SWEET HOME ALLE BAMMA (SOLBIDYUM WARS SAGA) (42 page)

After I finished eating, I headed to the bridge and was surprised to see A’Lappe sitting once more in the communication officer’s chair.

“Ah, good morning, Tibby,” said Stonbersa.  “I hope you rested well.”

“Yes, I did.  Thank you,” I replied.  “I’m surprised to see you here this morning, A’La
ppe.”

A’Lappe turned toward me in the chair and said, “I sleep very little compared to you humans; I’ve been here for several hours intercepting Brotherhood communications.  There’s lots of buzz going on about their losses.  You have them really shaken, Tibby.  They’re preparing for an all-out assault.  From what I can gather, we’ve wiped out two-thirds of their local fleet.  Right now they’re praying you don’t attack them before reinforcements show up.  If they only knew that
a mere one-third of their fleet is coming back – if that.”

“You know, if it weren’t for Kala lying in stasis, I would say let’s just wait two weeks and let them see what a mess they’re in when their crippled fleet comes home and the planet is surrounded by Federation warships; but I’m not prepared to wait that long.  I think there’s a good chance that we can pull this off without losing any men or ships on our side.  Frankly, I don’t give a damn wh
at happens to the Brotherhood.

“Is there any new word from the admiral?”

“The admiral is sending out the Mirage Fighters every day.  Their additional speed over the Brotherhood’s fleet and their cloaking capabilities have allowed them to come up behind the Brotherhood ships and pick off one or two every day.  There might not be any that make it here before the admiral is done; he’s really in his glory with this new-found success.”

“Well
, if he’s going to pick off the Brotherhood fleet before they get here, the least we can do is to take out all their bases in the meantime,” I said.  “We’ll spend the day today on reconnaissance missions.  I want to set down on the planet with Marranalis and see if I can contact Jnanara and possibly find some ruguian eggs.  Tomorrow we may be well positioned to wreak some more havoc on the Brotherhood.”

It was about two hours later that I met Marranalis and Hotyona in the hangar, along with twenty of my security forces that crowded into the cargo hold of one of the patrol ships with us.  We flew to the surface and landed at the location where we had the parked the
ALI
when we first arrived.  Two men were left aboard the patrol ship as the rest of us set forth.  Marranalis and his men headed off to do recon at the Brotherhood base and Hotyona and I headed to the location where we were ambushed by the natives only days ago.

We searched only a short time before recognized the spot where Hotyona’s tracks had ended just prior to that first ambush.  I stood in that very spot, lifted my gaze toward the canopy, and called out, “I speak for Thumumba
. I wish to speak with Jnanara.”

We waited a few minutes, but nothing seemed to happen.  I was about to give up and try another location, when suddenly, as if by magic, we were surrounded by about a dozen of the small multi-colored natives.  One stepped forward who I believed to be the same individual who had led us to the Brotherhood camp.  He motioned for us to follow him and then he set off down a small path I had not noticed before.

We traveled for about half a kilometer to the base of a large I’aban tree, where he started to scale the tree, followed by half of the other natives.

“I hope he’s not expecting us to follow him,” said Hotyona.  “How did they get us up there before?”  He barely finished his statement before we saw vines attached to a basket just large enough for one as it dropped down from the canopy overhead.

“There’s your answer, I think.” I said.

“Oh no, I’m not getting into that thing.  What if it breaks?”

“They got us up there before without it breaking.  I think they can do it again,” I said.

The basket was on the ground quickly and two of the natives
soon pulled on my arms to get me into it.

“You come.  Ride in basket.  Thumumba’s children not let you fall,” said one of the natives.

I must confess that sitting in the basket as I was being hoisted about 40 meters into the air was not an enjoyable experience.  There was no doubt that I was being pulled up hand-over-hand by a team of natives.  I could imagine them straining to lift my weight, as I clearly weighed as much as three of them.  Once the natives had both Hotyona and I hoisted to a broad branch, our guide once more began leading us along the boughs and cross several small rope vine bridges.  I could see Hotyona’s pale and sweaty face as we passed through alternating patches of shadow and light and I knew he was terrified; but, to his credit, he never complained or waivered and kept up with the pace.

Traveling in the trees was very deceptive.  It’s difficult to ascertain just how far we travelled
; but my best guess is it was close to a kilometer before we arrived at the platform where Hotyona, Kerabac and I had been before and where Jnanara now stood, waiting for our arrival.  She bowed her head to me when I set foot onto the platform and I repeated the gesture to her, hoping it was the right thing to do.

“Children of Thumumba welcome you, man who speak for Thumumba.  Children grateful for freedom from binding.”

“Binding of children of Thumumba not over.  Many more bound ones from other tribes still in evil men traps,” I said.  “Thumumba wish free children to help man who speak for Thumumba – together find where evil men make all ugly villages and trap bound ones.  Then man who speak for Thumumba and friends of man who speak for Thumumba free
all
bound ones, restore sacred plant to elders, destroy all ugly villages, remove all bad men from Sweet Home.”

Jnanara went on to tell me that what I asked of her people was difficult
; that the tribes of Sweet Home live and move across many places.  She also confirmed what I already knew, which was that she and her people didn’t know where every Brotherhood base was located.  In the end, she committed her people to making every effort to spread the word through the jungle as fast and far as possible to notify all tribes of our presence and our efforts to free their captive brethren.

How children send message to man who speak for Thumumba when children find bad men villages?” Jnanara asked.

