Alien Alliance (41 page)

“I’ve never been graded. I was taught by
myself. I’ve only ever fought with my grandparents. Till
today.”

“I’m officially blue,” said Stella, “but I
gave up competition fighting and still kept learning. I wouldn’t be
brown yet though. The girls fought OK but some of the boys fought
dirty when I beat them. And one tried to get me later. From behind.
Mum dropped him,” she said proudly.

Slowly, everyone headed for other places
until only Az, Kaz and Li were left. By now it was well into night
time. Kaz yawned, and said,

“I’m off. See you tomorrow.”

Li stood up too, Az following as she headed
out the door. Once outside in the dark, he took her hand.

“I was so scared you wouldn’t like me any
more,” Li said softly.

Az put his arms around her, gently lifted
her chin up and kissed her. Li clung to him and passionately kissed
him back, standing on his feet and on tip toe. But after a few
minutes, Li heard Kelly calling for her.

“Damn,” she said. “She insists on checking
up on me and tucking me in with Stella.”

Az chuckled, “Think anyone will tell her who
you’ve been sleeping with lately?”

“No. Bet they wont dare!” She smiled and
headed off to Kelly who took her to Stella and kissed the two girls
goodnight.

After she left, the two started talking; Kaz
and Az being the main topics of conversation.

Stella was grumbling, “If I’d encouraged a
Terran boy like I have Kaz, he’d had had my knickers off by now.
Kaz is too much of a bloody gentleman.”

“I had that problem with Az. Try sleeping
with him. He’ll probably get the point. Az did,” said Li with a
wicked grin and waited for the spluttering reaction.

“You never did! How? The others would have
stopped you. You never did!”

“Did so. For the last several nights.
Problem was Helene or Jolene usually slept on the other side. Think
they were scared of Mum.”

“Shit! Hope no one tells Mum. Did you get up
to anything?”

“Just kissing. When the others were asleep.
I really like him. I think I love him. I don’t know what to
do.”

“I guess I’m not thinking that far ahead. We
could all be dead soon. I don’t want to die a virgin.”

“Yeah, me too. But what if we win? What
then?”

“Well I guess we stay here. We won’t be able
to get off the planet. The only spaceships that aren’t disabled are
those Keulfyd monsters and I don’t think we can fly them! We’ll
just have to make the best of it. We need to grab the best blokes
while the others are occupied with this bloody war. And there’s not
enough guys to go around.”

“Yeah, guess so. We’re not the only ones
with that idea though. I noticed Dan and Helene seemed to be gone
at the same time. Jolene noticed too. I heard her talking to
Mayling.”

“Really? Dan’s cute but he’s too old for us.
He’s bloody good looking though! Yummy body too. Oh, I forgot to
tell you. Mahmoud figured out how to calculate time and years.
Between Petislay and Earth and Torroxell. Az is 26, nearly 27 and
Kaz is 25. And I like Kaz way ahead of all the others.”

“Not Mahmoud or Donny?”

“Donny’s too gentle for me. I’d boss him
around. Kaz won’t let me. And I wouldn’t want to anyway. Mahmoud’s
nice but I think he’s way cleverer than me. He talks over my head
sometimes. I’m not used to that. And they’re both too young for me.
Kaz’s just right. I think we’d make real cute babies.”

“Is that possible?”

“Yeah, Mum and Helkmid said so. I
overheard.”

“Aren’t you going to have to wait though? In
China, I can get married when I turn 16 which I soon will be. The
marriage age was much younger until a few years ago. What about
America?”

“It varies. Most states are 18 but some are
16. New Zealand it’s 16. It’s still 16 in Britain too. I’ll be 16
soon. But this isn’t Terra. We can make our own rules here. Most of
the Arab states don’t have a set age. Any time you want to or your
parents arrange it for. Imagine having to marry someone you don’t
know! Imagine having to sleep with them! Yuk!”

“Yeah. Mahmoud says there is a lot of
pressure in India to set a marriage age but far too much resistance
from the population. Az said Niseyen can marry at 14 but it’s rare.
Most Niseyen think that’s too young but it is legal. And the girl
doesn’t need her parent’s permission. Whenever the girl Chooses.
Most girls marry young. Some while they’re still at school. It’s
acceptable. Just like it is in college for us.”

