Warrior Chronicles 4: Warrior's Wrath (5 page)

“It would have been
legal
my way too. This way is better in the press. My people will guard him until it’s over, though.”

“Will you attend the execution?”

“No, Governor. It would be better if you handle this as a civil matter. I would prefer to not be associated with it.”

“I will make the confessions and the vid of the arrests available to the press.”

“Your copy has already been edited to remove my role in it. I appreciate your cooperation.”

“Of course, General. I am ashamed of Hawaii’s part in this entire debacle. This is the least I can do to make things right. Tell me, how is the alien?”

“She is fine. The spines she lost are almost regrown, and she has been back at work on Mars for two weeks. Governor, this doesn’t reflect poorly on Hawaii, just one Hawaiian family.” Cort looked at his watch and added, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I should go before the island wakes up.”

“Of course, of course.
A hui hou kakou
, General.”

“Goodbye, Governor.”

Solitude

“Hello, gentlemen. How is our subterranean mystery coming along?”

“General, your inquiry is not accurate. As this is Solitude, it cannot be a sub
terranean
mystery,” Tsao observed.

“Seriously, Doc?”

“Cortland, I believe we are well along the journey to find the solution,” Bazal said.

“How so, Bazal?”

“The being is ninety-seven million years old. The same age as the humanoid you found in the cavern.”

“That cannot be a coincidence, General,” Tsao added.

“Okay, what else do you know?”

“It does not trust biotic life forms. Specifically, it has a strong distrust for humanoids.”

“Why?” Cort asked.

Tsao looked back at the holotable that was projecting the entity’s shape.

“We cannot answer that yet. But Bazal is working on it, General.”

Cort walked to a window and looked in the general direction of the being that lived under the surface. He thought about its size and shape and realized he was standing over the southern tip of the massive life form.

Looking down he said, “So what do we do to gain its trust?”

Bazal said, “I am working it, but as our communication is still very basic, it will take time.”

“Okay. We have that,” Turning to Tsao, Cort asked, “What else have the archaeologists found?”

“While the species appears to have been very advanced, they left very few traces of their existence. And what they did leave is comparatively primitive, such as the cave drawings you found. I suspect they were cognizant of how future inhabitants of the planet might use their waste.”

“Cognizant or
pre
-cognizant?” Cort asked Tsao.

“I do not believe they were that advanced. I am thinking more in terms of a conservationist society. They may have built their society around a biodegradable infrastructure.”

“Ah. That would be smart. In fact, it’s genius.” Cort felt the beginning of an idea. “ Not to get sidetracked, but how feasible would that be for us?”

“The technology certainly exists, General. I am not versed in how it would be applied, though. I have a colleague in South America who would be able to advise you about it. I will send you his contact information.”

“Thank you. What else?”

“I believe the society existed on the planet for several million years.”

“Why do you think that, Doctor?”

“I have analyzed the artwork in the cave more completely. And Bazal has made his historic library available to us. Based on corroborative evidence between the two, I can create a timeline of the drawings. Specifically celestial events in the drawings correlate with events for which Bazal can establish specific times. That means the drawings represent a time period spanning from one-hundred-one million years ago until  the disappearance of the species.”

“And the drawings also depict the species for the entire length of that period,” Cort said.

“Yes, sir. That is correct.”

“And we as a species are fewer than three hundred thousand years old.”

Tsao agreed again, “That is correct.”

“Damn. Let’s hope our run is as long as theirs was.”

“I only hope we leave more evidence for future species than they did for us, General,” Tsao said.

“I don’t, Doctor. I actually hope for just the opposite. In my opinion, the greatest contribution humanity could make to the universe is to be forgotten.”

“I don’t understand. Do you hate humanity so much?”

“Just the opposite.” Cort elaborated, “But I remember things you do not. In my time, there was something called
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 
It was a pile of floating debris that was roughly the size of Australia. It had its own ecosystem. Think about that, an ecosystem built within a pile of human trash. I don’t want to leave that kind of mark on the universe.”

“I see. I have heard of it, but I do not believe it was ever cleaned up. Ultimately the ecosystem it supported became so vast that great sections of the mass sank under its own weight. I am not sure of the specifics though.”

