The Fifth Civilization: A Novel (23 page)

It wasn’t Roan, but a softer voice…with an accent…

“We are all brothers, sagely Grinek,” said the voice, using
an old, pre-Imperial term for a fellow Kotaran. “Why should we kill each other
if we all come from the same roots?”

“Who is this?”

“My human friends call me David. Equivalent, perhaps, on
Kotara, is Toshtent. He was king of the ancient Woodvine culture, was he not?”

This person was discussing ancient history, and his life was
at stake! Ridiculous! “You are as a good a person to tell as any. Surrender
yourselves and the information.”

“What use is the information to you, sagely Grinek?”
Ah, the Nyden!
Grinek remembered him
now. Vy Selkek, or some such name. Aaron Vertulfo had one Nyden biologist as
his friend and he was renowned to be fluent several languages. Wasn’t
he
quite the scholar!

“You Nydens are worse than the Earthmen. At least all they
want to do is eat and breed and make money.
You
can’t fight if your whole race depended on it, which it will, in short order.
Nydens want to convert every planet, perhaps make the whole galaxy in the image
of your philosophies. Well, there will be no proselytizing here! I will take
your godsdamn information, from your information pad or from your mind.”

“And I ask you, sagely Grinek, why do you want it?”

Riddles! These Nydens always used riddles, or turned the
question around. Grinek pounded the com. “Surrender!”

“Do you think you will find Bar’Hail, or even Fox’Lo, on
this mysterious planet? Will you uncover the galactic Somoresh? Wouldn’t that
be exciting?” Somoresh, for those who studied history, was the mythical land on
Kotara where life supposedly originated.

“David, you idiotic
pushta
,
I do not care about Fox’Lo or Bar’Hail or any of that
erle
shit. Do not try and persuade me with your fairy tales,
because I am not an ignorant farmer!”
 
Grinek realized that all his men were listening, especially Roh, whose
expression had narrowed in concern. Grinek realized he’d lost control of
himself, and the
ghin
among the crew
were probably going to resent him for that. No matter. Let them talk to a
Nyden.

David continued, “You don’t give your culture the credit it
deserves. But very well. If you do not want to be civil, I don’t have to
discuss anything with you. What did the prophet Annalek say—write insults
in sand, compliments in stone?”

The voice of Roan returned. “Hey asshole, how did your
little chat go?”

For once, Grinek did not have a reply, and instead finished
the job of smashing the com. Glass shards sank in his knuckles and sparks flew
about, but Grinek merely sank his teeth into the shards and pulled them out.

“Don’t just stand around!”
 
Grinek ordered his men, spitting out
bits of glass as he did so. “Finish that bomb and kill them all!”

The room was humid with gloom, everyone sunken with the
knowledge that this was the end. David calmly meditated, his eyes closed and
his head streaming green. Kel was finding something fascinating on the ceiling,
and Duvurn and the Bauxens were now conversing in their language. Were they
finally saying what they thought about each other? Were old grudges coming to
light? Were they praying?

Roan had his ear pressed against the wall, in a vain attempt
to hear what was on the other side. Not even a murmur or a thud came from
beyond the wall. He assumed this meant the Kotarans had moved to another
section of the house. They probably planned to blow the safe room up, either
from above or below. Either way, there was nothing much Roan could do about it.
He unplugged his ear from the wall and sat down in a cushioned bench, putting
his hands in his palms and thinking

He was not a praying person. His father was, perhaps a
remnant of the faith of his ancestors who crossed the Pacific to get away from
a nuke-devastated America. But none of that fervor had been imparted onto him,
mainly because his father was so passive. You could believe whatever you
wanted, son, he remembered being told. Anyone who tells you they know the truth
is lying. From that came nothing. No religiosity, no strain of either
Christianity or Buddhism or Judaism or any of the other major religions of his
ancestral homeland.

No one had given Roan any proof of a God. Not the Witnesses
of the Jehovan moons, or the priests of the Euro camp, or the “guides” of
Nydaya who wanted to discuss the state of Roan’s spirit. Roan was a man who
liked to see the evidence before making a decision. And if there was no
evidence for God, maybe there wasn’t one.

The facts spoke for
themselves
, Aaron had said all those years ago. Dammit, what did that even
mean? Roan wanted nothing more than to fling himself back in time to that stoop
behind the Centauri tavern, if only to shake an answer out of Aaron.
Stop being so cryptic, man
he would have
told Aaron.
You’re the authority on this
subject. What’s the answer to it all?

Funny how he should think of these things now, when he’d
faced death before. On Earth and on the
Colobus
,
each time running from Kotarans. Now they had him trapped and he couldn’t keep
his hands from trembling. When you’re in the heat of battle or a fight, you
don’t think about things like the nothing beyond. Maybe that’s why you can be
fearless. Trying to stay alive and deflect a Kotaran dagger will keep your mind
off the deep issues. But be in a crashing shuttle or before a firing squad or
in a foxhole, and you have lots of time to think.

