Extinction Wars: 02 - Planet Strike Read online

  Murad Bey’s eyes seemed to darken into jet-black gems. They shined as if wet, moist with ambition, I suppose. “Tell us more,” he purred.

  I gave him a lopsided grin. “Before you start, though, the Lokhars and I are coming to each of your freighters. We’re going to come in force and recruit the candidates. You’re all going to stay here as my guests for the moment. Now I’d rather do this in a friendly fashion with your cooperation, but I didn’t know if I can convince you in time, and that’s something we no longer have enough of.”

  “You’re threatening us?” Diana asked.

  I shook my head. “If it sounds like that, I’m sorry. I don’t mean it that way. I’m trying to give it to you straight. I need soldiers now and I can’t afford anyone trying to stop me.”

  “How does that share power?” she asked.

  “I want you to vote and chose a council of three members,” I said. “Each freighter gets a vote. In the divided freighters, you’ll have to figure out how to agree. If you can’t agree, if one of the divided freighter leaders vetoes things, that freighter gets no vote. The three-member council will work with me at first. After I’m gone, well, you’re on your own then. But you should have warships by then and the first automated factories.”

  “Do you have a constitution written up?” Diana asked.

  I almost laughed, but by pressing my lips together, I strangled the impulse. “It’s not going to be like that yet with written constitutions and all. We’re going to…to figure things out as we go along. Hey, we’re flying by the seat of our pants. The three-person council gives us something to work with. It’s a start.”

  “In other words, you still plan on making all the choices until you leave,” Diana said. “This is simply a way to cover the mailed fist.”

  “Maybe it seems like that to you now. I don’t mean it to be. We’re at war. In the Sigma Draconis system, I fought my way back to the battlejumper. I came back to the solar system and freed you. That means I’m going to make a few critical choices right now. But it’s not going to stay that way. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. That’s why we’re setting up a council. Besides, I’ll be going away soon. The council will have the power to run Earth and its new space fleet.”

  “Do you believe the Lokhars will keep their word?” Murad Bey asked.

  “If they want our help, they’d better,” I said.

  “Tell us more about this oracle,” Diana said.

  She was sharp. “I wish I knew more,” I said. “Look, there are a million things we could go over. But we simply don’t have the time. If you’re against this, tell me now.”

  Hard faces stared at me. No one spoke up. I don’t know if they knew a story about Saddam Hussein, but they must have instinctively understood such a thing.

  There had been a time when Saddam Hussein fought a savage war against the Iranians under Ayatollah Khomeini. It had been called the Iran-Iraqi War, and it had been a bloodbath with wave assaults and chemical bombardments. Ayatollah Khomeini said that Iraq had to rid itself of Saddam Hussein for there to be peace. That didn’t have much influence until the Iranians started winning. So Saddam asked his council of ministers if he should pretend to step down from power. One man had the courage to speak up. Saddam smiled and encouraged the man. The minister said, “Let us fool the Iranians, sir. We will put someone else in your place for a time, but it is simply a pretense.”

  “Yes, yes, this is very interesting,” Saddam said. “Come with me and tell me more.”

  The two men walked out of the room. Those in the chamber waited. A single shot rang out shortly, and Saddam returned to the council chamber with a smoking gun. No one else ever agreed that it would be a fine thing to trick the Iranians by pretending Saddam had stepped down from power.

  The freighter leaders must have realized I would kill anyone who outright fought against me. They were right. I would if I believed I had to.

  “Very well,” I said. “You had your chance to disagree with me. Now, in order to let you vote for exactly whom you want to, and for each of you to politic without my interference, my troopers and I are leaving. I’m providing food and there is a restroom past that door over there in back. Yes, there. You will remain here until you’ve made your choices.”

  “Where are you going?” Diana asked.

  “I have tasks to attend to,” I said. “Good luck, by the way. The human race is counting on you.”

