Jesse's Starship 3: Joshua's Walls (32 page)
“No, I can use your wisdom.”
• • •
Josh sat at the front table next to Mike Sanders and studied the people entering the room. Hetzel was present along with ten of the highest-ranking members of the Alliance Assembly. Gremel and four other senior Elders from the Gracken government entered and Josh noticed Tindel follow them in and take a seat against the wall with the other military leaders. Josh noticed he sat away from the other officers. That didn’t bode well for what was coming.
He looked at Hetzel and saw him almost smiling. He looked at Mike and saw he was oblivious to what was coming. Tilly looked troubled. He smiled. She probably didn’t know but she suspected something was going on. He looked to his right and saw Prissy was also studying the attendees. She leaned over and whispered, “This doesn’t look good.”
“Just stay quiet and let them speak.” Prissy nodded and forced herself to smile.
• • •
After everyone was seated, Mike stood and said, “I want to welcome all of you to Sparta and to congratulate all of us for the victory over the Weg. All of us paid for it with hard effort and sacrifice.” The attendees began clapping and after a few moments Mike raised his arms and the room grew silent. “The Gracken have requested this meeting to discuss what happens next and I’ll turn the discussion over to Gremel.”
Gremel stood and said, “Actually, the Alliance requested this meeting as well.”
Mike’s eyes narrowed and he said, “I didn’t request this meeting.”
Gremel looked at Hetzel and he stood up, “You are no longer the Leader of the Assembly. A vote was taken and you were removed from office. I am now the Assembly’s Leader and I did request the meeting.”
Tilly looked at Hetzel and said, “I knew you were up to something.”
Hetzel shrugged, “You don’t have any idea how hard it’s been to keep you in the dark. As you husband has said many times, you don’t miss much.”
Mike leaned back in his chair and put his hand on Tilly’s arm and shook his head. Hetzel looked at him and lowered his gaze, “You don’t look surprised.”
Mike smiled, “Tilly’s game has taught me to recognize a snake when I see it.”
Hetzel’s expression hardened and he said, “The purpose of this meeting is to make sure your species understands what the structure will be now that the war is over.”
Mike looked at Hetzel, “I don’t need to understand anything. I no longer represent any one but myself. I’m simply here as an observer now.”
Hetzel turned to Josh and said, “You are going to disarm Sparta and Earth.” Josh stared at Hetzel and remained silent. “The Gracken and I both believe your species is too dangerous to be allowed to have advanced weapons.” Josh remained silent as he stared at Hetzel.
Hetzel looked at Gremel and the Elder said, “Many of my warriors have disagreed with this decision but I agree with the Alliance.” Gremel leaned back in his chair, “I must confess that initially, I didn’t think you would add much to our effort against the Weg. But over time, it became clear that our success was primarily due to your actions. It’s hard to admit it, but we believe you could defeat us if it came to a fight.”
Josh looked at Hetzel, “There’s more than just disarming, isn’t there.”
Hetzel was startled by the question and said, “You will pay reparations for the technology we built to update Earth and the weapons provided to you during the war.”
“Those weapons were used to defend your planets. You originally specified that you would provide them freely.”
Hetzel shrugged, “Things change.” Josh stared at Hetzel and he started to squirm. “We will also require that you send the scientists and engineers that have immigrated to Sparta back to the Alliance.”
Gremel jerked his head around to Hetzel, “You didn’t tell me anything about that.”
“It only started at the end of the war.”
“How many are here?”
“Too many for me to be comfortable with it.”
Mike looked at Josh, “It looks like there’s dissention in the ranks.”
Hetzel’s eyes narrowed and he said, “We and the Gracken are united in this.”
Josh said, “And what happens if we’re removed from this equation?”
“The Gracken have sworn peace between us.”
Josh smiled and said, “Things change.”
Hetzel turned to Gremel and the Elder said, “We will keep our word to our Alliance friends.”
Mike said, “As long as they remain friends.” Gremel looked at Mike and sneered.
Josh leaned back in his chair and said, “Just how are you going to impose your will on us? What if I don’t choose to do as you demand?”
“Then we’ll use our Q ships to destroy both of your planets.”
Josh blew out a breath and said, “So we’re back to that now?”
“Yes we are.”
“You forced us to disarm once and we will never do that again.” Josh paused and smiled, “And I suppose you’ll activate the self-destruct you put in our Q ships.”
Hetzel’s eyes narrowed. How did he know about that? “If you don’t return them to us today, we will.”
Josh smiled, “Our Q ships informed us about them more than two years ago and we had them removed.” Hetzel’s face turned dark. “You need not worry about us using them to destroy your planets.”
Hetzel and Gremel stared at Josh and after thirty seconds of absolute silence Gremel said, “Why would you not use them?”
“We don’t need them. However, just so you understand what the current situation is, I want you to have one of your Q ships in orbit above Sparta fire a beam at one of our cities.”
Hetzel looked at Josh like he was insane. Gremel’s eyes narrowed, “What will happen if he does?”
Josh smiled, “We will destroy it.”
Gremel looked at Tindel sitting against the wall and saw his ‘I told you so’ expression. He turned back to Hetzel and said, “You might as well do it.”
“Why?”
“Because if he can actually do it, we’re not the ones in control.”
Hetzel stared at Josh who continued to stare at him with a small smile. “You’re bluffing. You don’t think I’ll do it.” Josh remained silent and Hetzel pulled out his communicator, “Last chance.”
Josh said, “No, it’s your last chance.”
Hetzel sneered and said, “Fire on the outskirts of this city.”
