Date Point 3 Years 2 Months After Vancouver
Cimbrean
Hrbrd had fled the palace as soon as he had heard the all too familiar sound of robotics followed by screams. There was something to be said for having survived one awful situation and that was that the experience could allow one to survive similar circumstances in future.
Not that he particularly wanted to re-experience near death and a harrowing run for safety, but it was better than actual death. You didn’t get to learn anything from that.
For the past four days he had kept to the small cave in the forest he had managed to find and seize from a small furry creature that had been storing a wonderful stockpile of nuts. The Allebenellin had not found him, and as he frequently heard sounds of continued violence he suspected that they were still skirmishing with the pirates.
The pirates hadn’t found him either, and that was also fine by Hrbrd. It wasn’t as though his life had improved by their entering it, and while the Allebenellin remained any regrouping would just make him a bigger target. Besides, the furry creature had given up on trying to reclaim its nuts, and Hrbrd wasn’t about to give up on his hard won spoils of war.
Then had come the day of the final battle, the sounds of coilguns firing through the atmosphere sent a loud rumble through the woodland that had terrified the wildlife. It had terrified Hrbrd as well, for that matter, since he was in a better position to understand the dangers it indicated than the small furry things were.
A ship had exploded, and then another, and then there was silence. Hrbrd had wondered what that had all meant – had even contemplated going back to see for himself – but an answer soon came.
More rolling thunder from the coilguns, but this time from the pirates. That had been surprising, since Hrbrd well knew from his final, rushed conversation with the Rauwryhr female that they were operating under advanced cloaking systems beyond even those used by the Hunters.
When Hrbrd had heard that, he knew for certain that at least the major points of the Heirarchy conspiracy theories were true. That they were a powerful organization operating in secret behind the Dominion, with enough influence to determine its actions. That they possessed advanced technology which they kept a few steps ahead of the curve. That they would do anything to stay in power.
That was why they had come for Hrbrd when he had begun to threaten that power. There couldn’t be any other explanation for why they had acted so openly. They had torn down his life and had turned him into a wanted criminal.
But with all of that done, he thought there had been no reason for them to give chase. That made no sense to him, until he began thinking about who else was on this planet with him.
A group of pirates who were pushing the Celzi Alliance interplanetary economy to the brink of collapse, a Rauwryhr weapons designer who had found a talent for taking human and standard weapons and combining them, and a Chehnasho and a Gaoian who were becoming skilled military leaders in their own right.
A den of famed criminals had seemed like a safe place for a man branded as such, but it now appeared that it was anything but. Hindsight and all that.
He was just considering how much longer the pirates could hold out when the forest was shadowed by the bulk of an Allebenellin troop ship rising towards the sky, its cloaking system apparently having suffered extensive damage.
It rose high under sustained fire, moving west towards the coast, and then it had been hit by the heaviest coilgun barrage Hrbrd had ever heard of being directed at a single vessel. It was destroyed in the first volley, but the guns did not stop, and the whole world seemed to shake with the endless roar of thunder.
He wasn’t sure what that meant until two Hunter vessels rose skyward. Then he realized that it had just been the impossible happening. The pirates had just beaten back what the Heirarchy had thrown at them and were about to take back the orbital defenses.
It was a victory.
And Hrbrd was terrified about what was to come.
+++++
Aratas, Celzi Heavy Cruiser, Far Reaches
Fleet Master Cizziz was not a stupid man. You did not become Fleet Master of the Alliance 5th Fleet if you were a simpleton.
Others might have bought into the story that the two humans had told him, but Cizziz was smarter than that. He had given them a story in return while he set about tapping his own sources to find out the truth of it, and had continued with the farcical interrogations until he had it all figured out. He had been hoping that they might also let something slip, and there was every possibility that they had – there was the accidental slip about ties to the Celzi leadership after all – but for the most part it had been nonsense mixed with lies, and all that revealed was extensive training in the arts of deception and confusion.
His adjutant had suggested simply jettisoning the lot of them – in so doing they would simultaneously rid themselves of a problem as well as comply with the Hunters’ ultimatum – but Cizziz hadn’t wanted to upset anybody important. The Human Russians – Cizziz wasn’t sure if they were subspecies or something even more unusual – may take offense at their potential allies dumping members of their world into space.
Then had come the news about Cavaras, a very interesting set of concerns that answered where the space station had come from and gave every suggestion that the recent spate of violence the planet had endured was linked to a pair of humans.
“What to do, Xova?” He asked, looking over to his adjutant. She was a pretty thing for one so capable, and it sometimes took all he had to remain professional. Taking her as a mate would cause an endless list of problems down the line that he may not be able to correct.
She looked up from her own work. “Fleet Master?”
“The humans, Xova. If my guess is accurate, they caused the Corti a great deal of trouble,” he said. “Ongoing trouble in fact.”
“That doesn’t mean they’re on our side, sir,” Xova replied. She preened herself absently, stroking her fine talons through her soft brown feathers; he wondered if she realized what that did to him.
“It does mean that they could be willing to help against these pirates,” he said. “If the appropriate reward was on offer.”