  With that, I left, and my troopers left with me. We locked the hatch behind us, leaving the leaders in the cafeteria. I would not let them out until they had chosen three to lead. I suspected that would take some time. During that time, I had to solidify my position in the commando army-to-be.

  -13-

  I’d talked to the leaders. During that time Rollo, Dmitri, Ella and others went down to Diana’s freighter in Baja, California.

  They took thirty troopers with them and the three assault boats. Their task was to return with two thousand recruits.

  I learned there was some commotion with Diana’s people in the freighter, but not much. She’d trained them to think well of me. I’d chosen her freighter for several reasons. One, it was separate from the others. Two, it was grounded and people likely wanted off bad. Three, Diana trusted me after a fashion and I believed she’d taken my idea many months ago to heart. I’d told her to create a secret society whose goal was to defeat the aliens. Four, the majority of the passengers were Americans. Did I think Americans were better than everyone else? No, but Americans thought like me, and I needed a core group I could trust.

  The truth: people most easily trusted those like them. Many rail against the idea, but facts are facts. I didn’t have time for wish fulfillment.

  My troopers took over the freighter and set up an interviewing schedule. They searched for several qualities. One, I wanted independent operators. In other words, I wanted my people to weed out Diana’s plants. The troopers were my political strength in the situation, if you want to put it that way. Two, I wanted those who hated the aliens and desired payback. Three, I wanted soldiers who could take orders and finally, I desired those who could dream with me and thus would become loyal.

  It took a working day for the troopers to pick the two thousand and head up to the battlejumper. After Ella and Dmitri showed the recruits their quarters, I had a meeting with the remaining assault troopers.

  We met in a different cafeteria from the freighter leaders. This one stank of onions and a hint of rotten meat. No one had ever liked eating in this place. As I’d expected, the freighter chiefs still hadn’t chosen the three-person council. I got up before my one hundred and fifty-three troopers. I already missed those the sleepers had slain, and could have used them.

  “Okay,” I began. “Here’s the situation in a nutshell. We used to be Jelk slaves but we fought our way free. Now we’re starting over and already have an alliance with the Lokhars and hopefully soon with the Jade League. I think it’s time to use a different frame of reference than our so-called beast master gave us.”

  More than a few troopers nodded.

  “It’s up to us to save humanity from the Kargs,” I said. “If we fail, it is game over. Now, Claath called us legionaries and I suppose the Lokhars think it’s a fine name. But you know what, I spit on his slave name.” And I did spit right there in front of everyone.

  “I know legionaries were a Roman name,” I said. “They came from a proud people and they fought to defend a certain plot of ground. At this point, we don’t have a plot of ground anymore. Sure, I want to clean up the Earth and repopulate it. That’s a long-term goal. But right now, we have to take a leaf from the past.

  “What I’m saying is this. The greatest conqueror in Earth history was Genghis Khan. His Mongols swept over an incredible area, riding across degrees of longitude and latitude instead of just hundreds of miles. Some of you may not know this, but early in his career, fellow nomads made a slave of Genghis. In that way, he was like us. But he wouldn’t accept his slave yoke. Just
like us, he tore it off, and to make sure he and his were never slaves again, he became the greatest warrior the world has ever witnessed.

  “I’m telling you right now before all of you, we’re going to outdo Genghis Khan. We have to defeat the Kargs first, and we have to create a commando army. Well, we’re going to copy the greatest Earth warrior. Genghis Khan was a nomad and the Mongols were nomads. For a time, at least, we’re going to be nomads, too, traveling with the Lokhars.

  “I plan to steal several ideas from Genghis Khan’s bag of tricks. One thing he did was make an iron law called the Yassa. We’re going to have our own Yassa. One of its keys was never to leave one of your own men behind on the field of battle.

  “Look around you,” I said. “How many troopers do you see?”

  They looked around.

  “There’s not a whole heck of a lot of us left, are there?” I asked.

  “No,” Ella said.

