Star Viking (Extinction Wars Book 3) (12 page)

Choosing what we should loot caused arguments among us. N7 suggested we take unpackaged androids along. Dmitri was against it, and Ella hemmed and hawed. In the end, I took several hundred. They might prove useful in the asteroids, because I ordered mining equipment loaded up, too.

I not only wanted fish, but fishing poles. How many times could I pull the stunt we’d managed here today?

Just before departure, I decided to quiz the senior Saurian. Rollo and N7 had been busy watching our captured lizards. They brought me an old boy.

Like Earth crocodiles, Saurians continued to grow as long as they lived. That made it difficult for the aged among them to hide.

I stood in a control room with a view of the rest of the Demar system. With big missiles, we’d shot down two other system corvettes that had raced from the Middle Asteroid Belt to get here. I’d been right in taking the starcity first.

After that, the rest of the system waited to see what would happen next.

Rollo shoved the old Saurian. The creature stood at five and a half feet. His jaws were bigger than normal, and he had huge eyes. It gave him a wondering look, as if he was continually surprised. Instead of a uniform, he wore long flowing robes that dragged against the decking.

“Are you a priest?” I asked.

“I am the Wisdom of the Family,” the old Saurian told me.

“What does that mean?”

He blinked his big eyes as if wondering about answering. Finally, he said, “I decide on the code of behavior for the Demas system.”

“You’re the one who officially surrendered to me?” I asked.

This time he closed his big eyes. I don’t think he liked the question. When he opened them again, he must have decided he had to warn me.

“The Jelk will remember you,” the old Saurian said.

“Of that, I have no doubt. Do you know who I am?”

“A destroyer,” the Wisdom said, “a creature vomited from the cosmos to plague the Family and their Masters.”

“There you go,” I said. “You have it all figured out. Oh, wait a minute. I’m going to leave you your lives. I’m not half the destroyer you and your ilk were to us.”

He held his forked tongue as he watched me with his wondering eyes.

“Where did the Tenth Saurian taskforce go?” I asked.

The Wisdom waved a clawed hand as it to indicate into the distance.

“How about you be a little more specific,” I said.

“The Masters summoned the warships.”

“Sure, but where?”

“Away from the frontier,” the Wisdom said.

“Now we’re getting somewhere. How far away did they go?”

“This is wrong,” he told me. “You cannot expect me to reveal the workings of the Masters. I am loyal to the corporation.”

I unslung the Bahnkouv from my shoulder. “You’re making a category error, old son. I don’t give a fig about your loyalty. What I’m going to do is ask you again.” I put the tip of the laser rifle under his jaws. “If you fail to answer, I’m going to sizzle your head clean off your sorry shoulders. Then I’m going to bring the next highest ranked Saurian in here. He or she will first examine your corpse. Then I’ll see if they want to tell me what I’m asking.”

“You lack decorum,” the Wisdom said.

“Yeah, what are you going to do, huh? It’s a birth defect I’ve carried with me my whole life. You have three seconds to start explaining. Then—
pfft
, your turn at life is over.”

He took two of those seconds to think about it. At the third, he said, “The Tenth left to join the Jelk Grand Fleet. They speed for the inner core.”

“Why build a Grand Fleet there?” I asked.

“To repeal the invaders,” the Wisdom said, watching me with his wondering eyes.

So, Doctor Sant had spoken the truth. The rumors were true. I wondered again if my dream about Abaddon meant anything. But how could it?

“What is the nature of these invaders?” I asked.

“I do not know.”

“Who does know?” I asked.

“The Jelk,” he said.

I studied the robe-wearing Saurian, finally deciding he told the truth. Well, well, well. The Jelk had truly stripped the frontier of warships after all, building the Mother of All Fleets in the core worlds. Who were the invaders?

I shrugged, and said, “Take him away.”

“Wait,” the Saurian said. “Did you speak the truth earlier? Will you leave us our lives?”

“If you follow my orders, pops, yeah. You’ll live.”

