Guardians (Caretaker Chronicles Book 2) (40 page)

The safety plan for
the children was to take them to the church, where Reverend Hardy and others
would watch over them. Daniel put on his uniform and slipped his weapon into
its holster. He didn’t want to leave them, but he knew that he was fighting for
the glistening creatures he’d seen in the mine. They had saved him, and he hoped
he could repay them. He carried Nallie and held Merelda’s hand as they made
their way through the streets.

The church glowed
bright in the afternoon light, and he saw a flash of pale hair as he entered.
Zella was in her uniform, and she’d just seated her younger brother and sister
in the rows.

Daniel knelt by his
sisters. “Now you girls go over there with the Panderlins. I’m gonna be gone a
minute, but I’ll be back.” He hugged them and pointed them to their friends. Nallie
clung to him, wailing. Daniel clenched his teeth and disentangled himself,
handing the little girl off to Merelda. Merelda took her little sister’s hand
and pulled her to the bench beside Zella’s siblings. Nallie’s weeping followed
Daniel as he walked to the heavy doors of the church.

When he stepped out
of the church into the blinding afternoon light, he heard someone else sniffle.
Zella was leaning against the wall. Instinctively, Daniel took her in his arms.
She held him tightly, sobbing for a moment. He laid a hand over her braided hair.

“It’s okay. They’ll
be okay.”

“I’ve never seen
them so scared,” she said, pulling back and wiping her face. She searched his
eyes. “And I’m scared, too, Daniel.”

When he heard her
admit it, Daniel’s own fear washed over him. He nodded, unable to say it out
loud. Suddenly, something was clear to him.

“Zella,” he asked,
taking her hands in his, “will you stay with them?”

Her eyes widened. “What?
I—I’m supposed to report to the base with the volunteers.”

Daniel felt his
desperation deep in his soul. “Please, Zella. Please. I can’t go knowing that
there’s nobody to look after them. Especially if . . . you know,
I don’t come back. Please stay with my sisters. Take them and your brother and
sister back to the apartment. Take your weapon. Lock yourselves inside and I’ll
come back as soon as I can. You’ll have food there. And you’ll be together.”

The memory of the
Asgre in the mine flashed in his mind. He didn’t want Zella near them, found in
himself that there was room to take care of her, too. He tried to tell her.

“I don’t want
them—or you—out in these streets.” Involuntarily, they both glanced up, to the
slowly descending Asgre ship kilometers above the city.

She looked as if she
would protest again, but Daniel took her hands in his. His voice sounded small
as he said it again, “Please?”

He saw that it was
what she wanted, saw that he’d given her the option she needed. She threw her
arms around him and he drew enough strength from her embrace to let her go back
in the church as he descended the stairs and made his way to the base.

***

Looking down at Coriol, its windows glinting in
the afternoon sun, Reagan closed his eyes. He would have preferred to do this
in the West Desert, or, even better, in space, where the debris from their
battle would be propelled into the vast blackness instead of raining on the
citizens below. He hoped they were taking seriously the warnings to get to
shelter.

He checked his readouts. All was fine with his
six battleships:
Champion, Unity, Tenacious, Wisdom, Advocate,
and
Vigilant
.
Maybe five and a half, depending on how well the repairs on
Vigilant
held up.

He also checked the dozen company defense ships
sent by the seven companies. They were small and light, incredibly maneuverable
and well-enough armed, but they didn’t have RST and they couldn’t match the
Asgre ships for speed if something went wrong.

He needed them for their small size and their
ability to get under the Asgre ships unnoticed. Each had been equipped with
plasma torches that should be able to crack the cages open without hurting the
Vala if they were in their sleeping state. Aemon had been sure that the Asgre
would keep the Vala in an induced sleep state in order to manipulate the ships
quickly in battle.

Reagan shuddered as he thought of the children in
the cages. Whether this worked or not, they had to try.

The company ships also had powerful missiles
which Reagan was counting on to deflect Asgre torpedoes from the battleships.

Each battleship moved into position flanked by
two smaller company ships darting about under it like fish under a great shark.

