Eclipse

By Wilson Harp

Copyright © 2013 by Wilson Harp

All Rights Reserved

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Table of Contents

Chapter
1

Chapter
2

Chapter
3

Chapter
4

Chapter
5

Chapter
6

Chapter
7

Chapter
8

Chapter
9

Chapter
10

Chapter
11

Chapter
12

Chapter
13

Chapter
14

Chapter
15

Chapter
16

Chapter
17

Chapter
18

Chapter
19

Chapter
20

Chapter
21

Chapter 1

“Keep
an eye on the right flank.  I saw two head through that door,” said Lieutenant
Colonel Zbigniew ‘K-man’ Kiskaliski.

Sergeant Johnson nodded as he motioned two of
his men to cover the location.

“The main hallway splits about fifteen meters
after that turn. The arsenal is down the right, and the command center is to
the left,” said Sergeant Lippor.

“Johnson, take four to secure the arsenal.
Swanson, you and your squad are with me. Hendricks, hold back with Travis and
Bennett and be ready to assist where needed. Let’s move,” said K-man.

“Colonel, we have a strong energy reading near
the command center,” said Lippor as he followed his commander down the hallway.
While the other marines were focused on raid, Lippor was responsible for the
device wore on his back.

The command and control center on the Berlin
was feeding updated scanner information directly to the heads-up-display on his
visor. He was able to feed instant updates to Lieutenant Colonel Kiskaliski and
the other officers.

“Force field?” asked K-man.

“Stronger, maybe an inertial field,” said
Lippor.

“Marines, possible inertial ahead. Don’t fire
until we are through,” said K-man.

The forward marine motioned that the main
corridor was clear after the turn. K-man and his men advanced in a quick and
well-ordered pace.

“Colonel, we have secured level two, have eight
captured and took two casualties,” Captain Watts reported.

“How bad?” asked K-man.

“They should pull through—med team is inbound.”

“Level three now secure, Colonel,” said Captain
Golding. “No casualties, five captured.”

“Good report. We have level one almost secure.
Berlin, this is Kiskaliski, send down the sweepers and the techs.”

“Roger, Colonel. Launching crews now.”

Two marines had reached the split in the
corridor.

“Way is clear,” one of them reported.

K-man and his team moved forward and slowly
advanced to the door leading to the command center. One of the marines touched
the panel that opened the door. Instead of the bright blue shine of an inertial
field, there was a pulsing red light filling the doorway.

“Mosar shield. Must have come on when they went
to lockdown,” muttered Collins.

“Sir, there is a spike in energy, they are
setting to blow,” said Lippor.

K-man swore under his breath. They only had
about two minutes to secure the room and stop the self-destruct command.

“Greenaway, with me. Marines forward,” he
ordered as he ran through the field.

Several lasers hit his body armor as he dove
for cover along the left wall. He heard the firing of his marines as they came
in behind him. Warmth from where the armor absorbed the shots made him glad,
once again, that Earth’s engineers had made the breakthrough that allowed full
body armor to be built.

He pulled himself to his knees and focused his
rifle on the movement at the other side of the room. One of the Otina guards
was behind an overturned table. His head was barely visible above his weapon.
Barely was all K-man needed.

His shot ended the threat to his men from that
angle. A quick turn of his head showed three more Otina firing on the Marines
still coming through the door. Two of the aliens never saw their killer, but
the third swung his blast rifle toward K-man as he fired. The Earth forces were
still trying to fix the display on the helmet so that the Marines could see the
lasers that the Otina used, but K-Man had seen enough of them fired to know
that the shot had gone wide to his left.

“Colonel! Sir!” A frantic yell came from the
doorway. K-man scanned around the room once more and then turned to the
doorway.

“Greenaway, stop that self-destruct order.
Harris, Porter, help me with Swanson,” he ordered.

Captain Swanson was the newest member of the
team. He was lying still on the floor just inside the doorway.

Greenaway moved past the others toward the main
control console. His job was the most important. If he didn’t stop the
self-destruct, over forty marines would be dead in less than a minute.

K-man started looking for any injury on the
fallen marine. “Swanson, can you hear me? Talk to me,” K-man said.

There was no response from the man.

“I got nothing, Colonel,” said Porter as he
felt along the back of Swanson.

“Nothing I can see, either,” said K-man.
“Greenaway, report.”

“Just a second, Colonel. There. Self-destruct
is clear,” Greenaway said. K-man had initially argued against taking the young
computer expert with his team, but Admiral Salazar had insisted that all forces
dealing with the Otina take a computer tech with them on any ground assault. It
had taken three bases that had self-destructed before Salazar had made it
mandatory. Greenaway had saved K-man’s team four times in six months by
disabling self-destruct orders.

“Med team is incoming, sir,” said Lippor.

“Good. Hold on Swanson, we are going to get you
out of this,” said K-man.

“Sir, we have three in the back data room. They
are techs and have surrendered,” one of the marines reported.

“Hendricks, get in there and secure the
prisoners. Johnson, report.”

“We got ‘em, sir. No casualties, no captures.”

The medical team turned the corner and was
waved over to the downed marine.

“What happened,” asked one of the medics.

“Not sure,” answered Porter. “Captain Swanson
was just in front of me and as soon as he cleared the door he just dropped to
the ground.”

“He’s gone into full arrest, we need to get him
back on the ship,” said the other medic.

K-man motioned for his marines to help the
medics get Captain Swanson evacuated to the Berlin.

He watched as they took his fallen man out. He
hated losing any man—it ate at him. Swanson was a veteran of the Iltia war, and
a highly decorated one at that.

“Sir, we have some good data here. The techs
will need to see this right away,” said Greenaway.

“Excellent, Lieutenant,” said K-man. “What kind
of data?”

“Some medical information and a series of what
looks like dates and times.”

K-man nodded. Most of the locations they found
that had medical facilities had some captives that were being experimented on.
Those found in the Earth system had exclusively been humans, but recently a few
Hedali were found as well. Dozens of Otina bases were found each month in the
inner asteroid belt in the earth system, and it was likely there were thousands
in the Kuiper belt in the furthest reaches of the system.

“Let’s get the tech team down here, and let the
sweepers get to work,” said K-man as he motioned his team out.

K-man stepped back through the glowing red
field that filled the doorway.

“Greenaway,” he said. “See if you can get this
field off.”

“Yes, sir,” said Greenaway. “It’s just a mosar
field, though.”

“I know. I just don’t like coincidences.”

The hallways were filling with the technical
teams who would download as much data as they could recover from the Otina
computers. The sweepers were bringing in their gear as K-man left the breach
point of the Otina base. They would use their sophisticated equipment to
analyze and check every inch of the base in hopes that a new technology or
piece of equipment could be found.

K-man stepped up into the Platte and looked at
his assembled men.

“Everyone check in,” he said. The
heads-up-display in his helmet showed all but Swanson with a green light.

“Major, we are all aboard,” he said as he hit
the switch that closed the door to the landing craft.

He took his helmet off and rolled his head
around to work out the kinks. Most of the younger marines didn’t make a show of
it, but he knew they all felt the tightness. The old dogs, like him, were too
tough to care what others thought and openly stretched and twisted.

“What happened to Swanson, sir?” asked Porter.

“I’m not sure, didn’t see any injury. But the
medics were concerned,” he said. “They have him on the Tiber and I saw it
heading to the Berlin before I boarded.”

The Platte lifted off as the marines headed
back into the ready room. It would take about ten minutes to dock on the
Berlin, and K-man had plenty to keep him busy. He called his officers together
and had them break down what had happened, how any injuries had occurred and if
they had any suggestions on improving training for the next raid.

By the time he had heard their impromptu
reports, the Platte had docked with the Berlin and his men were disembarking.

His communicator beeped, and he put the
earpiece in his ear.

“Colonel Kiskaliski, please report to med bay
four,” came the message.

“Roger, on my way,” he said.

He considered dropping off his gear in his
room, but was anxious to hear Swanson’s condition, so he walked toward the
medical facilities.

“Captain Gagne, we are aboard. Do you have the
next coordinates?” K-man said on the command channel.

“Good to hear, Colonel. We got our next
coordinates just after you launched. I’ll let you tell your marines, but
Admiral Salazar has ordered us back to Ellison and then a two month liberty on
Earth. When the tech and sweepers get back, we will be on our way.”

K-man smiled. It had been over three months
since they had been on Earth and over a month since they had liberty on the
Ellison station around Jupiter. This would be welcome news and help morale.

“Great news, Captain. I’m heading to med bay
four now. It will be a few minutes until I can file my docking report.”

“Everything okay?”

“With me, yes. Captain Swanson collapsed during
the raid and the med team evac’d him to the Berlin. They asked me to go down
there, so something is up.”

“Good luck, Colonel.”

“Thanks, Kiskaliski out.”

K-man turned into the medical facilities and
made his way over to station four. There he saw several men in hazmat suits
inside the sealed station.

“What’s going on, Doctor?” he asked as he
approached.

“I have no idea, Colonel,” said Doctor Preston.
“But you need to see this.”

K-man stepped closer to one of the windows
looking into the medical station. He saw Swanson, or what he thought was
Swanson, on the bed. His combat armor had been pulled open, but a pool of
various liquids and amorphous piles of organic material were all he could see.

K-man stepped back and looked at Doctor
Preston. The Doctor’s face was pale and drawn.

“What happened, Doc?” asked K-man.

“The only way I can describe it is that he fell
apart. Some of the muscle and bone structure is intact, but most of his body is
liquefied. The sealed suit is the only thing that kept him from being a pile of
goo where he fell.”

“That’s one of my men, Doc,” said K-man. “Have
some respect.”

“I’m sorry, Colonel, but I don’t have any words
to explain or describe what happened. I have never seen anything like this
before. Could it have been a new weapon?”

“I don’t think so, but let’s find out what the
sweepers pick up. Is there any alien substance in there?”

“Not that we can tell. I sent hazmat in and
they are testing for anything out of the ordinary. I’m going to have to
quarantine the ship until we get the results.”

“Yeah, I suppose you will. Let me know if you
find anything else.”

“Will do, Colonel. Is there anything you can
tell me? What was happening when he collapsed?”

“Nothing, we were going into the command
center, he was in the middle of the pack, as it were, and he just collapsed.”

“Very odd.”

“He had just gone through a mosar field. They
had, for some reason, turned on a mosar field when they locked themselves in
the command center.”

“Did everyone go through the field?”

“Yes, twelve of us.”

“Did anyone else have any problems?”

“No, none that I am aware of.”

“Colonel, I would like to have all of the men
who were in that room come down for a complete physical. Yourself included.”

“Will do, Doc. I’ll have everyone who was on
that level come down.”

K-man left the medical bay and headed to his
quarters. The mosar field couldn’t have affected Swanson, so it must have been
something else that the Otina had developed. The idea that a weapon could be
developed that could do that to a man made him shudder. Especially when it left
no visible mark.

In an hour, he had showered, put on his
uniform, and made his way up to the bridge.

“Skipper, are we ready?” he asked as he
approached Captain Gagne.

“The Anthony just warped in to get the
scooters. She should be back for us in an hour,” said Gagne. “Sweeper report is
coming in now.”

K-man slipped around a console and pulled up
his report sheet. The sweepers report was still uploading.

“How is Swanson?” asked Gagne.

“We lost him,” said K-man.

“Hard to lose anyone. He was at Do’yar’on, you
know?”

“I didn’t know that,” said K-man. “He never
brought it up.”

“Should have been in his file,” said Gagne.

“Probably is, I just never read every folder as
thoroughly as I should,” admitted K-man.

“A man of action not words. I get that. I hate
all the paperwork myself.”

“No excuse, I should have known.”

“Would it have changed today?”

“No. But who knows what tidbits of knowledge
can save a life. I guess I need to pull the files and go through them
carefully.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Colonel. You
have twenty officers serving under you and over two hundred marines. You can’t
know each file intimately.”

“I suppose you are right, but if he was at
Do’yar’on then I should have known that.”

