The Battle for Lashmere Read online

  Chapter 12

  Ktenu sat in a small shuttle. It was dropping through the atmosphere of Lashmere to complete Ktenu's inspection of the invasion and its progress. It was a thin excuse for his presence, but the political council’s orders had been quite specific. As the shuttle approached the human settlement surrounded by the Woduur ring, which Ktenu had learned was called Istyul City, the pilot sent an attention chime.

  "Commander, a small battle has broken out near the outer perimeter of the Woduur ship."

  Ktenu stood and walked carefully up to the cockpit. He settled into the second pilot chair and looked out the window. A contingent of humans was moving against the exterior surface of the ring. "What are those crazy humans doing? How can they possibly think they can get through the outside of that ship with handheld weapons?"

  The pilot, a Hontoata, had a horrified look on his face. "Those people are going to be massacred, Commander."

  Ktenu agreed and, while he hated to see the kind of death taking place before him, he also felt a kind of sick satisfaction that the humans were so willing to throw their lives away in an effort to resist the Woduur. "It is their choice to attack from a position of weakness. I trust this only proves the merit of why the Alliance does not engage in such behaviors."

  "It does, sir. I have never seen so many lives so needlessly ended before." The pilot's skin started to change shade to a sickly yellow. "Excuse me for a moment, sir. The autopilot is on." The pilot rushed from the cockpit and went to the lavatory, where he was violently and noisily sick.

  Ktenu wrinkled his nose at the sudden stench and continued to watch, transfixed by the fortitude with which the humans fought. Many of them were dying, but they were taking Woduur lives with them.

  The pilot came back into the cockpit and said, "Sorry, sir. I could not contain the reaction within my autonomic functions."

  "There is no shame in your reaction, pilot. What's your name?"

  "Adil, sir," came the response.

  "Well, Adil, there is no reason for what the humans are doing."

  The shuttle wobbled wildly when a tremendous explosion went off near the skin of the ship. The pilot grabbed the controls and wrestled with the small craft for a few seconds before regaining control, and veered away from the area.

  Ktenu said, "Computer, describe the energy from that explosion."

  "Explosion results from a large, high energy projectile fired from behind the human formation. The projectile contained a powerful explosive charge."

  The shuttle circled back over the battlefield at a safe distance. A gaping hole had appeared in the outer skin of the ring.

  Ktenu shook his head regretfully. "They've managed to inflict some cosmetic damage on the Woduur vessel and thrown away a vast number of irreplaceable lives in the process."

  "I've never seen the Woduur react with aggression before, Commander."

  Ktenu considered his answer for a moment before proceeding. "Nor have I. Our history tells us the Woduur can be shockingly powerful enemies when moved to violence, but they are as loathe to waste a life as we are. They prefer to subjugate and control other sentients."

  The pilot had a look of shocked horror on his face. "I'd heard rumors about that, sir, but I never believed them. They are truly slavers?"

  "It is so, pilot."

  "That's terrible, sir. How can we trade with people who would even contemplate such a despicable act?"

  "They have been our partners for a very long time. Since the very beginnings of the Alliance. The alliance would not exist as it does, if at all, without the assistance the Woduur offered us thousands of years ago."

  "Why don't they tell us about this in school?"

  "There are reasons, Adil. Rest assured that the Woduur, while distasteful in their methods, are a necessary evil to tolerate in the universe."

  "Sir, I think the battle is slowing down.”

  Ktenu returned his attention to the ground. The human forces were pulling back. Thousands of bodies both human and Woduur littered the area. The crater where the bomb had gone off was still smoking and a fierce fire burned among the vegetation surrounding it.

  "Proceed to the landing zone, Pilot. I wish to meet with the Woduur ground commander."

  The shuttle circled and entered the perimeter marked by the ring ship. To one side, a large, open staging area held several landing spots. Much of the city was in ruins, and it was clear that heavy fighting had taken place in the interior space of the ring.

  A trio of Woduur stood at the edge of the staging area, and Adil put the shuttle down a few meters from them.

  Ktenu stepped off the shuttle and said, "Good morning. I am Ktenu of the Alliance military council." Ktenu raised his hands, palms up in a sign of greeting.

  The lead Woduur spoke. "I am Sunit, commander of the ground forces here. Why have you come here, Commander Ktenu?"

  Ktenu paused, wanting to choose his words carefully. "I had the desire to view your operations and, with your permission, view the captured humans. Can you provide me a briefing on the current situation?"

  Sunit seemed confused as to Ktenu's reasons despite the explanation, but he did not argue. "Of course, Commander. Follow me."

  The Woduur led Ktenu into the ring ship. After several minutes of marching through various corridors, they arrived at a large meeting room. The table was wildly high for someone of Ktenu's stature, and there were no chairs as the Woduur did not sit. They were content to lower their bodies to the ground if they wanted to rest their legs.

  Sunit stood near the head of the table and, without any visible gesture, a screen behind him came on and displayed an image of the single continent of Lashmere. "We have pacified thirty-two percent of the largest city on this planet. The last report I received indicated we had captured fifty-four thousand eight hundred nine humans. More than sufficient to meet our needs. There is a single manufacturing center near the next largest city that holds our manufacturing technology. Once that facility is destroyed, we will leave."