He folded his clawed hands and those wide eyes become half-lidded. He looked like a Saurian Buddha then. The lizard even managed a half-bow.

“I go,” he said, “and you will go. May our paths never cross again.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

We left the starcity three hours later. To ensure their good behavior, and from those in the rest of the system, we left seven floating missiles as active drones. I radioed the Wisdom and told him the missiles would attack whatever moved. It would be best to let whoever entered the system next deal with the waiting drones.

Afterward, with the
Aristotle
leading the pack, we entered the jump gate, heading home. Given what happened later, I should have made different plans.

When we returned to the solar system, I felt like Sir Francis Drake. I knew a little about the famous sailor who had gone against the Spanish Armada.

Drake had plagued the Spanish Main in the Caribbean Sea, raiding settlements as he sought the gold of the Incas. During his trip around the world, he passed through the Strait of Magellan, a horrendous passage between South America and Antarctica. That put him on the western shore of South America. His ship, the
Golden Hind
, had been the biggest and baddest cannon-armed vessel allowing him to raid the Spanish settlements at will. At first, they had no idea an Englishman had made it onto that side of the world. By the time they understood, he was gone.

Drake packed his galleon with loot and set out across the Pacific Ocean. The return to England proved to be a harrowing voyage. Most of the crew died of scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency. When he sailed into Plymouth, he met cheering crowds. His investors were rich from his plunder, and Queen Elizabeth had taken her share, too.

It was like that only better when we returned with our haulers, mining equipment and armaments.

The next few days proved sharp with haggling. Diana demanded more as her share. I gave her less, keeping two of the haulers for the Star Vikings. One of those vessels I proceeded to sink into the poisoned Caspian Sea. The other kept watch near Ceres, as we unloaded the last missile launchers and beam cannons onto the asteroid.

Maybe I should have turned around fast and gone on another Star Viking raid. One thing after another kept popping up, though, needing my attention.

Three months and four days after returning from our raid, Admiral Saris reappeared in the solar system. That changed the equation in a way I hadn’t foreseen. It happened like this:

Dmitri roved the jump gates. Sometimes, he used the Pluto gate. Other times, he went through the Neptune route. I wanted more advance notice of approaching aliens. This seemed like the best way to get it. Sure, it used up fuel and put a strain on the starship, but we had spare parts now and extra fuel coming from our scoop floating in Jupiter.

The Jupiter scoop was nothing more than sturdy balloons floating in the higher atmosphere. There, the processor dangling under the inflatables collected rare deuterium swirling here and there in the clouds. When the time came, a booster launched a filled cell, which arrived at a container tube fifty thousand kilometers from the gas giant.

It felt as if we were getting somewhere. Given enough time, who knows what we might have achieved. The aliens never wanted to give us that time, though. The Lokhars were the worst culprits in that regard. This time it was no different. At least it wasn’t another triad of Shi-Feng. I wondered if they still thought about me. I certainly thought about them and their so-called holy order.

I remember exercising in the
Aristotle’s
gym with Rollo. We did bench presses. My best friend had become a monster. Before the coming of the aliens, he’d been lanky, and I’d always been the stronger one between us. Now…not so much.

As I spotted, Rollo breathed heavily as he lay on the bench. He reached up with his paws, the palms covered with chalk dust. He tested his grip several times, finally settling into the right spot. Then he braced himself while taking a deep breath. With a grunt, he shoved up as I helped him lift the bar off the rack.

As he lay there on the bench, the crazy man balanced one thousand pounds on the bar. This would be a new max for him. With an intake of air, he lowered the bar so it touched his muscled pectorals. Then, Rollo strained, his face turning red. He actually raised the weight. I watched spellbound. My best had been seven hundred and fifty pounds, and I’d considered myself Hercules because of it.

To my amazement, Rollo shoved the one thousand pound barbell up to the rack, slamming the metal into the slots. Then his arms collapsed and he lay there on the bench, breathing hard and grinning like an idiot.

The intercom buzzed.

“What now?” I asked. Stepping to the intercom, pressing the button, I said, “Creed here.”

