Forging Zero (26 page)

It
wasn’t a question, but the Huouyt took it as one.  “They’re the bodyservants of
the Representatives of Congress--the only species that can kill a Dhasha in
true hand-to-hand combat.  They train as Sentinels for their entire lifetimes
before choosing their wards.  Ko-Na’leen has had over two hundred pledge to
him.  More than twice that of any Representative in a thousand turns.”

Joe’s
face twisted.  “They’re pricks.”

“You should
learn to guard your words,” the closest Huouyt warned.  “You never know when a
Jreet is around, and if they hear you, they will claim you so they can torment
you for years for your disrespect.”

Joe
recoiled.  “
Claim
me?  I’m a soldier.”

“Not
yet,” the one guarding the door replied.  “Right now you are fair game to any
ranking citizen who shows any interest in you.”

“
Wait
a minute!” Joe shouted.  “They recruited us for the
army.
  Not to be
some ball-less snake’s slave!”

“Then I
advise you watch your tongue,” the Huouyt said.  “But the question is moot,
anyway.  Ko-Na’leen has already claimed you.”

Joe’s
heart began hammering.  It sounded like they were about to take him from his
groundteam.  Permanently.

“Now
follow us, please.”  The Huouyt motioned toward the front of the building.

“No.” 
Joe took a step backwards, toward the wall.

The
Huouyt’s electric-blue eyes sharpened predatorily fast.  “You have no choice,
boy.”

“Actually,
he does,” Libby said from the bed.  “The rules say a Congressional citizen can
only claim recruits with no formal rank.”  She gestured at the triangle on
Joe’s chest.  “He’s not just a ground leader anymore.  He’s the squad leader
for Fourth Platoon.”

In that
moment, Joe could have kissed Libby’s feet.

To Joe,
the two Huouyt looked like owls that had suddenly been defeathered, dumped in
bleach, and electrocuted.  They stared at the silver symbol on his chest and
Joe could almost see their plans changing in their heads.  They glanced at each
other, obviously considering taking him anyway.

“Want
us to get Battlemaster Nebil?” Libby said, getting up.  “He’s sleeping in the
next room.  All I’d have to do is yell.”  She held the aliens’ eyes
unflinchingly.  Joe stared at her, wondering where she got the courage.  They
both knew Nebil couldn’t hear them if they shouted, not with the wall of
diamond separating them.

The
Huouyt ignored her as if she didn’t exist.  His accusing electric eyes were on
Joe, and he sounded angry.  “When did this happen?  You were a still ground
leader yesterday afternoon when Ko-Na’leen saw you.”

“Yesterday
evening,” Libby said.

“He
marches good,” Maggie added.

The
Huouyt just gave him a flat, almost sociopathic stare.  “Why?”

“Nebil
decided he liked the way my butt looked in cammies,” Joe said, crossing his
arms.  “If that’s all you wanted, you should leave.”

The
downy cilia moved in sudden, vicious waves upon the Huouyt’s body, then
suddenly relaxed.  “I was going to wait to tell you, but since you are being
difficult, I’ll tell you here.  Representative Ko-Na’leen has questions about
your age.  He believes you were wrongly enlisted.  He wants to send you home.”

Joe
tensed.  They wanted to send him home?

“You’re
lying,” Libby said.  “You just said he wanted to claim him as a slave.”

“For
his own good,” the closest Huouyt said.  “If it was discovered that he was here
illegally and then discharged, the Dhasha would take him before he even had a
chance to exit the proceedings.”

“Don’t
believe them, Joe,” Libby said, her unwavering gaze leveled on the Huouyt. 
“They’re lying.”

“Ko-Na’leen
is a believer in law, else he wouldn’t be on the Tribunal,” the closest alien
said to Joe, still ignoring Libby.  “If the Ooreiki broke the law when they
took you, it is his way to put things right.”

Joe
ached inside at the thought of seeing his family again.  He looked away.

“Joe!”
Libby said.  “They’re just trying to get you out of the barracks.”  She was
glaring at the aliens again, clearly waiting for Joe to back her up.