“Sweeper report is ready. What are you looking
for in there?” asked Gagne.

“Anything that would explain why Swanson bought
it. A new weapon… technology… something.”

“What happened?”

“Something caused him to melt, or liquefy, in
his suit. Was real nasty. Won’t be able to send anything back to Karen that she
will recognize.”

“Dear Lord.”

“Yeah, not what I want to think about either,
but if the Otina have a new weapon, I hope our sweepers found it. Doc is going
to quarantine us until we are sure that there is nothing to worry about.”

“Just got a message from medical. Preston says
no need for quarantine, nothing found with Swanson.”

“That’s good. Still going to have the rest of
my team checked out.”

“Sir,” said Lippor as he approached the men.
“You might want to see this.”

He handed K-man a display pad, a visual scan
was paused. K-man touched the play button and the scan moved forward.

“What is this?” Gagne asked as he looked over
K-man’s shoulder.

“It’s an Otina security scan. We look at these
regularly to analyze how they move in defense of their bases,” said K-man.

“What are the red speckles on those?”

“Mosar. Those are the Otina,” said K-man.
“Those hollow looking images are the humans. We show up on their scans because
of the metal in our equipment, but our bodies are hard to pick up with their
equipment. We have thought about trying to use that to infiltrate their bases.”

“So is that an Otina?” asked Gagne, pointing to
a figure moving on the scan. The figure had only a few specks of red, not near
as many as the others.”

K-man froze. “No, that isn’t.”

“What is it then?” asked Gagne.

“That’s Captain Swanson,” said Lippor.

The two officers watched as the figure with a
few red specks moved with the other marines. When the door to the command
center opened, they saw the marines charge in. The figure of Swanson hit the
door and collapsed, the red specks disappearing.

“I need to make a secure line call, Captain,”
said K-Man.

“Use my ready room, Colonel.”

“Lippor, who else has seen this?”

“Greenaway, a couple of the techs, and us.
That’s all.”

“Gather everyone who has seen this and bring
them to the Captain’s ready room. This is absolutely not to be seen by anyone
else. Pull the file down from the reports and get this information locked
down.”

Lippor saluted and hurried from the bridge.
K-man and Gagne moved toward the Captain’s ready room.

“What do you think it is, Colonel? An alien
imitated Swanson? Could he have been a shape-shifter like a Pelod?”

“I don’t think so, Captain,” said K-man as they
entered the room. “If he were a Pelod, he wouldn’t have willingly ran straight
into a mosar field.”

“Then what?”

“I don’t know.”

K-man pulled up the secure communication code
and sent a message. A few seconds later, Carl Williams’ face appeared on the
screen.

“Williams here.”

“Doctor Williams, this is Kiskaliski.”

“Good to see you, K-man. What’s the emergency?”

“Have you ever heard of a human with mosar in
their body?”

“You mean, like if they ate some alien food?
Yeah we’ve run into that before.”

“Not like that. I mean, has a human ever had
mosar as part of their body?”

“No, don’t think that’s possible. Why?”

“I think we have evidence that it has
happened.”

Chapter 2

“Sergeant,
you are ready to board,” said the clerk.

Alex took his ID card back from the young man
and nodded to him. It had been months since Alex had been off of Earth and he
felt restless. This trip to Iltia would be refreshing even if he would have to
attend a bunch of boring meeting.

“Alex, where do you want to get seats,” asked
Mantriq.

“Up to you, Manny. I’m going to nap and read
for the most part,” Alex said to the large Iltia’cor standing beside him.

Manny picked up his luggage and went up the boarding
ramp. Alex shook his head as he walked behind his alien friend. Manny had
strapped a piece of firewood from Alex’s cabin to the outside of his pack to
take home as a souvenir.

When Alex had asked Manny why he had chosen
that particular souvenir, he said that the piece of wood reminded him of the
peace and tranquility of the secluded lake. It reminded Alex of the hours spent
chopping firewood with his father. Not a pleasant thought twenty years before,
but a comforting thought at present.

The Iltia transport they were boarding was one
of the perks that Earth had after conquering their former enemy. Chancellor
Thomas had been adamant against severe punitive actions, but it was widely
expected, by all parties, that Earth would have access to some of the Iltia
technology and resources.

Faster than light civilian transports were one
of the benefits that Earth used on a regular basis now. The Iltia system was a
major destination for many Earth travelers. The majority of those travelers
were military like Alex, or scientists working with the Earth government, like Manny.
Businessmen and entrepreneurs also took advantage of the fairly inexpensive
trips back and forth between Earth and Iltia.

The Iltia transport was laid out like a Vegas
lounge. What Alex would normally call the cockpit was in the middle of a
basically round room. It was a raised area where the crew sat and worked. The
passenger seats were in clusters of three to five around dozens of consoles
that served as dataports, tables, and storage units. Most of the seats
themselves were facing the outer edge of the ship where various display screens
would show data or entertainment.

Alex remembered the first time he had taken an
Iltia transport. He had been happy to discover that he could still watch a
movie on an interstellar flight. He had been disappointed that the quality of
airline movies had not been upgraded, though.

“Manny, there’s one,” Alex pointed to a console
with three seats around it. He wished there was a place with only two seats,
but often two people sitting with only one open seat discouraged someone from
intruding. Alex just wanted to catch up on some reading on this trip. It would
be nine days until they reach Iltia and he hoped to get through four mystery
novels along the way.

Manny sat down and slid his pack into the
storage area under the console. Alex slung his backpack onto one of the seats
and sat in the remaining one. Manny looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Aren’t you going to store your bag?” he asked.

Alex smiled at him and shrugged. “When we get
ready to go. In the meantime, it might persuade anyone who thinks about joining
us to move on.”

Manny smiled back at him. “Very clever, Alex.
Using social customs to create a desired result without appearing rude.”

Alex settled back in his seat with a self-satisfied
smirk and pulled out his reading tablet.

“Gunnery Sergeant Ramirez?” a voice behind Alex
said softly.

Alex twisted around to see an army private
standing a few feet behind him. The soldier had a duffel bag at his side and
was holding his beret in his hand.

“Yes, I’m Sergeant Ramirez. May I help you?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, Sergeant. I thought I
recognized you in the boarding area. My name is Barry Mitchell. Private
Mitchell, that is. Wow. I can’t believe I am meeting you.”

“Have a seat, Private Mitchell,” said Manny as
he moved Alex’s backpack off of the seat.

“Thanks. Thank you, uh…” Mitchell was clearly
at a loss on how to speak to an alien.

“His name is Mantriq, and he is an Ilita’cor.
His friends call him Manny,” said Alex, as he took his backpack from the
Iltia’cor.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mantriq,” said the
young private as he extended his hand.

Manny smiled and gratefully shook hands with
the human. He had expressed to Alex several times how he was surprised at how
many humans were willing to greet him as a friend and not as an enemy. Almost
three years before, an Iltia’cor fleet had bombarded Earth from orbit. After
the bombardment, they had landed tens of thousands of soldiers in an attempt to
capture and enslave the planet. Humanity had fought them off with a ferocity
that the Iltia’cor had never experienced.

Manny was not one of the soldiers, nor even one
of those who would have had contact with the enslaved humans. He feared that
most humans wouldn’t understand that he was of the osalg, and not of the
mintur.

Manny had explained that the Iltia’cor society
was divided up along six lines of responsibility. Alex had assumed it was like
the Indian caste system, but there was a complexity and flow to the system and
not a rigidness that he had expected.

The mintur, for example, were the
protectors. Soldiers and guards were mintur, but also those who cared
for the land, animals and children. The osalg were those who acquired.
Merchants, researchers, miners and explorers were osalg. Whether wealth,
knowledge, or resources, it was the osalg who were responsible for
bringing it back.

Scouts in the Iltia military were osalg.
They gathered information and gave it to the mintur.

When Alex pointed out that the soldiers
gathered territory for the Iltia’cor, Manny looked at him as if a child had
made a ridiculous comment. It was complicated and Alex still didn’t understand
the structure at all.

“Alex?” asked Manny.

“I’m sorry, my mind was drifting. What did you
ask?”

“I asked if it would be acceptable to you if
Private Mitchell sits with us on the flight,” said Manny.

“Yes, that would be fine,” said Alex. He had
hoped for a quiet trip to Iltia, but he really didn’t want to be rude. And with
Manny there, maybe Mitchell would want to chat with him instead of asking about
Alex’s role in the war.

Alex was proud of his service, but he was tired
of telling wide eyed kids stories of his adventures. Mitchell seemed a nice
enough young man, but he really hoped he stayed fixated on Manny.

Alex saw the crew walk to their stations, which
meant that they were about to leave. A couple of humans sat beside the Iltia
crew, obviously in some sort of training. Alex expected mixed crews eventually
taking over the trips between Earth and Iltia.

Even though most humans were curious and
respectful of the Iltia’cor that came to Earth on occasion, they still felt
uncomfortable flying on a vessel crewed exclusively with their former enemies.

The passenger cabin was almost empty, which
surprised Alex a bit. There was room for sixty passengers, but he could only
count around twenty. He thought about going over to one of the empty stations
and claiming it for his own. It would seem rude to Manny, though, and Alex was
working hard to build up relations through this partnership. Even though he had
told General Kitch and Ambassador Thomas that he would agree to be part of the
mentoring program, he loathed the idea. But Manny had turned out to be a fine
companion.

The first time they met was on Iltia where
Manny took him to dinner. The food was interesting but a little bland. When
they came to Earth, Alex took Manny to a little pizza joint. It went over
poorly with the Iltia’cor. He did not like it.

When Alex took him up to the cabin, though,
Manny loved the food. Fresh bass and walleye straight from the lake to the
grill, fresh vegetables and plenty of beer. Alex didn’t know if Iltia’cor could
get drunk, but he knew it would take more than two cases to make Manny tipsy.
They tested that theory three nights in a row.

The engines on the transport started up and the
lights came on around the outer wall indicating that everyone should be seated
and their items stowed properly. Alex shoved his backpack into the station and
secured the latch. He had never once felt the slightest bobble as they had
lifted straight up into space, but he guessed that a bit of turbulence would
probably toss everything around.

“Alex, Private Mitchell is from Los Angeles.
Isn’t that wonderful?” said Manny.

“L.A., huh?,” asked Alex. “Why is that
wonderful?”

“That’s where they make movies. It must be
great to see all of the actors.”

Mitchell looked over at Alex with a confused
expression.

“There are millions of people in the Los
Angeles area, Manny. They rarely see the actors.”

“Oh, that is disillusioning. I wanted to take a
trip there to meet them,” said Manny.

“My Dad once got a drink thrown on him by an
actor,” said Mitchell.

“Really?” asked Manny. “Which one?”

Alex pulled out his tablet and pulled up a book
to read. The windows on the transport revealed that they had left Earth’s
atmosphere. The low hum of the warp engines as they came online signaled to the
passengers that they would be in warp within thirty minutes.

The quiet conversations around the cabin
coupled by the comfortable seat lulled Alex into a relaxed state of reading.
Williams had turned Alex into an avid reader. He bought him hundreds of classic
books for his tablet and pestered him mercilessly until Alex started reading.
Once he had started diving into the great works of literature, he was hooked.
Now, wherever he went, he made sure he had a few books available on his tablet.

Manny was fascinated that Alex could have the
responsibilities of a protector and yet found enjoyment in a knowledge
acquiring task like reading. When Alex asked about movies, which he was
surprised to find out the Iltia’cor had a long and rich history of motion
pictures, Manny gave him another one of those looks that said he pitied Alex.
Apparently watching entertainment was a passive pastime that all Iltia’cor
enjoyed, while reading was an active task that only Osalg would
participate in. When Alex quipped that a book was merely a movie in convenient
written form, they had taken that moment to discuss the human humor concepts of
sarcasm and irony.

The deep hum of the warp engines shifted to a
high whine. Alex braced himself as he felt the warp field form around the ship.
He was sure that he couldn’t actually feel it, but he could sense it somehow.
Everyone he talked to described it the same way. He shifted in his seat to get
more comfortable.