“Commander,” Ella said. “You’d better get to the bridge.” I heard the fear in her voice.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Dmitri just came through the Pluto gate,” Ella said. “He said the entire Lokhar Fleet is heading our way.”

“What?” I asked. “You’re kidding, right? How many ships does he mean?”

“Dmitri said he stopped counting at three hundred. That was a little over half in his estimation.”

A cold feeling erupted in my chest. “Is he counting space fighters?”

“Cruiser class or bigger, Commander,” Ella said. “We have a situation on our hands.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll be there in a minute.” I clicked off the intercom.

“Trouble?” asked Rollo. He sat up, mopping his sweaty face with a towel.

“Looks like its hitting the fan,” I said, “and the Lokhars want to stop here before they go do whatever it is they planned.”

“What’s that mean?” he asked.

I regarded Rollo. “I think we’re going to find out.”

***

I figured I should do something with Dmitri’s heads up. Clearly, we couldn’t face hundreds of Lokhar capital ships. Why would the tigers come to the solar system with an armada? Did they mean to annihilate us? Remembering the Shi-Feng, I thought,
Maybe
.

Anyway, I ordered the
Thomas Aquinas
to Earth. Through autopilot, Rollo sank it deep into Lake Erie.

As Dmitri raced from Pluto to Ceres, I gathered my two cruisers. As fast as we could, I had people cart our missile launchers and beam cannons off the big asteroid. I had them bury the ordnance on smaller asteroids. I didn’t want the Lokhars to know we’d raided a Jelk Corporation star system.

Why would the tigers care? Good question. They were aliens, and they were coming with far too many starships. Maybe they were here to steal our artifact.

The days lengthened, and finally the first Lokhar cruisers and battleships appeared through the Pluto jump gate. They radioed with the special system, telling us Admiral Saris of Purple Tamika came to inspect our Sol Object.

She’d been here more than seven years ago when I’d returned from hyperspace. In fact, she’d traded us our three cruisers. I asked her what she wanted. She smiled and requested a face-to-face meeting in four days.

What could I do? I said, “Yes. It will be my honor.”

***

From the bridge of the
Aristotle
, Ella counted their warships as the mass swarmed toward the Forerunner artifact. Five hundred and sixty-four Purple Tamika vessels moved toward us. The armada had six times the mass of the Starkien fleet that had been here before. There were cruisers, battleships, carriers and missile-ships in abundance. Clearly, we were fleas compared to the elephant.

The bulk of the Purple Tamika armada took up station near Jupiter. Fifty battleships came on toward Ceres. I had Diana and the rest of the Earth Fleet stay near the freighters.

Thus, I waited near Ceres with two former Lokhar cruisers.

Finally, the fifty battleships braked nearby, stopping. The admiral requested my presence aboard her flagship. I went alone, with my trusty .44 beside me. The idea of coming by my lonesome was to shame them and in a sense, give them as a subtle insult. Saris was the great admiral. I was Commander Creed, and I walked alone.

What do you want to hear? I docked my shuttle, walked corridors lined with hundreds of tigers in powered armor. Each held a rifle at port arms and stared with obvious hostility. Finally, I reached a hatch where the biggest tigers I’d ever seen waited. Without a word, the smaller of the two opened the way.

I walked through. Two hundred Lokhars waited for me inside. Most had lined up against the bulkheads. They all wore fancy uniforms with lots of purple, golden braid and medals. A big conference table was in the center of the chamber. Around it sat thirty tigers. Most were fleet officers, with a few robed adepts and some infantry generals. At the head of the table sat Admiral Saris. She was tall for a Lokhar, and she sat as if someone had surgically inserted a steel rod into her spine.

I only recognized one other tiger. He was a bluff combat officer with a White Nebula with purple trim pinned to his jacket. I’d seen him seven years ago.

Halting before I reached the table, I bowed at the waist. There was a stir among the Lokhars, whispering. Finally, Admiral Saris spoke.

“Where is the rest of your entourage?”

