Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked (17 page)

Marhtu’s people had tried to sway us, talking about how the people had known the syndicate through their mechas and orbital strikes. Meeting them in our mechas might not send the right message. Right message or not, I wasn't taking chances. The second relations team had been adamant about staying in their battle suits. I was quite relaxed as the representatives filmed and talked to me. I hadn't been in front of cameras for a long time. It was rather comfortable to be in front of one again. I could almost think of it as a confidential interview before a game.

The reporters from Earth had also wanted to come, but for security reasons I had made it clear that they were to stay on Resilient. I didn't want talks to get messed up because of a reporter, or have to bail them out of a messy situation. For now they had to be happy with what they could scrounge off of Daestramus' net, and looking from the observation bubbles.

The shuttle's thrusters flared, the reps floundering as the rest of us adjusted slightly. It was nothing like our landing on Chaleel.

“So what are you hoping to achieve with the agreement between
Daestramus and the Free Fleet?” the interviewer asked as the shuttle's doors opened.

“I hope that we can learn to work together against the Syndicate. Work to rebuild, be stronger than the Union, and better than it was, too,”

“Do you think that's possible?”

“Nothing's impossible. You just need time and work and anything is possible,”

I stepped off the shuttle and the reps faded away as five people met us on the shuttle's landing pad.

“You will be meeting with Overseer Marhtu in one hour for food and entertainment and drinks. Then we will take you to your rooms for rest before the talks tomorrow. These caretakers will see to your needs,” one of them said. He had four ostrich like legs with a slender body and small neck, his head was angular and official.  Falu. I remembered his race from my sleep training.

His eyes were dull and his mannerisms subservient as he looked to the ground. The other three also looked to the ground as they talked to us. I looked to the second team leader who came over to me.

“Why do they look to the ground?” I asked, my tone low as we were escorted through the massive building the shuttle pad was attached to.

“It's a societal thing. Marhtu explained that they look to the ground in deference of the untouched,” Balar said.

“Untouched?”

“Basically those of higher status,” she said her tail-stub telling me she didn't approve of it either.

“Anything else I should know?”

“They love steaming for some reason. It's harmless, but they feed steam through your room at periods during the night. It's nothing to be alarmed about.”

“Thanks,” I said as we reached a suite of rooms. Red oranges and blues played across the walls as steam was indeed coming from ventsin the walls and floors of the apartments.

We were each shown to our rooms and as the man was about to walk away I detained him with a hand.

“I'm sorry if this offensive, but are you a slave?” The man's eyes looked around wildly as if trying to find a way to escape.

“I am under Overseer Marhtu,” he said, his skin flashing a muted color before going back to black scaling.

“What are the touched?” I asked as he clacked his beak, his purple and brown eyes again searching for an exit as his colours flashed dark green and blue.

“They are the ones that have need to be taught,” he said as a flash of green greeted my eyes. I would have to look up his race, Slevarans again, but I'm pretty sure green was a sign of pain.

I nodded to him.

“Thank you,” I said as he left to stand with the other three. They stood in a huddle looking away from our rooms.

I went into my room and waited. Krom walked into the room, looking around before talking.

“Food,” he said simply, continuing to look around the room.

I walked out, following him while the others were waiting for us. All of them were on their best behaviour. That didn't mean that they weren't completely focused on their task of protecting me.

Balar and her people met us as the Falu, head servant, or slave--I wasn't so sure--led us through the building. Guards met us outside the doors, who exchanged glances with my protection detail. We were admitted in, but they stopped Dave and Calerd, two pistols and a knife were produced by Calerd and Dave, both of them shrugging at my stare.

Sometimes I wonder who is in charge.

The room was tiled with cushions covering the entire floor. There was a stage where music was being played and dancers moved. Marhtu was lounging over cushions of all different types of material, some that shone, some that were dull. They ranged from rough to smooth and some were obviously new.

The others in the room showed their reverence to him with their eyes so down cast some looked like they were about to fall over. Three females sat around Marhtu, each beautiful yet deadly. They made me think of the Sato sisters. They looked cold and fearless as they looked upon everyone. They wore clothes of different pieces of material, like the cushions. Each had a baton within reach of their claws, tentacles or hands.

Marhtu reached out his hand, lowering it to us.

“Be seated,” he said as we found places on the cushions.

As soon as we sat servants came out with a variety of food and drink and set it before us.

“We have made sure that the food is acceptable for your body types. We do not know where the flu of your first relations team was infected with came from, but we have taken every precaution to make sure it does not happen again,” the head servant said.

“Thank you for the food and taking care of us I will..,”

“It is a tradition among our people that we eat before our battle master. That way we might serve him better and leave him the best of the food,” Krom said before I could finish my sentence. He was obviously not taking any chances.

“Very well,” Marhtu said as Krom picked a piece of food, bowing his head to Marhtu. Thank you,” he said before eating what looked to be some kind of doughy thing covered in meat and nuts. Inside there was a tangy smelling sauce and crunchy wafers of something.

Marhtu smiled, the expression not getting to his eyes as I did the same. I felt as if I had walked directly into the lion’s den. Something was definitely off.

Marhtu was served food by the female Shafio. Her tentacles picked up a delicacy, feeding it to Marhtu as he lounged on his cushions. Another tentacle waited with a drink as he finished eating the morsel.

“Thank you for coming down to see me Commander Salchar. We shall have so much fun together. I am really looking forward to Daestramus and your fleet working together,” his tone making my skin crawl. I didn't know if it was because his skin didn't change color, or the spark in his eyes when he'd said 'fun'.

