Star Viking (Extinction Wars Book 3) (19 page)

Thirty-nine and a half minutes later, the vertigo struck again. Everything blurred and the Forerunner artifact transferred from the atmosphere of Sanakaht back to the middle of the Asteroid Belt.

We returned to the solar system with our captured starships, patrol boats, missiles, container-loads of small arms and bio-terminator scrubbers. The Star Viking raid proved a smashing tactical success and a bitter strategic loss.

Now what were we going to do?

Due to our form of travel, we had some time to decide on our next maneuver.

Felix Rex Logos Purple Tamika Emperor raced in a warship within the Sanakaht star system. That happened to be three hundred and thirty-seven light years away from the solar system. Even with his fastest scouts, it would take time for the news to travel throughout the star lanes.

Before we did anything, though, we needed to count losses and gains.

The Star Viking raid onto Sanakaht cost us one hundred and seven dead. The wounded hardly mattered because we could heal them back to full health in the Jelk tank.

We lost a little over double that number in air-cycles.

The reward went beyond my fondest hopes. We reaped five patrol boats, four cruisers and three missile-ships, along with a good supply of missiles and planetary particle beam cannons. That didn’t include a horde of small arms, mortars and grenades.

We had newer and more modern starships compared to the ones we’d lost. We also had patrol boats. They could enter a planetary atmosphere or race through the jump gates and watch.

If I kept everything together in one group, humanity possessed a modest flotilla. True, it couldn’t face Baba Gobo’s fleet or Admiral Saris’, but it was a beginning.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough assault troopers to man all the spacecraft and have a viable ground fighting force.

Therefore, I summoned Diana and Murad Bey to Mars Base. They brought their sole cruiser together with an armed escort of bodyguards. The guards cooled their heels in a holding area under the dome, far away from the meeting chamber.

In the conference room, Diana studied me and Murad Bey tried to smile.

He was a square-shouldered giant of a Turk. Even after eight years in power, he had the blackest hair I’d ever seen. These days, I had the feeling he dyed it. Murad Bey combed the mass straight back. Plastic surgery had taken away an old burn scar on his neck.

As the two Earth Council members listened, I gave them a rundown of the raid, including my conversation with the Emperor.

Diana grew pale. Murad Bey’s jaw muscles, the ones hinging them, bulged out and in.

“It is to be a war to the death,” Murad Bey declared in his slow voice.

“No,” Diana said. “If the Lokhar Emperor comes to Earth, it means extermination for us and nothing bad for them.”

“By Allah,” Murad Bey said, his dark eyes shining. “It will not be so.”

I’ve said it before, and I think it bears repeating: the humans left were the tough, willing to scrap against anyone. It didn’t matter from what race or religion our enemies came. The last one percent were the rawest sons and daughters of bitches our planet had ever borne.

“Do you have a plan?” Diana asked me.

“Not yet,” I admitted.

The Amazon Queen put her hands on the table, staring at me. “Your madness gave us our chance. Now, your insanity has taken it away again.”

“We have options,” I said.

“I would dearly like to hear them,” Diana said.

Standing, glancing at Ella, who pretended to take notes, I strode toward the viewing screen. It showed the asphalt of Mars Base, our empty sidewalks.

Staring out of the viewing port, I said, “First, we could do a Starkien.”

“Leave our solar system?” Diana asked.

“It is the optimal choice,” I said.

“No. We need a home base,” Diana said. “You may have patterned your troopers off the Mongol nomads. The rest of us need a place to call home. Otherwise, we’ll become demoralized.”

“I do not know if I agree,” Murad Bey said. “The Prophet Mohammad journeyed from Mecca for a season. Perhaps we must emulate his example.”

My head snapped around. I’d been staring at Zoe Artemis as she walked on a sidewalk outside.

“What did you say?” I asked Murad Bey.

He had a wooden face with almost no expression. The skin looked leathery.

