. Both were answered in the affirmative. I kept getting the feeling from Myla—I was sure that she wanted a baby brother or sister and a full time mother. I just hadn’t broached it with Loka yet. Seeing her joy with Myla, I think it might soon be time.
“A beautiful scene, Loka,” I said.
She smiled at me as she helped Myla steady her glass of milk because they both had been giggling about something.
“Dear, I talked to Lucy again. She is ready when you are.” I observed her; she had no idea.
“About what?” Loka asked.
“Letting you become pregnant. She said it is a minor operation. Myla keeps hinting she needs a brother or sister before she is too old. Someone to play with.” I was a bit surprised when she actually dropped the glass on the floor. Glad it was plastic.
“But the war, the MKs, everything.”
“Lucy said we can eventually win the war, you said you wanted to have Myla as family, and Myla said she wants a playmate. I see no reason to wait until we are too old. Besides, you wanted to spend time at the new house. Remember?”
“Eldon, can we wait and discuss it later please?” She was caught off guard.
“Nothing to discuss, dear, it is all up to you of course. If yes tell Lucy and El. If no, tell Myla and me.” I smiled my littlest smile. I felt it would eventually be yes.
Myla climbed down from her lap and squeezed my hand then ran to sit by Reta.
Loka leaned over and stared deep into my eyes and gave me a kiss. “I said we’d talk about it later, okay?”
“Okay.”
After cleaning up the mess and finishing breakfast we sat and talked to others until the time for the meeting came.
Lucy talked to us and El before the meeting. “Need your inputs. I’m
a machine and not sure what you actually think. I want to try something dangerous to everyone here and all planets connected to it. I looked over everything I can find on the gate system, and I think I can open a new gate. We still have several slots available.”
“To where?” I asked.
She brought up a holographic image. “One of these three systems.”
I recognized them immediately from Myla’s drawing. The ones in the center of the galaxy, the MKs’ targets. “Why?” I asked.
“We have an item they can use if they have any tech skills. The nail guns! If the MKs haven’t attacked them yet it could make a huge dent in them. Also I need a planetary platform to try the new aerosol we developed. The mixed sterility and mind-numbing one.
“We don’t have time to fly there. Only a gate might help,” she said.
“The danger is they could already be there and come back at us through the gate?” El asked.
“No, like here, they can’t come back through the gates anymore. However, bombs and unknown viruses can. Something the warp field is not specifically programmed to keep out,” Lucy said.
“The aerosol?” El asked.
“We isolated the compounds that caused the sterilization. We can mass produce it on Olgreender and fill the air on those planets and any other they may be attacking. We can’t make a lot of the mind-numbing compounds but maybe enough to cause a little confusion. Every bit helps.
“Not only that, I want to try a second gate into their galaxy again, for the same reasons. Needlers to stop them cold, and we start a sterilization campaign against them.”
“Umm, this doesn’t sound like a year or two campaign,” Loka said.
“It isn’t. It will be more like lifetimes, perhaps many lifetimes, but it must start someplace.”
“As a militarist I fully understand the need for aggressive action, but I also think that losing millions of our people on Olgreender will dampen enthusiasm for your plan,” El said.
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