The ship lurched and Alex was tossed out of his
seat into the station in front of him. Manny’s huge body was tossed aside like
a rag doll and Mitchell hit the console at an angle.

Alex started to look at the ship’s crew, but
the lights went out as soon as he was able to get his bearings.

The sounds and hum of the warp engines had cut
off when the transport lurched. Alex reached for where his bag was stored. He
had a pair of nightvision goggles in the left side pouch.

Before he could get the latch on the station
open, he felt frigid air sweep into the cabin.

“Alex, what is happening?” asked Manny. There
were sounds of people talking and trying to get their bearings. The Iltia’cor
crew was frantically speaking to each other in their language.

Before Alex could answer Manny, he heard the
sounds of weapons being discharged. Tilsocs. Otina pirates used tilsocs.

“Stay down, Manny,” said Alex.

He finally got the latch open and pulled his
backpack out. He cursed under his breath as he realized that he had obediently
taken all weapons out of his kit before he left for the spaceport. He pulled
the night-vision goggles out and slipped them on as he heard the shockers that
the Otina used to take prisoners. Long metal poles, shockers were basically
cattle prods with a much stronger burst of electricity. He guessed that the tilsocs
were used to knock out the communications array and maybe flight controls.

The temperature in the cabin was absolutely
frigid by the time that Alex had removed the aluminum framing bars from his
backpack. There was a breach in the ship somewhere. He would start getting
light-headed once the oxygen levels dropped.

“Alex,” whispered Manny. “Mitchell isn’t
moving.”

“Stay down,” said Alex.

He looked up and scanned the room using the
infrared view on his goggles. He assumed that the Otina were using the same
technology, so he just made a quick sweep and then ducked back down.

He saw six Otina moving through the cabin. They
had their shockers out and were moving from station to station.

Alex lay still and waited for one of the Otina
to come closer.

He saw one of the Otina walk over toward the
station he was crouched behind and waited for the small grey alien to commit to
his action. The Otina saw Manny and reached down with his shocker to zap him.

Alex sprang to his feet and thrust one of the
hollow aluminum rods through the throat of the Otina. He knocked the shocker
away from his enemy as he spun him around. The Otina had a tilsoc strapped to
his back. Alex ripped it off and took aim at one of the nearby Otina.

He had been part of the team that figured out
how the tilsocs worked and he knew that he only had three shots before it would
need time to recharge. The first two Otina that he disintegrated had not even
moved from their position. The third had tossed his stun gun to the floor and
was reaching for his tilsoc when the blue wave hit him and disrupted the mosar
that held his body together.

Alex tossed the recharging tilsoc to the ground
and hurled the second aluminum rod at another Otina. He turned to dive when he
felt a sharp pain in his side and fell to the ground. An Otina with a shocker
stood above him. He kicked out with his leg and was dismayed that his control
and strength was so weak. But it was enough. The Otina stepped back and Alex
rolled away from him. He picked up the discarded tilsoc and fired again. The
few seconds were enough for another shot to get charged up and the Otina melted
away.

Another sharp pain shot through him and he hit
the ground again. When he rolled onto his back he saw two Otina standing above
him with shockers. His vision was a quick closing dark tunnel that rapidly went
black.

Chapter 3

General
Diane Kitch did not like waiting. She never made anyone else wait and she
expected the same courtesy in return. The problem she was facing was that
Doctor Carl Williams was no longer a marine. He was retired, and though he
still consulted for the Earth Forces, he was not under any military authority.

She smoothed her face and unclenched her hands.
When he did return to his office, he would find her cool and patient.

“General,” he said as he hurried into the pile
of papers he called an office. “I am so sorry to keep you waiting. We were
getting some amazing data back on the nebula in the… never mind, that isn’t
important today.”

“That’s fine, Doctor Williams. I thought maybe
you were working on a time altering technology that set you back twenty
minutes.”

Williams looked at the clock on his wall. “I am
very sorry, General. I didn’t realize I was running that late. I should have
sent someone to let you know about the delay.”

“Let’s keep the apologies brief, Carl. Tick
tock.”

“Very well, here is what you need to see.
Kiskaliski sent the data straight to me.”

“Why?”

“Because of the panic it would start if he sent
it through the command structure.”

Diane furrowed her brow. She knew K-man’s
reputation and how he would follow orders even if it meant sprinting to his own
death. For him to bypass all security and protocol was a major concern.

“Why did I have to come out here myself?
Couldn’t you have sent it to me?”

“No, General. I couldn’t. You need to see this
and understand what it means. You do not want others to see it.”

Williams called up a data screen and started a
video. It was an Otina scan of a raid. Diane had seen hundreds of them before.

“What are we looking at, Carl.”

“This,” he said, pointing with his pen.

One of the marines breaching the base had a few
red flecks on his image.

“But that is mosar. Isn’t it?”

“Indeed, it is, General. Now watch this part.”

Williams moved the video up a minute or so. The
marine with the red flecks was moving with the others. Suddenly, the red flecks
disappeared and he stopped moving.

“What happened?”

“That was the moment that Captain Swanson
died,” said Carl. “He ran through a mosar defense field and died.”

“Are you telling me he had mosar in him?”

“Yes, General.”

“Did he eat it? We have taken safeguards
against that, haven’t we? No one is to eat alien food without clearance.”

“He didn’t eat it. If he had eaten it, the food
in his digestive system would have just disintegrated. No lasting harm, just a
week or so with serious gastric problems.”

Williams pulled up another video. This one was
in a med bay on one of Earth’s cruisers.

“This was the examination of Swanson when his
body was brought on board the Berlin,” said Williams.

Diane closed her eyes instinctively as the
front seal of his combat suit was detached and thick ooze started flowing out.

“What happened?” she asked as she kept her eyes
averted.

Williams turned off the video.

“He melted. Honestly that is the best technical
term for it.”

“How was mosar in him?”

“I don’t know. But it was in all of his major
organs, muscle groups and bones. Not like an alien, or he would have completely
disintegrated, but there was enough that it collapsed his body.”

Diane sat silent for a few seconds. The concept
that a human could have mosar as part of their body was contrary to every bit
of information that was known up until now.

“Your best guess, Carl. Is it contagious?”

Williams shrugged and shook his head.

“I’m not sure, General. I wouldn’t think so,
but if you had asked me yesterday about mosar in a human, I would have
categorically denied that it was possible.”

“We need to know, Carl. This is the top
research priority. I will contact the President and the Chancellor and let them
know. Kiskaliski was right. This needs the fewest eyes possible. If word gets
out that mosar can be found in humans, it would cause a panic.”

“Swanson was recently assigned to the Earth
System Defense team. I have suggested that the Berlin and all of the scooters
assigned be thoroughly scanned to make sure that this isn’t an environmental
issue.”

“Are you suggesting that mosar might be able to
be passed from objects to humans?” asked Diane.

“I have no idea how, why or what would have
caused this, General. We need to examine every theory, no matter how
outrageous, until we come up with an answer. I will get a team together to
propose theories and start testing them.”

Diane stood. “You have all the resources that I
can give you. Send a report through my secure channel every evening. I want to
stay personally appraised of all movement on this project.”

Diane left Williams to start the project and
walked briskly toward the front of the building.

The Global Science Foundation was funded by the
Chancellor’s office officially as a meeting place for all of Earth’s
researchers to advance human understanding in all the sciences. But everyone
knew that the primary purpose of the building was to analyze alien technologies
and re-engineer them using Earth based resources and methods, particularly
technologies that could be used as weapons.

Her aide-de-camp stood and joined her as she
walked out toward her car. He was a man of discretion and propriety. He knew
better than to ask her about the meeting.

When they arrived at the staff car, she told
her driver to take her over to the Chancellor’s office. It was on the other
side of the Potomac, in Maryland, but she wanted to tell him what was happening
face to face.

“Phil, send a message to Chancellor Thomas and
let him know I need a meeting with him. Tell him it’s the highest priority and
we should be there within the hour.”

Major Arnold made the call as Diane pulled up
her schedule on her tablet. She sent quick messages cancelling two meetings and
pushing back one until the next day. She hesitated before she pulled out her
private cell phone, but she thought the information she had was big enough for
Kyle to be concerned with.

His voicemail picked up on the first ring.

“Kyle,” she said. “This is General Kitch. Call
me ASAP.”

Phil looked at her as she put the phone back in
her pocket.

“Big enough to call Ambassador Martin?” he
asked.

Diane nodded. “Yes, Phil. It’s that big.”

Kyle saw the message come into his phone. He
normally didn’t get calls from Diane in the middle of a work day. He frowned at
his phone and then sat it back on the coffee table.

“Something you need to take, Ambassador?” asked
Franklin Smith.

“No, Mister Smith,” said Kyle to the Pelod
representative. “I’ll call her back. This time is yours.”

“Thank you, Ambassador. If it is your daughter,
though, I could wait.”

Kyle smiled warmly at the alien. He understood
how much Kyle’s daughter meant to him and how much that concern for her had led
the former Marine General to take the role of Earth’s Ambassador to the
Galactic Lower Council.

“If it was Sara, I would have taken it, Mister
Smith. It was General Kitch. She only contacts me about situations that are
vital to our planet, but your people are vital to our planet as well and you
seemed quite eager to speak with me.”

“I’ll make this brief then, Ambassador,” Smith
said.

“Take your time, if you wish. Although if you
have more business today, I understand as well.”

Smith looked a little puzzled. “Why would you
think that I would have further business?”

Kyle motioned to Smith’s clothes. “You are
impeccably dressed. You always are, but I suspect that is because you are
always out and about on business for the Pelod.”

Smith laughed softly. “Oh no, Ambassador. I
dress like this all the time.”

“Really? No casual clothes? No days of jeans
and a t-shirt?”

“No. We Pelod take on a… how would I say this.
Not quite a disguise, but more of an image. When I was sent here from Mars, I took
on human form. Because I would be dealing with high ranking officials and
powerful businessmen, I adopted a form that would allow me to operate in that
environment without drawing attention to myself. The clothes are as much a part
of my image as is the human form that I take.”

“Well you look smashing,” said Kyle. “You have
nailed the part perfectly.”

“Thank you, Ambassador,” Smith said. He cleared
his throat and seemed a bit embarrassed at the personal compliment.  “The
reason I have come to you is to address a new problem that we have
encountered.”

“I hope not with any humans. I know there was
some unpleasantness a few weeks back on 1970NN. I hope that hasn’t caused more
problems.”

Smith shook his head. “No, no, nothing like
that. The problem we have is with the Otina.”

Kyle shifted in his seat. The Otina had been a
problem for humanity since the very first day that Earth met any alien race. In
fact, the Otina had been a personal problem for Kyle starting months earlier,
although he hadn’t realize it. They had kidnapped his sister and performed
medical experimentations on her for almost three years. He had been with the
team that had rescued her from the Otina base where she had been held. After
that event, the Pelod had agreed to stop supplying the Otina with weapons and
equipment inside the Earth system.

“I hope there hasn’t been a change in our
agreement,” Kyle said.

“No, Ambassador, we haven’t had any dealings
with the Otina in over a year. And that may be why we have the problem. We have
become suspicious that the Otina may have kidnapped several members of a survey
team.”

Kyle sat up and leaned forward.

“Tell me what happened,” he said. The Pelod
were reluctant to jump to conclusions, but Smith would not have come to him if
the evidence was not fairly compelling.

“Two days ago one of our survey teams was in
the Kuiper belt looking for various rare elements. We had found some palladium
rich samples and had sent some teams out to scout the region. Two of our teams
returned with recordings of a ship that shadowed them for quite a distance. It
had all of the markings of one of Warlord Jii’s scout ships. The third team
never returned from the survey. We did a thorough search of the region and
found some debris that could have been the ship our team was on.”

“This does sound like a bad turn for the Pelod.
Do you think that it is in retaliation for cutting off sales to them?” asked
Kyle.