“In the beginning,” the big man said, “the people of Mecca did not believe the Prophet’s words. Thus, he took his followers and traveled to Medina. There, he gained more servants of Allah. With them, he raided his accusers. Unable to bear this, the merchants of Mecca gathered an army to do war against them. Allah granted the pagan army into the hands of the true believers, giving them to Mohammad. The rest you know, as Islam spread throughout the world.”

The Amazon Queen glanced from Murad Bey to me. “What are you thinking, Creed?”

“What?” I asked, lost in thought again.

“I know that look,” she said. “You have an idea. You’re not really considering following Mohammad’s example, are you?”

“Doctor Sant did,” I said softly.

Diana blinked those big eyelashes at me.

“Think about it a moment,” I said. “I know the artifact’s name. I rode it from the portal planet to the solar system. Seven years later, I rode the artifact again. This time, I did it to chastise the Lokhars. I did it in the system where the Purple Tamika Emperor happened to be.”

“That was a coincidence,” Diana said.

“Do you really believe that?” I asked.

Ella set down her stylus. She couldn’t keep silent but asked, “Did the artifact tell you the Emperor would be there?”

“The relic didn’t have to,” I said.

The two women traded glances.

“Are you saying you planned this?” Diana asked.

I had to chuckle. “No. I’m not saying that at all. I’m talking strategy. Look, the Jelk Corporation is out of the present fight. That leaves the Jade League. Why did the various races form the league in the first place?”

“To protect themselves from the Jelk,” Diana said.

“That’s right,” I said. “They also did it to protect the Forerunner relics. For most of them, the league has taken on religious significance.”

“So?” Diana asked.

“So we have to fight fire with fire,” I said. “The Purple Tamika Emperor told me he’d build a massive crusade against humanity. Well, we have to counter that. How do you battle an idea?”

“With a better idea,” Ella said.

“Exactly,” I said, pointing at her.

“I don’t think you’ve thought this through,” Diana said. “The aliens think we’re beasts. They’re not going to listen to you, a talking animal. They wouldn’t even let the Forerunner Guardians join the Jade League.”

“Yes,” I said with a laugh. “Don’t you see? That’s why the artifact acted on our behalf. The relic righted the injustice of keeping us out of the Jade League. Who paid for the insolence of keeping us out? The Purple Tamika Emperor, that’s who. Doctor Sant preaches against him. Now, I’m going to preach against Felix Rex Logos myself.”

Diana folded her hands together, keeping them on the table. She stared at the multitude of rings she was wearing. Finally, she looked up. “There’s a problem with your logic. You just told us about it, remember? Since the raid, the artifact doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

“
You
know that,” I said.

“What are you suggesting?” Diana said.

“That
they
, the aliens, don’t know that. Look, as far as they’re concerned, I’m the man when it comes to our artifact. This latest exploit will seal it. The aliens aren’t going to come around, asking to see me enter the artifact to prove myself. Word will sweep near-space about our venture to Sanakaht. The Emperor is going to make sure of that. He’s giving us free publicity.”

“In all likelihood,” Diana said, “he’ll call you a devil.”

“The merchants of Mecca spoke evil words against Mohammad,” Murad Bey said.

Diana sat back as she eyed her Earth Council confederate. “I’m surprised you’re agreeing to this,” she told Murad Bey. “Creed isn’t religious. You know that. He’s simply doing this as a strategic ploy. He’s going to play a part.”

Murad Bey turned his inky eyes on me.

“He’s sullying Mohammad’s ways with his idea,” Diana said.

“What are you trying to do?” I asked her. “Put a wedge between Murad Bey and me?”

“I don’t think you fight fire with fire,” Diana said. “What you’re suggesting is too dangerous.”

“No,” I said. “It’s our only chance.”

“I insist on one thing,” Murad Bey told me. “You must not call yourself the Prophet.”

“No one is suggesting I do,” I said.

“But you are claiming to start a new religion,” he said.

“Not at all,” I said. “I’m claiming to clean up the oldest one. These aliens have been worshiping the Creator for a long time. They’ve done so at the artifacts, right?”