Captain Daring maneuvered
Champion
forward, toward Galo’s ship. He saw two ships drop and move toward the Karst Mountains.
That would be their ground troops. But Reagan had Sergeant Nile standing ready,
and the man was capable and adaptable.

Reagan felt the old rush of impending battle. This
one felt right. They weren’t fighting for territory or minerals. They were
fighting for living beings. And whatever the outcome, it had to be attempted.

He tried to hang onto that conviction as ship
after Asgre ship dropped out of orbit and into the atmosphere.

“Company ships standby,” he said.

“Company ships standing by, Admiral,” came the
reply.

“Battleships standby,” he said.

“Battleships standing by.”

“Remember to lead them out of the atmosphere if
you can.”

“Aye, Aye,” he heard on the comms.

Galo’s ship hung in the sky, nearly filling the
viewing window in front of Reagan. He could see, through one of the vertical
slits in the plating on the other ship, Galo standing on his bridge, at the
ready.

There was a long, breathless moment as the big
Asgre cruiser faced
Champion
in the clear Minean air.

And then Galo’s ship was falling, and three ships
behind it began strafing
Champion
with intense fire.

Reagan barked orders, cursing himself for not
seeing that Galo would go after the Vala children in the city while the fleet
was distracted in battle. Not only did that place the Vala children in danger,
it also endangered all of Coriol.

“Engage Asgre One!” he barked into his comms,
busy himself with the three ships that circled him, firing.

A glance at his screen showed all of his
battleships in the same position.

“Company ships
Tenacious I
and
Wisdom
I,
peel off and go after that ship. Do not let it reach Coriol. Repeat: Take
it down if you can!”

“Daring, get us out of here!” he barked, and felt
the ship angle and accelerate over the Asgre ships, out of the atmosphere and
into open space.

He checked on the company ships. They were firing
their missiles, and one was a solid hit. Galo’s big ship rocked sideways under
it, but Reagan didn’t see any sign of serious damage, just a hull hit.

The ship fired on them, though, and heavy shells
hit
Wisdom I
. The light company ship spun, freefalling down onto the
city below.

Reagan flinched as he saw it fall over the
housing district. The blood of the company ship crew, and whoever else had been
hurt, was on his hands. The company ships were too light to take on the big Cliprig.
He’d have to deal with it himself as soon as he could get a battleship free.

“
Tenacious I
, do you copy?”

“Copy, sir.”

He hit the comms to tell the ship to fall back,
but heard the sound of gunfire. Checking his screen, he saw that
Tenacious I
had been hit. It wobbled in the sky as it pursued the Asgre ship.

 “Tenacious I
,”
Reagan said, hearing the desperation in his own voice. “Fall back and get that
bird on the ground before you crash in someone’s front yard.”

Reagan was relieved to see the listing ship
retreat to a safe distance, setting down in the wide park near the spaceport,
but his stomach knotted as Galo’s ship cruised on toward the center of the
city, where Reagan knew the Vala children and thousands of humans crouched in
fear.

Champion
pitched under Reagan’s feet as Daring ran evasive maneuvers. Around him his
other ships appeared, rising from the atmosphere, followed closely by Asgre
ships. Suddenly, he felt a rumbling crash shake
Champion.
A big Asgre
skybarge had come up behind them and was employing e-links. “Prepare to be
boarded,” came a scratchy transmission over the comms system.

Reagan looked at Kaia. “What do we got, kid?” he
asked.

“I can run an impulse through the hull,” she
said. “It’ll heat us up, but should break the e-links.”

He nodded and felt the shock shake the ship.

As soon as he felt it, he snapped, “Daring, warp
us!”

The ship was suddenly in open space behind the
Asgre ships.

“Fire!” Reagan shouted, watching with
satisfaction as a rain of shells launched from
Champion
’s guns and lit
up the Asgre ship.

At least one hit landed well. The red exhaust
from the right engine sputtered and died, and as the ship tried to accelerate
it could manage no more than a lazy circle.

“Take out that other engine and engage the next
ship.” Reagan was pleased to see this and several other of the ships floating
listlessly in space. These were skybarges, and though well-armed, they were not
designed for battle.