Smith shrugged his shoulders. A fairly recent
human non-verbal response he had adapted. “It could be, but the Otina… they are
unpredictable. They seldom do exactly as expected, and that makes them
difficult to deal with.” Smith smiled a little. “In that way, they are very
much like humans.”

“I suppose so,” said Kyle. “I do understand
your concern, but don’t you think this is a situation that Chancellor Thomas
and General Kitch could help you with more than me? I don’t really have
anything to do with Earth security anymore, and since the Otina are not part of
the galactic council, there is not much I can affect concerning them.”

“It’s complicated, Ambassador. It’s not your
position that I seek relief from, but rather you that I seek advice from,” said
Smith. “During your war with the Iltia’cor, there was a donation made of sixty
warp engines.”

“Yes, by an unnamed benefactor. I have my
suspicions of who they might have come from, but I feel it might be impolite to
bring it up.”

“You are wrong,” said Smith. “You don’t have
the right benefactors in mind because you don’t know the truth about the
donations. You might become angry with me, and you might become angry with
A’nacal since he was the one who made the decision. The engines were not
donated to Earth, Ambassador. They were donated to you.”

“To me? Personally?”

“Yes. A’nacal was quite insistent that you not
know. He was also quite insistent that you not become aware of who gave you the
engines.”

“Why are you telling me now? Won’t this cause
problems for you and the Pelod?”

“Probably not. You sit on the Lower Council
now. You have negotiated two peace treaties for other races in the last year
without benefit to Earth and you have shown graciousness to Iltia in the
aftermath of the war. I think humanity can handle the truth. But you are the
best person to make that assessment.”

“Who gave us… me… the engines?”

“Warlord Jii.”

Kyle felt like he had been struck on the head
with a brick.

“What? The Otina gave us the engines? Why on
earth would they do that?”

“I don’t know, Ambassador. It was confusing
then and it becomes more confusing as time goes on. They gave you the engines
you needed to defeat the Iltia’cor and yet they have made more and more raids
on your operations as time has gone on.”

Kyle pursed his lips as he leaned back to
think. The news that the Otina were kidnapping Pelod tied into this somehow. He
knew that the Otina were crafty, constantly changing tactics and defenses
whenever Earth forces engaged them. The news of the engines, though, stunned
him.

Was it personal? Did they realize that they had
his sister captive and they were trying to buy him off? Why would A’nacal hold
this information back from him?

“Mister Smith, was this the first instance of
one of your people disappearing?”

“We have surveyors out all the time. Every once
in a while, one doesn’t report in and we send out teams to find them.”

“Have you ever suspected the Otina before?”

Smith shifted his shoulders. “About three
months ago there was some speculation that it wasn’t a simple accident that
destroyed one of our survey ships.”

Kyle understood his hesitation. The Pelod did
not like conflict and accusing anyone, especially a former and future customer,
was risking the neutrality that they valued.

“I’m sure you are aware, Mister Smith, that
Earth could make good use of the locations and details of those events. Admiral
Salazar is leading the effort to push the Otina out of our system, and that
sort of data could help in that effort.”

“I know, Ambassador, but we are not willing to
take sides, even now. I was sent here to give you three specific pieces of
information. I cannot give more than I was authorized.”

“You have told me that the engines were a gift
to me, and you have told me that you suspect that the Otina have started
kidnapping your people. What is the third piece of information, Mister Smith?”

Smith reached in his pocket and pulled out a
data chip. “This is everything we know or even suspect about the history of the
Otina. It’s not a lot of information, but it might be of some use to you.”

Kyle took the chip and looked at it.

“I thought you had already given us everything
you knew,” he said. His jaw clenched a little as he tried not to get angry at
the Pelod representative.

“We gave you all of the verified information,
but there are always rumors and hints.”

“Rumors and hints that you use for profit even
when they might have helped us in our fight with them.”

“Yes, Ambassador.”

Kyle knew that the Pelod were not alone in
holding back information about the Otina. All of the races, even those on the
Higher Council, became very uncomfortable when he had inquired for more records
or history of their dealings and problems with the pernicious and ever-present
race.

The front door opened and Kyle turned to see
his daughter come in. She paused as she realized that he had company.

“Oh, Mister Smith, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to
interrupt,” she said.

“It is good to see you again, Miss Martin. I
asked to speak with your father just an hour ago, so there is no way you could
know,” said Smith.

“Are you staying for dinner?” Sara asked. She
dropped her keys on the hall table and walked over to her father. She leaned down
and gave him a hug and received a kiss on the cheek for her efforts.

“I would love to, but I must get going,” said
Smith as he stood.

“Are you sure? I make a mean enchilada,” Sara
said.

“Thank you, perhaps one day. I do love
enchiladas. But I really do have to leave. It was nice seeing you again.”

Smith nodded to Kyle and smiled again at Sara
before leaving the house.

Kyle slipped the data chip into his shirt
pocket. He heard Sara moving around in the kitchen.

“Were you serious about enchiladas?”

“I was,” his daughter replied. “But not if I
don’t have anyone to show off for. Besides, I think I have fed you enough
enchiladas. You need to have a salad tonight.”

Kyle sighed as he sat back on the couch. He
looked at the slight pudge that his stomach had developed over the last year.

“It’s back to the gym with you,” he said to his
slightly rounded middle. “You just cost me enchiladas.”

Chapter 4

Alex
winced as he tried and failed to open his eyes. He felt bruised and sore from
the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. He tried to open his eyes again
and felt the sharp stab of pain shoot through his head.

His eyes snapped shut and he lay still. After a
second he lifted a hand. That worked. He opened his mouth and stretched his
jaw, working it back and forth. That seemed to be okay as well. He lifted his
hand, shielded his eyes and prepared himself for another jolt of pain.

This time when he opened his eyes, he just felt
a dull throbbing at the back of his head. He moved his hand slowly away. He was
lying on his back. A faint light with a bluish tint illuminated the room. Alex
saw a ceiling about three meters above him. He moaned as he tried to lift his
head.

“Alex? Are you awake?” asked Manny.

Alex winced as the sound of Manny’s voice caused
another sharp stab of pain to his head. He was glad to hear his friend was
alive, though. The last time he saw Manny, the Iltia’cor wasn’t moving.

“Yeah,” Alex choked out.

“You have been unconscious for a long while. I
was afraid you weren’t going to wake.”

Alex pushed himself to a semi-sitting position.
He couldn’t quite make it all the way up and lay back on his elbows.

“What happened?” he asked.

“The Otina attacked our ship and took us
prisoner,” said Manny. “I don’t know much more than that.”

“But I felt the warp field stabilize. How did
they pull us out of warp?”

“I don’t know, Alex,” said Manny. “Do you need
help?”

Alex closed his eyes and forced himself to sit
all the way up. He went too far and fell face first onto the floor.

“Yeah, I need help,” said Alex as he allowed
himself to go limp.

Manny made his way over to his friend and
helped him sit back up on the low bed.

“Thank you,” said Alex as he looked at his
friend.

Manny looked healthy and fit. Alex knew that
the Iltia’cor had a robust system that allowed them to heal quickly after any
injury, but Manny looked in great shape.

“How long was I out?” asked Alex.

“I don’t know. I have slept four or five times
since they brought us here, but there is no way to find out the time,” said
Manny.

Alex’s stomach growled and he felt the severe
pangs of hunger.

“When do they serve dinner?” he asked.

“I haven’t seen any of the Otina since they
brought us in here.”

“How are you eating?”

“I’m not, they haven’t brought any food.”

Alex looked around. The room was composed of
solid metal walls, ceiling and floor. It was about three meters by four meters,
the ceiling about three meters high. There was what he assumed to be a low bed
that sat maybe half a meter high in the middle of the room.

“Wait, did you just say they haven’t brought
any food?” asked Alex. “Why not?”

“I don’t know. It’s odd because I feel hungry,
but I don’t feel drained like I would expect.”

“Me either,” said Alex. “I feel like I could
eat an entire buffet, but I feel like I have plenty of energy. I am very
thirsty. Where can I get something to drink?”

Manny shook his head.

“Nothing to drink?”

“Sorry Alex, no. Once the Otina brought you in
and laid you down, they left and I haven’t seen them again.”

Alex examined the room closer. There was a pale
blue light that illuminated everything, if not quite enough. No light source
though.

The Otina had found a way to embed a
fluorescent effect into their metal structures. Their ships and bases all had
this pale blue light. The odd thing was, if you removed any of the metal
plating, from their architecture, the glowing stopped immediately. Even when
the human engineers tried to place the plates and panels back where they were,
the glow wouldn’t come back.

There was one panel that didn’t glow on the
wall, which meant it was the door to the room.

Alex rubbed his nose as he took in as many
details as possible.

“What is that smell? Is it you, Manny?” he
asked.

“No, I can barely smell it, but the humans all
complain about it.”

“The humans? What humans?”

“There are nine other humans here, in the other
rooms.”

“What are they like?”

“I don’t know, they are human. Some have dark
hair, a couple of them have yellowish hair. Blue eyes, green eyes, dark eyes.
You know, humans.”

“That’s what they look like, but I meant what are
they like? Were they the others from the ship? Is Mitchell with them?”

“No, we are the only two from the ship. Captain
Curtis believes that they must split up any groups they capture and only put
two in any particular prison.”

“Clever,” said Alex. Keeping prisoners
separated from others they know assures that they can’t work together as
effectively. Putting prisoners with a single other person they know gives them
someone to be afraid for.

“Wait, did you say Captain Curtis? Who is he,
Manny?”

“Captain Curtis is the leader of the humans.”

“Are the rest military as well?” asked Alex.

“I believe so. I… I haven’t spoken very much
with them.”

Alex was confused by this. Manny was always
talking to strangers. The Iltia’cor had an unquenchable curiosity about any
human he met. The Iltia’cor.

“They don’t like you, huh?”

“Some seem friendly enough, but there are a few
that seem to want me to stay away. I don’t think they like me.”

“Why would you think that?”

“They said ‘We don’t like you and want you to
stay as far from us as possible.’ Then they showed me their middle finger. You
know, like you do to people in traffic,” said Manny.

Alex nodded. It had taken him more than a few
days to get used to the idea of being friendly with an Iltia’cor. He had
watched one of their leaders casually cut his sister’s throat. He was also one
of the few humans to have killed any Iltia’cor in direct combat.

“I’ll see what I can do to help, Manny,” he
said. “Why don’t you tell me what you remember from the time the ship was
attacked to the time I woke up.”

“Don’t you want to see the others?”

“They can wait. I want to hear what happened.
It will help me when I meet Captain Curtis.”

“I saw you attacking the Otina and then one hit
me with his shocker. I was pretty helpless after that. I tried to warn you that
one was coming from behind, but I couldn’t make sound come out.”

Alex interrupted him. “You could see them
clearly in the dark?”

“Not very clear, but I could see enough to know
where they were.”

“Why didn’t you run, or hide?”

“I was scared, Alex. I just froze. I didn’t
know what to do or where to go. I saw you moving very fast and with purpose.
You knew what you wanted to do, how you were going to do it, and even the
timing of it. I was almost in as much shock of watching you as I was in shock
of the attack.”

“I’ve had training and experience in those
situations, Manny. That’s all.”

Manny smiled and nodded at Alex. “You were like
one of those action heroes in the movies. I never thought anyone could react as
fast as they did in those shows, but you did.”

Alex felt embarrassed. His training was superb
and though he was proud of his abilities, he always knew that it was because so
many others had invested time and dedication into making him the marine he was.

“Thank you, Manny. What happened after they
knocked me unconscious?”

“They loaded us into sealed tubes. I wish I had
been unconscious, I don’t like confined places.”

“When you say us, do you mean just you and me
or were there others?”

“There were others. I couldn’t say how many,
but at least a few others.”

Alex felt better when he heard that. He was
afraid that if the Otina had been targeting him in particular that the others
on the craft would have been left to die in space.

“What happened next, Manny?” Alex stood as he
asked the question. His legs were very wobbly, but he wanted to know exactly
how strong he was.