“Thank you. I think it will be a good working relationship,” I said, trying to remain as professional as possible.

“I hope I'm not stealing you from any prior engagement you might have with your fleet. I know that a large group left on a mission. What was that for?”

“They were going to head to the nearest inhabited system. Ouquishar,” I said with a smile as Krom proceeded to his third plate. Not scouting around this system and connecting a FTL relay at all, I thought as I smiled.

I had been in bad spots before. I needed to keep my cool.

“So how is your home planet? I have to say I have not seen most of your races before,” he said as I kept up my smile.

“Well, we come from far away. We saw what the Syndicate were doing and we thought we might offer another solution. A way to get rid of them and make it a better place to live.”

Marhtu's skin flickered with colors. I had no doubt it was a carefully made display, everything about the Slevaran spoke to his planning.

“Sounds like quite the opportunity,” he said as I smiled, bowing my head slightly. I couldn't miss the gleam that entered his eyes as I did so.

The representatives from before took over asking me questions, the camera person getting a bunch of angles as I entertained them for the rest of the dinner time. It was short and terminated abruptly as Marhtu stood.

“We shall meet tomorrow and talk about signing,” he said. We stood as well, but he indicating to us to resume our seats.

“Please, enjoy. You will need to keep your strength up over the next few days through the negotiations.” He left, never touching another thing as servants and his three ladies left the room. Everyone seemed to relax, I mentally noted as I stood.

“Well, I think we shall also return to our quarters and get some rest,” I said, my protection detail rising.

The reps hounded me till we got to our rooms. It seemed they wanted to get everything that they could out of us. The others kept silent as I dealt with the majority of questions. We slurped on the rations built into our suits as we walked back towards our rooms.’ No one said anything as we didn’t know what would be passed on. When you know people for so long and trust them, a simple look is all that's needed to send a message.

Krom was displeased, and Shreesht agreed with him. They could smell the fear from the slaves. Which was becoming a reality I was finding hard to deal with. Three new minders stood in the same spot as the first three had. It was clear fear kept them on their feet. It didn't make sense to me why someone that was under the thumb of the syndicate would use slaves. Life was already terrible.

I still wanted to continue with the mission and wait till at least tomorrow before leaving. Something that they had agreed to. We all had upgraded implants that Resilient was monitoring. It gave us a silent alarm and made sure that we didn't get the flu that the first team did. The other thing they all agreed to was the fact that I was going to sleep while they took watch.

“Alright. Night girls and boys,” I said as everyone but Calerd went to sleep.

I lay in my bed, the steam rising around me. Relaxing but different, as I heard Calerd trading banter with Janice. Just as I felt my body start to get groggy as an alert cranked through my mecha. Air extractors fired up as wake-up brought me around. I stood as Shreesht burst in my room.

“They're trying to knock us out,” he said as I stood, pulling my rail gun from my back and checking it.

“I think it's time we got the hell out of here,” I said.

“Sir, the second relations team has been taken,” Janice said over the general channel.

I checked my connection to Resilient. It was jammed to all hell.

“Krom, signal to the fleet that we're in danger. We're going to go after the relations team. Calerd, Shreesht, cover the doors in case more try to take us. Janice, Dave, find out for me how the hell they took the relations team. We're going to follow,” I said as Krom found the weakest point in the wall and started shooting. He rarely brought his gun with him, the beast of a weapon was more like a tank turret than a portable cannon. It smashed into the wall, penetration rounds digging in and then exploding as the room began filling with dust.

Boots could be heard as the doors opened. Calerd and Shreesht fired discarding
rounds which exploded a preset distance before the enemy.

Sending clouds of shrapnel at Marhtu's guards. The guard’s armor was mostly ornamental it seemed as guard’s were torn to shreds.

“Got it,” Dave said as Krom was hitting the armoured side wall of the city. He made it out through the armour before turning to the doorway. Holes appeared in the walls and floor as rounds punched through everything, wreaking havoc on anything outside our room.

“Move it! We're going after the relations team,” I said as Shreesht and Calerd used Krom’s cover to get to the doorway. Janice and Dave were already down the secret hole in the floor.

“Thi.... Esilie.... re....ort” Vort said over my communicator. Resilient was probably cranking their communications to get through the jamming. I cranked all of the communications up to full.

“Marhtu has betrayed us. He has the relations teams. We're going after them,” I said, putting it on repeat. Hopefully they'd get some of it.

“Come on, Krom,” I said as he fired off his remaining round, chucking the gun into the doorway, a plasma grenade attached to it. An unlucky guard grabbed the weapon as it went up.

I followed Janice and Dave down the hole with Shreesht, Calerd and Krom following as we found a transport. We got on it, the thing dropping out below us before shifting and going sideways. We quickly came to a guarded platform.

“Weapons down and no one gets hurt,” I said as a nervous soldier let off a round.

The other soldiers on the platform were just raising their weapons as my protection detail put them down. Screens came alive around the platform. There were two images, one of the first relations team with explosives strapped to them and the other the second relations team facing a firing squad.

“If you continue I will have both groups killed,” Marhtu said, stopping me in my tracks.

I barely knew the relations team, but they were my people. I needed to do everything to save them.

“What do you want?”

“You,” Marhtu said. “I want you all to put down your weapons, get out of your mechas and surrender to my men. You don't and I'll kill your people,”