The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Page 18

  “Just got word,” Gregg said after listening to his radio, “Jacob and Dram are here.”

  “Oh, goody,” she said with a cockeyed smile.

  From a nearby working Portal she could see an entourage of Chosen escorting Jacob next to the towering dark figure of Dram. Even from dozens of meters away she could see the stunned look on their faces as they took in the devastation around them, the random scattering of Tanam bodies, and finally the orderly lines of dead human soldiers. Before he could get to her a medtech got her attention.

  “Chosen, please...”

  “I said leave me the hell alone.”

  “It’s not about you, it’s about the Tanam.”

  “What Tanam? I thought they were all dead.”

  “The highborn you shot just before the battle ended is still alive.”

  It was then she remembered the second of the three highborn Tanam, the one who'd drawn a weapon and charged her after she'd shot the first of them. “They didn't take her with them?”

  “Frankly, I think they wrote her off as dead. We did until someone heard the breathing.”

  “Will she live?”

  “If you authorize the medical work. We're not normally allowed to render aid to aliens without permission.”

  “Do it,” she said, “a highborn might be worth some ransom.” Besides, she admitted to herself, it was the right thing to do. She hoped they would do the same thing for her in a similar situation, but considering the condition of the Chosen prisoners that came back through, she rather doubted it.

  “What have you done?” asked Jacob as he came up behind her.

  “I told them to save the life of that Tanam highborn.”

  “Not that, you idiot!” Minu turned slowly, both because there were still two soldiers holding her up, and because her anger was seething just under the surface. “I'm talking about this!” He took in the ruined Portal Spire around them with an over exaggerated gesture of both arms, like a game show host showing off a particularly impressive prize. “I said relieve the siege on Serengeti, not blow the fucking place up!”

  “The Tanam had thousands of warriors here, assault vehicles, support, and heavy energy cannons.”

  The last brought Jacob up short. “Energy cannons? Why would they bring energy cannon for a target like Serengeti?”

  “Because after this they were going to Herdhome, why else? This whole thing was a setup. They knew about the soldiers, that's why they attacked Amber first. They had heavy cannon there too. I don't think they were expecting a well-trained force, or the Shock Rifles. If we hadn't acted quickly, Serengeti would have fallen, and then Herdhome.”

  Jacob looked from her to Dram, then down at her legs. When he saw the trauma pads soaked in blood and more pooling under her feet he paled. “Good lord, what happened to you?” Minu explained about her duel against the Tanam commander while Dram talked with the head medtech and looked at her nervously.

  “We need to evacuate her and the worst injured immediately,” Dram told Jacob. “This conversation can happen later.”

  “You're right,” Jacob agreed and the medtechs swooped in and gently placed Minu back on a hoverfield equipped gurney. As they moved her Jacob walked alongside and continued to take in the damage and death. “I just can't believe what you did to this place. What was your plan, anyway?”

  “My plan? My plan was to win.”

  Interlude

  The mountain winds blew strongly across the rocky outcropping, making the pair of warriors crouch against the overhang for cover. Their fur was more than enough to keep them warm, but relief was hours overdue and they were becoming concerned. The shields they'd set up kept their presence a secret, but only so long as they had power to operate it.

  Just as night was approaching the nearby Portal flashed and they became instantly alert. The senior of the two snatched her computer and read the communication in dismay.

  “Our forces were defeated on the filthy grass eaters’ world.”

  “Impossible,” the other growled.

  “We are ordered to abort. The third attack is postponed.” They both looked at the Portal and growled their anger at the storm that raged around them. So much effort gone to waste.

  “And this invaluable artifact? We cannot reuse it.”

  “I know,” the senior snapped, making the younger warrior bow her head in supplication. “We will take our weapons power packs and rig them to keep the shields running. It will last for years if necessary, the shields will recharge them when summer comes to this matriarch forsaken place.”

  “If it ever does.”

  The senior warrior didn't reply, she just began packing their gear. An hour later they activated the Portal and passed through, leaving no trace of where their camp once was. Under the masking shields waited the Portal they'd brought with them, unused and patient as the stars. A kilometer away a farmer lead his goats up a winding trail towards a nearby mountain meadow, only hours from Steven's Pass.

  The medical bots moved back and the doctors consulted and discussed options. Their patient was mildly anesthetized and in no immediate danger. The course of treatments would be critical. While they were working none of them noticed a pair of heavily armed warriors enter the operating theater, armor gleaming and golden, weapons at the ready. A second later their charge came in, her face shaved to the neck and covered with intricate tattoos telling a long story of battles, conquests, and leadership. When one of the doctors noticed the warriors he started to snarl in complaint. Luckily for him another doctor saw their other visitor and instantly dropped to both sets of knees. A lifetime of learning taught the first doctor to respond quickly and he joined all the others on the meticulously sterilized operating theater floor.

  “Matriarch, we beg you for our humble lives,” they all mewed in unison.