Ethan pulled the hovercar in front of the cottage
and burst in, expecting to find his family and the Vala children huddling
inside.

But the cottage was empty.

He dialed Aria’s number on the missive and heard
it jingling in the next room. Wherever she had gone, she’d gone without it.
Ethan thought about going after her.

But there was a plan. In the event of an attack,
she was to get the children to the Coriol Defense Headquarters.

Ethan pulled on his Coriol Defense Volunteer
uniform and picked up his weapon. He would go to the rendezvous point at
headquarters and join the ground troops. Maybe Aria was already there. The
streets were mostly abandoned, and he felt the press of gravity as he
accelerated the hovercar through the streets.

 Far above the city hung the Asgre Cliprig that
he’d seen from the warehouse—where less than an hour ago, he had killed a man. Ethan
shook the thought from his mind. The Cliprig was hovering over the city,
scanning, he was sure. And the children, wherever they were, were no longer
sheltered in the Karst Mountains, so impenetrable by the Asgre sensors. They
were exposed, somewhere in the city.

He asked at the command center about Aria.
Reverend Hardy had called in and said she was with him and Luis, and they were
all going to make their way to the Headquarters. He felt better about that.

Focusing on what he needed to do now, he joined
the restless group of men and women who were gathered around Sergeant Nile, the
commander of the Coriol Defense Troops and now the Coriol Defense Volunteers,
as well. The afternoon air hung hot around them, and the armored uniforms made
the press of the humidity worse. He looked around. Many of his friends were
here. Ndaiye and Traore stepped next to him, throwing their arms around his
shoulders, and Yi Zhe caught his eye from the edge of the group where he stood
quiet and calm. He saw Aria’s young miner friend, Daniel, shifting nervously in
the center of the group, holding his weapon in shaking hands.

Ethan waved, but Daniel’s gaze was fixed on a
spot at the other side of the group. Ethan glanced in that direction. Cyril
Gaynes stood at the edge, a smug smirk on his face.

Gaynes was not the volunteer type. What was he
doing here? Ethan watched him carefully, trying to determine his angle. It only
took moments for Gaynes to give himself away. While everyone else kept their
eyes on the Cliprig or joked nervously with each other, Gaynes was focused on
the weapons the Volunteers carried. He stared at them and sized up their
bearers. He was here to use the chaos as an opportunity to procure something he
could sell. Ethan suspected the man would regret that scheme soon enough.

Sergeant Nile was barking orders through the heat
rising off the sweltering liftstrip. He organized the troops into companies of
thirty, then platoons of ten.

As Ethan stepped into his platoon, a pair of
ships caught his attention. The Asgre crafts dropped down through the
atmosphere, skimming past the Cliprig and through the sky above the base. They
were not ordinary Asgre ships, though. In addition to the single small
navigator’s cage, they were draped with multiple huge cells, hanging from
chains around the ship like sinister necklaces.

“They’re not coming aground in the city,” Ethan
said, watching as the ships passed over. “They don’t care about humans. They’ve
found the Vala, and they’re going to get them.” Sergeant Nile stood watching
them, then turned.

“Admiral Reagan has left us with orders to
protect the Vala. Bryant!” Ethan stepped forward. “Do you know where they’re
going?”

Ethan nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Nile jerked his head toward the troop movers
across the airstrip. “Good. You help your pilot navigate. We’ll fall in behind
you! To the transports!” he barked, and the troops, military and civilian,
boarded. The transports flew low and fast, following the huge Asgre ships.

Ethan kept his eye on them. They flew past the
entrance to the cave. When the Asgre moved one of the ships over a great karst
peak, Ethan knew what was coming. A single missile fell to the peak like a drop
of water to a stalagmite. As it touched, the mountain shattered outward, shards
of rock as large as buildings hurtling in every direction. The transports
rocked in the concussion.

When the dust settled, he saw that the rubble had
been blown clear and laying exposed and open was the Flowstone Room. Of course.
The Vala’s sanctuary, impenetrable by the Asgre’s detection equipment and by
the Vala themselves. The Asgre had found the cave entrance, probably through
Saras’s help, but how had the Asgre known about the sanctuary?