“What will you tell them?” Murad Bey asked.

I could hear the anger in his voice. If anything, his reaction proved the soundness of my idea. Few things moved people like religion. For some people, their politics was their religion. For some, football, soccer or bowling became their most sacred belief. On Earth in the past, communism became the religion of Karl Marx, Lenin and hundreds of millions of true believers. In the United States, feminism had become a religion. If you spoke out against it, certain people went ballistic. The same held true for gun rights and a host of other issues. It seemed to be the same for aliens.

If the Purple Tamika Emperor stoked aliens’ passions against us through religion, we humans would soon all be dead. I had to find a like passion to pit against his idea. That meant I had to go into the holiness business. Fight fire with fire or a crusade with a crusade.

“You are not the Prophet,” Murad Bey said stubbornly.

“No I’m not. I’m Commander Creed, a plainspoken man who entered a Forerunner artifact. I make no special claims, but an ancient relic did tell me its name, and it took me to a Lokhar star system to wage war against the heretic Purple Emperor.”

“Will you try to speak words of Truth?” Murad Bey asked.

I held my hands palm upward. “I am a man, the one who entered a Forerunner object. Why the ancient machine admitted me and not another is not for me to discern. I only know that the named artifact took me to the planet Sanakaht. There, I punished those who followed the heretic, Felix Rex Logos. Now, the Purple Emperor tries to slay the one the machine of the First Ones chose to converse with alone.”

“The humble route doesn’t fit you,” Diana said. “Your plan smacks of gross hypocrisy.”

“I’m not being humble,” I said. “I’m inserting a new idea into the game. I’m doing it in the only way the aliens might be able to hear the idea.”

Diana disengaged her hands, using a finger to curl several strands of hair. “Your idea is so brassy that maybe it will work.”

“If it was just me alone,” I said, “I don’t think it would fly. But given Doctor Sant and his message, I think there’s a possibility some aliens will listen.”

“Let’s suppose that’s so,” Diana said. “How will you get your message across?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That could be a problem. Let me think about it for a couple of days.”

“What do we do until you come up with a workable scheme?” Diana asked.

“We train,” I said. “I’m giving the Earth Council three quarters of the new ships. I’ll also forward you a goodly amount of missile launchers and particle beam cannons. You should turn the Moon into a fortress.”

“That fortress won’t last long against Admiral Saris’ fleet,” she said.

“Let’s build one strongpoint at a time,” I said. “That’s better than sitting on our thumbs doing nothing.”

We talked longer, but didn’t come up with anything more. Before I proceeded with my plan, I needed more information about the Emperor. Ella had a machine, and I had a tiger whose mind I’d like to open. It was time to chat with my Shi-Feng captive.

***

Several days later, I walked down a steep set of rock stairs. The Lokhars who built Mars Base had jackhammered the steps and the subterranean chambers out of the Red Planet.

“Why did you put your equipment way down here?” I asked.

Ella walked ahead of me. I liked the sway of her hips and the tightness of her garments. Our scientist must have turned heads back in the day. She carried a heavy flashlight, the beam jostling ahead of us.

Ignoring my question, Ella came to a thick door. She withdrew a small box from a pocket, pressing a red-lit switch.

With a
click
, the door swung open. We entered a sterile area of white corridors and red rock walls. Mats lined the floor.

“Is this a dungeon?” I asked.

“Don’t let your imagination get the better of you,” Ella said over her shoulder.

First clicking her red button again, she pushed against a door. It was heavier than the first. I followed her into the room.

The odor struck me right away. A sour rancid smell permeated everything. I saw the tiger. Two attendants watched him.

The Lokhar leaned forward in what looked like a tilted, backward-facing chair. They had stretched his arms in front, securing each to an arm-long rest. His chin rested in a groove and steel bands kept his head in place. Other restraints held his torso and legs, which were stretched out as far as they could go.

“That looks uncomfortable,” I said.