Chapter 14

14

- Arelion -

The four captives look at each other. "If these weapon work, we can defeat."

"Are the guards Fresks?" Maeve asks in Interspeech.

"All twenty," they reply without hesitation.

"How do you think we should do this?"

I nod to myself, trying to hide a smile. That's what I would ask, too. Those men know the mine, and we don't. They will be able to tell us how to do this.

The captives talk among themselves for a while. Maeve quickly fills me in on what has been said.

That these men are Earthlings had already become apparent to me. I'm not thrilled about it. Certainly there's a danger that Maeve would feel closer to them than to me, to maybe pick them over me, to go away with them. It's natural for the female of a species to prefer her own. And I know her kind doesn't understand the meaning of the Mark, so that won't hold her back.

The Earthlings look up. "This how we would suggest doing…"

- - -

T he Fresk guards have foolishly spread themselves out through the mine, some standing alone and trying to not fall asleep, some in pairs. Guided by the four captives, we seek out each single guard, one after the other. I step out in front of the guard, wings spread, staring down at him and stealing absolutely all of his attention for a short moment. Then Sponz knocks him out from behind.

It works well for the first six. Sponz isn't too gentle with the Fresks, and I suspect one or two of them will never quite recover. But that's war.

It's the seventh that goes wrong. Just as I'm about to step out in front of the guard, I notice a captive is staring at me, too. And I stare back at the captive.

As the guard checks what that captive is looking at, he spots me in the shadows. I'm frozen for one short moment, my mind in turmoil.

The Fresk yells, a high-pitched bellow that resonates through the whole mine. I briefly reflect that Fresks were made for guard duty — their voices are like big alarm horns.

Sponz knocks the guard out, but the damage has been done. The yell is being taken up by more guards all over the mine.

"Someone will be coming soon," I tell everyone. "We don't have time to be nice to them. Use your guns. There are still thirteen guards left."

We run to a spot in the shadows where we can surprise any Fresk coming around the corner. We have given all the guns away to the captives we've rescued, and about twenty of them are now armed. We should be able to finish this.

But the guards are smarter than I thought.

"They're not coming," Maeve says tightly. "They may have trained for something like this."

"All they have to do is go to the guardhouse and lock themselves in," a captive says, his Interspeech better than my own. "We can't get out anyway, and all the food and water is in the guardhouse. If we want to live, we have to let them out. And then we're back where we started, except they will demand harder work and less rest as punishment."

"But now, the elevator works even without a Bululg to unlock it," I state. "We can just use it to ascend. The guards are working with wrong data."

The armed captives go to get all the other ones. They gather in the elevator hall, everyone being very quiet. Maybe ten of them are Earthlings, but the majority are aliens of other species. They all appear to understand some Interspeech.

"They still don't trust us," Maeve says softly. "They think we're taking them to sell them as slaves or to use them as labor somewhere else. They are also suspicious about how easy this seems to have been."

I nod. "It's a fair concern. Take this." I hand her my gun and walk towards the big group of aliens, my hands clearly empty. "Friends! You are understandably not sure about what is happening. I am Arelion from the planet Eo. I was asked to help free the captives at Sprenk, and I had the resources to do so. Maeve is a freedom fighter from Earth who has dedicated her life to resist the Bululg. Virlu and Sponz have fought other oppressors, and I intend to fight the oppressor of my own planet. Up on the surface, we have a ship with room for all of you. It is a Bululg flying saucer, which we were able to take over in a recent battle. That also answers why we were able to use the elevator."

I take a break to let them digest what I've said.

"Anyone," I go on, "who wants to stay here or to be taken up to the surface and make their own way from there are of course free to do so. But we have room for you all. We want to take you to a safe asteroid that I happen to own, where you may recover and consider your options as free people in a dangerous galaxy. I know many of you have had bad experiences with the galactic civilization. This is in fact a good experience. We have no ulterior motives!"

I make another pause, feeling the atmosphere is changing. I see smiles and nudges among the crowd of males.

"I suppose I could point to your friends, former captives, who are right now holding weapons that we gave them. But you have already seen them, and you understand what it means: you are no longer slaves. Slaves are never armed. But you are different. You are free . And now, you are armed and dangerous! " I speak the last word extra loudly, and finally I get a cheer from the crowd.

"If you are still not at ease, tell me what I can do to help with that," I finish before I take Maeve's hand and lead her onto the elevator platform. "But now, let's leave this terrible place behind."