“I’m not sure. The tubes were very confining,
as I said, and they had some gas pumped in that kept me almost immobile. I
could hear faint sounds, but couldn’t really move anything more than my eyes.
I’m sorry. I’m sure you would have found a way to gather more information.”

“No, you did good. When they moved us into this
place, what happened?”

Manny fixed Alex with a hard look. Alex didn’t
know if that was because Manny was worried when Alex almost fell over after a
couple of steps or if it was because he was deep in thought.

“Four. There were four Otina who were there
when they opened my tube and allowed me to climb out. They pushed me into a
doorway and one stood with a shocker watching me while the other three opened
your tube. Two of them carried you into the room where the other prisoners
were. I was pushed in after you. The other prisoners stood watching as they
dragged you into this room and laid you down.”

“And then the Otina left?”

“Yes,” said Manny. “They closed the door, we
heard the field go on and they just left.”

“The field?”

“A very powerful energy field that blocks the
entrance to the main room. If you open the door, you can see it.”

“The other prisoners showed you?”

“Yes, they tossed a scrap of clothing and it
burst into flames.”

“Mosar field?”

“No, the Pelod explained that it was a new type
of field that the Otina had modified specifically to stop humans. They said
there is no mosar involved.”

Alex sat down on the bed again before his legs
gave out. He cocked his head to the side and sighed.

“Pelod? You didn’t tell me there were any Pelod
here.”

“You didn’t ask. There are two Pelod prisoners
along with the nine humans.”

Alex had never imagined that the Otina would
take Pelod prisoners. Of course he didn’t think they would take Iltia’cor
prisoners, either, and yet they took Manny.

“Well, I guess we need to go meet and greet the
Captain and the others. Maybe he already has a plan on getting out of here,”
said Alex.

“Getting out of here?” asked Manny. “How would
we possibly get out of here? We don’t know anything about where we are, the
amount of guards, the defenses of the place. We know nothing, Alex.”

“We know we are prisoners and a prisoner’s
first duty is to escape.”

“But won’t the humans want to rescue us?
Wouldn’t it just be safer to wait for a rescue?”

Alex stood and stepped over to the Iltia’cor.

“I’m a marine, Manny. ‘Safer’ is not a factor
in my decision making process. I just hope Captain Curtis agrees.”

“Won’t he do what you say?”

“No, I’m just a Gunny. He wears the rank on his
shoulder.”

“I don’t know what that means, Alex.”

“It means he outranks me, I will do what he
says.”

Manny caught Alex as he stumbled.

“You don’t look strong enough, Alex. Maybe you
should rest a little more. I can go get Captain Curtis if you want to speak
with him.”

“No, I need to go and see the Captain and the
others on my own. I would prefer if I could be on my own two feet, though, so
sit me back down and I’ll rest a little.”

Manny helped Alex sit back on the low bed. The
large Iltia’cor then sat on the floor so he was looking straight at his human
friend.

“I don’t understand this, Alex. You are much
older than Captain Curtis and you are considered a hero because of your actions
in the war. Shouldn’t he follow your orders?”

Alex shook his head. “No, age has nothing to do
with it, nor does action. Rank is what is important. It establishes a
well-defined structure where everybody has their position.”

“But I thought the great power of the humans
was their lack of strict structure in their society? That’s the way the humans
on Iltia have described it.”

“True to a point. Individualism is what makes
humanity different than most of the other races, but uniformity can be very
efficient. A good leader must make decisions. He must make those decisions
because of the authority that is given to him. But a good leader also takes
advice. He uses the men that he has authority over to see a situation from all
sides and then makes the decision he feels is best. The men under his authority
have to trust that he will make the best decision. Even if they don’t agree
with it, they must believe and trust that he has the best view of the
situation.”

“But what if he is wrong?”

“Then the trust of those he is over, crumbles.
Eventually, his authority will be eroded and he will be a leader in name only.
At that point, it’s only a matter of time before he is replaced.”

“What if his bad decisions get people killed?”

Alex shrugged. “That’s why those in higher authority
must make wise decisions about who to give command to. If Captain Curtis was
given his command by wise leaders, then I will trust his judgment until he
gives me reason not to.”

“Seems like a large risk to take, Alex. I wish
I had your faith in someone I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry, Manny. We’ll get out of here and
you will be back on Iltia before you know it.”

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“That is so odd, because I really believe we
are going to die here.”

Alex stood and stretched. “Cheer up, Manny.
Maybe you will be right.”

He started walking carefully toward the door.

“Let’s go meet Captain Curtis.”

Chapter 5

The
room was quiet when Alex entered. Men were speaking or moving around, but it
was still quiet. It was the quiet of men thinking. Of men afraid to let go of
their thoughts.

Several of the men sat on the floor. Others
were leaned up against the walls with their eyes closed. When Alex took a few
steps in, one of those men opened his eyes and walked over.

“I’m Captain Curtis, U.S. Army. Welcome to
hell. Or at least purgatory.” He didn’t smile as he said it, but he did extend
his hand.

“Gunnery Sergeant Ramirez, U.S. Marine Corp.
Good to meet you Captain.” Alex shook the captain’s hand as several of the other
men moved towards them.

“Let me introduce your new compatriots,
Sergeant,” said Curtis. “This is Lieutenant Jeffries. He is U.S. Air Force.”

“Lieutenant,” said Alex.

“Sergeant,” replied Jeffries.

“Call me Gunny, sir,” said Alex. “In fact, you
can all refer to me as Gunny if you wish.”

“As you wish, Gunny,” said Curtis. “This is
Sergeant Hopkins, U.S. Army.”

Alex shook hands and exchanged greetings with
the other men as they were introduced. All of the humans, it appeared, were
part of the Earth Forces. In addition to those from the U.S., Corporal Adams
was from the Australian Army, Sergeant Grieg and Private Fleischer were from
Norway, and Sergeant Singh was from India.

Two men had risen and left the room by another
door when Alex first walked in.

Alex nodded to the door. “Who were they?” he
asked.

Curtis sighed. “Sergeants Liao and Hu, Chinese.
Liao has a real problem with your friend there. And with you, to be honest. We
figured out who you were when the Iltia’cor said your name.”

“I see. The Iltia’cor does have a name. It’s
Mantriq. Or Manny if he lets you call him that,” said Alex.

Captain Curtis put his arm around Alex and
eased him away from the other men. When he spoke, he softened his voice so his
words wouldn’t carry.

“Look, Gunny. I think we all understand how it
takes a while to get to where you can get over things, right? I mean Singh over
there wasn’t too thrilled with being stuck with a lot of Americans. He was in
the Indian Army during the war. I have no problem with…”

“Mantriq.”

“With Mantriq, but some of the others might be
harder to bring around.”

“I won’t tolerate open disrespect. Not for
Manny. He’s civilian.”

“Yeah, that’s something I need to get your
opinion on,” said Curtis.

“The fact that Manny is civilian?”

“No, the fact that all of the humans are part
of Earth Forces.”

“That is odd. But no disrespect for Manny,”
said Alex.

“We’re good on that part, Gunny. I’ll put my
foot on the neck of the next remark I hear.”

“Thanks, Captain.”

“Okay, let’s get back to the others.” Curtis
turned and walked to the middle of the room.

“Jeffries, go get Liao and Hu. Tell them I want
everyone assembled. We need to fill in Ramirez and Mantriq on what is
happening.”

Alex noticed two other men set off by
themselves on the other side of the room.

“Are those the Pelod?” he asked Curtis.

“Yeah, they seem to be getting worse every
day.”

“Worse?”

“Weaker. Physically and mentally. The Pelod
just don’t seem to be handling captivity very well. Some shock, too, I suppose.
They said that they have never heard of the Otina taking any Pelod. And then
they said that the only reason they took any captives was to experiment on them
medically.”

“Have they done any medical tests?”

“No. The only time we see any Otina is when
they drop off a couple of more prisoners.”

“Two at a time?” asked Alex.

“Always,” said Curtis.

“Who’s missing, then. There are only thirteen
of us here.”

Curtis dropped his eyes. “Major Benton was
killed soon after we arrived.”

Alex nodded. “That’s how you know that the
force field is lethal.”

Curtis nodded, “He was a Marine. He thought
that maybe he could get through with some minor burns if he hit it at a full
run. He was wrong. He burst into flames and was dead before he hit the ground.
Didn’t even have time to scream.”

“He arrived with you, then.”

“Yes. He left me in charge. When I get out, I
have to let his wife know. It’s going to kill Amanda.”

“Who was the first here?” asked Alex.

“Adams and Singh,” said Curtis.

“Do they have any idea of how long?”

Curtis nodded to Adams.

“Forty-three days and about fourteen hours,”
said the young Australian.

Alex was taken aback by the precision of the
answer. He looked at Curtis and saw the officer smile back at him.

“How do you know that?” asked Alex.

“Don’t know for sure, just always had a way of
keeping time. Sort of like an internal clock,” said Adams.

“How long ago was I brought in?” asked Alex.

Adams thought for a few seconds.

“Right at eighty-six hours ago, so three days
and fourteen hours.”

“What about the rest?”

“Grieg and Fleischer were in eight days after
Singh and me.  Liao and Hu were in… eight days later. Jeffries and Hopkins…”

“Eight days later,” finished Alex.

Everyone looked at Adams. The young man had
gone pale as he nodded.

“Then the Pelod,” said Jeffries.

“Eight days,” said Adams with a gulp. “I should
have figured that out.

“What does it mean?” asked Singh.

Alex looked around the room. Eight doors. One
main door and seven doors that led to small private rooms. Enough room for
sixteen prisoners, two each sharing a room and sleeping in shifts on the single
bed.

“It means we have a full house. Beyond that, I
don’t know. Maybe they will seal us up, maybe they will start to experiment on
us, maybe they will move us somewhere else,” said Alex.

The two Chinese soldiers stood off to the side
watching the others converse. Alex saw one of them speaking to the other in a
harsh manner.

“Captain, I would like to ask Liao and Hu some
questions,” said Alex.

‘Feel free, Gunny. But Liao has some serious
problem with you for some reason.”

“I’m about to find out what it is. We need to
work together if we are going to get out of here.”

Alex stepped over to the two Chinese men. They
stopped talking and looked at the Marine.

“Sergeants, my name is Gunnery Sergeant Alex
Ramirez, United States Marine Corp. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

One of the men hesitated before putting out his
hand.

“Sergeant Hu, People’s Liberation Army. I am
glad you are here. I’ve heard of your reputation.”

Alex shook his hand.

“I would say I’m glad to be here, but I’m not
glad any of us are here. We’ll get out of this, though.”

Alex extended his hand to the other man.
Sergeant Liao crossed his arms against his chest and leaned back.

“Liao lost his wife and son in the Iltia’cor
invasion. He knows you were the one who started the war. He feels their loss
greatly and is not ready to show kindness to those he blames,” said Hu.

Alex understood. He had reasons to hate as
well. He stepped close enough to Liao that the two men were almost touching
noses.

“Do you know why I started that war, Sergeant? I
was heading home to attend my mother’s funeral and take care of my sister’s
daughters. I went to my sister’s lab to say goodbye to her when I saw an
Iltia’cor walk up behind her, grab her hair, pull her head back, and slit her
throat.”

Alex’s voice was trembling as he saw the scene
in his head. The images had been confined to his nightmares for the last
several months, and even the nightmares were less frequent recently.

“My knife was in my hand before I knew it.
Kiltao Bregan was dead before he hit the ground. I killed him then and there. I
was his judge, jury and executioner, and I have no doubt in my mind that I had
the right to kill him. But I shouldn’t have. I started a war that killed
hundreds of thousands of humans and Iltia’cor. And for that, I am sorry. I am
sorry that my actions led to the death of your wife and son. I ask you to
forgive me.”

Liao blinked twice at Alex. His arms lowered
and he turned and walked into one of the small rooms.

Alex looked at Hu. Hu nodded and followed Liao
from the room.

“That was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,”
said Curtis as he walked up beside Alex. “I’ve never seen a man have his anger
evaporate like that.”

