Star Viking (Extinction Wars Book 3) (20 page)

The two attendants snapped up, staring at me.

Ella spun around, scowling. She put a finger in front of her lips.

Slowly, the tiger stirred. Maybe squirmed would be a better word.

I didn’t like this place. It made me wonder what the Lokhars would do to me if they managed to get their paws on me.

Ella moved to the attendants, whispering something into their ears. Soon, the three of them went behind what looked like a lead curtain. The biggest attendant reappeared and drew it aside. Ella and the woman attendant pushed a big machine on wheels toward the tiger.

The machine looked like a big refrigerator. There were lights sparkling up and down one side. The two pushed the “refrigerator” near the tiger. Ella nodded. The woman attendant bent low, locking the wheels into place.

Ella opened a small hatch in the box. She withdrew what looked like a portable lamp a college student might have used over her desk in the dorm. She adjusted it so the shade aimed at the tiger. Returning to the refrigerator, she slid open a panel. Her fingers tapped against a pad.

A light clicked on under the shade. It centered a green dot on the tiger’s forehead.

Ella went to the shade, manually adjusting it. She moved the dot until it beamed between the tiger’s eyes.

His eyelids fluttered and he twitched and groaned.

The sound put goosebumps on my arms. I hated this place.

The green light continued to shine on his fur. Slowly, his eyelids fluttered more. He relaxed. I thought he would fall asleep. Instead, he practically slumped. The restraints held him in place, though.

With a forefinger, Ella motioned me nearer. I stepped beside her in front of the tiger. She pointed at his eyes. Bending low, putting my hands on my knees, I peered into his orbs. They were glazed as if he were hypnotized.

Ella picked up a stool and set it down to his left. The woman attendant took another stool, sitting to his right. She clipped leads to his nostrils and another pair to his furry ears.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t have any sympathy for the Lokhars. This tiger was Shi-Feng. The being would gladly give his life to explode others to death. Yet, I didn’t like to see anyone in such a situation. It seemed inhuman.

Remember the ninety-nine percent who died to the Lokhars. The only reason he’s strapped down like this is so mankind can climb out of oblivion
.

I sighed. Ruthlessness didn’t sound so noble now. It seemed grubby and dirty, which was exactly what it was.

Ella began to speak to the tiger. He didn’t respond right away. The last attendant stood behind the others. A big finger tapped a switch now and then. It sent shocks to the Lokhar, jerking his furry head. He yowled more than once, sounding like a wet cat.

Finally, the tiger began to answer Ella’s questions. He did it haltingly, with many stubborn moments of silence. I stayed, forcing myself to witness this.

Later, I sat with Ella in a side room. I felt soiled.

“Is that what you did to Doctor Sant?” I asked.

Ella stared at me. We sat at a big table with snacks and drinks to the side. Neither of us ate or drank anything.

“Do you really want to know the answer?” she finally asked me.

My stomach tightened a little more. I shook my head.

Ella’s nostrils flared. Her mouth grew firm. She nodded.

“This is a dirty business,” I said.

“Is your killing any better than what I do down here?” she asked.

I wanted to tell her yes.

“You leave people dead, Creed. You have no compunction slaughtering Lokhars. I’m merely drawing out some information. Afterward, they’re very much alive. How can what I’m doing down here be worse than what you do in the open?”

“Easy,” I said. “It’s called the Golden Rule.”

“He who has the gold makes the rules?” she asked. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“I’m talking about the other Golden Rule,” I said. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

“So you’d like to be gut-shot on a battlefield?” she asked.

“I don’t mind dying a warrior’s death,” I said. “Getting mind-raped in a dungeon, no, not so much.”

“Once you’re dead, life is over,” Ella said. “Those who live still have hope. No. Killing is worse than torture. It is an order of magnitude of difference. You’re squeamish because of the social sensibilities you’ve accepted. If you strip those away—”

“Strip those sensibilities away and you become a devil,” I said with heat.

A faint smile touched her lips. “You don’t realize how antiquated you are. The real wonder to me is how fossilized the aliens are in their mindsets. Our superior outlook allows us to survive where any other race would have already perished.”