I press Cerak's door-opening device to the appropriate panel. It unlocks, and soon after we're on the way up. As far as I can tell, every captive is with us on the platform.

Virlu comes in close. "Recruitment is the process of attracting and enlisting suitable individuals to serve in the military," he says softly.

"I have thought about it," I tell him. "Maeve may be able to recruit members of her Resistance from this group. I imagine most of them must come from Bululg-invaded planets, and they likely hate them just as much as she does." I know that Virlu really meant that I should try to recruit them to my own army. But there's absolutely no way I'll bring aliens to fight on Eo. My war with Buroteo must be fully legitimate.

I look around and spot the captive who made me freeze up. The crowd parts respectfully as I carefully make my way over to him.

"Honored Sir," I use the polite phrase in my native Eoan, "what has happened to you?"

The male can't meet my gaze. "Glorious Sir," he says with an honorific we reserve for only those we admire intensely, "I found myself at odds with Buroteo. He took exception to it. He had this done to me, and then I was sent here."

He's an Eoan, but his wings have had the feathers pulled off, leaving them as horrific stumps of pink, bony skin. His head comb is the same, brutally cut off at the root. I wince at the sight. He's a deep red, and he must have looked spectacular before.

"Such dishonor," I state, my voice trembling from the horror of it.

To pluck the feathers from a man, to render him bare and unadorned, is to shear all manliness, all beauty, and all grace from him. Even bad criminals never have that done to them, unless they have done it to someone first. Some of his feathers will grow back, but never as thickly as before. And the finest feathers, those with the beautiful patterns of color, never grow back. Nor does the head comb.

"I mean dishonor for Buroteo, Sir, not for you," I hasten to add. "You are a walking sign of his dishonor, not your own!"

"Perhaps," the male mutters, all energy and all life gone from his voice. "I would join your cause, Your Supremacy. But I fear the sight of me anywhere near you would reflect negatively on your glorious person."

I feel the truth of his words. A sheared male is repulsive to everyone, and even standing here talking to him, I feel vulnerable and dirty. But I know it's irrational.

"Ah. You know who I am, then."

He looks up with surprise. "Of course, Supremacy! I voted for you, as did everyone I know. When Buroteo attacked and banished you for no good reason, I protested strongly. His thugs got me and… well, I can no longer show myself on Eo lest I throw dishonor on my family."

"You can show yourself there if you're in a battle suit," I tell him, realizing that this is not the time to change all our societal prejudices. That can come later. "It's not the Eoan way to fight encased in armor. But it may be necessary, and in my base I have a selection of them. I will take back Eo, for all that is good and proper! And I need your help. What is your name, Sir?"

"Gereaon," he says, pulling himself up to stand straighter. "I would be thrilled to join thy cause, Supremacy!"

I force myself to put my hand on his dark red shoulder. "Gereaon, I would be honored to lead you into battle. It might be our death, but feathers or no feathers, we are both Eoans, and we will do anything for our people!"

"Yes, Supremacy!" Gereaon states firmly, his shoulders held back.

"Good. Perhaps our chances of success are greater than I thought."

"Supremacy, I…" Gereaon hesitates.

"What is it, Sir?"

"Please pardon me if I am speaking out of turn. But that female in your company…" He looks past me, towards Maeve.

I tense up. "Yes?"

"She's from planet Earth?"

"She is."

He stares at her. "She's very beautiful, as they say of Earthlings. But they also say…"

"That Earthlings are unreliable?" I complete his sentence. "That's only an evil rumor, Gereaon. Don't believe it."

"Of course," he hurries to say. "I take no heed of those rumors. Supremacy, I saw someone like her not long ago. In a Bululg prison cell."

"An Earth woman?" I ask.

"An Earth woman who looked a lot like that one. The eyes, the hair, the shape… not just the same species, you understand, Sir. It was someone very similar. The movements especially…"

He goes on for a while, and despite the tense situation, I try to remember what he tells me.

The elevator slows down, nearing the top of its track.

"So someone very much like her?" I finally ask. "You are sure of it?"

Gereaon nods. "Very. For a second I thought maybe that was her."

I turn and walk back to the elevator controls. Discreetly putting myself between Maeve and the opening, I'm the first to spot the Fresk who's aiming his gun the moment the elevator screeches to a halt.

A loud bang pierces the silence, and I don't have time to draw my gun. But Maeve already has her weapon in her hand. She calmly aims and shoots the alien goon with a nasty sound as from fabric being torn.