No one will save us
,
Roan concluded.

“We’re saved!” Duvurn cried. The Prince’s com beeped
steadily, some kind of indicator. “The
Colobus
is here!”

Son of a bitch.

***

At first Grinek thought the sound was the scow making a pass
over the palace, as Grinek had ordered it to continue doing. The noise had been
periodic throughout the gunfight inside, but this sound was much louder and
much quicker—it was a larger vessel. He extended his ears to catch the
noise and ran out into the rotunda to see if he could spot a shape out the
front doors. Surely the Bauxen police hadn’t sent reinforcements; they were
squarely allied against Duvurn—but it was possible the ship was…

“Godsdammit!”

The distinctive shape of the Earth Type-B freighter
appeared, making a turn in the distance and coming around for another. The
skies above the palace were now very crowded. Grinek scrambled for his handheld
com and called the scow.

“Tell your men to fire on it! Tell them!”
 
Grinek didn’t want to exude panic, but
he wasn’t worried about his image right now. He was concerned that all his
plans were being sucked out the airlock.

“Commander, they’re bigger than us! They’re well armored!”

“Give me results, not excuses!”
 
And he clicked off the com, returning to
the dining room where the explosive banquet adorned the table. Roh was
supervising the finishing touches, telling a technician where to wire to
maximize the force of the explosion.

“The human ship has returned,” Grinek reported. Roh snarled.

“Does our vessel have any weapons?”

“Ha! That scow couldn’t hurt a seagull.”
 
Grinek pushed the technician out of the
way and inspected the bomb. Everything looked in order on it, why not get this
debacle over with? “Everyone out! We are detonating this pile immediately.”

***

“Moira? Is that you?” Kel seemed astonished at the voice at
the other end of the com, her friend and loyal doctor. Apparently she was
directing the Bauxen pilot on where to fly the craft, and how to use the
controls. Apart from a few humans on board, the
Colobus
was being handled by a native crew.

“Of course, Kel. Listen, we have some Kotarans firing on us
now. I don’t think there’s a safe place for us to land.”

“Try the garden,” Roan suggested, and Duvurn winced.

“No can do!” Moira reported. “The place is hopping with Kotarans.
This thing doesn’t have any weapons, does it?”

“No,” Kel said. “Company freighters don’t generate enough
power to be armed.” And that was an unfortunate truth. Apart from military and
pirate vessels, Earth vessels simply were not equipped with laser cannons.
There wasn’t anything to use except—

“The probes!” Roan was almost bursting with excitement.
“We’ve got two probes on the
Colobus
!”

“One,” Kel corrected. “We used the other as a decoy once.”

“Fine. One probe. Moira, you can launch them from the
cockpit, all you have to do is put in the right commands.”

“How’s a probe going to help, exactly?”

“Moira, see if you or one of those Bauxens can aim and fire
a probe through the front doors. That should scatter a few people down there.”

“That’s a long shot, but I’ll try.”
 
On the other end, Roan heard discussion
and the beeps of buttons, indicating a Baxuen was being told what to do. He was
pretty impressed with himself for thinking of this idea. Duvurn and the rest of
those huddled in the panic room leaned in closer to the com. They were eager to
hear their salvation.

“We’ve got it,” Moira reported. “Here goes nothing.”

***

Grinek moved all twenty or so commandos onto the back stairs
of the palace, outside, hoping this would shield them from the explosion. Roh pressed
a remote to get the detonator to connect, but there was too much interference
from all of the communications equipment zigzagging around the area. Above
them, the
Colobus
buzzed the palace,
followed closely behind by the scow, whose open side doors were lined with
soldiers trying to fire on the vessel. Their potshots were useless.

“Specialist, I am ordering you to get that bomb working. Do
you understand how important this is?”

Roh seemed slightly annoyed. “Yes, Commander, I am
trying.”
 
The detonator beeped to
life, and it was apparently now working as hoped. “Praise Fox’Lo.”

Above the palace, in the distance, the
Colobus
turned once again, this time lower and at a sharper angle.
Grinek was pleased that the vessel would witness the explosion that would kill
their friends, and once that was done, the Kotarans could work on capturing
that vessel. After the deal Grinek had made with the Bauxens, there’s no way
that ship could leave undetected.

“The bomb is armed,” Roan said.

He was about to give Roh the order to detonate when a black
streak shot out from in front of the
Colobus
and rocketed toward the palace. It looked to be a missile—but such ships
were not armed with weapons! Grinek had the presence of mind to duck before a
deafening crash struck the palace. A cloud of smoke and shredded masonry
enveloped the rotunda, and then the hulk of a massive cylinder burst out the
back doors. Some commandos were flattened by the spiraling projectile.

Grinek was knocked unconscious by a wooden beam, right after
seeing Roh struck by a chunk of concrete.