I might have argued with her. In the end, I told myself this was her inner armor that allowed her to do these things. Humanity needed them done. Could I look down on her then for doing them?

“What do we know so far?” I asked.

Ella stared into my eyes half a second longer. Then she reached for a reader, tapping the screen, bringing up her notes.

“Ras Claw, the name of our Lokhar, believes himself a holy warrior in an ancient fraternity,” Ella began. “It appears the Shi-Feng have close ties with Purple Tamika. The sacred warriors help to keep the other Tamikas in check.”

“They assassinate other Lokhars?” I asked.

“Oh yes. I believe they concentrate on their own kind much more than against aliens.”

“Did the Emperor sanction the strike against me?” I asked.

“I wondered the same thing,” Ella said. “Ras Claw didn’t know. He suspects so, though.”

“That means the Purple Emperor would have already decided against us,” I said. “Our attack against Sanakaht didn’t really change anything then.”

“Exactly,” Ella said. “Along with that line of inquiry, I asked him about Admiral Saris. When Ras Claw heard about the Purple admiral taking our warships, he hissed in appreciation.”

“Do you know why?” I asked.

“I queried him on that. He surmises the Emperor set humanity up for failure. This would come in two varieties. Without any self-protection, a greedy species might attack us in order to gain the artifact. We would die under their guns. Or mankind would fail to protect the artifact, possibly letting it be destroyed. In that case, righteous fury would stoke the rest of the Jade League. Soon, races would demand our deaths as blood payment for our failure.”

I thought about that. “Yes. The Emperor would have kept his hands clean. In either of those cases he could say he’d kept his oath with us.”

“Yes,” Ella said.

I scowled. What a bastard. Even before the Sanakaht raid, Felix Rex Logos had plotted humanity’s destruction. Helping the Lokhars against Abaddon seven years ago had merely given us a little more time. It hadn’t bought us good faith from the Lokhars.”

“Does Ras Claw know why the Emperor hates humans so viciously?”

“No,” Ella said.

“You asked him?”

“Oh yes.”

I grabbed a package of spice sticks, but didn’t tear open the alien cellophane. Shaking my head, I tossed the package back among the other goodies.

“The Emperor wants to annihilate us,” I said. “I wonder if even now a fleet races toward the solar system.”

“According to Ras Claw, the Emperor will come in person. Felix Rex Logos will want to make an example of us.”

“No. I bet it’s more than that,” I said. “Doctor Sant began his metamorphosis here. If the Emperor annihilates us and retakes the artifact, won’t that negate Doctor Sant’s truths?”

“I’m not sure I follow you,” Ella said.

I reached out, taking the spice sticks again, opening the package. Putting one in my mouth like a cigar, I sucked on it thoughtfully.

“It seems simple enough,” I said. “If humanity becomes devilish, anything learned in our star system becomes suspect. That would mean Sant worked with devils. It would nullify his words and likely destroy any credibility Orange Tamika gained in stopping Abaddon and the Kargs.”

Ella blinked thoughtfully. “Yes, I see what you mean.”

“If the other alien races and the other Tamikas believe we’re vile, they’ll vie to destroy us. That means it won’t matter how big we become. We’ll be evil. Thus, we’re forced to enter the religious fray.”

“I doubt you’ll make a persuasive spokesman to the other aliens,” Ella said.

Taking the spice stick from my mouth, I pointed it at her. “Then we have to find ways to increase our persuasiveness.”

“How?”

“Well,” I asked, “did Ras Claw tell you anything useful in that regard?”

Pursing her lips, Ella peered at her reader. She began to tap the screen, scanning her notes. A few minutes later, she said, “Here’s something interesting.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“The Shi-Feng has an elite guard at Purple Tamika’s Hall of Honor.”

“So?” I said.

She looked up. “The Lokhars view the Shi-Feng as a holy order in much the same way as humans viewed monks during the Middle Ages.”

“Got it,” I said.

“A hall of honor is something else. According to Ras Claw, each Tamika has one.”

