Alien Alliance (57 page)

“You must be careful how you treat them and
guard them well. Mathew explained you have no knowledge of the
complicated legal relationship either. My suggestion is that we use
them to fly the ships. Then, as soon as we have enough Niseyen
pilots, we fly them on to one of the Niseyen planets, give them a
set of clothes and dump them. My reason for this is that they may
be a security risk, they could contact the Keulfyd. They could be
genuinely sorry for what they have done but we must not forget the
horrific thing these pilots did do. We cannot trust them.

I have much less worries about the two
medical personnel. I don’t see their contribution as being so bad.
They didn’t kill anyone. They would have had the same choice Az and
I did as I have spoken to them all and all were engaged in the same
war we were. Interesting isn’t it? The Keulfyd picked up an awful
lot of their mercenaries, pilots and support personnel from that
little skirmish. Az and I are now extremely suspicious that the
Keulfyd somehow tipped the balance in that war claiming as their
fee, personnel and slaves for this job and who knows what else.” He
sat down.

Sarah got up. “OK, who votes we use them
until they are replaced then dump them? All in favour?” She looked
around, “Against? Carried. Unanimous. Kaz, you tell them. That
hopefully will ensure their temporary loyalty. Oh, and they are not
allowed to return here, to Torroxell, as settlers, ever.” She sat
down.

Alan got up. “We need to sort out what to do
with the survivors. Numbers and location unknown.”

Az stood up. “There is a fee generally paid
to take survivors to the nearest safe planet. When I mentioned this
to Sarah she didn’t like the idea. So, since we will have a lot of
spare room in the return journeys, I suggest we take them to
whichever Niseyen world we are going to next and hand them all over
to their respective embassies or compatriots. No fee. But they will
have to wait. They also could be a security risk. We are way
outnumbered. I suggest they leave on the ships that come here from
Niseyen worlds and will be returning empty but well crewed. The
Kepi I gather we trust?” He looked around to see nods, “OK, we’ll
arrange for them to be able to contact their ship and demand it
returns. Or perhaps we return them for free via a returning ship?
Their planet is sort of on the way to one of ours. Another
possibility is that I will see if any of them can fly and if so we
could fix a ship for them. I have also asked the Cats to help with
some Zeobani I found, and to search for others.

The prisoners are a problem. The best
solution here I would suggest is to hand them over to the Niseyen
military. Not your problem any more.”

“What will they do with them?’ asked
Sarah?

“Do you really want to know?” asked Kaz
softly.

Sarah shuddered. “But it would solve the
problem and would relieve the problem of feeding them and the
Priskya guarding them. They remain the highest security risk and
they still far outnumber us even though many have died.”

The decisions made, they couldn’t
immediately act on them. Small inconvenience of all the Torroxell
communication satellites blown up. But Sarah had been talking to Az
and to the Okme who knew a lot about communication systems.

“The Keulfyd spaceship communication system
can be used, but only ship to ship within the Fleet. This was so
any little discrete military operations, legal or otherwise, could
remain secret. Bit of a problem if someone in another Keulfyd
spaceship or planet heard something she/he shouldn’t have.
Apparently the Communication Officer was the only one, apart from
the Captain, who was authorized, or able, to send messages anywhere
except ship to ship and between these specific ships only. The
system is locking us out. To convert this, we would first have to
sort out how the system worked. Luckily, the Niseyen can. But not
the ones here. This took very good geeks. Probably very expensive
ones?” She looked at Kaz who nodded.

Sarah declared the meeting over for now but
again, everyone was to think of anything else that should be a
priority or problem or solution. Little Bea jumped up waving her
arms.

“I have an idea. Could we ask the Cats to
look after the animals until there are enough of us to do it?” She
walked over and touched one of them. She smiled, “She says they
will but can we hurry up and get People here to take over. The
animals are afraid of them so it will be difficult.” There was some
laughter as people pictured that. But it would solve that
problem.