“Anyone else I need to make peace with before
we can get out of here?” asked Alex. “Let’s get all of the resentment and
anguish out of the way now.”

“I have a problem with you,” said Singh.

“Let’s hear it,” said Alex.

“You are close with Ambassador Martin, right?”

“I am. He was my CO for four years, the top of
my food chain for another six, and my friend for as long as I’ve known him.”

Singh nodded. “I had family in Hyderabad. Can’t
say I like the man.”

“I lost my father a month later. Not my
favorite time either,” replied Alex.

“Truce then?” asked Singh as he extended his
hand.

Alex shook his hand. “Truce.”

“Unless we are going to dance around a pole by
the moonlight, can I assume that all of the huggy-kissy crap is over?” asked
Hopkins.

Curtis laughed. “Yeah, I think we have enough
estrogen in the room now. Let’s get down to business.”

Alex saw that Manny had gone over to talk to
the Pelod. It was probably good that the Iltia’cor wasn’t going to hear the
plan just yet. Alex also hoped that he could get some good intel on what the
Pelod knew.

“Gunny, follow me,” Curtis said.

Alex followed the Captain toward the main door.
It was slightly bigger than the others and was closed. He heard the low hum of
an energy field as he walked near. Curtis led him to the next door over and
walked in.

“When Benton bought it, I came in here to be
alone. I was upset and kicked the bed. Hard. Almost thought I broke my foot on
the third kick. I heard a pop when my foot connected.”

He pointed to the floor next to the bed.

“The pop was the bed breaking away from the
floor.”

Alex squatted down and looked where Curtis was
pointing. A narrow crack was visible along the edge of the bed.

“A way out?” Alex asked as he looked up at
Curtis.

“A way out, but a narrow space. Too narrow for
most of us.”

Alex was a smaller man. Much smaller than most
people would imagine for such a highly decorated Marine. Standing five foot
eight inches and weighing one-hundred and sixty pounds, he didn’t stand out in
a crowd.

Alex pushed against the edge of the bed and it
slid open an inch or so.

“Careful, we don’t know if we are being
watched,” Curtis said.

“If we are, then they will come to stop us,
have the others get ready by the main door. If they power down the energy
shield, jump them when they come in.”

Curtis nodded and left the room.

Alex pushed again and the bed exposed another
few inches of the opening. The faint glow inside the access way verified to
Alex that this was not just a breach in the construction, but a passage into
the prison area. Alex thought that it went either to a more secure area, like
the armory or the security office, or to a maintenance area.

He hoped it was the latter. Another shove moved
the bed clear of the entrance and he got a good look at the size of the
passage. It would be tight, even for him.

He kicked off his shoes and took off his shirt.
He was considering whether he should lose his pants when Curtis came back in.

“You’re going in?” the Captain asked.

“Sure, what else have I got to do?” Alex asked.
“Besides, maybe it will take my mind off of being hungry.”

“You aren’t hungry,”Curtis said. “Your body
just thinks it is.”

“I’m closer to my body than I am to you—I trust
it more,” said Alex. He took off his pants as he looked at the narrow tunnel.
It looked like it went straight down for about a meter and a half before it
went horizontal.

“No, the Pelod explained it. The Otina are
pumping in aerosolized nutrients in the air. That faint garbage smell? That’s
your food. You breathe it in and the nutrients go straight to your blood
stream.”

“Doesn’t make sense to me, but then neither
does a lot of what I’ve seen recently.”

“Jeffries thinks that is why the Pelod keep
getting weaker. The Otina probably created the nutrient gas for long term
holding of humans, not Pelod.”

“Likely not Iltia’cor either,” Alex said. “All
the more reason to get out of here quickly.”

Alex lowered himself to the ground and sat on
the edge of the entryway.

“If you get stuck down there, I can’t risk
anyone to pull you out. If the nutrient gas can get to you, you won’t even be
able to starve. You’ll die of old age and muscle atrophy after years,” Curtis
said.

“There are many different scenarios that I have
imagined myself dying in, Captain. Old age, stuck in a tube, in an alien prison
is not one I had considered before today.”

“Good luck,” Curtis said.

“Thanks,” Alex replied as he pulled himself up
on his knees and started lowering himself head first into the passageway.

Alex had crawled through caves and buildings
before, but always with a line and always with someone who could help him if he
got stuck. This was a little intimidating, even for him, but he knew that if
the prisoners were to escape, someone would have to go down this tunnel.

Handholds were easy to find for the descent and
he knew it would be easy to crawl back up when he made it to the exit point.
When, not if, he made it to the exit point.

At the bottom of the drop he was able to see
the tunnel before him. Twelve meters and then it went up again. The passage was
pretty easy to crawl through. It was high enough that he could almost crawl.
Not quite, though. Maybe another inch higher and he could do it. But it was
easy to wiggle and squirm his way forward.

He reached the end of the crawl and looked up
at the rising tunnel. He breathed a sigh of relief as the tunnel ended about
two meters up. He twisted and pulled himself up to his knees and then to his
feet. At the top of the shaft was an access panel. It was painted light blue
instead of glowing like the surrounding structure.

Alex found some footholds and climbed his way
up. he carefully loosened the panel and freed it from its setting. He pushed it
up and looked into the room. It was a storage room of some kind. He held onto
the panel with one hand and pulled himself into the room with the other. The
panel was set near the floor of the room, so there was no drop to contend with.

The room was small, maybe one meter by a meter
and a half. Shelves lined two walls and there was a door opposite the access
panel. Several stacks of boxes lined the same wall as the panel. Alex knew he
had to get back soon, but he saw a problem. He would have to crawl backwards
through the passage in order to set the panel back in place correctly.

He wasn’t fond of the idea, but being caught
wasn’t an option. He grabbed the panel and crawled back down into the narrow
crawl space. He replaced the panel, making sure he felt it click back into
place, and then started making his way back along the tunnel crawling
backwards.

When his feet hit the end of the tunnel he
heard Curtis.

“Gunny, did you find out where it came out?”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I’m going to try to push
myself up as high as I can, see if you can grab my legs.”

It took Alex a little time to figure out how to
get the angle to start pushing himself into a handstand. The blood was rushing
to his head and he felt dizzy by the time he made any real progress.

The feel of a hand grabbing one of his ankles
was a welcome relief, even as it was a shock.

“Pull,” Curtis said and Alex felt himself being
lifted straight up. A second hand grabbed his other ankle and he found himself
being pulled free of the narrow passageway.

“Are you okay, Gunny,” Jeffries asked.

Alex looked around at room. Jeffries, Adams,
and surprisingly Liao was there with Curtis.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I’m good. The tunnel comes
out in a storage room. We can get out.”

Chapter 6

Carl
checked the records for the third time. He knew what he was seeing was correct,
but he was hoping it was a mistake.

When the initial reports came back, he sent for
additional tests. When those reports came back, he had Karen Swanson and Bill
Foster brought to his lab. This morning he had personally run the scanner. Now
the results were back. Karen Swanson and Bill Foster had mosar in their system.

The amounts were small. Tiny even. He doubted
the Otina scanners would have even picked them up. He knew that he would have
missed them if he hadn’t calibrated the tests to look for them and then focused
on the areas that gave him the barely perceptible readings.

The idea that humans could have mosar in their
system was something that seemed impossible just a week before. And yet Captain
Theodore Swanson had died from a mosar based energy field. The captured scan
data showed that he had mosar in his system. An examination of his remains
confirm that his major organs and bone matter disintegrated in a manner that
would be consistent with contamination of mosar.

And now, two of the people he was closest to had
turned up positive for mosar as well.

Karen was understandable. She was his wife and
he had been on leave for two months before shipping out again last month for
Strike Force Alpha.

Foster was Swanson’s bunkmate on the Hemingway.
They had served together since right after the Do’yar’on incidence. For almost
a year, they had been in close proximity to each other. Foster had resigned his
commission six months ago.

Swanson and Foster hadn’t seen each other since
then, though. Carl didn’t like mysteries like this. He preferred ones where he
could flip to the end and see what happened. He had never actually done that,
but it was a comforting thought that he could.

He would have both Swanson and Foster come in
for further tests tomorrow or the next day. Today was the funeral for Captain
Swanson, and he had poked and prodded them enough during their grief.

How could it spread, though? Carl thought it
might be sexually spread, but Foster insisted that he and Swanson had never had
any form of sexual contact.

Aerial dispersion? Maybe. Contact seemed to be
the most sensible, but he didn’t understand how Swanson had been infected in
the first place.

Infected. A odd term for a non-organic, non-viral
substance, and yet that is what they appeared to be grappling with. An
infection. An infection that was some way contagious.

Carl shook his head and looked back at the
specifications of mosar he had. The Hedali were both very knowledgeable about the
structure and behavior of mosar in their own physiology and other forms of
physical matter. Pure elements, like tin, didn’t have mosar, but any compounds,
like bronze, did.

If there was no mosar in tin or copper, how did
it end up in bronze? That was a question that had them speaking at length about
how silly of a question it was.

They didn’t know the answer.

And because it had always been known that they
didn’t know, they couldn’t see that mosar was more confusing and complicated
than they realized.

It was confusing enough to Carl that mosar was
integrated into a non-organic compound like bronze, but in life-forms it made
no sense at all. How could the presence of an extra bond not create problems?

Maybe he was looking at this all wrong. He was
trying to figure out how mosar got into living tissue when he didn’t understand
the nature of mosar from an inorganic chemistry side.

He was an engineer trying to solve a medical
problem. He needed to solve an engineering problem. The Hedali were great when
it came to science and chemistry, but most of their focus was on organic
chemistry and medical advancements.

He needed to speak to the Pelod. They were the
weapons and ship guys of the galaxy. Their engineering and non-organic
chemistry understanding was way beyond the Hedali.

Carl pulled up his contact sheet on his tablet.
He searched for the name he wanted and hit connect. A few seconds later, his
call was answered.

“Marcus Taylor,” said the slim alien. “Oh,
hello Doctor Williams. What can I help you with today?”

Marcus was the head of research at the steel
factory that the Pelod controlled in Rio de Janero. He and Williams had worked
closely on a new titanium alloy that would reduce the mass of Earth’s cruisers
by three percent a few months earlier.

“Marcus, good to see you,” Carl said. “I have a
problem, but not one I can go into full details about. Can I bend your ear for
a few minutes?”

“Bend my ear? Ah, do I have time to listen to
you. Yes,” Marcus said. “I have some time this afternoon, Doctor.”

“Good. I am curious about mosar. When two
elements are bonded in a compound, mosar becomes evident in them, right?”

“Yes, that is what happens.”

“How? Where does the mosar come from?”

Marcus pursed his lips and wrinkled his
forehead in thought.

“That’s a question that occasionally arises,
but one that doesn’t have a confirmed answer.”

“Any strong theories?” Carl asked.

“A few, but no way to test them,” Marcus
answered. “The first is that mosar is created when the bond is made. It’s an
older theory and one that is widely considered unlikely. I believe that it
should be tossed aside entirely as your solar system proves that life can exist
without mosar.

“The second theory is that mosar is ambient. It
is just around everything and becomes caught up in the molecular bonding event.
The problem with that is we can’t detect the free floating mosar. The
conclusion is that either the theory is wrong or we have no reliable way to
test it.

“The third theory is that mosar transfers from
one source to another. This theory has some merit and some testing has proved
useful, but there are still some problems with the theory.”

Carl made a few notes and then looked back up
at the screen.

“Marcus, this has been a huge help. Anyway I
could get some of the testing you have done on this?” Carl asked.

“I’ll send you what I can. Is there anything
else you can tell me that might help?”

“Not at this time, but if I have some more
questions, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“That would be fine. Before I go, there is one
thing that I saw in our reports that might be relevant to your line of
questioning.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“When we recently received a shipment of iron,
we discovered that the iron oxide it was coated in had mosar,” Marcus said.

“Where was it from?” Carl asked.