***

“It worked!” Moira screamed on the com. They felt the impact
in the safe room, but apparently the probe had been aimed just right, because
the only side effect was a power flicker. Moira then reported that the probe
had sliced through the rotunda like a blade and come out the other end, where
it had hit some of the Kotarans.

“What about the Kotaran ship?” Kel asked.

“It’s landing now, by the garden. It looks as though they’re
helping the survivors.”

“That seems oddly un-Kotaran. But OK, that’s good. See if
you can land on the roof. We want to try and meet you up there.”

“It’s going to be difficult, captain. We need some time to
brake.”

“Put all power to the ventral thrusts,” Roan said, ever the
encyclopedic pilot. “And cut engine power to fifty six percent. If that thing’s
anything like the
Dunnock
, you only
need a little over half power to land on short notice.”

“I’m going to trust your judgment on this, Roan.” Moira
signed off, barking orders to the Bauxen pilot. Roan set the com down and let
out a sigh of relief, hugging the first person in sight: Duvurn, who was a good
two feet shorter than him but weighed twice as much. And was much more
slippery. The Prince wassshocked but soon joined in the hug, and Kel responded
to this outburst by wrapping her arms around David.

“I don’t understand,” said the Nyden. “We’re still in
danger.”

“He’s right,” Roan said, laughing and letting go of His
Excellency. “Open these doors and let’s get to the roof. You can lead us out
there, can’t you, Prince? I saw a big, flat, roof when I arrived.”

“You are right,” Duvurn said. “You there, bodyguard! Get
that door open. No, that lever there. We can get to the roof and get out of
here, though I might want to gather some of my valuables, first.”

“No time for that,” Roan chided, and readied his pistol. The
bodyguard thrust the lever down and the door creaked open, revealing the
bedroom beyond. Just as Roan suspected, there were no Kotarans waiting outside
or under the bed; they must’ve all moved away as they prepared to blast the
place. That there might be booby-traps was a chance they were going to have to
take. Before they left the room, Roan picked up a Kotaran grenade that had been
left next to the door, probably to intensify any explosion.

Duvurn hobbled over to a control panel on the staircase and
pressed a button, which caused a whirring noise. Everyone looked to see where
it came from, and from the top of the stairs came a carriage, riding along the railing,
meant to bring especially rotund occupants to the top floors.

“We need only wait a moment,” Duvurn said, watching the
carriage’s ascent.

“No time. We’re taking the stairs,” Roan said. He gave a
peek into the rotunda at the destruction below. The aquatic columns were
shattered and amphibians gasped and writhed on the floor. Poor things. Without
the columns, the whole rotunda looked in danger of imminent collapse. Yes sir,
it was definitely time to leave this palace behind.

“Wait!” Duvurn said. “I haven’t been up these steps in five
years, at least not on my feet!”

“You should always get back into old habits!” Kel yelled,
and while Duvurn and the Bauxens waited below for the carriage, the nimble
Earthlings and Nyden jogged up the steps. For a moment, the morning sunlight
was blocked out by the shape of the
Colobus
gliding over the skylight, coming in for a rescue on the roof of the palace.

***

Grinek assumed he hadn’t been unconscious for very long,
maybe a handful of minutes. He distinctly remembered the trembling, rumbling
sound of a freighter flying low overhead, then the sound of crumbling as bits
of rock were moved about. That’s when he awoke, to the image of Roh standing
over him, lifting an I-beam and tossing it aside. Another one of the commandos
was helping him remove the rocks.

“What…what happened?”
 
Grinek said, more humiliated at being disoriented than angry. “It looked
like a probe.”

“It was, Commander,” Roh said. Along with the other
commando, the Specialist took an arm of Grinek’s and lifted him out of the
rubble, wiping away dust and debris from his uniform. The Commander
straightened his back and noticed that Roh was wincing in pain, massaging his
tail. It was likely he’d been injured by the concrete chunk.

“Where is the scow?” Grinek said suddenly, scanning the
skies. He then noticed that it was parked on the garden, loading dead and injured
persons onto the ship, following Kotaran dictum of not leaving any bodies
behind for the enemy. “It’s landed! Why didn’t it engage the Earth freighter?”

“It decided we were of more importance,” Roh said, again
rubbing his back. He limped over a rock. “The Earth ship just landed on top of
the palace, not one minute ago.”

“What are we waiting for?” Grinek shouted. Though the steps
were little more than piles of rock now, it did not stop him from leaping up
each one and back into the ruined interior of the palace. “Come on, everyone!
We have to stop these murderers!”
 
Many of the Kotarans were injured and crippled due to the probe strike,
but that did not stop them from screeching a war cry and following their leader
up the steps, eager to kill.

***

Roan, Kel, and David waited impatiently at the top of the
stairs while Duvurn’s carriage arrived, with both his bodyguard and the head
servant. Both of these two auxiliary Bauxens did not appear keen on sticking
around at the palace, so they were coming along as well. When Duvurn shuffled
over to them, the Price realized why they were waiting and casually entered in
a code that unlocked the door to the roof.