Alien Alliance (17 page)

*

In the Officers Quarters, General Likasif
and her aide were going over the cleanup plan and working out the
logistics of dumping millions of creatures into the oceans.The aide
commented, “So far only a few percentage of the slaves have died in
cold sleep. The fresh ones are due in on the troop ships and will
be arriving later today.”

“Good. They will go in first while this lot
wakes up properly. There should be about 770,000 of the fresh ones.
Thirty-five percent of those awakening from cold sleep, on average,
will be very unfit but might be able to work after a few days. The
strongest ones will do the dumping and the weakest ones the looting
and packing up. About ten percent will be of no use at all and will
have to be dumped. Your job to see the trash is taken out.”

“Yes, General. Faced with the threat of
death it is truly amazing how many suddenly recover. Nothing like a
good incentive.” The two grinned at each other.

General Likasif carried on, “I calculate if
each slave can dump an average of 225 bodies in total, the cities
should be done and empty in twenty-five to twenty-nine days. Our
spies have surveyed the deepest areas of the oceans closest to each
city to find the deepest places to dump the bodies. We need to bury
the trash deep. Population estimates are no more than ninety to a
hundred million which is an easily achievable target. Should be
days left over for clearing out the loot as well. Of course that’s
average. Some of the bodies will take several slaves to lift them.
It is regrettable that some of the professionals in the cities will
be Keulfyd, especially medical staff. Oh well, can’t be helped.
Silly fools for coming here.”

She continued to go over her plan. “While
the bodies are being dumped the mercenaries guarding them will be
cataloguing booty. The slaves will next be used to remove the
valuable bigger items, then dumped. There are a large number of
buildings here that have already been designated as having valuable
contents, especially the huge numbers of Translators. Next, any
survivors or resistance will be dealt with. Our force of 3600 will
do that nicely given that this planet has no military organization
according to Intel. As a last resort, any serious resistance can
simply be gunned down by the planes or blasted from the starships.
Not that I really anticipate any effective resistance from the
cities but it has happened before. That would be a pity. We lose a
bonus for every city we have to destroy. I anticipate finishing
within thirty to forty days. We will leave as soon as the planet is
cleared.”

She was interrupted with a message and heard
from Slirtmif: “Your mercs can have a sleep in. The main population
of this world is fish.”

“What?”

“The owners are fish.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No. The owners are fish. It’s a marine
planet. Sixty percent of this planet is water and the owners are
fish. The 90 or so million extras are real but the indigenous
population are fish and there is no mention of how many. The
Ridianit just developed the planet.”

“Don’t like those bastards. Serve them
right. This will be a walkover!”

“Yeah. Thought you’d be pleased.”

Likasif realised that the fish would see the
bodies being dumped. Could this be a problem? Could these fish be
in the cities in water containers? She had seen such things. If so,
they could indeed be witnesses. Normally, all the indigenous
population would be wiped out in the main but she hadn’t
anticipated fish that could communicate. She hadn’t anticipated
fish!

“No one told me that! Idiots! I needed to
know that! Blast these security imbeciles. Paranoid fools. The gas
doesn’t work under water or where someone breathes bottled air or
air in a ship or plane. I anticipated those in ships. I’d planned
the satellites to take care of them if they try to escape off the
planet. But these fish could really be a problem. We have no way to
wipe out fish and leave the planet habitable.”

“Who will they tell? And how will they
identify us?”

“I don’t like loose ends.” Likasif went to
the computers and checked through the now unlocked data to see if
fish could be in the cities. With relief, she read that they
travelled in heavy containers on trolleys and were not
self-propelled. Someone would have to transport them and there
would be no one left alive to do so. Well, that was all right then.
They would just die in their containers so it didn’t matter what
they saw. Because the ones on land would indeed see who was in
charge. Most of the senior staff would be Keulfyd.