“Hey the Cats can solve another problem,
please. We now have still this extremely good, safe, planet wide
communication system. Can the Cats please locate and monitor where
the survivors are and let us know which need help. There must be
some who can live off the land as we do. Maybe allocate someone to
co-ordinate this?” Mahmoud sat down to a round of applause. He
stood up again and bowed.

“Good idea, said Sarah. “You are now the
Survivors Co-ordinator.”

*

Things had all quietened down somewhat when
there was a huge commotion in the kitchen. Sarah ran through to
discover Stella and Kelly fair yelling at each other. Both were
also in tears. Sarah got between them and demanded silence. She got
it. Az, Kaz and Li were also there which gave Sarah a small
suspicion as to what was coming next. The girls had been talking.
She was right. She told everyone else to shut up and asked for Li
to explain.

“I Chose Az a while ago. Stella Chose Kaz a
few days ago. We all want to go to Petislay. To stay. Simone and
Dan and Helene want to come too. Kelly is pretty upset but it was
our decision and we discussed it and thought it through. Well first
Stella and me…

“Did you know Li wanted to Choose Az?” Kelly
demanded of Stella.

“Yes”.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it was none of your business and I
approved.”

Sarah winced.

“And what about you? Was that none of my
business either?”

Stella could see the hurt in her mother’s
face. She blushed but looked defiant.

“Mum I love him. I can’t stand the thought
of being apart. I just grew up in an awful hurry I guess. He’s not
like any boy I’ve met before. He’s not like Terran men. This was my
idea.” She paused and looked at her mother.

“For Li, she was in such pain. Az is so good
to her and he really loves her. She needs that. She needs someone
to belong to. She needs a family. Az says his parents will love her
as a daughter. Her reaction to her parents being killed was that
she wanted a family immediately to replace the one she lost. And a
safe place to bring children up. I want the same thing. I want off
this planet and I don’t want to go to back home. I want to live. I
want my children to live. Earth is a nuclear time bomb. We all know
that. Torroxell could be attacked again at any time. I feel I’ve
done my bit. I’ve just turned 16 and I’ve been in a war and killed
People. I want to live. I want to live with Kaz. I want to be safe.
I want to live in peace. Is that so bad? I think it’s a very sane
decision, especially considering the alternatives. I’m so sick of
living in fear. Wondering when Armageddon will start. I guess being
brought up on an army base didn’t help. Kaz offered to take me to
Petislay as a refugee. He gave me a choice. I made it very clear to
him what I wanted. You can’t blame him. It was my decision. He
suggested we wait. He actually asked me what the hurry was. I
suspect he wanted to give me time to grow up. I decided I already
had.”

Kelly had been looking increasingly shocked.
She noticeably sagged. Sarah was shocked also at her knowledge that
this was a done deal. The girls were going. Kelly knew it too.

“Kelly,” said Kaz softly, “why don’t you
come too? You’d get a job easily. You’d actually be in a lot of
demand. We could all live together, at least at first. The girls
could do with your support, and it would help to have you
there.”

“You would want to live with your
mother-in-law?”

He grinned, “Yes, if you promise not to kill
me.”

“Kelly,” said a soft voice behind her. Kelly
turned around to see Mathew. “Bert and Ludmilla are staying. Why
don’t you go? The girls’ reaction is rather normal, both due to war
and due to the predicament of Earth. My father never thought we
would last this long without mutual annihilation. My grandfather
was astonished when we reached 1970. He thought that was a decade
he would never see. My father is old enough to remember the end of
the Cold War. I valued their opinions. It shook me. My father is a
very old man now. But if I were to give him the option, he would
leave Earth in a flash.

Also, I understand the Niseyen are in
trouble. You may be able to help. Your field I gather.” He left
leaving all of them looking after him in astonishment.