Fortunately, I had thought this out ahead of time.  Taking four nuts from a basket on the platform I said, “When children find village of evil men,” as I placed the first nut on the platform, “children must go out from bad men village in three directions.  Go same distance from bad men village as this tree is to lifting basket.  There children make three very big fires, place in flames many plants that make much smoke,” I said placing the three other nuts equally spaced about the center nut.  “I see big smoke from house in sky and know evil men village here in center.”

Jnanara nodded and said, “This is wise thing you say.  Jnanara and children tell all tribes how to make fire message.

“Man who speak for Thumumba, when all evil men leave Sweet Home and children of Thumumba all free, come back to this place.  See Jnanara.”

“I will,” I said.

We were returned to the ground in the same basket used to take us up into the trees and the same native who led us before now escorted us back to the ship.  On the way back I had to stop twice when I spotted ruguian eggs.  Hotyona collected and stored them in a container.  If our guide thought anything strange about our behavior, he made no indication of it and waited patiently until we had the eggs safely stored away before leading us on again.  Once back at the ship, our guide quickly vanished into the foliage.

We checked in with the two guards on the ship who reported that the reconnaissance party had not returned, so Hotyona and I spent our waiting time searching for more eggs in the immediate area around the ship.  We had no luck, however, nor did we see any other sign of
ruguians.

It was about an hour later that our recon team returned and reported that the base had been totally deserted.  Damaged ships still littered the site but every one of them had been stripped of whatever valuable parts were easy to remove and transport.  The same held true for the buildings, most of which had been destroyed.  All armaments had been taken
, as well as all power modules.  Every scrap of viable lab equipment and all salvageable drug packages and bales of plants had been removed.

“How well are we equipped with incendiary devices on this ship?” I asked Marranalis.

“We have a good supply, if needed; but if you’re thinking of torching every Brotherhood base on the planet after we oust them, we won’t have enough.  I’d suggest you use the lasers on the
NEW ORLEANS
.  Target the bases with the RMFF turned on and the amplification of the energy will probably fuse everything into a molten blob of metal and glass.”

“Not a bad idea; but if we do that, we need to make sure there are no natives in the area.  I would hate to toast any of them.”

After all our recon men were onboard and we were headed back to the
NEW ORLEANS
, Hotyona approached me.  “Tibby, what you were saying back there about torching the Brotherhood facilities – is there any way that can be avoided?”

“Possibly, but why?  Don’t you want to see their bases destroyed so they can’t reestablish themselves here?”

“Oh, I definitely want them and their facilities gone, but destroying the bases with fire or laser is going to have an impact on the environment.  Damage has already been done simply by their presence here and their operations; but anything that can be done to reverse and erase the damage rather than add to it is most important at this point.”

“Hm, I hadn’t given that any thought, but you’re right.  Plus I don’t think the natives would appreciate having traces of the Brotherhood left behind.  I’ve actually been thinking of leaving the
RUNANA
and possibly a few other ships behind, if we’re able to capture more, and staff them with my own people to protect Alle Bamma from the Brotherhood and any other persons or groups that might want to exploit the planet or the natives.

“It would also be nice if researchers were able to come here to conduct pharmaceutical studies.  I’ll bet there are dozens of plants here that could be cultivated for medicinal purposes.  Let me give it some thought,” I said.

When we arrived back at the ship, A’Lappe was there to greet us, hoping we had found sufficient ruguian eggs to make the anti-toxin for Kala.

“I’m sorry, A’Lappe, but we’re not even h
alfway to the quantity we need.  I’m afraid we will have poor pickings until we get this issue with the Brotherhood resolved.”

“All the more reason for us to get rid of them as quickly as possible,” A’Lappe said.  “You might be interested to know the communications between bases down on the planet seem to indicate that some of them may be considering an escape attempt.  At least a few of them are convinced that we don’t have that large a force out here, otherwise we would be attacking.  They believe that, if they can locate our approximate location, they can fly from the opposite side of the planet and slip out of our range by flying on a vector that keeps the planet between us and them.”

“Maybe we need to shake them up a little.  Tomorrow I think we’ll destroy several of their surface bases.  We’ll have to make the targets as far removed from each other as possible to let them know that we’re aware of their locations and able to attack any point that we wish.”

“Also, Tibby, Admiral Regeny has sent a message that two of the fleeing Brotherhood ships have veered off from the others and are making a run for a nearby asteroid field.  He’s sending two
Mirage Fighters after them and he’s pretty sure they’ll outrun the enemy ships before they even get close to the asteroids.”

“You would think by now the Brotherhood would be getting the message that it is futile for them to run.”

“Tibby, the problem is distance and communication.  By the time news of events gets to anyone here, it is old news.  The events of the
DUSTEN
and the revolt are just now getting here; and much of what they are hearing is doubted as being anything more than rumor.”

“Well you and Cantolla are changing that,” I said with a grin.

“Only to a small degree.  We are only able to convey verbal news or communication, which then has to be repeated by the receiving person on the other end.  Messages can be changed in the telling; and the person receiving a message can totally misinterpret or change the meaning of the message by adding or deleting a single word, either intentionally or accidently.  It’s not like anyone else can monitor the transmission to make sure every detail is exact.  We can’t send any visual data by this means, or show you scenes of carnage.  Everything is subject to the two people sitting in the transmission and receiving chairs.”

“I hadn’t thought about that until now.
  We’ll have to think about developing confirmation protocols.  Will you eventually be able to modify the system to accept visual images or to broadcast to more than one receiver at a time?”

“I don’t think so – at least not if this is working the way I think it does.  I’m not sure I want to go into the theories behind my opinion, lest I sound crazy or unscientific; but let’s just say that this works by way of universal consciousness – and I try not to think about that aspect too much.”