The Fresk falls. Behind him comes many others, aiming and shooting.

Now I'm ready. Ignoring the bangs, I'm able to take out a good few of the aliens before my aim is ruined by all the former captives charging past me and towards the Fresks with a deafening roar of fury.

I grab Maeve's arm. "Good shot."

"Thanks. I just wish it would have been a Bululg."

"I think you'll have many more chances to kill Bululg. Now you know you can kill if you must. Not everyone can. The Resistance chose wisely."

She gives me a tight smile. "So did the planet Eo. Supremacy, I notice you've gotten shot again. "

I follow her gaze. Indeed there's a singed, black-edged hole on one thigh of my white pants. "Lucky shot. Two hand-widths higher, and you would have been an unhappy woman."

"Don't even think about it," she shudders. "I'll take care of that wound back in the ship."

The former captives have moved out of the big cube, leaving all the Fresk and nine of their own.

I kneel down by one of them, feeling helpless. "Gereaon! Stay with us!"

But the light is already going out in his eyes. "It's for the best, Supremacy," he rasps. "Take our planet back and make it better than it ever was…"

"We shall do our best, you and I," I reply, but halfway through the statement I know Gereaon will never hear anything ever again.

I reach out and close his eyes. "You've done all you could. Rest now."

Maeve kneels beside me. "He looks like a… is he…?"

"A dead Eoan," I sigh. "Not easy to recognize as one without his feathers."

"What happened to him?!"

I slowly get to my feet. "Buroteo happened to him. And to all of Eo. Let's leave." I grab her hand and pull her with me out of the giant cube.

Outside there are two Bululg ships. One is our Revenge , and the other is rising on a thick beam of white light.

"They're trying to escape!" I yell. "Run for our ship!"

Maeve and I run ahead, and the others follow. I don't blame them for hesitating to run into a Bululg ship as large as ours.

Maeve takes charge and directs all three hundred freed captives into the various rooms on the ship, and I sprint for the control room. "Cerak! Go after them! Shoot them down!"

"Shoot who down?" the robot asks. "That other Bululg ship?"

I want to give a scathing reply, but I manage to control myself. "That's the one. Everyone's inside. We can take off!"

"I recommend you hold on. This thing can move."

Cerak has the ship hover before it shoots skyward.

Despite the artificial gravity, I'm thrown towards the bulkhead and have to use my wings to halt my movement before I hit it. "Maeve is aboard," I tell him tightly. "I don't want her harmed."

"I notice you're not counting the three hundred other organisms you brought aboard," Cerak comments. "If I didn't know that you're too in love with yourself to feel affection for anyone else, I might think you were enamored with that small female."

"Perhaps," I tell him absentmindedly, spotting the other Bululg ship on the screen. "Perhaps I've discovered my ability to love others."

"Better late than never," Cerak quips. "Now, I can shoot that ship to pieces. I really think we should."

"Disable it without causing too much damage," I instruct him. "We'll board it and take it over."

" Or I can turn it into a puff of smoke," he says. "It's risk-free. Boarding is a hazardous business."

"We want the ship," I tell him tightly. "We will turn it against the Bululg, just like this one."

"My recommendation stands," the robot says. "Let me just destroy it!"

"Don't. I'll send some captives into it. They're motivated enough. None of us will risk being shot."

"Except you'll lead the assault, if I know you," Cerak sighs. "I notice you got shot once more. Has it ever crossed your mind that you're not the best battlefield commander?"

"No, and it never will because nobody will ever be stupid enough to say that to my face. Get closer. Good, that's it. Cerak, I'm curious about why that ship full of armed Fresks suddenly arrived just now. The former workers say that nobody was expecting the ore to be collected for a month yet."

"Coincidence," Cerak says tiredly. "A surprise inspection. A spot check. A changing of the guards. A delivery of supplies. A friendly visit. Shall I go on?"

I support myself on a console as he takes the ship through some abrupt moves. "You skipped the most obvious answer: someone asked them to come to Sprenk with a squad of armed goons. And it must have happened before we got here. Someone knew we were coming. It's strange, because nobody knew. Except for everyone aboard this ship."

"If you say so, Supremacy."

The other saucer fills the display as we catch up with it. Our ship trembles as it makes contact.

"Ready to board through the regular airlock," Cerak says. "You can still change your mind."

I check my ray gun. "After we take it over, I will interrogate the Bululg on that ship. They might tell me exactly why they came to Sprenk."

For a change, Cerak doesn't have a snappy reply.