Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) (36 page)

Brakin quickly broke the angry mood of the gathering
men. “Children, even the Beclin have trouble with them,” he said throwing his
hands in the air. The mood lightened and the men chuckled. The shelter quickly
filled with forty heavily armed Warriors. In short time they had the fire
roaring and the two moibla were roasting. Leather satchels of a bitter
fermented brew were passed around.

After feasting a large ring of men formed around a now
larger fire, the glowing embers were welcome and comforting against the bitter
cold. Brakin stood and addressed the group. The group fell silent in respect, a
sign he was already looked upon as Chief. “Thank you for coming. There is much
sadness with the death of many in our village. “We,” he said indicating
Url
, Teni and Sasra “have already revenged their spirits
with the death of a hunting party and the taking of a prisoner.”

One of the men in the ring stood up, “send the Beclin
his head. I’ll gladly prepare it,” he said drawing out a large knife and waving
it about.

“Yes,” agreed a small number of other men.

Brakin held up his hands and the group went silent
except for faint muttering between some of them. “We have made contact with the
Beclin and an exchange has been arranged for my daughter using the boy as
trade,” Brakin said pointing to the boy at the back of the cave.

“What about my sister and brother. They lie cold and
still, killed in their own beds. I seek vengeance as it is my right,” came as
an angry reply, there were many shouts of agreement.

“Kill the Beclin once and for all!” shouted many and
the mood of the group was going solid and dark. Brakin withdrew for a moment to
allow the group vent its anger; then took a pace forward and looked at each man
in turn around the fire.

In a quiet but sincere voice he spoke. “Which one of
you will bury my daughter at the Beclin village? You
Madry
,
maybe you
Arah
?” he said with a look of steel at the
two men in turn. Each man diverted his eyes. Brakin walked around the ring of
men quietly, the flames reflection danced across his face, highlighting his
beard and shining in his eyes like the fire itself.

“Revenge will be yours as it is your right. But who
among you will sacrifice another Shihone life for that satisfaction.” There was
silence. “But who among you will help me recover what is truly precious - the
life of a child!”

The group remained silent as each man reflected upon his
own feelings, and then almost as one they roared approval with many shouting
“Yes,” and “I will help, we’ll get your daughter back then we kill Beclin.”
Brakin smiled a brief smile and quickly organised the group. “We sleep now for
soon we trek to meet the Beclin. It is a short distance and if there is any
treachery,
seek
your revenge. If we recover my child
we come back here and have council to decide for each of us our destiny.

The men as a group felt satisfied. Brakin had done
well to unite many angry souls in a common cause. The days ahead will prove out
their unity and destiny.

Some men slept while some took turns on guard. The
weather was bleak with flurries and snow drifts forming but the wind had
dropped in its intensity which in itself was a relief for all the men. The
friendliness shown to the Beclin boy while in Brakin’s care was now gone. His
hands and feet were bound and the skin flap around his face securely tightly so
he could not shout. Two men accepted him as their responsibility and never left
his side.

The group was ready to leave and stood around the fire
eating a breakfast of reheated moibla and porridge made from ground seeds and
dried berries. Brakin split the men into four groups and one man from each huddled
close to Brakin as he drew a map in the smoothed out mud and slush at the
shelter’s entrance. “Our plan is simple. We meet the Beclin in an open area
with a hill to our back. We form square one hundred paces apart with two groups
at top of hill and two groups at the front, the rest as the trading party. When
the exchange is done the forward two groups will go to centre of two on the
hill and wait. If no treachery or attack we make new plan or withdraw back
here.” The men nodded agreement and went back to their groups.

Url
made his way through the groups of men to Brakin’s
side. “Sasra, Teni. We go Beclin village, wait close. You no message third
sleep, take prisoners, destroy much village.”

Brakin nodded and called over two experienced Warriors
to act as messengers to relay the result to
Url
of the
exchange with the Beclin. “Listen to
Url
, he’ll give
you instructions.”
Url
took the two over to Sasra and
Teni and explained what they were to do once they had the girl, and also what
was going to happen if there was treachery.

The time of the exchange was near. Brakin gave a
silent pledge to the spirits that he would again hold again his daughter before
many more sleeps.

---------

The Administrator stopped circling and Toormis stood
completely still. Neither spoke nor cared that both of them would die instantly
if either one fired.

The door into the room slid open and Torquay stood
silently in the doorway. He showed no emotion and surveyed the scene of the two
men aiming blasters at each other. He casually walked up to them but kept to
one side. “Sorry to interrupt but Cassy and I were trying to find the food
dispenser and possibly locate some tea. Do either of you know where they are...
Mmm
?”

The men remained motionless. “I see,” Torquay said,
“maybe later.” He backed away from the two men but something caught his
attention at the communication’s console. “Oh, by the way, what does that
blinking illuminator mean?” he said pointing.

The Administrator eyes flicked sideways momentarily
and he slowly took a pace backwards. “What colour?”

“Blue.” 

“Toormis that is my line to Space
Command.
Perhaps there is news of
Irrimus,” the Administrator said calmly. Toormis slowly lowered his blaster,
turned smartly and stormed from the room. The Administrator put away the mini
blaster he had taken from Toormis’s Starfighter back into his jacket. He
touched a few keys and looked at his arm console. “There is a food dispenser
next door in the recreation room. I assume it will have tea as well,” he told
Torquay with a faint flicker in his eyes. The defusing of the tension created
by the standoff between the Administrator and Toormis took a little time to
fade, but Torquay’s remarkable ability to calm others was beginning to be
appreciated by both the Administrator and reluctantly by Toormis. 