A bitter taste filled Ethan’s mouth. Theo Talbot.
The Vala had shared too much with that snake, and Ethan had brought him to
them.

As the transports landed and the troops poured
out, Ethan looked again at the room, opened like an egg, its sparkling white
flowstone, etched with the symbols, gleaming in the raking light of the Asgre
ships above. The sacred feeling they had experienced while in the
cathedral-like room came flooding back, and Ethan cringed to see its beauty
laid bare. Huddled against the flowstone, barely visible from inside the
transports, were the cowering forms of the Vala.

The Asgre ships lowered great metal cages onto
the floor of the chamber. Asgre mercenaries were sliding down cables, and Ethan
knew that in moments the cages would be full of Vala, immobilized and silent at
the hands of their captors.

Ethan fought to focus. Nile’s voice sounded like
it was coming from somewhere else, very far away. “Trigon formation, soldiers!
Trigon formation!”

The trained troops sprung into action. Their
platoons grouped into the triangle formations that Ethan had seen them
practicing when he’d visited Reagan at the base. The volunteers had read about
the formation in their pamphlets, and they’d practiced just once since signing
up days ago. They clumsily made the formation in their platoons.

Ethan was surrounded by Ndaiye, Traore, Winn the
carpenter, and other volunteers. He glanced at the other platoons as they
worked to make the Trigon formation.

Ethan’s teeth clenched as he saw Daniel Rigo’s
platoon. Huddling in the middle was Cyril Gaynes, his former arrogance erased
by the horror around him.

Ethan tried to catch Daniel’s eye, to remind him
that as despicable as Gaynes was, they were, for the moment, all on the same
team. But Daniel’s smoldering gaze stayed fixed on the big man, and Ethan
recognized that whatever he had in mind, Gaynes had more than earned. Still,
Ethan knew now what it was like to take a human life, and he didn’t want that
for Daniel. If he could only get the boy’s attention—

 “Move in!” Nile shouted, and Ethan’s gaze was
drawn to the CDT company as they bunched and rushed forward to meet the Asgre
mercenaries. The Asgre saw them coming and formed a solid front line, putting
themselves between the oncoming troops and the massive cages.

The trained troops punched holes in the front
line. There were exchanges of gunfire and grappling. Ethan saw the first trigon
formation break through, spinning like a three pointed throwing star. The front
line closed behind them and they sprayed gunfire across the next line of Asgre.

Another CDT trigon platoon broke through, and
Ethan felt hope surge within him. It was his platoon’s turn, and the
volunteers, so many of them Ethan’s passengers, were no less committed, but
much less prepared. Their loose wedge formations moved in, but the Asgre sliced
through the formations, shattering them and leaving soldiers scattered and
fending for themselves. Winn, the carpenter, fell under a blow from an Asgre
weapon. Ethan moved to him and dragged him back, away from the lines. An open
gash gaped at the back of his neck and the hot, iron smell of blood tinged the
thick air.

Ethan set him against the shattered karst edge of
the Flowstone Room. “Hang on!” he called to him. “Medics are coming.”

Ethan looked up and saw the nearest volunteer
platoon struggling amid the many arms of the Asgre mercenaries. Daniel Rigo
fought furiously, using his weapon as a club. The Asgre in front of him fell,
but the mercenary that stepped behind him grasped Gaynes, viciously wrenching
the big man off his feet. Ethan heard the crack of bone as the grocer twisted
free and staggered a few steps before falling to his knees on the ground. The
mercenary advanced and Ethan took two steps toward them, realizing he would
never make it in time to help Gaynes.

A flash of movement caught his eye as Daniel
turned from the Asgre he’d just defeated and saw Gaynes. Daniel was close
enough to do something, but as Ethan watched the boy’s hatred for the cruel man
wash across his features he remembered the story about the scrip Gaynes had
tossed to bring Daniel to his knees in the store. He remembered the threats the
boy had told him about. Ethan closed his eyes briefly as the Asgre mercenary
stepped forward, and he listened for the blow that would end the big man’s
brutality.