*

Later that evening Helkmid came in, looking
around. He was carrying a small box. He went over to Kelly and sat
down beside her. He handed her a container out of the box
explaining, “This is the Keulfyd virus. I am getting what you call
paranoid. I want you to take these vials and give them to Az to
take to the facility I have named on the side of the vials. The
Niseyen will want to know where Az got that name from. Please don’t
tell them. Develop amnesia. Please. I want to make sure that all my
work is not lost. I assume you can tell him how to store it
properly?”

Kelly nodded.

“Can you please set this up for him. It must
get to Petislay.”

Kelly looked at him, thinking. “Make up some
more for Mathew. We can replicate this on Terra.”

“How to do so is known?”

“Oh yes. I even know who to give it to.”

Helkmid looked at her and nodded. He went
back for more to give to Mathew but when he returned he couldn’t
find him. He gave the vial to Anne, explaining.

“Oh yes. Kelly is right. And I’m very sure
Mathew will either know where to take them or know who to ask.”
Anne took the vial in its little container and put it in her
pocket.

Helkmid left. This was good. The virus would
now be on three planets. Unfortunately, none were protected by
Defence Systems. He went back to his lab thinking. He then took
some more vials of the virus, deciding to grow some more. He split
what was left into two, putting some into a container to give more
to Mathew to take to Terra. That would be further away from here.
The rest, he decided to grow more of to replace what was going off
planet. He set up ideal growing systems, added the virus and went
back to the meeting. There should be significant growth by
tomorrow.

A few minutes later, the meeting restarted
as people sat down with a snack. There was a lot of discussion over
the next few hours. Sarah had found out more. She summed it up,
“Guess what folks? It we just knock off the Okme, Az and Kaz, we
will get their share of this planet. It’s legal too.” She laughed,
as did most of them as Az, Kaz and the Okme looked shocked and
apprehensive.

“Relax. You’re safe. The Okme had already
sorted out what they wanted. They knew the law but they did not
know if we would uphold it. They were aware that we would have two
extra bites of the pie if we knocked them and the Niseyen off. They
decided to shut up and not press their claim. But they did discuss
what they would ask for if we did uphold the Law. They just want
one of the smaller islands, to be officially theirs and the
apartments and facilities in every city that they are currently
renting, to be their freehold property plus the contents. Also, to
be exempt from any future taxes of any kind including rates. Okme
are well aware of planetary laws and how they can be misused to get
rid of People or heavily tax them. They are particularly wary of
rates, medical taxes and taxes on ‘medical facilities not part of
the planetary medical system.’

They also have another suggestion. They
realised, as did we, that we need to provision these ships and keep
them running. They have a suggestion. They will go with the
starships and treat people on the way back. Some people to be
treated can be charged in advance and the money used to provision
the ships. What they charge for a full treatment is staggering but
people will pay. I’ll bet they will too! In return for this, they
ask that after four years, they will be the owners of the Healing
Machines and all the equipment which was theirs and stolen by the
Keulfyd (and which now belongs to us). They also ask that we help
them move the equipment when they finally leave the ships and that
we do it carefully!”

“The Cats want the mountains and foothills
to be theirs but are willing to share so long as we behave. Share,
means we can go there but not buy, live on, or own anything in
their territory.

Human and Niseyen share the rest, equally.
No segregation to cause future potential problems.

The Cats have also decided they want to own
a city. They are interested in education and medical care. Owning
and renting out an educational city will give them a permanent
income. They stipulate that the city designated ‘theirs’ is to be
the first one to be staffed and operating. We are to organise it
for them and are not to start another one up until theirs is
functioning. They will then run it. With one of us as their front
person. They also want their own education and medical facilities
to be free. Once everything is up and running of course. The Okme
point out that free does not include their medical Healing
Machines. All agree this was assumed. Okme medical care is
separate.”

Sally was quickly writing this all down and
read it back. She wrote it by hand. She missed her notepad.

*

Stella went back into the kitchen where she
found her mother looking shattered. She put her arms around
her.

“When did you turn 16? How did you
know?”