“What news of Irrimus?” Torquay asked.

“It’s been totally intervened by the Trigeals. Their
whole command structure eliminated and anyone of Irrimus origin is being
arrested or detained across the Confederacy,” the Administrator answered as he
got his arm console close to the communication’s console. It hummed with a new
message from his colleague in Space Command. Torquay moved closer and sat in
one of the chairs against the wall.

The Administrator read his message and he too sat
down, his eyes locked on his arm console. He then looked at Torquay and blinked
repeatedly. “A Confederate Battle Cruiser was lost with all hands.
Blown to oblivion by enemies unknown.
Rumour has it the
Trigeals were involved and some sort of alien craft was captured. The
Confederacy is on full invasion alert. Irrimus’s Space Fleet piloted by
androids has been deployed to classified border areas as first defence. It
appears we are at war, but we don’t yet know with
who
.”

Torquay closed his eyes and swayed his head slowly as
his mind accepted the data. One thing after another fell into place and a long
line of confusing information now made sense. He opened his eyes and looked at
the Administrator.

“What is it Torquay?” The Administrator asked, seeing
that the man had just realised something.

“The Trigeals are under attack. The Confederacy just
happens to be in the way or more precisely we are the first line of their
defence. It all makes sense now. Even the blind could see the Houses have been
building up their military strength. Many secret dealings and alliances have
been going on recently concerning new android pilots and memory deficient
systems planned against Trigealian mind scans. Everything pointed toward an
offensive against the Trigeals,” Torquay said and stood up.

“Never would I have suspected such a cunning deception
at such a galactic scale!” Torquay pronounced defiantly. “For decades the
Emperor, his Court and all the Great Houses of the Confederacy have created secret
agendas within secret agendas. Massive deceptions and alliances and controlled
conflicts so skilfully manipulated that we did nothing but build up massive
covert military organisations, all skilfully dedicated to developing
technologies to counter the Trigeals. All that newly developed technology and
ordinance that no one and I mean no one suspected was all created for the
benefit for the defence of the Trigeals themselves.
Brilliant,
simply brilliant!”
Torquay said marvelling at the deception of deceptions
being played out within the Confederacy.

“In other words
Drex
,” he
said now facing the Administrator who had stood up and was absorbing every word
Torquay spoke. “The Trigeals have created a scenario where they knew and wanted
the technological resources of the Confederacy to be covertly created to oppose
them. Their true enemy, whoever they, are already in this sector and I would
imagine have been monitoring our capabilities for quite some time. Any official
research in weaponry or our military capabilities would be known by them
already through even the most average of spy networks. So the Trigeals went
about being oppressive to force us into creating weapons to use against them.
This enemy of the Trigeals must have very similar capabilities and technology
as the Trigeals.” Torquay shuddered into silence; a dark thought grew in his
mind. “This Trigeal enemy has never made any advances through any system or
House to my knowledge to form any alliance against the Trigeals. I fear we as
humanoids are either a prise for them or worse, something to be eliminated as
creations of the Trigeals. I curse those beings with mind control capabilities,
each and every one of them have no idea that without compassion it all leads
down a very dark road.” Torquay paused and rubbed his beard. “I need a tea… you
coming?” he said calmly.

The Administrator agreed. He didn’t know what to say,
his arm console was humming but no calculation was forthcoming, this data was
like nothing he had ever considered.

Both men walked to the adjoining room and Torquay kept
talking. “The Trigeals knew all the time what was going on against them, they
even encouraged it, but many key personnel have disappeared over recent times.
We thought it was the Trigeals but apparently it wasn’t. There’s an unseen
player in this sector of the universe and they are probably acting now as we
are close to developing offensive weapons that can be used by the Trigeals
against them. Tell me Administrator; have any communication systems or more
specifically, T334 systems been compromised or taken off line or anything like
that recently?”

“Apart from our Earthman not that I’m… no wait,” the
Administrator said thinking hard and played with the buttons on his arm
console. “There was a White Priest intervention ordered by the Trigeals.
Something to do with the pilot transfers systems I believe well before the Johe
incident. Trigeal ships were briefly present. Nothing changed because of it
that I observed. That is all I know.”

“That is probably the beginning of the Priest’s
awareness of the Trigeal involvement with an alien enemy on a physical level.
The Priests were probably being involved by checking on any technical or
vulnerability issues.”

The Administrator rubbed his hands through his hair. Suddenly
he stared directly at Torquay. “Could all we have done been predicted by the
Trigeals?”

“You mean, are they aware of what we have done and the
Earthman?”

“Yes,” the Administrator answered.

“I thought about that and although you can never be sure
of anything with the Trigeals I believe no. It doesn’t favour them that we are
aware of a weakness in the T334 pilot transfer system. If that data were to
fall into alien hands though, the whole Confederacy along with the Trigeals
would fall or suddenly we would find ourselves with new masters!” Torquay said
but was reflecting upon his own words. The Administrator grimaced at the
thought of what a new master would be like that could defeat the Trigeals.