Spirit of Empire 4: Sky Knights (51 page)

Graylee stared at the supplies in astonishment. She turned to Crowles
.
“Is this your doing?”

“Yes, Ma’am. There should be a similar outfit in there for Ms. Pen if I guessed her sizes right.” He reached into the container and found what he was looking for. “What do you think?” he asked, holding out a pair of pants and blouse to her.

Pen’s face turned red as she looked at the outfit hungrily. “Girls don’t wear pants.”

Crowles looked shocked, then embarrassed, then annoyed. His questioning gaze ended up on Graylee.

“That was thoughtful of you. We’ll bring them with us, but this is one battle I don’t think we’ll win,” she said. “What’s with the spare pads?”

Crowles shrugged. “I guess she bought your argument.”

“So soon?”

“We don’t mess around here, Graylee. Lives are constantly hanging in the balance. My guess is that when the governor gets back, it will be an item of discussion for his full staff.”

“How are we for supplies? I don’t want to take all Builder Thaeron’s food.”

“I’ll get some more.”

* * * * *

The pad was a huge success with Pen and to some extent with Thaeron, especially after Graylee transferred the article on pipe building from her own pad.

“How would you feel about me leaving this pad behind?” she asked him.

“Pen won’t leave it alone. Did you know she stayed up most of last night looking at yours?”

“No, I did not!” Worried about what Pen might have run into in her pad, she asked, “Pen, what interested you on my pad last night? Pads are very personal things.”

Pen returned a guilty look. “I hope I’m not in trouble. The images of your home seem magical to me, like from a story.”

“You looked at more images?”

“Yes, Ma’am, I did. Was it wrong?”

Graylee stood up and went to her, then bent down and kissed her on the head. “How can it be wrong? I gave you no guidance. Tell me this: I’m thinking about leaving a pad here with you. What would you do with a it?”

Pen’s eyes widened in hope as she looked to her father.

He studied her before answering, and his answer, when he gave it, surprised Graylee. “Better you should ask the king what he’ll do with it. He owns everything in his kingdom.”

“Even personal gifts?”

Thaeron spread his arms wide. “He owns this house, and he owns the stones of the floor. Didn’t you know?”

“I did not,” Graylee answered. “So we should not leave the pad here when we go?”

Pen’s face fell, but she hung on every word of this very important conversation.

Thaeron answered. “I can’t say. I personally have little interest in it. He probably won’t either, though it is a thing of magic and he might want it for that reason alone.”

Graylee sympathized with him. “We know with certainty that younger people learn easier than older people. In the hands of a child, a pad can open doors to the new world Tranxte will become. I would like Pen and her friends to learn the language of the sky knights. They can do so with the pad. I can leave another pad for the king.”

“It frightens me.”

“Only because you don’t understand it, and as a builder you want to understand everything. Where I come from they’re as common as bricks. Everyone has one.”

She spent the rest of the evening showing them how to use the pad to learn a new language. Even Thaeron showed an interest. Graylee had the pad speak a word or phrase. Their translator devices interpreted for them, then she had them turn off the translator devices and listen again. They spoke the word or phrase as often as they felt was necessary, then had the pad evaluate their pronunciation. Lots of giggles filled the small house until it was time for bed.

“Tomorrow,” Graylee said to Thaeron, “I’d like to spend some time drawing the layout of the pipes you might one day build.”

“I’ve been thinking about it. The drawing you gave me of the town will help in the planning.”

She smiled inwardly. He had, indeed, been thinking about it. “You’ll want to consider the wind.”

He nodded with a wily grin. “So I can put the end of the waste line where the fragrance will enlighten all of us.”

His grin disappeared and he turned serious. “You asked me to decide if you were happy with your strange woman’s life, a life my grandchildren might see. I don’t agree with your choices, but I have to admit you seem happy.”

He stepped up to her and held out his hand. When she reached for it, he took her wrist in his own. She reciprocated and the two shook hands.

In the end, they had to postpone drawing the plans. Graylee’s comm unit squawked during the middle of the night, awakening her and everyone else in the house.

It was Lieutenant Crowles. “There’s been an earthquake on the other side of the planet. The gleasons are having a field day. Kori wants you to evaluate and see what assistance we can provide.”

She was airborne half an hour later.

Havlock had no fast transporters, so he reprovisioned ten shuttles and brought them aboard the cruiser along with Galborae, Atiana, and Lebac who had recently been promoted to colonel.

When they dropped from hyperspace, the Knights and visitors from Tranxte joined the science staff on the net to study the planet. Sensors brought the surface of the planet far below into remarkable detail. Oceans separated land masses, the norm on habitable planets. Vast savannas, deserts, swamps, and forests filled lowlands between high, snow-covered mountain ranges.

As Josh had been told, vicious predators ruled. He was from Earth, and life on the planet reminded him of artists’ impressions of Earth during prehistoric days: dinosaurs, large and small, most of them quite colorful, roamed the savannas, swamps, and forests. Most lived and hunted in groups.

“We’re receiving a distress signal,” Admiral Jas informed them. “It’s coming from the spaceport.”

“Have you responded?” Akurea asked.