“I’ll send you the exact record, but it was an
asteroid in the Kuiper Belt.”

“Thanks Marcus, that might help,” said Carl.
“If I need anything else, I’ll be in touch.”

“Okay Carl, goodbye.”

The call disconnected as Carl lost himself in
thought. Iron oxide in the Kuiper Belt had mosar. Although at the very far
reaches of the solar system, this was the first example of mosar discovered in
native material.

Carl pulled up the records that the Hedali had
given him about mosar in their materials and physiology. He then pulled up the
records for some of the other races.

He started reading through the data as if he
were just handed the reports of an infectious outbreak without any knowledge of
other information.

In this case it jumped out at him that the
Junniji had a significantly higher level of mosar in their solar system and
inside their own physiology than the Hedali had. It was four percent higher,
which wouldn’t seem that much greater except when it appeared to be from an
infection.

Carl pulled up some data about the two races.
He didn’t see anything about their history that would indicate that they had
any significant differences.

The only major difference was in their
technology level. The Junniji were the most advanced of the races as part of
the Lower Galactic Council. They would likely be raised to the Higher Galactic
Council within a few years according to Ambassador Martin.

They had discovered interstellar travel about
twenty-two hundred years before while the Hedali had only discovered it about
nine hundred years before.

Could the discrepancy in mosar concentration be
correlated with their discovery of interstellar travel? Carl started going
through the archival records he found. He had quickly browsed them when they
had provided the information, but he hadn’t been looking for anything in
particular. He keyed in the words ‘mosar’ and ‘travel’. Nothing came up on the
cross-reference. He keyed in ‘mosar’ and ‘time.’ Again, nothing.

He keyed in ‘mosar’ and ‘anomoly’. He got a
hit. In the Hedali records there was a journal entry for one of their medical
researchers. It was about seven hundred years ago and he had noted that the
Hedali physiology seemed to be growing in mosar concentration.

Carl looked at the numbers and then compared
them to the current data he had been given. An increase of twelve percent from
the time the anomaly was written about and now. Mosar was growing in the
Hedali.

He quickly slid over to his main computer and
input the data. He set a simple extrapolation and ran the numbers for a target.
If the rate of growth was consistent, the Hedali would catch up to the Junniji
in about one thousand years.

That didn’t make any sense. If it was based
upon when they first developed interstellar travel, then the Hedali should
reach the current Junijji levels in thirteen hundred years, not one thousand.

Something else was causing the deviance in the
rate of mosar. It could be physiological, maybe. He needed to find a control
substance, something that was found in every system.

Carl pulled up the level of mosar in iron oxide
found in each of their systems. He found the level of mosar was perfectly
matched to the levels found in the Hedali and the Junijji. Exactly.

There was something about the beginnings of
interstellar travel and the growth of mosar. So he was at step one. There was a
start point for mosar to develop inside a star system. If this were true, then
he could try to track down other pieces of statistical evidence to build a
theory.

Carl was scrolling through some more data when
his phone rang.

“This is Williams,” he said as he kept his eyes
on the screen.

“Carl, Kyle here,” said the caller.

“Kyle, this is a surprise,” Carl said as he
paused the data scroll. “Don’t get to hear from you too often these days. What
can I do for you?”

“I think it’s what I may be able to do for you.
I understand you are working on a project.”

“Yeah, figured Kitch would fill you in. It’s a
head-scratcher, that’s for sure.”

“I bet. I just got some information that I
think you will find useful. Seems that our friends the Pelod have been holding
out on us when it came to some information.”

“About mosar?” Carl asked.

“Yeah. Turns out they didn’t even know about
mosar until—“

“They developed interstellar flight.”

“Right. Wow, good job on figuring that out. I
was kind of shooting in the dark there. What I was going to say, though, was
until they met the Iltia’cor,” Kyle said.

“The Iltia’cor? The Pelod first contact was
with the Iltia’cor?”

“That is affirmative.”

“Interesting, but I don’t know how that helps.”

“The Pelod were the first race that the Hedali
ran into when they developed interstellar travel.”

“Let me guess. Before the Hedali met the Pelod,
they had never heard of mosar either.”

“No, the Hedali had discovered mosar, but they
hadn’t been alone in their system.”

“What do you mean they hadn’t been alone?”

“The Otina were already there. Had been for a
couple of centuries. They were kidnapping Hedali and experimenting on them.”

“So the Otina were already doing their stalk
and grab act nine hundred years ago?”

“No, they were already doing their act over two
thousand years ago. And that is just as far back as the Pelod’s records go.”

“Where are you getting this, Kyle?” Carl asked.

“The Pelod gave me some of their records. They
have started having their people kidnapped by the Otina again.”

“Weren’t they supposed to have provided this
when we signed the Earth-Mars accord?”

“Technically they gave us everything they knew
about the Otina, this information is extrapolation of theories and
speculations.”

“Clever. Didn’t want to upset a favorite
customer in case business could start up again.”

“That’s the way I see it. The point is, the
Otina have that mysterious drifter vibe, but they have been drifting a long,
long time.”

“That gives me something to work with. Can you
send any of that data over?”

“Sorry Carl, the Pelod gave me the actual data
as a member of the Lower Council. I can let you know what I find, but I can’t
let anyone else who isn’t on the Council see it.”

“Them’s the breaks,” Carl said. “You gave me a
better direction to start going in. Thanks, Kyle.”

“We’ll see you next weekend?”

“Sure thing, wouldn’t miss a Martin cookout.
Have a good day, Ambassador.”

“You too, Doctor.”

Carl sat back and looked at the ceiling after
Kyle ended the call. He now knew that the interstellar travel date wasn’t a hard
and fast start for each system developing mosar. He thought it might be near
proximity of another race with mosar, but the Pelod and the Otina had been in
the Earth system for almost two hundred years.

He looked up a number for an old friend who was
still in the Marines.

“Can you connect me to General Davies, please.”

After a short wait, the General was on the
line.

“This is General Davies, how may I help you?”

“Hello General, this is Doctor Carl Williams.
Was wondering if you could let me know if we could get a scan of any of the
Otina POWs?”

“I’ll have to check against regulations. The
Treaty of the Stars is pretty explicit about treatment of POWs.”

“The Otina aren’t signatories, General.”

“No, but we are and we are sworn to uphold the
law even if our prisoner’s haven’t,” General Davies replied.

“Okay, okay. If it fits in regulations, can I
get a scan? I want a mosar spec on about ten of them.”

“I’ll check, Doctor, but I don’t see what that
will tell you.”

“That’s classified, General. No big deal, but I
need those readings if I can get them.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Doctor.”

Carl hung up from the call and started looking
through the data again. If he could date each race based upon the mosar in
their system, he might be able to create a timeline of when mosar was
introduced to each system.

Then he would be able to determine how long
humanity had before it was completely infected as well.

Chapter 7

K-man
stared at the panel showing his men’s status. As he watched, the last few names
went green indicating that their medical tests were finished and no problems
were found.

“Captain Gagne, we are all cleared,” he said.
He turned to look at the Captain of the Berlin. “I can send Salazar the report
and we can get our men the shore leave they desperately deserve.”

“Sounds good, Colonel,” Gagne said. He was
frowning, though, as he looked at his tablet. “Might be a small hitch in that
plan, though.”

A ding from K-man’s tablet told him that the
hitch was from Salazar himself. K-man looked at the incoming message. A
priority mission.

K-man sighed and pulled up the communications
tab. He found Salazar’s name and sent a connection request.

The general’s face appeared almost instantly on
the tablet.

“I thought you would be in contact,
Kiskaliski,” Salazar said. “I’m sorry to have to do this, but it comes straight
from General Kitch’s office.”

“My men need some R&R, sir. We’ve been in
orbit around Ellison for five days now and they are going stir crazy.”

“Understood, and they do deserve a break. They
have five days. We are sending a couple of extra squads and some more scooters
to your team. They will be assembled and at Ellison in five days,” Salazar
said.

“That isn’t enough time for any of my men or
Captain Gagne’s men to schedule a ride to Earth, have a sandwich and make it
back.”

“Sorry, Colonel, that’s what we have to deal
with. They can have their liberty at Ellison, but we need you back in the
Kuiper Belt ASAP.”

“What’s the mission?”

“The Otina grabbed Ramirez when he was heading
out of system.”

“They got Gunny Ramirez? Where? When?”

“They found his transport derelict about a half
light year from the system. It looks like the Otina have found a way to pull a
ship in warp back into our space-time. We’re still working on the how. But this
was four days ago. He is a major security risk for us, and we want him back.”

“Alex will try to contact us and escape
himself, sir,” K-man said.

“I know, but we need to be in position to go
get him when we get any information. Our best guess is he is in section 128 of the
Kuiper Belt. That would be the closest place they could take him.”

“I’ll start pulling up spec sheets and looking
at the search pattern protocols, sir.”

“We’re counting on you, K-man. This is the kind
of mission we gave you command for. Salazar out.”

Captain Gagne leaned back in his chair and
covered his face with both hands. “There must be a thousand rocks in that
sector that could hide an Otina base. And we’ll probably hit twenty bases with
a careful search. That could be a year’s worth of work.”

“You’re right,” K-man said. “The men aren’t
going to like this one. We’ll be out a long time.”

Gagne stood. “I’ll take the hit and tell my men
first, you coordinate with Ellison and the scooter crews. They need time to get
the provisions allocated and secured on the Berlin.”

K-man nodded as he pulled up the communications
codes. They would need to rotate out some of the men and bring in fresh
recruits. Earth System Defense was the main front-line against the Otina and as
such there was a high rate of turn-over. You just couldn’t keep a man in a
combat situation for months at a time. Unless he was were an officer or his
position required him to be on the front lines.

Many of the soldiers, marines, sailors and
airmen would be heading home to Earth when the Berlin left port again. But most
of K-man’s hand picked men would be heading back out for another multi-month
run without a chance to get home and see some loved ones. Without a chance to
see their homes again, even.

A life spent defending your home often meant you
didn’t see what you were protecting for a long time. And often, what you did
changed you so much that you didn’t fit in to that world ever again.

K-man heard the ship’s intercom system kick on.

“Crew of the Berlin, this is the Captain. I
have some very good news for all of us and some very bad news for most of us.
The good news is that we have been cleared by medical to start our liberty on
Ellison station at the end of this announcement. The bad news is that if you do
not have a confirmed reassignment, your liberty will be five days. We have a
priority mission and as soon as the Berlin and her escorts are prepped, we are
shipping out. For those who were hoping to get home during the three weeks
liberty, I am sincerely sorry. Enjoy your liberty. You need to report back by
0600 on the 17th.”

K-man pulled his comm unit out of his shirt
pocket. By the time he got it up to his ear, it had already buzzed.

“Kiskaliski,” he said. He knew who it was.

“Sir, this is Lippor. Does this mean that we
are on short liberty as well?”

“Yes, Sergeant. I’m very sorry. Orders just
came through a few minutes ago.”

“Sir, this is heartbreaking, I must say. My
grandfather is not doing well and I was hoping to get home to see him.”

“Sorry, Lippor. I was looking forward to some
time off myself. Klein will be the worst, though. He was going to go see his
daughter.”

“I forgot about that. I’ll see if I can
intercept him before he does something stupid.”

“Tell him that he needs to rent a room, call
his wife and spend a few hours of quality video time with her and his new
daughter. I’ll pick up the room tab for him. And spread the word that I’m
buying first rounds at the canteen tonight.”

“Yes, sir. Where are we off to?”

“Bound by OPSEC, but you’ll know on the 17th.”

“Great, out to the rocks again.”

“Remember just the first round, Lippor.
Kiskaliski out.”

K-man set his comm unit to private and dropped
it in his pocket.

“Buying the first round? I thought you were a
teetotaler,” Gagne said as he walked back in the small briefing room.

“I am,” K-man said. “But most of my men will
want to pound down more than their fair share tonight, and buying the first
round lets them know I understand why.”

“If you are willing to handle upset marines,
mind calling my wife for me?”