“So, how are we going to work this out with
the Niseyen? Well maybe not us but there will be contact in the
future.”

“Same way as on Earth. You have to accept
the rules of the country you go to but they have to accept yours
too. Mum reckoned once China set it at age 16 that half the world
had a set age. Most are 16 or less. Isn’t America and Canada the
only countries that are age 18?”

“Yeah. Still, Mum should be OK. I grew up in
a lot of different cultures not only in army bases but in some
boarding schools too. I got used to a lot of cultural differences.
I wonder if any Niseyen will come here to see if any of their
People survived. Someone should come here.”

“I hope it’s not the Keulfyd. I guess now
the Ridianit are gone, Torroxell will be ruled by the Priskya
again.”

“Yeah, if we win.”

“We have to win.”

“Mathew’s still worrying that they’ll try to
wipe the Priskya out. Did Kaz overhear anything?”

“No. He said no one said anything in front
of them in their own language. They didn’t even know who owned
them.”

“That’s gross. Being owned. It’s so wrong.”
She was silent, thinking for a few minutes, then realised Li was
asleep. Huh. Stella wished she could get to sleep so easily.

The next day was spent flat out, cleaning up
the planes, getting loads of fuel and hiding it, getting and hiding
stores of food, and getting a lot of supplies for the Kepis too.
Ali came back, frustrated and angry. The Kepis wouldn’t help,
wouldn’t fight and thought all the Terran preparation was a waste
of time. They were grateful for the food though. Kaz and Mahmoud
helped them with some of their communications equipment which had
broken down. They were grateful for that too.

The next morning, the 21
^st
day of
the War, the timetable was firmed up. The Keulfyd virus was ready
to go and needed to be released two nights from now.

The Priskya informed Mathew that the Keulfyd
force was still based in only six otherwise empty cities as the
grim task of emptying the cities of the dead was nearing completion
(except for those resisting and the survivors). The bad news was
that these six cities were spread out over the Northern Hemisphere,
were hours of flight time away and the virus had to be delivered on
the night’s of the 23
^rd
and the 24
^th
day.
This was to allow for those who were infected to pass the virus
onto the spaceships, three of which had remained in orbit.

The Keulfyd, according to Az and Kaz, worked
in shifts of varying hours or days according to their jobs and
status. The higher their status, the shorter their shift on the
ground. But it wouldn’t take many to spread the virus onto the
ships in orbit. As Helkmid explained,

“The purpose of the Checkers, which are at
the entrance to all worlds and spaceships, is to determine if a
Person is carrying a pathogen, parasite, poison or such. But the
limitation of this system is twofold. First, in this case, the
pathogen must be programmed into the Checker. The Checker must know
it. All known People have what you call beneficial bacteria or
similar organisms that live in them and are necessary, in a
symbiotic relationship. Others are what we call passengers but
cause no harm. Still others have parasites; some harmful, some not.
Some external parasites can be seen because they are of detectable
size. This virus is of course internal and probably too small for
the checkers to sense. It is unlikely to be programmed in. However
this is not crucial because secondly, in this case, the pathogen
must be at a concentration sufficient to be detectable.

So even if the pathogen is programmed in, it
will still get onto the ships. If it is not programmed in, it will
get on in greater numbers. The best outcome, is if the sick are
taken onto the ship to be looked after. That would be stupid but a
gift for us! The Keulfyd are not good at taking precautions. Their
barrier technique is shoddy, the doctors being some of the worst
offenders.

The Keulfyd are not careful as a Race. They
are risk takers. If they were careful, they would have a quarantine
entry system. This is where a detailed machine analysis is done,
including blood, urine, faeces, breath and skin sample tests at
each entry. That would catch this virus. The Keulfyd do not have
such a system. They cannot. They have slaves and no one will bother
to test them. Some of the slaves are Keulfyd who have broken laws
or upset someone so any disease could get on board. The logistics
are impossible. Their own system will now work against them.
Fitting isn’t it?”