“No, My Lady. I have a bad feeling about this place. I suggest we exercise the greatest possible caution.”

She considered briefly and nodded. “Agreed.” She mentally addressed the visitors from Tranxte through the net. “We’ve found three rebel installations on the planet, all of them far from each other and underground, certainly understandable considering the predators roaming free on the surface. We’ve marked a number of fusion plant signatures near the main rebel installation which is adjacent to the spaceport, and we’ve marked two fusion plant signatures at each of the other facilities. So far, it’s exactly what our contact told us we’d find. We’re going to survey the whole planet, then we’ll likely come back to the area of the spaceport for further study.”

Differentiating peicks and mulogs from the native population would have been a problem except for two things: mulogs patrolled in loose formations on the savannas surrounding the three installations, and formations appeared to be led by peicks, easily identifiable by a dull metal plate covering their heads. Closer inspection revealed protruding mechanical eyes and equipment belts.

Other than the metal plate, eyes, and belts, peicks and mulogs looked identical: powerful creatures that walked on clawed hands and feet some of the time, but just as often they walked upright on two hind feet, balanced by a thick, short tail. They appeared to stand about as high as a man. Fierce, yellow-green eyes glared out of a flattened, triangular-shaped head covered in short, sharp bony spikes. Their multi-colored, mottled skin blended in well with the high grasses.

Away from the installations, peicks appeared to be leading mulogs on maneuvers, usually focused on isolating game and driving it into killing fields where various methods were used to kill—sometimes blasters and sometimes just their powerful arms and hands working in concert with equally powerful legs and feet. A wide, toothy mouth made quick work of that prey, after which the packs of mulogs fell on the unfortunate creature and devoured it.

A scientist sent a spasm of alarm across the net when he discovered a peick looking up at the ship. In short order, the heads of every peick in sight had lifted to stare directly toward the cruiser. Chills ran through the net as the scientist panicked and cut off the feed.

“No way,” Josh muttered.

“Surely it can’t sense us in orbit,” another thought.

That thought reverberated through the net as the captain issued instructions to turn off active sensors. With only passive sensors operating, subsequent study confirmed that the peicks still sensed the ship.

Another sharp-eyed scientist discovered mulogs moving through a swampy area, but these creatures had greener skins. Further study revealed that mulog skin color changed as the creatures moved from one area to another. The same applied to peicks.

“They’re chameleons!” Josh muttered. “Well . . . really big chameleons,” he corrected himself. No one else actually knew what a chameleon was, but since they were on the net they understood his meaning.

Josh, knowing he might find himself more intimately involved with these creatures during the coming days, ordered Admiral Jas to move the ship into a geo-synchronous orbit. The view below them stabilized so they could study the creatures in greater detail.

Galborae bit his lip and looked to Havlock. “They’re not invisible, but they’re as brutal as the gleasons. This could work.”

Havlock nodded his agreement. “But we can’t repeat what the rebels did to Tranxte. We can’t just drop thousands of gleasons on them without knowing if they’re wanted.”

Josh stared hard at the two of them. “Are you crazy? The peicks don’t own this planet. They were imported just as the gleasons will be. Everything we know about them tells us they’re purely instinctive. They’ve been bred for only one purpose—to kill.”

Havlock shook his head, wishing he had an alternative. “Not exactly, Sire. Your research indicates they were bred to fight, not just to kill, and they were bred to fight Chessori, not gleasons.”

Josh shook his head. “You’re asking too much.”

“I know, but I have to be certain.” He turned to the admiral. “They’re sensing our presence. Can we talk to them over the radio?”

“Hmm. We can try.” Jas directed a communications specialist to try various frequencies.

Eventually all the peicks in view turned as one to look at them again. “I believe I have them, sir,” the specialist said.

Havlock directed his thoughts to the comm unit. “Do you hear me? Do you understand me?”

A clear response came back in Galactic High Standard. “You have returned.”

“We are not the same ones. I have an offer for you.”

“Come.”

“Not yet. I respect your fighting skills. I am not here to fight.”

“We are. Come.”

“Let’s talk first.”

“We will talk only face to face. Come to these coordinates tomorrow.” The peick reeled off the coordinates of the spaceport.

“It’s a long way from you. Can you get there by tomorrow?”

“No. Another will greet you.”

“I will be there. I come in peace.”

“Just come.”

Havlock turned to Galborae. “About as talkative as a gleason.”

Galborae rubbed at old wounds. He had a bad feeling that these creatures would be every bit as bad as gleasons. “It sounds like they have a leader of some kind. Let’s keep our distance. I like our present distance a lot. Let’s try him on the radio.”

The ship repositioned to a geo-synchronous orbit over the spaceport and Havlock got on the radio again. “Hello?”

“I hear you. Come tomorrow as instructed.”

“Why not right now?”

“Tomorrow. If you come now, I will not speak.”

* * * * *

This was a purely Empire operation which would be executed by the marines. Atiana, Galborae, and the Protectors would not be part of it. Havlock would lead, and he would do the talking to the head peick. Atiana was not happy about the arrangement, nor was Galborae for that matter, but in view of Krys’ vision of the three of them in tanks, neither of them argued very hard.