Slirtmif hadn’t thought of fish being on
land so tried to reassure her, “The Force’s ships and planes have
no identification on them so even if the fish in the oceans do see
them they cannot identify them. And many races have Flying
Fortresses. The majority of the Keulfyd stay on the ships and won’t
be seen and a polyglot of races will be seen on the ground. There
will even be some Keulfyd dumped with those killed in the
cities—unhappily, there is always some collateral damage. Some of
the Keulfyd among the attack force will be dumped at the end too,
among the others that will have outlived their usefulness, are
considered disposable or who have upset someone. Most of these will
be unaware of this little change to their retirement plans. If
their bodies are seen, that will throw suspicion off us,” he
reasoned.

Amused and somewhat relieved, mostly by what
she had just read, General Likasif continued her plans and
dismissed the fish. She had anticipated some opposition apart from
the cities. She had been told there was also an indigenous
population, numbers unknown, “wont be much of a problem.” Now she
understood the grin on the face of the spy that had told her that.
So now there wouldn’t be any problem. She forced her concentration
back to the job but remained uneasy. She had expected to wipe out
the indigenous population with the gas and was disconcerted that
she couldn’t. Why hadn’t they told her? She went back to her
plan.

“All incoming supply ships are about to be
warned off. The satellites will deal with that. Most of the further
out incoming ships will shut up and scram. Even if they do try to
give an alert, which they will be very aware could be very risky to
their health and well-being, given that the satellites will
promptly detect the message and chase them, it will take too long
for any force to organise and get here. But the jammers on the
satellites will fix most of that. It should be almost impossible
for a signal to get through and if it does, they will almost
certainly send any signal to the Patrol. What did you do about
them?”

“Their communication officers have been very
well paid to ignore and delete any message. This being the low
season, and the planet being not fully operational yet, there
should be enough satellites to deal with the estimated five to ten
thousand planes and ships in the air ferrying people and supplies
around, into and off the planet. The next security patrol ship is
not due for forty-five, maybe sixty days. It will regretfully
report the planet as abandoned.”

“Yes, and the buyer is ready with finance,
partners and security all waiting and will tender an offer to take
over the planet.” They both chuckled. She went on, “This helpful,
philanthropic buyer is all ready to rescue the planet and its poor
defeated original owners. Not to mention its creditors and
investors who will be screaming. Paying all of them off with a
healthy profit, instead of the loss they would be anticipating
after this, paying any Priskya debt and a huge deposit to the
Galactic Bank’s representative should do the trick. It will look
like a nice rescue of a poor pirated planet. Our race will get
another planet. We will get our booty and the booty of most of the
very unfortunate pilots, mercenaries and support staff that will
mysteriously disappear. Dead mouths don’t talk. We have buyers
waiting for the plunder too.”

Likasif loved the planning. Her ungainly
bulk shivered in anticipation. “Our twenty-sixth planet. Nice
climate, low gravity, rich in minerals, developed a bit, if a bit
remote. Nothing else in this area of space.”

Slirtmif was enthusiastic: “This planet has
been well set up. The infrastructure will support two hundred
million of us just as it is now. And its infrastructure is modular,
built to expand.”

“That’s typical of the Ridianit,” said
Likasif. “They are good planners, well organised, logical and sound
builders. Credit where it’s due. Nice of them,” she added.

*

A day later, Tyrid looked up as Lijfomid
undulated in and said.

“Any changes, any problems?”

“None. The troopships have arrived, all is
organized and ready.”

“Reports from the spies?”

“Reports from the ground indicate they
estimate the population at just over 90 million.”

“That’s good.”

“No sign of patrol ships?”

“One just left. Our information was
accurate.”

“It should be. It cost me enough! All is
organized?”

“Yes. The Communication Officer on the
patrol ship will destroy any incoming messages to the Patrol
regarding Torroxell. Half the money has been paid. The rest due on
successful completion of this action. Other Patrol vessels will do
likewise. Only the Communication Officers are involved.”