Phobos Shipyard

JJ’s aide entered the office and handed her a flexpad. “We have reports of transition difficulties, Admiral.”

Jones opened the pad and began to read. “This is odd. And random. Contact the Nill and ask them about it. Order all ships to alter transitions. Move our transition points. Until we fix this, I don’t want anyone transitioning closer than .2 AUs from their destination planets.”

“Yes, sir.”

--

Five hundred kilometers beneath the surface of a planet thousands of light years away, a synthetic creature was eating its way through rock and dirt. It had began its journey ten thousand Terran years before, and its limited consciousness was aware of new sensations.
The vibration again. It slows progress, but I will be patient. I have been patient. The makers sent me long ago. How long, I wonder? Time does not matter. My end is near. My goal is almost met. My task will be accomplished. What is the purpose of my task? It does not matter. I will be content to accomplish that which I was created to accomplish.

Bergh Station

“Heroc is going back to her homeworld and H’uum has invited Dalek to go with her again. We have a weekend to ourselves,” Kim said when she and Heroc joined Cort in the kitchen.

“Perfect, we can go camping on C-742. I wanted to scout it for a forward base anyway. You up for it?”

Kim said, “Just try and keep me away. What is 742 like?”

“It’s pretty much identical to all of the Cuplan worlds toward the galactic center. It’s one point zero three Earth gravity, the atmosphere is seventy-seven percent nitrogen, twenty-two percent oxygen. They just finished their evacuation and we have a company of Marines there now, operating from the last Cuplan city. Based on the satellite maps, though, we may want the main facility in another area. That’s where we will go.”

Looking at the Queen who was once a member of the Cuplan society, Kim said, “Are you sure it’s no trouble, Heroc? He’s a handful these days.”

“Of course not, Kimberly,” Heroc clicked as she reached for a cup of sweetwater. “He is a celebrity on our world. If a human could assert with our queens, he could be a primary when he comes of age.”

“Dear gods! He’s spoiled enough already, Heroc. Don’t make him a king!” Cort laughed.

Heroc looked away from Cort and Kim. “Of course not, Cortland.”

Kim added, “Just take enough human food with you this time. Last time he wouldn’t eat anything but honey for a week after getting home!”

“What’s in the box?” Cort asked, indicating a package on the table.

“Oh, I forgot about that. Dale sent it over for Dalek. I haven’t seen it yet, but he said it’s a FALCON for Dalek.”

Cort opened the box and looked at the suit. “Why did he make Dalek a FALCON?”

“I asked him to print something that looked like your uniform. Dalek always wants to dress like you. Dale said it was just as easy to print the real thing. It doesn’t have the strength enhancements, but other than that, it’s the same armor.”

“Well, at least he thought it through. Can you imagine a temper-tantrum in a suit with augmented strength?” Cort asked.

“I don’t have to imagine it, baby. I’m married to you.”

“Funny,” Cort said. Looking at the smaller powerpack on the back of the suit he added, “Let’s hope Dale didn’t add the overload software too.”

“He didn’t. This is a completely safe version of the suit. He said it will even absorb impacts and falls. He also thought to add remote access to it, so Dalek can’t hide from us unless we allow it.”

“Does it have comms?” Cort asked.

“Yes. Like I said, it’s just like ours, but without the dangerous stuff. If your son likes it, I’m going to print a couple more. It will be nice to know that if he plays too rough with the wolves, he won’t get hurt anymore.”

“He’s your son too, Kimberly,” Heroc clicked.

“Not when he acts like Cort, he ain’t.”

After laying the child-sized armor back in the box, Cort turned to Heroc. “I have something I want you to talk to H’uum about for me while you are there.”

“Of course. What is it?” Heroc asked.

“This is regarding the federation, not the Collaborative. I want to start talking about expanding the contact between our races.”

Heroc’s mandibles widened. “But we are still on many of the planets we converted. You said you would not allow us further integration until that turnover was complete.”