“So?”

“You’re looking for an edge,” Ella said. “To gain one, you need to know how Lokhars think. Here’s my point. Why would the Shi-Feng send an elite guard to the Purple Tamika Hall of Honor? They’re a holy order and they’ve sent their holiest to the hall. Maybe if you knew why, you’d know the Emperor’s thinking better.”

“I want to speak with Ras Claw,” I said.

“That could be a problem,” Ella said.

“Why? Is his mind damaged?”

“No,” Ella said, “at least not how you’re thinking. We worked him hard under the machine. He needs his rest before we put him under again.”

“Forget about the machine. I’ll talk to him one on one.”

“Old-fashioned persuasion techniques?” asked Ella.

I almost told her I wasn’t a torturer. I doubted she thought of herself as one, either. So it wouldn’t help if I implied she was.

“One on one,” I said. “It will be just the tiger and me sitting across a table. Sometimes, a straight talk is the best way to see how someone thinks.”

Ella appeared dubious. “Well, in that case, I can have him ready to speak in…hmm, ten hours.”

“Good,” I said. “It’s a date.”

“He’s more dangerous than you realize,” Ella told me.

She and I peered through a two-way mirror. The tiger in question—Ras Claw of the Shi-Feng—sat on a chair behind a table. It looked like an old-fashioned police interrogation room.

The tiger was taller than average, about seven and a half feet. He had wide shoulders and narrow hips, an athletic looking Lokhar specimen. A bare line in his stomach showed stiches where Zoe Artemis had sliced open his gut with a laser. He stared at the two-way mirror.

Ella pointed that out to me. “Whenever the door opens, he becomes tense. It’s as if he’s waiting for you.”

“I believe that once he realizes who you are in particular, the tiger will attempt to kill you.”

I nodded absently, realizing I could use that to my advantage.

“You’re not listening to me, Creed. The Lokhar is a killer, one of their fighting specialists. He’s a hand to hand expert.”

“So what?” I said.

Ella Timoshenko knew me better than most people did. She might have divined my thinking.

“Do you really believe you can defeat him that easily?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Sometimes, you’re not realistic,” Ella said. “With his internal bionics, he’s probably stronger than you are.”

“Do you even know how much I bench?”

“He weighs more, too,” she continued, ignoring me. “Worst of all, he has his claws.”

“I’m faster.”

“If that’s true,” Ella said, “it’s not by much.”

“He’s been drugged lately and badly cut. How good can his condition be?”

Ella waved her hand dismissively. “In his mind, we’ve dishonored him. Losing the stomach bomb—you can’t understand his shame. He’ll do just about anything to wipe away his humiliation. Assassinating humanity’s leader—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said. “I’m not humanity’s leader.”

“I know you keep giving the Earth Council spaceships. For some reason, you don’t like the idea that you’re the one who wins or loses it for us. But for good or bad, Creed, everyone knows you’re leading us to victory or to destruction.”

I swear I could feel the weight of that pushing down on my shoulders. I was just the chief Star Viking, though.

“Whatever you do,” Ella said, “don’t let him know who you are.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said.

“Are you really sure you want to go through with—”

“Enough already.” I motioned to the attendants to open the cell door.

“I wish you’d let me handcuff him first,” Ella said.

“Oh,” I said, “before I forget. There’s one thing. Whatever happens, don’t enter the room to help.”

Ella gave me a hard look.

“Those are my orders,” I said.

“What are you planning, Creed?”

“Watch through the mirror,” I said, “and you’ll find out.”

***

The bigger attendant opened the door, although the man stayed out of sight of the Shi-Feng assassin.

I stepped into the doorway, stopping to stare at the tiger.

He grew tense, glowering, but making no move to get up.

I moved into the room and listened to the door shut with a heavy
whomp
and a
click
. Finally, I put my hands on my hips.

“What’s your problem?” I asked in Lokhar.

His eyebrows rose in surprise. I don’t think he expected me to know his native tongue.

“I’m Commander Creed, the leader of the Forerunner Guardians. When I enter a room, you need to stand in respect.”