  Ktenu looked over the map behind the Woduur. "You plan just to leave?"

  "We do. The remaining humans are of little interest to us once we have retrieved or destroyed unauthorized copies of our technology. Plans are already in place to abrogate any future threat they may pose."

  Ktenu wasn’t convinced. "The humans could remain a threat. They are still dangerous even without your technology."

  Sunit raised his hands in agreement. "It is true, the humans of this planet are among the most savage races we have encountered. I ask that you trust me when I say that we will render them harmless before we depart this planet."

  Ktenu wanted to shout in frustration. "But, the humans are still a threat to the Alliance. Our fleet is dangerously weak, and the Ulef continue to push into our territory. We can't have the humans at our backs as well. We must devise a way to control them."

  "What do you propose, Commander Ktenu?" The Woduur tapped one of his metal legs against the floor, usually a sign of irritation or impatience.

  "Can you just take the entire population?"

  "It is of no use to us. There are more than twenty million humans on this planet. We need far less than that to replenish our stock. The remainder will not be a threat after we depart the planet."

  Ktenu found himself in the oddest position all of a sudden. The humans were dangerous, and they were in need of guidance, but they were still sentient beings. To hear a race of intelligent, however limited, people being referred to in terms one might reserve for livestock made Ktenu do something he would never have imagined up until that point. "Sunit, they are sentient creatures. You can't treat them like lower life forms. No matter what else you may say, they should be contained and, with time and effort, enlightened.”

  Ktenu continued, "Their kind might be dangerous now, but they do have the potential to develop a moral identity and enable them to coexist with their galactic neighbors. They only need to be given sufficient time, education and moral direction. Keeping a supply of wi
ld humans in case your current pool of genetic variety wears out is intolerably immoral." Ktenu could hardly believe those words had come out of his mouth, but morality was an absolute and applied to all beings, not just the ones he happened to think were worthwhile.

  "And yet, your own council agreed with us to attack and kill thousands of these humans and even now sits idly by while more of them are taken for screening, processing and use as trade goods. Of the humans we have taken thus far, we expect only a thousand will be sufficiently flexible enough to accept permanent servitude. This is why we capture so many. The remainder will have to be euthanized, so they don't infect the useful ones. I ask you again; what is it you propose?"

  Ktenu took a breath but stopped himself before he continued. What did he want? All he was sure of was that the humans, despite their de facto state of hostility, still had the rights of all sentient beings. "I think we should find a way to control them that doesn't involve wholesale murder or enslavement."

  Sunit was silent for a long moment before saying, "We have a solution. What do you offer?"

  Ktenu said, "I want to know what your solution is, first."

  "We will control the population by culling those with predispositions to rebel and cause trouble. Their genetic code will be eradicated of these traits. The remainder, safely in our possession, will continue to grow and survive," Sunit said.

  Ktenu looked hard at the Woduur. Unfortunately, their faces gave no expression, no hint of their thoughts. One could only dissect their words for meaning. The Woduur had said they would be culled, implying they would be killed if they were found to be unsuitable for Woduur needs. "Very well, but I want every human who is not suitable for your… trade… controlled in the same way." Ktenu's stomach twisted in knots at the idea of negotiating for the enslavement of even a tiny portion of the human population. By the morals of the Alliance, slavery was second only to genocide in terms of seriousness, ranking equally with mass murder.

  "We can agree. What do you offer in trade?"

  "It is difficult to give a reasonable value without knowing your method of control.”

  “Immaterial,” Sunit said.

  Ktenu sighed in frustration. “When my term as commander is up, I will perform one standard year of service to the Woduur.” The idea frightened Ktenu beyond measure, but the freedom of any sentient being was a worthwhile sacrifice. He planned to make sure he died in office, in any event.

  “Ten.”

  “Two.”

  “Seven.”

  “Four.”

  “Five,” Sunit clacked his two front legs together, an expression of anticipation among the Woduur.

  “Done. You have an agreement, Sunit. When my term as commander of the Alliance military council ends, I will complete five standard years to save the lives of the humans of Lashmere.” Ktenu felt his guts roiling in terror at the idea of what the Woduur might make him do. What horrid and unsavory tasks might they put him to working on? He tried to keep his composure, but he knew he was shaking and, given how bright the room seemed, his eyes were probably as wide as they would go. Any Xalcek looking at him would recognize the fear those signals represented.

  “The pact is made,” Sunit said. “When does your term expire?”

  “It is not a fixed duration. I serve until I am voted out of office.”

  Sunit clacked his legs together again. “A clever tactic, Commander. I did not know that of your government. I will not forget your shrewd bargaining.” That was about as close to a compliment as the Woduur came.

  “I, well, thank you, Sunit. If there is nothing else, I suppose I must return to my inspection of the planet.” He turned to leave when two Woduur soldiers surged into the room. One grabbed each arm and lifted him easily from the floor. “What are you doing to me? Put me down immediately!” he shouted. His feet kicked at the soldiers, but their metallic limbs were utterly unaffected.