“That’s for the Collaborative Government, Heroc. And the CG still won’t accept you. But as I said, this is regarding our federation. I trust you. Me, personally. Otherwise I wouldn’t be letting you take my son to another planet.
Again.
You have proven your honor to me many times over, Heroc. And not just you, but your people. Even the people who handle the turnover of the planets have complimented your species’ professionalism. I want to reward that.”

“I don’t know what to say, Cortland.”

“Don’t say anything. Just talk to H’uum about it.”

Kim looked at Cort with something like awe in her eyes. “Gods but you still manage to surprise me, Cortland Addison.”

Heroc clicked an unintelligible noise and said, “Does this mean I have to listen to you two mating again tonight?”

Unknown Planet

“Sir, our opportunity has arrived. The human child is on a secondary planet ceded to the H’uumans.”

“Excellent. You have reviewed the assets? They are all ready, Che?” Miku asked.

“Yes, sir. My last update from the Nill homeworld was less than one sun ago. Our synthetic is in place.”

“Execute the plan then. Well done, Che. Ten thousand years of planning will finally offer us reward.”

H’uum Homeworld

Heroc slept uneasily. She couldn’t explain her trepidation, but she checked on Dalek anyway. As she entered his room, Dalek’s wolf, Zandra, stood and growled. The wolf did not calm until Heroc spoke to it. Then it emitted a low whine, as if to express her own uneasiness to Heroc.

“You feel it too, don’t you, friend?” Heroc asked. She picked Dalek up from his bed and began dressing him in his FALCON. At the same time, she commed Cort.

C-742

Cort was just surfacing from a deep dive when Kim waved him over from the shore of the pool where they were swimming. “It’s Heroc. She can’t explain it, but feels something is wrong.”

While Kim talked to the queen, Cort commed Lex and ordered him to send a company of Marines to the H’uum planet to extract Dalek. Then he tried to contact the forward operating base on 742 to order transport.

“The FOB is not responding. Get dressed.”

Nill

The synthetic creature that had spent eons slowly boring through the mantle of the Nill homeworld was finally ready. It was in the Transition Core. It had made the connections to the particle strings and was now bound to the Core’s accelerators. It had finally received the command.

AFS
Beretta

Captain Will Ross turned to his second and asked, “Are we ready, Tay?”

“Yes, sir. The Marines are on board. We have one wolfpack platoon, and the rest of the company is drop troops. Their captain is on his way to the bridge now.”

Ross said, “Let’s go get our boy.”

H’uum Homeworld

Heroc listened as dozens of H’uumans fought the invaders. On Cort’s orders, she was barricaded in the Supreme’s quarters, with Dalek and Zandra at her side, while her fellows defended the child of the man who had conquered their people. Dalek listened to his mother’s calming voice through the comm while Cort listened in through his.

Outside, thousands of corpses littered the road leading to the Supreme’s compound. Most were H’uumans, but many were six-legged mammals, armed with weapons that slaughtered the insectoids.

C-742

Cort and Kim raced across the beach as they listened to a battle rage light years away. Before Cort could get to his uniform, a large group of dark-haired primate looking creatures dropped from the nearby trees to surround him and Kim. Carefully, Cort used his peripheral vision to find his weapons. A few meters to his left, he could see the hilt of his sword peeking at him between the spindly legs of one of the aliens. He turned to face the ape-like being he believed to be the leader and said, “You are on my planet.”

“No, Addison. We are on
my
planet. Your choice is whether to cooperate and save your child’s life, or to resist us and know you have condemned him to death.”

Kim was silent. She knew that they were in her husband’s realm, and she was not about to interfere. Whether the monkeys were serious or not, she knew Cort would act in both their best interests and those of their son.

“What do you want?” Cort asked.
Where are the wolves? And how does the comm already know their language? I’ve never heard it before, at least not that I can remember.

“We don’t
want
anything, Addison. We are taking the planets you have cleansed for us. We have hidden from others for eons, since the Nill banished us. But now we will take back what is ours.”

While listening to the answer, Cort appeared to be looking around at his captors. In reality, he was considering the layout of what was about to become a killing ground. He said, “We are not the Nill. Your fight is not with us.”
Bingo! The Nill again. Damn those little bastards.