“Or threat,” she suggested. “Their son-“
“Will not be harmed by us, Xova,” he admonished her, although he remained pleased by her capacity to think of such things. “I do not particularly want to deal with angry humans, and I know you have read the same reports that I have.”
“Then perhaps honesty is in order?” she asked. “Give and you may receive in kind.”
He sighed. That had been the direction he had been considering, but it did not please him to freely show his brkti in the hope that they would show theirs. That was not bargaining from a position of strength, but he didn’t feel as though he had much choice.
Perhaps the opportunity to stack the brkti to his advantage would arrive during or after such a frank discussion. It was worth it if they could do to the pirates what they had done on Cavaras.
“Xova,” he said, “I want you to arrange a private discussion with the dominant human. It’s time for the leaders to talk business.”
+++++
Jennifer Delaney. Mid-twenties, sexually frustrated space-babe pirate queen, colonial governor, space debris impersonator and possible prisoner-slash-guest of the Celzi military. Today had started with food tablets, kisses and cuddles and hands being everywhere, and an ill timed question from Askit about the human growth cycle which she’d tried her best to explain with her mouth while her mind focused on something altogether.
Each day they had been interrogated poorly, although she did half wish they’d just take Askit in for a solitary chat so that she and Adrian could put two weeks of sexual frustration to an end. There was only so much groping she could handle before the walls of civilization broke down and she threw herself on him, observed by the Corti or otherwise, until the urge was finally satisfied.
And today when the soldiers had come for them, the had said only one would be needed. She just hadn’t expected it to be her.
Adrian had tried to interfere – that was him trying to protect her, and with his arm now fully healed he could easily have done so – until she had laid her hand on his shoulder and told him that everything would be fine. She hadn’t even been lying, or at least she didn’t think she had been, because thus far the weapons were still the standard kinetic pulse guns that slapped unpleasantly hard, unless you happened to be a muscular Australian soldier in which case it was more like minor skin irritation.
She wasn’t sure why that was, whether it was the drug that had changed them both, or his hard living, or if it was because he was a man or just plain old genetics. He didn’t know either, but when she’d slapped him hard on the arse one time he’d seemed to have felt it just fine.
She sat down across from Cizziz – or big bird as he was privately called – again for the umpteenth time and put everything out of her mind as best she could. Cizziz seemed to be under somewhat more stress from what she could tell, so it wasn’t going to be good news, but as the big guns hadn’t yet come out and he was sitting five feet away with no hope of surviving a sudden attack, she didn’t expect it was going to be the sort of news that ended with somebody dead.
“En-jay,” he said, greeting her. “I trust you are well?”
“Well enough, Fleet Master,” she replied politely. All of those customer service skills were finally coming in handy outside of her workplace. “You, however, seem troubled.” “I am,” he said, “so allow me to be candid. I know that you and Drian-Ay are not these ‘Uman-hays’ you claimed to be.”
Jen’s heart almost froze in her chest, and she quickly swallowed her fear to continue to seem comfortable. She’d been through too much horror to feel overwhelmed by sitting in a room full of things that couldn’t kill her.
“Go on,” she said. “I’m interested in seeing where you are going with this.”
“That species is apparently covered in blue hair,” Cizziz said matter-of-factly. “Your names belong to a pair of such creatures known to have stolen from the orbital factory in Irbzrk.”
Jen nearly laughed; of all the places she’d been expecting this conversation to go, that had not been one of them. “Your research is excellent, Fleet Master Cizziz,” she said, her lips twitching with the threat of breaking into a smile. “But that’s not the whole of it, is it?”
“No,” Cizziz replied. “But I do know all about Cavaras.”
She wasn’t as surprised by that revelation, but she raised an eyebrow anyway to let him think he’d shocked her. Adrian had suggested that particular technique to confuse him, and once again it seemed to work.
Cizziz clucked out his bird-laugh. “Surprised you, didn’t I? I know that you’re actually humans – please relax, the Celzi Alliance has entered into serious negotiations with the Russian subspecies of your kind – and we know that you caused quite the bot of chaos on Cavaras. So much so that I think it’s fair to say that you are enemies of the Directorate, hm?”
That had been a lot to process, and Jen sat back to properly do so. “Negotiations with the Russians?” she asked, trying to fathom the consequences if an agreement went ahead.
“They are already beginning to augment our forces,” he explained. “They will give us an edge we desperately need.”
There was, she decided, no way to really talk about this with anyone but another human, and even then only one that could understand the ramifications of an alliance. For the moment, however, there were other things to consider.
“You’re not afraid of the Hunters?” she asked. “If they find out we’re aboard…”
“Then they will be facing two humans provided with all the support we can give them,” Cizziz replied. “I hope you don’t have a problem with that? You do seem capable of causing a considerable amount of death and destruction if the reports are to be believed.”
“You’re looking very comfortable for someone who thinks that,” she said, gesturing to the handful of ill equipped guards.
“I believe that if you intended me to come to harm, then I would already have arrived,” he told her. “In fact, I even hope to employ you.”
“You want to employ us?” Jen asked, now fully unable to mask her shock. When she’d started this conversation she hadn’t expected it to turn into a job offer.