  One of the soldiers pulled a long strip of metal from the pack on its back. The metal flexed in the being’s hands. Both ends passed around Ktenu’s neck and the metal knit together behind his head. “Take this off of me now. I demand you put me-” Ktenu dropped to the floor mid-sentence. He glared up at the soldiers while he regained his feet. “What is this? Why have you put this on my neck?”

  Sunit said, “You are my property, Commander Ktenu. I will ensure you complete your end of the bargain.” Again, he clacked his legs together. “I look forward to seeing what you are capable of. Until you complete your time of servitude, you will wear this tracking collar that I may know where my property is. You may go now, Commander Ktenu. Do not forget our pact.”

  Ktenu beat a hasty retreat from Sunit's office and reboarded his shuttle. Adil saw the state he was in and immediately was concerned. "Commander? Are you alright?"

  "I am, but it was a difficult meeting. I have only one more task to complete while here. Lift off and head towards the human military headquarters."

  "Sir?" Adil sounded confused at the order. "Surely they will react with hostility to our presence."

  "That is likely. I have an idea that may keep their violent instincts at bay."

  "As you wish, sir." The shuttle lifted off and moved to the north. Within moments, they were hovering near the headquarters building.

  "Now, generate a directional comm signal. Low power. I don't want the Woduur to intercept it."

  Adil punched a series of commands into the shuttle's communications panel and, after a moment, he said, "I have the signal ready to transmit. How do you know it's compatible with their system?"

  Ktenu ignored him and readjusted his mind to speak the native language of the humans. "Lashmere command, this is Commander Ktenu of the Alliance Military. I require you to speak with me immediately."

  Adil's eyes widened in shock as he heard the whistling, throaty language exiting his commander's mouth. He didn't understand a word of it, but he knew it must be the language the humans used.

  Ktenu repeated himself several times before a human's face appeared on the comm panel screen.

  "This is Admiral Coffee. What do you want, Ktenu?"

  "I have a proposal for you, Admiral. One I think will be of benefit to us all."

  Chapter 13

  Loki shuddered gently as it emerged through its jump ring. The computer updated the ship’s position, roughly halfway through the small expanse it was crossing. The nearest refueling point was still more than a hundred lightyears ahead, but there was still plenty of fuel on board.

  One of the more convenient things about the upgraded system that allowed Loki to jump so far also made it use much less fuel than was typically needed. Simmons’ on board reserves would take her much further than what any of Lashmere's warships could achieve.

  She tapped at her console for a moment and brought up a display of the local area on the main plot. She considered it for a few minutes.

  "I'm still not sure how Hal was tracking me so effectively, but I'm going to have to put a thousand lightyears between him and me, just to be safe.

  "I just need someplace to stash myself while I go over the data I've gotten so far," she mused to herself aloud. She was hardly aware that she was speaking to herself. She highlighted the locations of gas giants where she could refuel.

  "Now, this looks interesting." The map showed a small scientific installation orbiting one of the red giants roughly in the direction she was heading. "I should make a stop there. I doubt they were researching the plague or longevity, but there might still be some interesting data. She programmed two hops into the computer and set about removing the remote comm override from her system.

  "That should do it. No more unwanted calls from Mister Halford Kri." She turned and looked at the back of the bridge. "Crap, I forgot about the armor." She moved back to the lift. The armor was sitting, split open along the sides with the helmet still resting where she'd carelessly tossed it in the corner. The odor coming from the mess covering it had gotten worse, if that was possible. She tried to breathe through
her mouth while she got the helmet pulled back on over her head. She put the entire ensemble back on and walked down to the maintenance bay.

  Once she had the suit settled on a loading dolly, she placed it back inside the maintenance bay for repair. She left the machine to do its work and headed to the galley to get some food.

  She checked her comm. She still had more than an hour until the system was sufficiently cooled down. She'd had to override some of the safeties to make Loki jump when it had, and she'd stressed a lot of the system components by doing so.

  "I just have to stay up until I get done with the next jump. Then I can get some sleep." She headed back to the bridge. The data taken from the old alliance base was encrypted. The computer was working on it, but it would take several days to isolate the decryption keys. She set up a decryption program to find them and returned to the maintenance bay. The status display showed her body armor was now in perfect condition. She pulled it out, put it on and walked it to the boat bay gallery.

  She froze, looking out on the half empty boat bay. "Blast it. Kri just had to take my pinnace. Now I have to go build another one." All she had left was a pair of tiny maintenance shuttles. They were not suited for landing on a planet, having been designed for maintenance only.

  She walked back up to the bridge and searched the chart again. The plot showed another location, one more hop from where she was going which looked like it should have the resources she needed to manufacture a new small craft. It wasn’t quite a thousand lightyears, but she hoped it would be enough to keep Kri from following her any further.

  "I wonder if I can make any further improvements on the design." She brought the specs up she’d used to build her first pinnace. She pondered any improvements she could make to the current design. The first thing she decided to include was a smaller railgun. The pinnace relied on an efficient, albeit limited, energy accumulator and ion decay system, so the highly energy efficient railgun was a good idea for adding offensive punch to the small craft.