“No, but you are now their champion. Our fight is with you.”

--

Captain Ross ordered the
Beretta
to transition. On the Nill homeworld, the ship’s transition sent signals across the being that had attached itself to the Core. Like a short circuit, the altered connections caused the Core to overload. As the
Beretta
disappeared, the particle map of the graviton that was meant to pull the ship back into normal space time inside the H’uuman system was forgotten by the Core, leaving the ship, its crew and its passengers in null space, that area of the universe that existed outside of conventional space time.

--

The monkey-like aliens burst through the wall as Heroc transformed into something Dalek had never seen. She moved with grace that was fitting for a queen, but her carapace had separated and she used it to begin spinning and slashing at the invaders. Zandra took her cue from the queen and began to fight as well. But dozens of attackers poured through the opening. When the invaders carried Dalek from the room, the teary-eyed boy looked back at Heroc’s body as well as the lifeless form of his companion wolf and cried, “My Poppa is gonna to kill you all.”

Thousands of light years away, supercharged tachyons delivered the sound of his son’s tearful voice to Cort. He turned back to the leader of the group and spoke. “My son is right. I am going to kill you all. You didn’t come here to talk. You are nothing more than a kidnapper and a murderer. I’m not going to plead with you. I certainly am not going to beg you. I will warn you, though. This is our planet and you have one chance to leave it and return my son to me. If you do that, I will make your deaths painless.”

Cort didn’t recognize the whistling sound that the thin six-limbed primate made, but he had no doubt that it was laughter. “Addison, you are hardly in a position to threaten us. You are foolish to be here at all. You cleansed this planet of the scum, and I intend to harvest it. My people will take everything in the galactic arm.”

“You won’t leave then?” Cort asked.

“No Addison, we won’t leave.” The creature raised his left arms to the apes behind him and said, “Kill him. He is of no use to us.”

“Then you will die,” Cort said, as two of the apes grabbed his arms. Without his armor, Cort was significantly smaller than his captors. He didn’t even have his FALCON suit on, but he was still nearly two meters tall and carried the muscle of a man used to working. Unfortunately for the attackers, the work those muscles had done was killing. He brought his arms together with such force that the creature on his right side felt two of its thin arms ripped completely from its body. Then he swung his right knee into the other’s midsection. The shocked animal doubled over, releasing Cort’s left arm and whistling in agony.

At the same time, Bane and Coke attacked from where they had watched the scene unfold. Cort was the only one in the group that didn’t turn in surprise at the wolves’ appearance. While the monkeys stared in shock and Kim struggled with the enemy that held her arms, Cort jumped to the pile of armor and grabbed the bastard sword she had given him years before. He continued the motion of drawing it from the scabbard attached to the back of his CONDOR, turning it into a smooth, wide arc that showed just how much the years of training had benefitted him. The blade made contact with the ape that was now missing two of its arms, slicing cleanly through its body, leaving even more pieces that could never be put back together. It continued on, powered by the spin of Cort’s body, and made contact with the doubled over creature he had kneed. Once that monkey’s head was falling to the ground, Cort brought the blade close to his own body and closed the distance between himself and the leader of the small group of invaders.

The human’s movements were simply too fast and too precise to be stopped. Marek looked at his senior and watched the blade emerge from his back, travel up his body, and split the ape’s head in two. Marek had barely registered the three deaths before the human was moving toward him. The,
wolves,
he remembered the creatures were called, were at the throats of two of his fellows, then two more. He let go of the female human and tried to draw his own weapon, but couldn’t even touch it before the one called Addison severed both of his arms and cut the holster from his body. The weapon fell to the ground and discharged, its spherical glass round going through Addison’s leg, but not before Marek himself saw his own death as the blade reversed its downward arc and cut through his abdomen almost laterally. As the life drained from his eyes, his only consolation was that the human would die too.

Kim had not wasted her time. The moment the great animal let go of her, she dove toward the clothes she and Cort had left beside the small pond and retrieved her own weapon. Like many of the firearms Cort had brought from the past, Kim’s five-shot revolver had been modified to fire a variety of rounds. When she was on Solitude, Kim kept it loaded with carbon fiber razors. The small rounds left the barrel of the weapon a small mass, but on impact they spread out to two centimeters, their carbon fiber latticework shredding everything in its path until they came to a stop inside their target.