Lijfomid settled onto the floor by the
computers and the two relaxed and went over their plans. “What will
you do with the slaves?”

“Dump all of them. The booty is worth more
than what the slaves are worth and I can’t sell them due to the
security risk. Occasionally I have put some slaves into cold sleep
and reused them but not this time. The cost of feeding and cold
sleep is prohibitive and it will be a long trip back. I have no
other action planned.”

Tyrid had anticipated that. He thought, the
fool knows how to plan, delegate and how to choose good staff to do
the actual work. Laziness has its uses.

Lijfomid explained, “This cost me in Intel
and bribes. A huge investment but it will be lucrative. The lowest
time of the year for population, a good choice of planet, winter in
the most heavily populated areas means cold conditions for the
bodies with less chance of disease. The climate control will be
turned off as soon as we can which will lower the temperature and
the risk of disease from the millions of bodies. Plus it will
reduce the smell and the time taken to clean up. At the height of
the tourist, education and conference season, the Northern
Hemisphere has three to four times the current population. The
health sector is busy all year round. Most of the population are
service, education and health with a fair proportion of
construction, miners, retail, bureaucrats and politicians. Their
bad luck. Most would be on rotation. Few will be permanent
residents.”

Lijfomid felt well satisfied with this plan
and anticipated a massive reward. Both had invested a lot of their
own money in this venture but Lijfomid had somewhat more to invest.
He continued, “It should be worth a fortune for little risk, unlike
some of these jobs. No bloody Niseyen in charge on this planet.
That makes the job cheaper and lessens the risk considerably and
that pleases my financial backers.” He looked sharply at Tyrid.
“All is ready?”

“All is ready. The starship courses are
plotted, the pilots have their designations and are ready, the gas
is loaded, the local satellites are targeted, the
hunter/killer/communication satellites are ready to launch, the
Warn-Off is ready to be broadcast.”

“Start the Attack.”

Lijfomid watched in great satisfaction as
the alarm sounded, the lights flashed, broadcasts began, and the
hunter/killer/communication satellites were launched. He promptly
left the Bridge and headed for the dining room. Thirty minutes
later, the planes left the starships, five at a time, as the
starships passed over various cities. Each starship was allocated
18 cities and five days to accomplish the first stage.

Lijfomid, snack in one hand, was just
entering the Tactical Room as the planes launched. It should be
easy, he thought. He stayed off the bridge when it was busy. He
looked up at the Battle Holo which had switched on as the attack
began. The numbers of ships shot down were in red while all their
ships and satellites were green. He sat down next to the
Quartermaster and looked up at the Holo showing the planet as it
spun on its axis and the area of space around it. He looked at the
score. The red ship count was up to thirty-one already. For none of
theirs, of course. All red satellites were accounted for.

“This is going well,” he said to the
Quartermaster, watching the red count rise.

“Yes,” she said, “we achieved total
surprise. A few ships saw us, turned and fled. We got them all. My
satellites are busy justifying their considerable cost.”

They watched in companionable silence as the
satellite broadcasting the Warn-Off moved further and further away
from the planet as the satellites cleared the skies above. The
carnage was swift, the deaths fast, the satellites speedy and
efficient.

“Fewer planes than I allowed for. Satellites
sufficient in numbers to do the job,” she said in satisfaction.

“How long will you keep them up?”

“They will stay in orbit until recalled
which will be in about three weeks or when they run out of weaponry
or low on fuel, whichever occurs first. They will not be needed
once the task is reduced to the level that the three or four
orbiting Flying Fortresses can cope with. This area of space is not
well travelled, Torroxell being somewhat isolated. Another factor
that made its development recent. During the first few days, all
traffic will be trying to escape from the ground and easy to
detect. The bulk of the satellite’s work should be done in the
first twenty hours or so. There are so many of them that nothing
has a chance to escape them.”