But the blow didn’t come. When Ethan looked
again, Daniel stood over Gaynes, grappling with the mercenary. Grasping the
creature’s hand, he turned the long blades on its fingers back toward itself,
gouging the thick suit and bringing a cry of pain from the creature. As it
staggered away, Daniel reached for Gaynes, placing a shoulder under the injured
man’s arm, and dragged him toward the transports, where he handed Gaynes off to
a medic.

Ethan caught the young man’s arm as he strode
back toward the fray.

“You saved him,” Ethan said incredulously. “Why?”

“Because I’m not him,” Daniel said, “and I don’t
ever want to be.” Ethan watched him walk back toward what was left of his
platoon.

All around them, the volunteers were falling. The
medics rushed forward, staggering through the chaos under the weight of the
wounded. When Ethan looked back at the battle, he saw that the trained troops
had begun to struggle as well. Those that had broken through the line were now
surrounded by Asgre. The formations trying to break through were as quickly
being repelled by the line of Asgre mercenaries.

Sergeant Nile, observing from behind and sending
in new platoons as needed, swore.

“It should be working. The formation is strong!”

And it was. The point person of each trigon
formation faced off with an Asgre mercenary and was backed up by his platoon.
As the platoon waded into the swirling mass of Asgre, though, the Asgre
surrounded them, isolating them from the rest of their company. The aliens
seemed to gain more strength with every platoon Nile sent at them. Too many
were falling.

From behind him Ethan heard Yi Zhe’s voice
calling. He spun and leaned in as the master of balance and harmony put his
mouth to Ethan’s ear.

Yi Zhe talked rapidly. “This isn’t working. I
think I know what we need to do! We keep fighting as if the Asgre have read
The
Art of War
. They are not a human enemy, and the tactics we’ve developed to
defend against other humans are not working against them. We have to find a
more basic connection, and fight them through it.”

Ethan shook his head, not understanding. Around
him, the troops rushed in trigons to meet the Asgre, but they were driven back
and broken up again and again.

Yi Zhe grasped his shoulders, forcing Ethan to
focus on his words. “There are things that go beyond our minds. Basic elements
that we are surrounded by and composed of. We have to use those elements, find
our common ground with the Asgre. We cannot succeed unless we release our
predefined notions. These are aliens!” he shouted.

Ethan looked at Yi Zhe, fighting the urge to
dismiss his ideas. He had argued that all his passengers had a contribution to
make, had believed that days ago. Now, in this moment, could he trust Yi Zhe,
even though he did not understand his approach?

“What do you know about battle?” he asked,
feeling himself begging for confirmation.

“My teacher was a great master in war. He often
spoke of using the principles of balance and harmony in the War of the Seven
Countries before the United Earth Government was formed back on Earth. But our
enemies then were humans. We fought them as we have fought for thousands of
years.” Yi Zhe held Ethan’s shoulders, looking into his face. “I believe we can
use these principles to defeat these beings. I can help. I just need more
information about our enemy,” he said urgently. “Tell me what you know of the
Asgre home world!”

Ethan remembered what Aemon had told him during one
of their morning talks, and, though he didn’t know why it was important, he
told Yi Zhe what he could remember: that the Asgre came from a world of extreme
opposites: light and dark, hot and cold. That humans would die in an hour on
their planet.

“Those are the differences. Good.” Yi Zhe’s brow
furrowed. He seemed to be calculating. “Now, what is the same?” he demanded.

Ethan tried to recall. “I—I don’t know. I—” he
stopped, frustrated, then offered the only idea he had. “Their home planet has
water, like ours. But theirs has very little water. The Vala were always
thirsty there.”

Yi Zhe closed his eyes, then opened them. Ethan
watched as he focused intently on the mercenaries in the chaos around the room.
Yi Zhe was mumbling. Ethan turned his attention to them, as well. The mercenaries,
in their black suits, flew at the advancing platoons and the humans, in their
seemingly protected formations, advanced forward and were scattered as they met
the mass of Asgre.