The tiger stiffened. I could almost hear Ella cursing outside the chamber. I wasn’t supposed to let the tiger know I was important. Well, I had a different agenda. This was warrior to warrior. Let him come at me if he wanted. I’d kick the stuffing out of him and earn his respect in the process.

I waited, but he remained seated.

“Fool,” I said. “Don’t you know that your Emperor once served in the Lokhar Fifth Legion?”

“I am not a fool,” he rumbled.

A normal person would have respected his obvious deadliness. I was anything but normal.

Laughing, I pointed at the shaven line on his belly. “Do Shi-Feng warriors normally lose their gut-bombs?”

The tiger moved with startling speed. With a roar, he hurled the table. It was heavy, made for abuse. Even so, the table splintered against the wall. Almost before the breaking sounds reached me, the tiger assassin leapt.

Ella had told me about his bionic strength, that he was stronger than me. Because the mechanical parts had been embedded so deeply in his muscles, to remove them would have killed him. Thus, we’d left them intact.

The juggernaut of a killer sailed at me. Titanium-tipped claws appeared out of his fingertips. He slashed as he landed, his eyes blazing rage.

I’d already decided to be elsewhere, spinning away like a galaxy-class kung-fu artist. The claws left streaks in the metal, ripping steel like tinfoil.

The tiger whirled around to face me. “You have erred, human. I am Shi-Feng.” The titanium tips of his right hand touched the fur of his chest. “Today you will learn what Shi-Feng means,” the tiger finished.

“I already know.”

He tilted his head as if questioning me.

“Jack squat,” I told him.

“You speak alien words. What do they mean?”

“That you won’t do a thing.”

His roar hurt my ears. All over his body, the fur stood on end. He launched himself, moving like a bullet.

It was the deadliest game of tag I’d ever played. I dodged, twisted, threw myself backward, forward and once smashed a right cross against his snout. That snapped his head back and made him stagger, giving me the opening to slide away from those claws.

Gingerly touching his nose, he hissed, “I do not understand. Why can’t I cut you?”

I turned my left side to him. The cloth showed rips with blood dripping from them. “You touched me,” I said. “If you keep trying, you might do it again.”

“You
want
me to attack you?”

“I get it now,” I said. “You’re one of those bright tiger boys, aren’t you?”

“Is this another insult?”

“Wow. You’re a real Einstein.”

He cocked his head.

“That means a smart human,” I said.

After that, Ras Claw kept coming. Soon, he panted so froth shot from his snout and blood trickled from the stitch-holes in his gut.

My chest heaved. But I was in better shape than him. I’d rested these past days and eaten well. He’d had his mind probed after sustaining heavy wounds.

“You will die,” he said.

“Don’t tell me about it. Show me. Otherwise, I’m going to believe all Shi-Feng are hopeless braggarts.”

He did try. His leaps had less force, and his swipes came more slowly than before.

Then I decided to go on the offensive. With carefully controlled attacks, I hit him in the face, in the chest and against his arms.

In retaliation, he slashed a single claw across my forehead, drawing blood that dripped into my eyes.

“You are a clever fighter,” he said. “But I am the superior warrior.”

Backing up, ripping off my shirt, I shredded it and bound my forehead with a strip. Then we fought some more. With a hammer blow, I broke his right wrist. Flipping him, I darted in fast and stomped on his left ankle, listening to it crunch.

He never made a sound. Slowly, he stood, balancing on his good one.

I panted with sweat covering my skin.

“You are a warrior,” he said grudgingly.

“I am the Forerunner Guardian of the artifact that has told me its name.”

He blinked several times, finally nodding. “I have seen the impossible. Yes. You
did
transfer with the artifact. Why has it done this for you? I cannot understand.”

“Because your Emperor has dishonored his name,” I said.

“I do not believe this.”

“Why then has an animal learned the name of the former Altair Object?”

“This is a mystery. I…suspect Kargs had a hand in it.”

“You are a fool who lost his bomb,” I said. “You know nothing.”