The delivery mechanism was easy; the gas
spraying system already on the planes. Helkmid explained that Kaz
and Az just had to spray over the city.

“The virus is encapsulated but it has a soft
shell. It will survive for about a day and a night. In this time,
it could be inhaled, ingested or get in through a wound or mucous
membrane. One per Keulfyd would be enough. All will not be infected
but all will be affected!”

Mathew, Helkmid and Simone worked out the
schedule;

Day 23 and 24, Keulfyd virus, Kaz and Az by plane
via the spray system

Day 25 and 26, Keulfyd virus and the Trydshell and
Opodskell virus again via plane and the spray system.

Day 27 and 28, the parasites.

Day 29 the shellfish toxin. To be picked up by the
pilots themselves. Worryingly, this brilliant plan seemed now to be
in jeopardy as the pilots were spread out and possibly too far
apart.

The parasites were proving the greatest
problem. As Helkmid said,

“They cannot be dropped. They will not
survive impact. They must somehow be released on the ground.”

Landing the planes would be risky at night.
They would have to be landed somewhere away from the city. There
was much discussion with all aware of the problem and thinking of
solutions.

Ilse came up with the winner, “Land on the
night of the 26
^th
after delivering the virus. Land far
enough away not to be detected. Maybe on the 25
^th
. Drop
some people off. They’ll have to walk in. Pick them up at the same
place on 28
^th
.”

“Now how do we get into the city past their
detectors?” asked Li.

“Could I do it?” asked Bea to a shocked
silence. “Am I small enough not to set the alarms off?”

“Is she?” asked Mathew of Kaz and Az.

Az and Kaz had thought this through since
Bella had first asked the question and had come to a
conclusion.

“The detectors allow for small animals. That
there are very few here is irrelevant. It is the way they are
built. And there are the balloons. She is a lot smaller than the
smallest of the slaves and attacking force. Most of the slaves are
a lot bigger than us. I don’t know but I think she would not be
detected.”

“The alarms are audible aren’t they? She
would have time to run away?” asked Ilse, watching the looks on her
parents face with amusement.

“Me too,” said Bella who was even smaller
than Bea.

Bea didn’t know what to feel. She had
expected to be ticked off but they were considering this! She was
frightened but excited too.

Julia had her head in her hands. She quailed
at the potential for danger but had seen Kelly talked down by
Mathew. She knew her little Bea was in danger everywhere. He was
right. And Bea might be only six years old but she was precocious,
determined, stubborn and full of initiative as she had just
demonstrated. She was also brave; being the youngest child, with
two working parents, she had had to be all of these!

“If she does this we go with her,” said
Julia looking at Karl.

“Agreed,” said Mathew.

Rani looked near tears. Her Ali was back
again with the Kepis. One of the few here with military experience,
he was still trying to help them to organise a defence and to hide
and camouflage themselves since they still refused to fight. Now
her little Yogabala was supposed to be a guerrilla fighter. This
was crazy but no one else seemed to think so.

“Well,” said Mathew, “Now we just have the
counter attack to organise and that is relatively simple.” He
smiled. “My spies have managed to get some more weapons and are on
their way here with them. I don’t know what they are but I presume
Kaz and Az can teach us how to use them and we can practice. Our
collection is growing what with the haul from the planes and now
this. We don’t have many but we will get more from the armouries.
One condition though. None of the infiltrators spreading the
diseases are allowed weapons. The whole point of this tactic is
that the Keulfyd do not know they are actually under attack until
the last moment possible. Also, if you have no weapons, you will be
a lot more careful. The only safe way out is not to be caught.”

*

The day of 23
^rd
dawned. Kaz and
Az spent all morning planning, poring over the navigation system
and checking the planes. Helkmid and Simone supervised the loading
of the virus, suspended in liquid, into the tanks. Con, who had
grown up on a farm in Australia, rigged up a float valve in order
for Kaz and Az to determine how much virus solution they had left.
They were each going to try to spray two cities tonight. Li and
Stella had been helping with what they could.