  “You live another day,” she replied ritually, her voice aged but still strong. Few Tanam lived long enough to gain gray hairs. The matriarch was almost all gray with only streaks of red and yellow on her flanks. “That is as long as you can save the life of my daughter.” She made a gesture that allowed the doctors to rise to their feet, only both rear sets. No one, not even the eldest daughter of the Matriarch, was allowed to stand on their rear feet in her presence. “Tell me her condition.”

  “This alien did her serious harm, Matriarch,” the senior doctor said, careful to not look her in the forward set of eyes. The two bloodline guards stood behind her, ready to enforce the law for the smallest transgression. “Her left main eye is lost, and can be replaced by a cybernetic easily. It is her tongue that causes the complication. May the cybernetic specialist address this?”

  The Matriarch made a dismissive gesture with a long razor sharp claw inlaid with delicate scrimshaw. The first doctor bowed back into the group, gratefully abandoning the explanation to the specialist.

  “Your daughter’s tongue was torn out completely, Matriarch.” She examined his face, noting a number of complicated tattoos displayed. Of course being male, the hair was not shaved, but he obviously trimmed it short. It was a stretching of the law this Matriarch had allowed to take place on her watch. Her mother had been brutal in her enforcement of the law, often casting into the pits entire bloodlines of valuable warriors. She'd learned from her mother what worked and what didn't. Allow them a few harmless affectations, and they would reward it with real faithfulness. Males were a necessary evil in many ways. Few females were interested in the sciences, and why would they be? Abandon glory and combat for science, even lifesaving sciences? Ridiculous.

  “The organ cannot be re-grown?”

  “You honor me with your discussion of my meager knowledge. It is not so, Matriarch. There is nothing left of the organ, it is as if it were torn out by a warrior wearing a suite.”

  “She has lost her speech forever?”

  “If it serves you to listen, there is a way.”

  “It may, inform me.”

  Part II

  It is a mistake to look too far ahe
ad. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

  Winston Churchill

  Chapter 1

  Octember 29th, 521 AE

  Chosen Council Chamber, Stevens Pass, Bellatrix

  Sitting in front of the Chosen council was a familiar thing for Minu now. She'd lost track of just how many times she'd been here. The table curved towards her where she sat in the middle, on the other side were the seven Chosen council members and a pair of Tog. She was pretty certain one was P'ing, a very high ranking Tog who oversaw humanity for hser species. Minu was more comfortable than normal. Instead of the brutally hard moliplas chair, she was enjoying a form fitting hoverfield equipped chair. Her left leg was elevated, a Concordia made device clamped where her foot used to be, working to finish the healing process. Sometime in the week they would be implanting a prosthetic lower leg and foot. It would be her second artificial limb, much to her chagrin. The left arm, much less injured than she'd feared, was only in a brace now and was working fine.

  “Chosen Alma,” spoke the official recorder, not a member of the council, but a young Chosen man no more than fifteen, from the newest group to come through the trials. “The council has just a few more questions.”

  “Are you well enough to continue?” interrupted Dr. Edward Tasker, chief physician to the Chosen.

  “I'm fine,” she said, “let’s just get this over with.” In the center of the group, Jacob Bentley, First among the Chosen, nodded his head and the young man continued.

  “When did you formulate the plan to use explosive laden transports as weapons against the Tanam?”

  “I didn't use them against the Tanam, I knew that wouldn't work. They were used to directly assault the Portal Spire.” A grumble went up from the council. “As for when I 'formulated' the plan, that would be about a minute after I realized a frontal assault was out of the question.”

  The council spoke quietly among themselves for several moments while Minu waited and ignored the throbbing from her leg. Eventually the young Chosen spoke again. “And what about the decision to attack the interior of the Spire with only two squads of soldiers?”

  “Two squads were all I was willing to risk.”

  Jacob dropped the pretense that this grilling was by the entire council and spoke up himself, his dark chiseled features slightly distorted by anger. “So you were willing to risk twenty lives on what, a hunch?”

  “It was enough for Christian to lead fifteen Chosen scouts and two hundred Beezer into the Spire on effectively the same mission. I don't see him sitting here being grilled.”

  “Chosen Christian Forsythe has faced this council already for his poor decisions during the assault on Serengeti. We're talking to you, now.”

  “Yes, you are.” Minu fought her temper under control and continued in an even voice. “Can we get this finished?”

  “Very well,” Jacob said and smiled like a kloth eyeballing a crippled deer. “Does anyone else have anything to add?” Minu looked right at Dram, sitting resplendent in his dress uniform, his skin almost as black as the jumpsuit. He returned her stare without comment, and Minu knew it was done. Two years of around the clock work, hours fighting almost everyone in power, huge amounts of credits pried from the hands of greedy politicians, and more than a few dead friends brought her here to this moment. And all of this pain, suffering, blood, sweat and tears was to create the soldiers. The soldiers were to be the weapon to defend the Tog, and mankind on their leasehold of Bellatrix. And now they were going to take it away from her and maybe her stars as well.

  “I would like to speak.” Minu turned and saw the Tog, P'ing, unfolding from where hse rested on a mat, silent for the entire three days of the hearings until now.