  “That’s why some of you went and got us some recruits,” I said. “There are one hundred and fifty of us, and we’re going to be the kernel of one hundred thousand troopers. That means we need a few more. I want a guard, a core that I can trust with my life. Napoleon had his Old Guard. I have you.

  “We don’t have much time. The two thousand waiting recruits will get the first neuro-fibers and symbiotic suits. They’ll get immediate training by you.

  “Listen, each of you is going to get ten to twelve people. You’re going to be the sergeant of your ten. You’re going to train them to a fine pitch, and when they’re ready, Jen and the other nurses are going to operate and implant the fibers. We’ll feed them the same growth hormones and steroid-68, too. But here’s the critical thing. These recruits are going to be your brothers and sisters. You, and us, are going to live and die by how well we integrate.”

  They looked at me, and I don’t think that too many got it yet.

  “I spoke about changing our ranks,” I said. “We’re not legionaries anymore. We’re tossing out all the rankings. I don’t want to be like Jelk or Lokhars. Instead, we’re going to use Mongol rankings because I think that suits a raider and commando mentality better. The smallest group is the arban, the ten brothers and sisters. You will live and fight together, and look out for each other. You will be the eldest in your arban, leading them to victory.

  “Ten arbans will form a company called a zagun of one hundred troopers. Ten zaguns will form a mingan of one thousand. Dmitri will lead one mingan and Rollo will lead the other. Are there any questions so far?”

  Naturally, there were plenty, and I answered them the best I could.

  Afterward, Rollo, Ella, Dmitri and I went to see the new recruits. We’d try to put similar people together. We needed all the bonding we could get right now.

  Time passed in a blur. A thousand things needed doing, and it seemed as if everyone wanted me to either do or decide the things. After speaking to the two thousand recruits, I spoke to Doctor Sant. He wanted to know the extent of my progress. I wanted to know how the prince was doing with his negotiations with the Emperor. Neither of us left happy.

  I slept like Edison, a catnap here, a short siesta there. Jen gave me stims, but only if I promised that I wouldn’t take anymore without her knowledge. I agreed, and I kept my word. The more I worked, the more I realized delegation was critical. I needed Jen for a host of reasons. To be my personal doctor was high on the list.

  A hand shook me awake what must have been a day later and I found myself in the gym. I lay against a treadmill, with a towel around my neck.

  Ella squatted beside me. “You’re pushing yourself hard, Commander,” she said.

  I groaned, accepting a hot cup of concentrate from her. It tasted like chicken soup. In my younger days, I’d always kept a can or two around as my emergency medicine. When the chills of a cold or the aches of a flu hit, there was nothing quite like chicken soup.

  “The council is ready to see you,” she said.

  “Already?” I asked. “That was quick.”

  “Two days?” she asked.

  “It’s been that long?”

  Ella sighed, plopping onto her butt and sliding against the treadmill beside me. “I know you have a lot on your mind…”

  “What’s your question?” I asked, as I slurped chicken noodles.

  She raised an eyebrow. Ella had gotten leaner. Her cheeks proved it, with a slightly sucked-in look. I’d seen a video once with a woman with cheeks like that. I’d seen the flick at a bachelor party, and I’d never forgotten the porn star’s look.

  “Am I that transparent?” Ella asked.

  It took me a second to concentrate. “I know you, remember?”

  She smiled wistfully, and I had to look away. “I don’t think you do know me. I don’t think anyone really does.”

  “Not even Dmitri?” I asked.

  “No, he doesn’t really know me either…” Ella became reflective. I drank concentrate as she mulled something over. Finally, she began to speak again. “I grew up in Siberia, in the wilderness, really. My father was a miner, but he loved hunting more than anything else. He taught me to shoot. I was his only child, and I think he’d wanted a son.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “Do I bore you, Commander?”

  “Not at all,” I said. Not as long as I have some chicken soup to sip.