“I came alone,” I said, loudly.

That brought more whispering. The admiral frowned at the combat officer beside her. Good, I’d upset them. Their armada upset me. I knew it couldn’t be good for us.

“Very well,” Admiral Saris said. “You will sit here near me,” she said, pointing at an empty chair.

“Thank you,” I said.

“First, though, you will give up your sidearm.”

They must have heard what I’d done to the Emperor’s daughter-wife, Princess Nee. I dearly hoped the big dog hadn’t come along and just waited for me to be disarmed before he made his appearance.

I handed over the magnum. Then, as if heading for a gallows, I walked toward my spot beside the admiral and across from the combat officer.

After I sat, the admiral offered me refreshments. I nibbled on some Lokhar jerky and took a shot of tiger liquor. It exploded in my belly, spreading warmth. After I wiped my hands on a napkin, I figured it was time to get started. I didn’t really care to have all these tigers watching me. Maybe I should have brought someone else along. It’s hard being alone.

“I have to admit,” I said, “I didn’t expect to see you in our solar system so soon.”

“Those are my feelings as well,” Saris said.

“The Emperor is well, I take it?”

“He is,” Saris said. “I’m sure it would make him glad to know you care about his welfare.”

“We owe much to the Emperor,” I said. Meaning that someday I’d like to slit his throat and watch him bleed to death. I wondered what would happen if I mentioned the Shi-Feng. Nothing good for me was the likely answer.

Saris showed me her teeth in what might have been a smile. I’d never seen the lady do that before. She had to be the gravest tiger I knew.

“This is not a pleasure call,” she informed me.

“I didn’t think so.”

“This is a functional war fleet.”

“I hope you’re not here to wage war against us.”

Saris looked around as if surprised. The room erupted with tiger laughter. I wondered if this was what a gazelle might feel surrounded by snarling lions.

“No, no,” the admiral finally said. “We are neither at war with you guardians nor with the humans. Are you surprised at my distinction between the two groups?”

“Not really,” I said.

“The Emperor and his advisors view the humans as beasts,” Admiral Saris informed me. “You are something different, something higher on the evolutionary scale.”

“Is that supposed to make me grateful?”

“Yes,” she said flatly.

“Okay then. Thanks.”

“Admiral,” the combat officer said. “You should not tolerate his sarcasm.”

“You are wrong, General,” Saris said. “He has entered the hyperspace artifact. He spoke to the Forerunner object, and it told him its name.”

Halfway down the conference table, a robed adept rustled her garments. She had the most fur on her face of any Lokhar I’d ever seen. Maybe that meant she was old. “I would hear the object’s name,” the ancient adept said in a quavering voice.

“In a minute,” Saris said. She fixed her yellow orbs on me. “Doctor Sant stayed here for many years, did he not?”

Was that what this was about? I cleared my throat, saying, “The good doctor left some months ago.”

“In an Orange Tamika vessel, yes?” Saris asked.

“I think so. Why, is that important?”

The admiral’s eyes seemed to glitter with malice. “There is evil in the space lanes,” she declared. “It came on an ill wind of fate.”

The old adept with her purple robe struggled to her feet. She was shorter than any Lokhar I’d seen and her head thrust forward. Trembling with age, she pointed a clawed finger at me. “The ill wind came upon his return,” the adept said. “It came as he rode the artifact to the solar system. We must return the object to the Altair star system. It is blasphemy for it to reside in the abode of beasts.”

“Your words are blasphemy,” I said.

The room grew deathly silent. The adept turned wild eyes onto me. She gnashed her teeth until foam flecked her mouth.

“Who are you to speak against an adept of the third degree?” she asked in a quavering voice.

“I am Commander Creed,” I said. “I am he who closed the portal planet and halted the Kargs from invading our universe.”

“Lies!” the adept shouted.

“Yeah?” I asked. “What part specifically are you referring to?”

“Lokhars closed the portal planet. This is a proven fact.”

“You’re dead wrong,” I said.

The adept turned to Admiral Saris. “I claim—”