Ten shuttles exited the cruiser at midmorning the following day and formed up on the frigate. They entered atmosphere in formation and approached the spaceport, then split up according to a predetermined plan.

Aboard the cruiser still in orbit, Akurea, Josh, Atiana, and Galborae joined Admiral Jas and his command staff on the net to observe the mission. Through the magic of the net, Atiana sensed Josh’s strong desire to be among the assaulters and questioned him. “Why aren’t you with them?”

He considered her question, a question to which the answer had been a long, hard road for him. He asked, “Do you know who I am?”

“I know only that you’re a Knight.”

“I come from Sir Mike’s world.”

“You, too, are from an emerging world?” she asked in wonder.

Her amazement caused him to pause, to consider things from her perspective, a perspective he’d once shared. But events had forced him to change, and he believed they might force her to change as well.

He asked her, “As a queen, did you lead your men in battle?”

“Of course.”

Her answer startled him. “You did? Weren’t you in the way?”

She mentally bristled. “Why is everyone around here treating me like a helpless princess?”

“My apologies, Your Majesty,” he said, chastened. But he pressed on. “Tell me, were you really helpful to your men in battle?”

“Yes. I’m not strong with the sword and made no attempt to hide the fact. I’m very good with a bow, and my men used that to their advantage. Besides, the presence of the queen keeps the men motivated.”

“You’re talking about leadership, and I couldn’t agree more. It can sway the outcome of a battle, and I respect you for knowing that. But Governor Havlock tells me your focus has moved beyond your kingdom to encompass all of Tranxte now. You no longer lead a few, you lead many.”

She bristled again. “I still lead from the front. I lost the argument yesterday or else I’d be down there with Governor Havlock right now.”

“No, Your Majesty. I say you won the argument. Governor Havlock was smart enough to put you where you’re most needed.”

“But he’s going to speak face to face with a peick. When he did that with a gleason, he nearly died.”

“And you would prevent that how?”

That gave her pause. In a smaller voice she said, “My blaster could make a difference.”

He nodded. “Hmm. Let’s see . . . he has 10 squads of marines and their shuttles. That’s over 250 guns. The frigate is watching over everyone with multiple, high power weapons. You’re right—your extra handgun would make a huge difference.”

She blushed, but she did not give up. “Tranxte is my world. I should be the one down there.”

“Aha! Now we’re getting to the real issue.”

She hesitated, then said softly, “No, that’s not the real issue. The real issue is personal.”

He put a virtual arm around her virtual shoulder. “I know. Everyone with eyes knows. There’s no good answer to that one. Let me just say that he is where he needs to be, and your being here gives him the freedom to do what he needs to do.”

“So the woman stays in the rear while her man goes out to be a dead hero?”

He dropped his virtual arm from her shoulder with a frown. “There’s some truth to what you say, but that’s only part of it. If Governor Havlock convinced me of anything, he convinced me you’re a potentially great leader for Tranxte, and a smart one to boot.”

“I won’t lead from the rear.”

“Define rear.” He held up a virtual hand, knowing her retort would be sharp. “I know what you’re going to say. I was once there myself. Back on Earth I led some of the most elite forces on the planet, and I always led from the front. Since coming to the Empire, I’ve been through the Great Cats’ protector training and am one of the most lethal humans you will ever encounter. I’m also wise enough to know my leadership down there would be detrimental.”

“Because you haven’t fought gleasons?”

Josh smiled. “I have fought gleasons, and it was up close and personal. As you can see, I lived through the experience. No, it’s because my attempt to lead these men would interfere with the expert skills they’ve developed over years of working together. They have their own leaders who lead from the front. They’ve practiced maneuvers until they’re second nature. They know how their fellow soldiers think and act, and they conduct their missions like dancers following a script. It pains me to say it, but I’d just be in the way.”

He faced her and put his hands on her shoulders, willing her to understand what he was about to say. “I have a feeling you’re going to find yourself in this position a lot during the coming years. You might have already. Leading from afar takes different skills, and they’re not learned overnight.”

“Gar doesn’t know it, but I’ve been watching him and learning. Did you know about the enormous battle we fought against the gleasons for my kingdom?”

“No.”

“Thousands of gleasons followed his caravan to my fortress city. We had several days to prepare. We had to defend our walls against gleasons who we knew would swarm like spiders. Gar knew his modern weapons could only do so much in a battle of that nature. He turned command of the battle over to my captain of the guard and named him general, even though we had more of Gar’s men than our own on the battlements. I was not in the command center with them, so I can only imagine how it went. We won, though we lost one wall and nearly lost the second. I suspect having those two commanding the way they did made a difference.”

He nodded. “It might have made all the difference. I don’t know if I could have made the choice he made to turn the battle over to another, but since you prevailed, history will likely prove it was the right thing to do. For me, learning to command from the rear has been a hard road. In the beginning I just wanted to be in the thick of it with my men, but guess what? I’ve discovered that manipulating the big picture can be just as rewarding and certainly better for our men on the front lines. The marines on this mission see one thing—their mission. You and I, on the other hand, see their mission in the context of saving worlds.”