  “The loneliness of Siberia drove me to books. I read all the time. People called me a bookworm, but I devoured them, and thought of myself as a book-lion.”

  “I like that,” I said.

  “I thought you might. My father, he drank far too much. It is a Russian stereotype, but it has a great basis in fact. When he drank, he would preach to me and tell me about Mary, Jesus and Holy God. He would get angry then, and he struck me more than once. I knew then that God could not exist, not how my father told the stories. I read books about evolution and we would have terrible arguments. Finally, I left him and I left Siberia. Because I read so much, I had excellent grades. I went to school in Moscow. There, I excelled.”

  Ella Timoshenko laughed sourly. “Wouldn’t you know it that I was picked to go to Antarctica. That was an even lonelier place than Siberia. My superior told me he had picked me because I must know how to handle the cold and isolation. I should have refused the assignment.”

  “What’s troubling you, Ella?”

  “This oracle the Lokhars possess, the Forerunner artifact and the ideas about the Creator…I cannot accept any of them. There must be hard scientific evidence for each, instead of these alien myths.”

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  She glanced at me sidelong. “Do you believe in the Creator?”

  “I don’t think about it much, but yeah, I guess so.”

  “I do not,” she said, as she made a face. I wondered if she’d looked that way in front of her father. “It is a preposterous notion,” she added.

  “What do you think about the Kargs?”

  She drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around them. “I do not know enough yet to form an opinion.”

  “I know what you mean,” I said.

  She rested her chin on her knees, staring ahead. Finally, she asked, “Do you think we will survive the battle?”

  “The Lokhars don’t think so. But the Forerunner artifact vanished once. Why can’t it do it again, taking us with it?”

  “What caused the artifact to disappear from the Altair system?” Ella asked.

  I grinned at her. “That’s one of your assignments.”

  “Commander?”

  “You’re the nitpicker, Ella. You don’t accept something just because others tell you it’s so. I’m all for that. Observe, test and figure out. I want you alive once we reach the center of the portal planet. You’re going to have to make the artifact vanish for us, taking us along.”

  She bit her lower lip. It made her beautiful. “This is a daunting mission.”

  “What combat mission isn’t daunting?” I asked. “I was in Afghanistan. I used to crap my drawe
rs during a firefight.”

  “Truly?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.

  “Well…no,” I said, and I laughed.

  She laughed, too. I liked the sound.

  With a groan, I worked up to my feet. “Was there anything else?”

  “Yes. If you remember, I told you the council is ready to see you.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Here we go. Wish me luck.”

  “Luck,” she said. “But don’t you think you should shower first? I’m sorry to say this, Commander, but you have become ripe.”

  I plucked at my sweatshirt, still a little damp from the workout. “I want you to keep doing that,” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Telling me the truth,” I said. Then I yanked the towel from my neck and wadded it up, putting it under my left arm as I headed for the hatch.

  ***

  Twenty minutes, a shower and fresh clean clothes later, in the cafeteria, I sat down across from Murad Bey, Diana and a man named Loki. He was tall, chisel-chinned and had hard eyes like coal. Only when he smiled did that change, giving him an electric sense of charisma with his ultra-white teeth.

  The three of them looked better rested than I felt. I wonder how they’d managed that.

  “Where’s everyone else?” I asked.

  “They have returned to their freighters,” Murad Bey said. “Do you not remember giving the order?”

  I waved that aside. “You three finally garnered the most votes, did you?”

  “Diana had the most,” Loki said smoothly. He had a rich voice, very suave. I learned later that he’d been a Swedish businessman worth a cool billion before the end of the world. “Murad Bey had half her number and I squeaked by.”

  “Diana is the president then,” I said.

  Murad Bey scowled. The big Turk was good at it. Loki examined his manicured fingernails and Diana kept her face impassive.

  “What powers does the president possess?” Murad Bey asked.

  “She’s the spokeswoman,” I said. “She has two votes on issues. Each of you has one.”