Lifting the weapon she fired at the nearest of the remaining two enemies. Before the first creature could react, its own yellow lifeblood was poured from the opening Kim had created in its chest. The last one had time to draw its weapon before Kim turned on it, but had gravely misjudged the situation, thinking Cort was the only threat. As he took aim at the oversized male, the undersized female fired two rounds into his side. The impacts caused his aim to be off, and his shot hit the rock near Cort’s head. The dust from the sphere’s impact peppered Cort’s neck, face and scalp with chips of granite and glass dust. Cort collapsed to his knees.

Kim did a full turn with her weapon raised before dropping to Cort’s side. “Are you okay?”

“There’s something in their ammunition. My leg is going numb. Not gunshot numb, numb like it’s rotting. Get a tourniquet on it.”

“Oh gods.” Kim reached over to the nearest corpse, grabbing the belt from its holster so she could tie it around Cort’s leg. It would be four hours before the shuttle would arrive in the system, and without its equipment, they had no way to figure out what the poison was.  As she tightened the strap around his thigh, she said, “Give me all of your symptoms.”

“Numbness right now, but it’s heading for paralysis. What does it look like?”

Kim was surprised by the question and looked at Cort’s face.
Oh fuck
. “Your face is messed up again, baby.”

“Yeah. I think I took some poison there too.” Cort said.

“Baby, as much as I want to sometimes, I cannot put a tourniquet around your neck. What do we do?”

It’s good she’s keeping her sense of humor
. “We have to buy the synthetics some time.” Cort’s speech sounded just slightly slurred. “You aren’t going to like what I have to say, but you have to do it. Put me in the water. We need to irrigate the wounds. Then start a fire and get some water boiling. I also need to eat some of the alien guts.”

“What? Why?” Kim asked.

“If they could, they would choose a poison that didn’t affect them. If I ingest some of their flesh, my synthetics might start building antibodies. After that, give me a boost of synthetics.”

“Wait!” Kim said. “The CONDOR has a spectral analyzer.” She put the torso of her armor on and added the helmet, then activated her HUD. Looking at Cort she said, “It looks like something called ‘desomorphine’ but has an additional, unrecognized molecule. The highest probability is a complex synthetic opioid biotic.”

Kim struggled to understand what Cort was saying now. “Synthetics... opiate.” He gasped. “Boiling water... face… leg for… morph… soon.”

“Hold on, baby,” Kim cried. “Don’t leave me. You have to get our boy back.”

Kim didn’t want to put Cort’s face in the water for fear of him drowning, so she pulled him to the edge of the stream and lowered his legs into it. While he could still breathe reasonably well, she poured several helmets full of water over his head. Then she set about starting a fire and boiling water. By the time she had a pot of water ready, he was unconscious.
I have to hit his face first. Oh Gods.
She dumped the boiling water on Cort’s head. As she watched the skin on his face blister and redden, he awoke screaming. Tears streamed down Kim’s face as she refilled the pot and put it on the fire. Cort didn’t wake up when she repeated the procedure on his leg wound.

Two hours later, Cort opened his eyes. His face was horribly blistered, with large sections of his flesh and bone exposed by the lack of skin. Dusk had fallen, and Kim had built three fires around their camp to discourage predators. She knew she was safe in the CONDOR, but Cort was as vulnerable as she had seen him since the battle on Sorano’s World. She had lined his leg up and splinted it to keep the synthetics from improperly aligning it, and since dumping the boiling water on him, Kim had been pouring cool water from the stream onto both his leg and face.

“The stars are moving.” He whispered slowly. “Activate the defense network.”

“What?” Kim asked as she looked up. Sure enough, there was a group of ten stars moving in a triangular formation through a borealis. She donned her helmet again and connected to the defensive network.  Looking through sensors, Kim found the formation of ships approaching the planet and studied them for a moment. “It’s not our configuration. I am going to challenge them.”