For the first time, I saw defeat in his eyes. He hung his head. “I have lost my honor,” he said. “Today an animal has defeated me in honorable combat.”

I believe that I’d finally reached the needed psychological moment. “Ras Claw,” I said, “you’re an even greater fool than I realized.”

He studied me, finally asking, “Why would you say this?”

“Because I’m not an animal,” I said. “I’m a man, superior to any Lokhar. The reason the artifact told me its name is that the machine of the First Ones realizes my superiority.”

He scowled. “This…this cannot be.”

“It is,” I said. “My victory proves my righteousness. That you have lost your honor proves you served a heretic.”

His head dipped lower. “I am shamed,” he whispered.

Stepping closer, I saw the movement of his eyes. Ah, Ras Claw had a final ploy in mind. I would have to let him try it before I could proceed with my plan.

“A new era has come to the galaxy,” I said boastfully. “The Lokhars are losing their place of privilege. That is why the Shi-Feng have failed to slay me.”

“Ah,” he said. “You must be right.

I took another step closer. Raising my arms, I looked away. He must not have realized I watched his reflection in the mirror.

With a howl of agony, Ras Claw launched himself at me a final time. My hands blurred as I shifted. Using his momentum, I flipped him hard, hurling him against a wall. He hit and crumpled to the floor. Then I rushed in, stomping on his other ankle until I heard a
crack
.

He groaned.

“Sleep, Ras Claw,” I said, moving in, hitting him as hard as I could in the head.

He slumped unconscious onto the floor.

***

When Ras Claw came to, he lay in a bed in a sealed chamber. Ella’s people had set his broken bones and put intravenous-tubes in his arms. A medical monitor watched over him, beeping from time to time with flashing lights.

At his first groan, I looked up from my chair. I’d been reading reports. Dmitri had spotted Starkien scouts in the Epsilon Indi system. That put them several jumps from the solar system.

What were the Starkiens doing so close to Earth? I had a good suspicion as to their motives. Too bad Dmitri couldn’t have told me their leader’s name. Was it Baba Gobo or someone else?

“You,” the tiger said in a soft voice. He glanced at the tubes in his arms, noticing the casts. “Why have you done this for me?”

“Because that’s what a warrior does,” I said.

“You claim warrior status?” he asked.

“Who’s lying in the bed, and who is sitting in the chair?”

He cocked his head in what appeared genuine puzzlement. “A warrior helps his defeated foe?”

“A warrior honors another warrior, particularly when the defeated foe gave the victor a worthy fight.”

Ras Claw watched me with an unblinking stare. “No. I have lost my honor. I am no longer a warrior.”

“Do you mean you did so by losing the bomb in your belly?”

“You speak crudely,” Ras Claw said, “but accurately.”

“I think you’re wrong. You fought valiantly. You have retained your honor.”

On the pillow, he moved his head from side to side. “I am bigger, faster and stronger than you are. I should have won.”

“There is no
should have
in a fight,” I said. “There is only what is. You are taller. I am both stronger and faster. More importantly, I am smarter than you are.”

“This may be true,” he said.

“Yet, I’m supposed to be an animal.”

Again, with his unblinking stare, the tiger watched me. “No. An animal would not have put his defeated foe in a hospital bed.”

“This may be true,” I said, mimicking his former words.

He stiffened, saying, “I must warn you, human. Once my bones mend, perhaps before that, I will attempt to kill you. If you come too close now, I will try it here.”

“The warning does you credit, Ras Claw of the Shi-Feng. I respect you more because of it.”

Frowning, he said, “You are not like the others who toy with my mind.”

“I am Commander Creed. I am the human who rode in the Forerunner artifact to bring ruin to Sanakaht.”

“This is something I do not understand,” he said. “Why should you have picked my planet to attack?”

“Because the Purple Tamika Emperor was in the star system,” I said.

“How could you have known he was there?”

“I am the one to ride the artifact. I know many things.”

His eyes widened as if with superstitious fear. Finally, he nodded. “You have ridden the artifact. It is a great mystery. Yet, who can speak against the one the artifact has chosen?”