“I’ll
go,” Joe whispered.

Libby
flinched and turned to stare at Joe, looking stricken.

“What’s
going on?” Maggie asked, her small voice suddenly going high with worry.  She
was glancing from Joe to the aliens and back, fear in her eyes.  “What’s going
on, Joe?”

“Don’t
worry about it, Mag,” Joe said.  He moved toward the aliens, leaving his
groundmates staring after him in confusion.  “Let’s go.”  Behind him, he felt
Libby turn away.

The two
Huouyt quickly ushered Joe outside and to a very elaborate, palanquin-type
metal platform parked outside, giving him no chance to change his mind.  No
sooner had he climbed aboard their haauk then they were airborne and moving at
high speeds toward the civilian side of the city.

The
building they aimed for was taller than any of those nearby, two or three
hundred stories, easy.  “Only the First Citizen gets higher quarters,” the
pilot said proudly as they approached.  “It is a place of honor in the city.”

Joe
swallowed and closed his eyes.  He’d never been afraid of heights, but the vast
emptiness between him and the ground left his stomach weak and his skin sweaty.

The
craft settled in a round indentation on the roof of the building.  “This way,”
the Huouyt said, disembarking the platform and walking to a dark staircase cut
into the glossy black stone.

This
far up, the air was thinner and not as putrid.  Still, Joe followed quickly,
feeling as if the slightest gust of wind would whip him off the building and
into the empty space beyond.  As he stepped onto the staircase, Joe saw a brief
crimson flash of a large serpentine body down below before it was gone again.

His
guide saw it, too.  The Huouyt’s face remained utterly expressionless, but his
voice held irritation when he said, “One of the new Jreet trainees.  His
commander will hear of his carelessness.”

The
Huouyt made Joe lead the way down the narrow passage.  As Joe felt his way down
the glassy black stairway, Joe got the sinking feeling he had made a mistake. 
Libby’s look of betrayal haunted him, slowing his steps even further.

The
hallway ended abruptly in a door.  His guide pushed past him long enough to
open it, then motioned Joe inside.

Behind
the door, the first thing Joe noticed was the air.  It was fresh and full of
oxygen—such a relief that it took him a moment to realize his guide was locking
the door behind them.

Before
Joe could comment on it, though, his breath left him at the sight of the
Representative’s inner sanctum.  He had been expecting a nice chamber for a
member of the Tribunal, but the palace that unfolded in the hallway before him
left his mind reeling.  The black walls were alive with colorful tapestries,
and elegant carvings of alien objects decorated every niche.  Gold and silver
and other colorful metals had been inlaid into the perfectly smooth, glassy
floors in eye-boggling scenes of alien battles and scenic alien landscapes.  A
thirty-foot golden statue of the Huouyt who had examined Joe’s
kasja
stood in the center of the hall, with things looking like fishing worms jutting
from the slit above its eyes.

Everywhere,
tables, floors, and corners were all piled with statues, carvings, rugs,
paintings, and gemstone-encrusted vessels.  It was enough wealth, in one place,
to make a sultan or a pharaoh weep.  Joe could only stare.

“Ooreiki
are famous for their art,”
a translator from
across the room said. 
“Representatives will often debate for several turns
to obtain the right to visit an Ooreiki planet, simply for the gifts they
provide.”

Joe
turned toward the sound of the voice.

The
Huouyt with the cloth-of-gold cape stood in the corner, watching him, a small
golden translator dangling from his shimmering metal clothing.  His
cigar-shaped chest was fitted with a swath of silver cloth that looked as if it
weighed fifty pounds.  Worked into the front in alternating colors of metal
gleamed the symbol of the Tribunal—three red circles inside a silver ring,
surrounded by eight blue circles formed into two sides facing off against each
other.  Joe could
feel
the power radiating from this creature, and it
made his palms sweaty.

“
Forgive
the mess,”
Representative Na’leen said, giving the piles of treasure a
dismissive gesture.
  “My slaves are still sorting through my gifts.”