The main wall monitor activated showing the Alliance Q ship in orbit above Sparta. Mike looked at Josh and saw he was holding the monitor’s control. He jerked his head back to the monitor just as the Q ship’s beam flashed toward the planet. The beam erupted into a brilliant golden flash in the upper atmosphere and the golden flash ran back along the beam to the Q ship. The Q ship’s force field instantly failed and the ship disappeared.
Gremel and Hetzel turned to Josh and he shrugged, “Halo must have been hungrier than I thought.”
They looked back at the monitor and saw a small wave of golden particles moving away from the site of the Q ship’s destruction back toward the planet. Tindel said from the wall, “You have the golden creatures from the Weg’s home world around your planet.” Josh looked at Tindel and nodded. “They took much longer to break through the force field last time.”
“He was undernourished and sick then. He’s healthy and very well nourished now.”
Gremel looked at Josh and said, “We’ve made a mistake, haven’t we?”
“You have no idea.”
Hetzel looked at Gremel and said, “Why do you say that?”
Gremel sighed, “If they could move that creature here, I’m going to assume they could put it around our planets.” Gremel looked at Hetzel, “What do you think the result would be?”
Hetzel looked stunned and Josh said, “Let me help you. You appear to be somewhat shaken by recent events. Once we put Halo above your planets, nothing with energy will be able to leave. Your populations will be held prisoner to the surface and will have to learn how to live on just their planet.”
“That would destroy us.”
“Pardon me. Isn’t that exactly what you planned to do to us?”
“You can’t do this!”
“Oh, we can do it.”
Gremel looked at Josh, “What are your terms?”
Josh shook his head, “Oh you Gracken; always the realists.”
Josh looked at Tindel, “You warned them not to do this, didn’t you?”
“Of course, but they refused to listen.”
“How many officers opposed them?”
“All of the Division and Fleet Commanders. They felt this was an outright betrayal of our word. You came to fight with us and our leaders turned on you. We all bear great shame for their actions.”
“Why did you come here?”
“My family is being held hostage to force me to be here.”
Josh turned to Gremel, “Your council of Elders is dissolved. They will be replaced by the Officers that opposed you.” Gremel started to disagree but saw Josh was no longer smiling. He took a deep breath and said, “Done.”
“Further, all of the Elders will move to the Alliance and live out their lives with their Alliance Friends.”
Gremel’s head fell and he knew this punishment was too severe. Being forced to live with the weaklings in the Alliance was more than a Warrior could bear.
Josh turned to Hetzel. Hetzel was frightened. Josh looked at him for a minute in silence and then said, “You will go back to the Alliance and rule it.”
“What?”
“We’re not going to punish you, though I should. You’re nothing more than greedy merchants and you deserve each other. It was your engineers and scientists that made our victory over the Weg possible. Josh looked at Prissy, “They also saved my life when we dug into that planet. I’m doing this for them…not the Alliance Leadership.”
“We can still assist you with our technology.”
“We no longer need you. Most of your good scientists and Engineers have moved here with their families. You don’t possess anything we can’t produce ourselves. I suspect that your economy will eventually collapse upon itself without an outside source of buyers.” Josh paused and said, “And if you’re ever attacked again…we will not come to save you.”
Josh heard in his mind, “Hey, see if you can get another one of those ships to fire at the planet again. That was incredible!”
Josh tried not to smile but couldn’t stop. Hetzel saw his smile and it scared him more than anything else Josh said. Josh turned to Gremel, “You have two days to be off your planet and in the Alliance.”
Gremel knew he was trapped and there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He nodded and left the room. Josh saw Tindel stand to leave and said, “Commander.” Tindel stopped and looked at him. “Make something special.” Tindel nodded and left the room.
Bart looked at Kim, “He is really something.”
“He’s like the ancient warrior he’s named after.”
“What?”
She looked up at the ceiling, “Its Joshua’s walls that protect us now.” Bart smiled and hugged her.
M
ike dropped the glass he was washing as the loud shot rang out. It shattered in the sink and he took another glass out of the cupboard. He filled it with tea and slowly walked out to the front porch. Tilly had the rifle lowered and he said, “You should warn me before you pull the trigger.”
“Mike, now you know I can never predict when a rattlesnake will raise its ugly head.”
“Did you hit it?”
“Of course, darling.”
Mike sat down in the rocking chair next to Tilly and handed her the glass of tea. She took it and took a sip. “Tilly, are you happy?”
“Why do you ask such a thing?”
“We’ve lived in the finest home in the universe with all the servants and fine foods the Alliance could offer. Now we’re here in our house in the desert. Are you happy?”
“I was never happy in that huge house, Mike.”
“You weren’t?”
“No. It’s not us. This is our home where we first fell in love and raised our children. This place holds my memories and my heart.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did many times but you were caught up in the game.” Mike looked out at the desert and remembered the Apache Helicopters coming to take him to Washington. So much had happened since then. Tilly smiled, “I can be happy pretty much anywhere as long as you are there. But this is the place that I’m the happiest.”
Mike smiled and took the rifle from in front of her. She closed her eyes waiting for his kiss and nearly jumped out of the chair as the rifle shot exploded. He looked at her and smiled, “Like you said, you never know when one will raise its ugly head.” Tilly punched him on the arm and leaned in to kiss him.
The End
The Annihilation Series:
Ashes of the Realm:
Lens of Time:
Star Rover-Running Out of Time
Star Chase
Mike’s War—
Sequel to Jesse’s Starship
Joshua’s Walls
Nemesis
Coming Soon
Nemesis
The Search for Orion
Audible.com
The Lost Prince
Love Conquers All
The Power of a Queen
A Rose Grows in weeds
Copyright © 2014 by Saxon Andrew. All rights reserved. Screen Writers Guild no. VQEA3E380432.