  Jacob looked stunned, completely dumbfounded. Minu doubted he would look more surprised if his left arm suddenly jumped off and ran around the room. The whole council shared his shocked expression, all except Dram who just kept his cool demeanor. “Of...of course, Concordia master,” Jacob said and bowed his head.

  “Minu Alma, offspring of Chriso Alma, your actions were not in keeping with the long established Concordian rules of warfare.”

  “That is correct,” Minu replied, the council gasping at her temerity. Minu just sat and waited. Besides, she didn't know how the damned chair worked and couldn't walk out if she wanted to. The doctors said a dozen more surgeries were in her future before she could walk again.

  “You took the required classes all our Chosen are submitted to,” hse said, not a question. One serpentine hand produced a tablet of the style the Tog preferred, slimmer and easier for them to wrap their long snakelike fingers around. Hse consulted the tablet for a second before continuing. “Your marks were exceptional in these classes, like every other training opportunity you took. It is noted in your transcripts that your instructors, even Tog instructors, found you 'precocious' and 'obsessed', not with how the Concordia wage war, but why it is done the way it has been done for time beyond memory.” Minu shrugged, not really caring if hse would understand the gesture. “After your training you began service and continued your learning of unconventional warfare measures. You have taken every class in military matters we provided as well as any your own world offers, from ancient human records of course, and when that was not enough you colluded with Chosen Pipson Leata to break into the Concordian Database here on Bellatrix and stole as much information as you could get away with.”

  “You did that?” Jacob roared in fury. “Have you any idea the repercussions of your damned action?”

  “I don't care,” Minu snarled, struggling to get to her feet and almost managing despite the frightened look Dr. Tasker gave her. The posture she was forced to adopt was a half slouching sitting position, far from comfortable but better than lying back in the mobile chair. “I was given a task, but not the tools needed to complete it. Damn you, I was going to succeed despite your obstructionist attitude!”

  “No matter what damage you did, no matter who died, no matter how much shame you brought onto the Chosen, and me?”

  “Shame? Damage? You egotistical son of a bitch, this isn't about you! It's about our species survival!” Jacob came to his feet instantly. “You just don't get it, do you? Except for the Tog and maybe the Rasa, everyone else could care less if we live or die! The ends, in this case, completely justify the means.” Jacob took a deep breath, his face bright red with rage. He looked ready to jump across the table at Minu and part of her wished he would, mangled legs or no mangled legs.

  “First Jacob,” P'ing said in hser emotionless voice, “you will cease your transcripts of this proceeding, strike my last comment, and clear the council chamber.”

  “Concordia master, please,” Jacob begged, the wind instantly going out of his sails, “this is a Chosen situation and we-”

  “Will do as I have ordered.”

  The council rose and departed; conversations and shouted arguments barely waiting until they were outside. Jacob almost needed to be dragged from the room by Dram who kept one massive hand on his shoulder at all times as they filed past Minu. As the young Chosen record keeper rose, P'ing reached over and relieved him of the tablet computer used for keeping the transcript. The young Chosen recording the events looked confused and reverent at the same time as he reluctantly gave up the device before walking out. Then the door closed and Minu was alone with P'ing for the second time in her life.

  “Resume your injured conveyance,” hse said and gestured at the hoverfield chair, “your wounds are not healed.”

  Minu sat as gracefully as she could, basically collapsing backwards into a heap. She didn't know whether to be excited or afraid, and settled for confused. Besides her legs throbbing, now her casted left arm felt like a missing tooth. The only thing in good shape was her cybernetic arm that was now fully repaired. “How long have you known about the data theft?”

  “Since the day it happened. Z'kal realized what was happening only a few moments after you started your intrusion. It is not the fir
st time Pipson made such an attempt.”

  “Then why were we allowed to take such a vast amount of data?”

  “Vast? You have less than you thought.” Minu looked down and wondered just how big the Concordian network really was. “I left very specific instructions with Z'kal concerning who was allowed to acquire forbidden information. Pipson was not on that list, however you were.”

  “So I was allowed to think we were stealing data?”

  “By Concordian law, you were stealing data; we simply did not employ our full abilities to stop you.” Minu looked dumbfounded. P'ing cocked hser heart shaped head and regarded Minu with unblinking huge eyes, so inhuman, so expressive in indefinable ways.

  “Why not just give us the damn data?”

  “That was against Concordian law, we are forbidden at this time to give you that information. You are young, and have not had your Awakening. We could see your genius growing; witness the innovations and ideas just under the surface. You needed more information, more tools to begin to truly develop into what we hoped for.”

  There's that same term the Tanam highborn used, Awakened. “What do you mean, what you hoped for?”

  “There is a lot you do not yet understand.”

  “Well maybe you can help me understand? Wouldn't I be a more useful servant to the Tog?”

  “More useful and more dangerous.” P'ing consulted the computer even though Minu knew there was nothing there that would effect this conversation. Did hse realize that hser last statement was caught by the translator and relayed? Minu fought against her emotions to stay as open to what she was hearing as possible, some part of her knowing that this was a pivotal moment in her life, she didn't want to miss a single nuance. “You must understand that I cannot tell you everything you want to know, even should I personally wish it.”