Joe
flinched at ‘slaves,’ but he couldn’t find the words to reply. 

The
alien behind Joe made a musical twitter and Representative Na’leen blinked his
big fishy eyes and responded in kind.  The two Huouyt then engaged in a long
string of whale sounds until the assistant suddenly turned and departed. 

When
the Representative turned on his translator again, he was not happy. 
“Ti’peth
says I can’t have you.”
 

Joe
stiffened.  “I’m a Squad Leader for Fourth Platoon.”

“You
must be very proud,”
Representative Na’leen said
dryly.

Joe
suddenly felt ashamed.  After trying so hard to win Nebil’s approval on the
grounds the evening before, he
had
been proud.  Proud of a pathetic
alien rank that had been given to him by an enemy army, an insignificant
skidmark on the seat of his brother’s underwear compared to the power of the
creature in front of him.

“You
would enjoy being in my service, Human.  Zol’jib and Ti’peth have gained much
status in society, much more than they would have as Eelorian draftees.”

“They
said you might be able to get me home.  That’s why I came.”

The
Huouyt gave him a long, completely unreadable stare. 
“Come with me,”
Representative Na’leen said. 

Joe
lost all sense of direction as the Huouyt led him down halls and passageways,
through a silken curtain to a small room with a hovering blue orb in the far
corner of the room.  As Joe drew close, he could feel the warmth emanating from
it and backed away, wary. 

“It’s
the heating element,”
Representative Na’leen
said. 
“They ban fire on this miserable planet.  Too many combustibles.”
 
Na’leen mounted a large black pedestal in the center of the room and immersed
himself in the pool of liquid it held, golden cloth cape and all, sloshing
waves over the side of the bowl. 
“What’s your name, Human?”

“Joe Dobbs.” 
Joe hadn’t intended to tell him, but something about the alien’s electric-blue
stare made him blurt out things he had meant to keep to himself.  .  It almost
felt like Representative Na’leen could already read his mind and was just
waiting to catch him in a lie.

Representative
Na’leen removed the golden translator and set it on the lip of the pool beside
him.  Then he sank into the pool, submersing himself completely.  The water
began to click and vibrate and the translator on the lip of the pool said,
“Come
up here where I can see you.”

Joe
climbed the ramp in trepidation, the tread of his boots catching on the ribs
carved into the black stone.  As soon as he was at the top, he recoiled.  Under
the water, jutting from the slit above the creature’s eyes, a blossom of
hundreds of little red worms wriggled around like something on a coral reef. 
Joe felt his stomach lurch and he backed up a step.

“Are
you hungry?”
  Still submersed, Representative
Na’leen shoved a bowl of small, gummy orange discs toward him along the lip of
the pool.  When Joe declined, the Huouyt plucked one from the pile and
delivered it to the wriggling worms protruding from his face.  The worms locked
around it and dragged the morsel deeper into the Representative’s body while
Joe watched in horror.

“Do
you know why you are here?”

Joe
tore his gaze away from the writhing worms.  He had to stare at Representative
Na’leen’s face a moment before he could remember.  “They said you might be able
to get me home.”

Na’leen
watched him. 
“The kasja you are wearing is an Ooreiki war medal.  Specifically
crafted for a battlemaster who survived the fight on Ubashin.  It is very
valuable to collectors, since so few Ooreiki actually survived that fight, almost
none of them of the rank of battlemaster or below.  Those that received them
guard them jealously, which is why I know you did not steal it.  The only two
Ubashin veterans in the city of Alishai happen to be in your Battalion.  Both
of them were watching me when I raised your sleeve.”
  Representative
Na’leen paused, his electric gaze boring into Joe’s skull. 
“Why did
Secondary Commander Kihgl give you his kasja, boy?”

“I
don’t know,” Joe said truthfully.

“He
said nothing when he gave it to you?” 

“He
said to—”  Joe cut himself off, realizing he didn’t want to involve
Battlemaster Nebil.  “He said it was to show his decision.”