“Yes,” he said, amused once again. “You see there are some pirates I’d like you to help me take care of.”
+++++
Adrian had been pacing the pen since they’d taken her, glancing at the door at every sound and turning his eyes to his bare wrist so often that he resolved to, come hell or high water, get himself a new watch. Maybe a little present to himself for Christmas, whenever it was.
When Jen had finally returned he had barely restrained his desire to run over to her and swing her around in a bear hug. That was how he’d behaved when he had first started going out his wife – a fact he should probably inform Jen of in the near future, along with some other unhappy memories – and he was determined to be somewhat more restrained in his behavior this time around.
He realized upon reading her expression that she wouldn’t have been in the mood for it anyway. Trouble was brewing.
“I’ve got news,” she said as he and Askit arrived to meet her. “The first thing you should know is that I am in charge.”
“What!?” Adrian asked, more abruptly than he had intended, and received a very pointed glare in return. It wasn’t that he thought Jen couldn’t be in charge – she’d proven herself capable enough with running the pirating operation – but he’d become used to being the one in charge of everything.
“They know that we’re humans,” she said, holding up a hand to stop him from blurting out anything stupid. “And they know some of what happened on Cavaras. And they want to employ us.”
“Employ us?” he asked once she’d lowered her hand. “But you-“
“I know,” she interrupted, a sly smile making its way to her lips. “They want us to take down the human running the pirate base. They want us to take down Jennifer Delaney.”
“And you’ve accepted this job?” Askit asked. “Isn’t that going to be problematic to achieve?”
“I’ve accepted the job,” she said with a cheeky grin, “because it pays well and the Fleet Master is bending over backwards to get our help.”
Adrian stared at her in amazement. He had to admit he liked this confident, intelligent, slightly cocky Jen. More than the frail girl who’d only ever depended upon him. “I think I could kiss you.”
She smiled back and stepped into his embrace. “If you’re lucky I might even let you.”
Adrian stared down, fully captivated by her smiling face. “I’m feeling a little lucky.”
“Is that so, Mister Saunders,” she asked, pressing her body against him.
“Excuse me,” said Askit, “but I still don’t understand how we’re going to to achieve success.”
Adrian and Jen sighed together and turned to the intrusive Corti.
“We’re not achieving their success,” Jen explained. “We’re achieving mine.”
“And what is your goal?” Askit persisted.
“Same as always,” Jen told them. “To protect my people, to kill the Hunters, and to rob the absolute shit out of everyone else.”
+++++
Cimbrean
Chir growled softly in frustration, mourning Trycrur and all those lost to the invasion. It was victory, but it hardly felt like it, and with the Celzi fleet on its way they didn’t have enough time to conduct the proper rites.
He turned to Zripob. “Have we found anybody else?”
“Nobody,” Zripob replied grimly. “We can commence the orbital bombardment as soon as Darragh advises, but I expect we’ll be able to leave shortly after it gets dark.”
“Seems a shame,” Chir said. “All that hard work gone.”
“It isn’t gone,” Zripob rebuked, taking Chir by the shoulder. “We are hurt, yes. But we are not broken. We take what we can, given what’s left to take, and the rest we destroy. We start again, better equipped than we were when we left the Zhadersil, and then, Chir… we find who did this. We make them pay!”
Chir nodded slowly, his anger burning just as hot as Zripob’s, and it didn’t feel like that flame would ever die away. He didn’t want it to die, he wanted to stoke it and use it to burn away the lives of those Allebenellin bastards like they had done to so many here.
“Where do we go then?” he asked. “I am only familiar with the colonies and trading lanes in the area.”
Zripob smiled slyly. “That is where we have gone wrong,” he said. “We’ve gone from the Zhadersil, to Cimbrean, and we just kept working out of places that don’t move.”
“You’re thinking we should use some sort of battleship?” Chir asked. “That may be problematic to-“
“Not a battleship,” Zripob said, and there seemed to be a sense of slow-burning excitement inside of him. “We can make a base elsewhere.”
“Make a base?” Chir asked. “That is a ridiculous amount of work, Zripob! We don’t even have the materials to do it!”
Now Zripob’s smile had grown full. “That’s the clever bit, Chir. Don’t you recall all of those asteroid mines we raided? How many of them were abandoned? How many are still full of materials and would easily be turned into what we need?”
Chir considered this; it was true that there were many secret bases out there built inside of asteroid fields, but they were usually immobile. It wasn’t impossible though, not with everything they had available to them, or could steal, or even mine for that matter, although the idea of such a banal misuse of his soldiers effort was enough to set his teeth on edge.
That would also mean they’d never have to worry about being found by Alliance scouts again, or by whomever the Allebenellin were working for. It would take effort, but that was true of anything worth doing.
“You’re right,” he decided. “That’s our best option if we don’t want to go running back to the Dominion cowering like jhevek?”
Zripob chuckled. “Well, I know that I’m not going to be like any jhevek! And you can leave this one to me, Chir… I have some experience.”
“Do I want to know?”
The Chehnasho shook his head, and his smile turned cold. “No,” he said. “You don’t.”