K-man smiled as he pulled up the incoming
orders.

“Vacation?” he asked Gagne.

“Wedding,” the captain said.

K-Man whistled low and shook his head.

“Youngest daughter. They scheduled it two weeks
from today. Planned it all around my guaranteed liberty.”

Gagne walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a
bottle of scotch and a glass.

“You don’t mind if I have one, do you?” Gagne
asked as he sat down across from K-man.

“I would suggest more than one before you make
that call, Skipper.”

“She was already upset when I told her I was
going to need medical clearance. I don’t know what she will do when I tell her
I won’t be able to get home at all.”

“Maybe you should wait until we are about to
pull out,” K-man said as he tried not to laugh. “Last thing Ellison needs is an
angry navy wife in a port full of hung-over marines.”

Gagne laughed. “Yeah, those guys see enough
danger, no use putting them in that line of fire.”

Gagne poured enough that K-man could tell he
was upset. The captain of the Berlin wasn’t a heavy drinker and in fact this
was the first time that K-man had seen a bottle of liquor in his hand on the
ship.

“You served with Ramirez, right?” asked Gagne.

“Yeah, we were in the Indian Theater and then
we were with Ambassador Martin at the First Contact.”

Gagne nodded as he swirled the scotch in his
glass.

“You’ve been killing Otina longer than anyone,
I guess.”

K-man looked up from his tablet. “I never
thought of it that way. Although Ramirez was the first to kill one. He shot one
that was pursuing the team as they were racing to the Fletcher.”

Gagne took a drink and set the glass on a side
table.

“What a life we lead,” he said.

K-man turned off his tablet and set it down on
the chair next to him. He could tell that the captain needed to talk.

“I know you were in the Indian theater,
Captain. Why did you re-up when the Iltia war started?”

Gagne shrugged. “What else was I going to do? I
had experience as a ship’s captain and Earth needed me. I had only resigned my
commission for about a year before the invasion. I figured they might need
someone who was familiar with command and system controls.”

He looked around at the briefing room. “Not
much different than the AEGIS cruiser I skippered in the Indian War. Less ports
to see out of, no chance of running the bottom, but pretty close to the same.”

“The crews the same?”

“Mostly. On the water is was all U.S. crews.
Here we get a mix of all different nations. Most get along okay. Have to make
sure no one gets too hot, make sure no one gets too offended. But sailors are
sailors. If I can get them to take their roles seriously and they do their jobs
properly, the ship runs smooth.” Gagne took a long sip of his whisky. “I have a
very smooth running ship, K-man. I hope I can hand her over to someone else one
day.”

“How long?”

The captain shrugged. “Wife wants me to resign
after this hitch. Might do it. Kids are married, or soon will be. Have a couple
of grandkids I could spend time with. Could take up painting, I guess.”

“You paint?” K-man asked.

Gagne snorted. “No. Not yet. Just always looked
relaxing, you know? Just a blank canvas, a bunch of paint and brushes. Just
creating.”

K-man nodded.

“What about you, K-man?” Gagne asked. “What do
you see yourself doing after you get out?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about
it. I joined when I was 17, the day I graduated High School. It’s been 15 years
now. Almost half my life in the Corp. I guess in another twenty years or so,
I’ll retire. But I don’t have a lot to go back to. My mom died when I was a kid
and my dad… he wasn’t much of a father. He drank himself to death when I was
23. I was in India at the time. Didn’t go home for the funeral. I went to his
grave when I got back to the States, but didn’t know what to say.”

“The Corp is your family.”

“The Corp is my family.”

“And Ramirez?”

K-man chuckled. “Like an older brother who
can’t stay out of trouble.”

“We’ll get him back for you. When they figure
out where he is, I’ll park this boat right on his doorstep.”

K-man stood up.

“Thanks, Skipper. I know you’ll get us there.
We just have to rely upon the techs to figure out where he is,” K-man said.

“Take care, Colonel. Anything you need, don’t
hesitate to ask.”

K-man left the ready room and headed for his
quarters.

Lippor met him coming out of the mess.

“Sir, I’ve heard some rumors. Are they true?”
Lippor asked.

“I’m sure some rumors are true and some are
not, Lippor. Which ones are you asking about?”

“Search and rescue mission. That’s what I’ve
heard, that this is a search and rescue mission.”

“That could be, we’ll be getting more
information in the next few days.”

“Gunny Ramirez?”

K-man stopped and looked at the young officer.
“Where did that name come up?”

“Greenaway. He was running some data searches
and it looks like Gunny Ramirez’s transport to Iltia was hit by some Otina.”

“Get Greenaway and bring him to my quarters,
Lippor.”

“Yes, sir.”

K-man stalked to his briefing room. He was
irritated that news had gotten out about Ramirez, but he was also a little
impressed with his company’s computer tech for having dug the information up in
just a few minutes.

K-man arrived in his office and was pulling up
the reports when Lippor, Greenaway and Golding came to the door.

“Captain, why are you here?” K-man asked.

“I was the one who suggested to Greenaway that
he might find something interesting in the data. I figure if you are going to
chew him and Lippor out, I might as well get it at the same time,” Captain
Golding said.

K-man nodded. “Come in and secure the door
behind you.”

The three marines stepped in and Lippor shut
the door firmly behind them.

“Have a seat,” K-man told his subordinates. He
motioned to the array of chairs lining the wall as he continued to pull up the
reports he wanted.

The men sat as they waited on their commanding officer.

K-man finished pulling together the reports he
wanted, sorted them into the order he needed, and put the first one up on the
screen opposite the chairs that his men sat in.

“This is the report that Greenaway found.” He
looked at the young Lieutenant. “Correct?”

Greenaway nodded. “Yes, sir.”

K-man clicked the spacebar on his keyboard
pulling up the next report.

“This is the official order that I received
less than an hour ago. We are on a hunt for Gunnery Sergeant Ramirez.”

The three men nodded.

“This is a classified report of what happened
on the Hedali ship on the day of the First Contact. I was one of four human
witnesses to the event.”

The men across from K-man leaned closer to read
the report. It was a fairly simple and short write up about how an alien shot
Gunny Ramirez in the back with some weapon and it had no effect on him.

“That must have confused them,” Lippor said as
he finished reading.

“For the milliseconds that they were alive, I
believe it did,” K-man said. “I cleared the hallway of six of them to cover our
retreat onto the Fletcher.”

Captain Golding shook his head. “I can’t
imagine what that would have been like. To be faced with a foe you didn’t
understand. With technology you couldn’t comprehend. It must have been
terrifying.”

“I expect they said the same thing about us,”
K-man said. “And I intend to keep them in awe of us. Greenaway, I want you to
use those computer skills to narrow down our search area. Figure out where they
would have gone. Don’t think like a human, though, study everything about the
Otina and try to think like them.”

Greenaway nodded and pulled up his tablet.
K-man suspected that he already had some ideas on where to begin.

“Sergeant Lippor, you are to coordinate with
command and make sure that we are given every stray bit of intercepted
communication originating from Otina sources. Ramirez has an undying drive to
escape from capture. He did it several times in the Indian war. If he can’t get
away, he will at least try to get us a message to help us rescue him.”

K-man turned to Captain Golding. “With
Ramirez’s reputation of escape in mind, Captain, I want you to figure out how
he will do it. I want you to examine every bit of data and recreate whatever
you have to from the Otina bases we have captured to try to give us an inside
idea on what he is facing.”

Golding nodded as he made some notes on his
tablet.

“That’s all for now, gentlemen. You have your
five days of liberty, but since you all seemed so anxious to figure out our
assignment before I was ready to reveal it, I expect to see some progress
before we ship out. Dismissed.”

The three men rose and filed out of K-man’s
office. He watched the door shut and let out a sigh. Ramirez was a major
security risk. They had to get him out before the Otina forced information from
him.

Chapter 8

Alex
tapped the small metal plate with his finger. Adams was listening for the taps
at the far end of the corridor. Alex watched for a few more minutes before his
now daily backwards crawl through the narrow tunnel.

“How long was that?” Alex asked as he was
pulled back up the chute.

“Forty-eight minutes, both times,” Adams
replied.

Alex caught his breath and nodded. “We have a
good pattern of their patrols, then. Next time, I’ll leave the storage room and
recon the area. I think I can make it back to the holding area. If I can figure
out how to lower the force field, we can get out and move around.”

“You still think they only have eight guards?”
asked Curtis.

“Eight, maybe ten,” Alex replied. “If there are
more than that, they must not come near the holding area or the supply room.”

“If we can get out, do you think we can
overpower them and take over the base,” Adams asked.

“Too risky,” Curtis said. “If there are more of
them or if the base is bigger than we think, we may be in a worse position if
we strike too soon. I think Gunny is right, we need to do more recon first.”

Alex nodded as he pulled his shirt back on. He
would love to have a shower. Or a sip of water. Even a bite of food. It had
been nine days since he had woken in this prison, and while he felt hungry and
thirsty, he didn’t feel any weaker than the day he arrived. His bruises and
other minor injuries from the attack on his ship were all healed, as well.

“I’ll go back down next cycle and see if I can
map the hallway. We can get Hu to go with me. He needs to get practice making
that crawl in case something happens to me,” Alex said.

Curtis nodded as he and Adams moved the bed
back into position over the opening. “I agree. This is our best shot at
escaping. I don’t want to risk you unnecessarily, Gunny, but if something were
to happen, Hu is the only other one of us with a small enough bone structure to
get through safely.”

The men left the bedroom where the access
tunnel was and joined the others in the common room of the holding area.

Alex saw Manny talking with the two Pelod
prisoners and walked over to them.

“How are you feeling today?” Alex asked
Davison, the Earth name of one of the Pelod.

“Weaker still, Alex. Nothing in particular is
wrong, but I feel weaker.”

Alex nodded. “And you, Levin?”

“The same. I keep hoping it is just in my mind,
but I grow weaker each day.”

Alex frowned. “You said that the Otina had
never taken Pelod prisoners before. Whatever nutrient mix they are pumping into
these rooms probably hasn’t been calibrated for a Pelod’s need yet. Maybe they
will have it fixed soon.”

Levin gave the marine a tight smile. “I hope
you are correct, Alex. I’m sorry we can’t be of more use to you.”

Levin was referring to the fact that both of
the Pelod were thin enough to make the narrow crawl along the access tunnel.

“You gave us some important technical
information, so you are of use to us. When we have more questions about
whatever we find, I’m sure your knowledge will be instrumental in getting us
out of here.”

“You really believe we can escape, don’t you?”
Davison asked.

“No doubt about it, Davison. We will escape,
all of us.” Alex patted the Pelod on the shoulder and motioned for Manny to
follow him.

“What is it Alex?” the Iltia’cor asked.

“How bad are they? I know they are weaker, but
how bad is it?”

“It seems pretty bad, but I don’t have medical
training and these are the first Pelod I have met.”

“Okay. Just keep an eye on them. When I go out
and recon, I will see if I can find anyway to look out at the sky. If I do,
could you tell where we are if I could draw you a star field?” Alex asked.

Manny was an astrophysicist with an interest in
xenobiology. He had originally been assigned to Earth to teach some of the
human astrophysicists the techniques that the Iltia’cor used for determining
interstellar energy flow. Alex had sat in on several of Manny’s lectures, but
he was mostly playing games on his tablet as the theories were way over his
head. He had heard Manny say that most Iltia’cor astrophysicists could
approximate where they were in the galaxy by just looking at the stars for a
couple of hours.

“It would have to be a very detailed drawing,
Alex. It would be better if I could look at the stars myself.”

“I’ll see what we can do. If we can figure out where
we are, we have a better chance at making our escape and reconnecting with
Earth Force.”

“I trust you, Alex. But I wonder why they
haven’t questioned any of us. Why are they just keeping us in here? Do they
think they can break us just by letting us panic at being forgotten?”

Alex shrugged. “I’m not sure. Don’t really have
a good read on why the Otina do anything. The few things I do know about them
doesn’t correlate to the way we are being held. I would have expected we would
be held in suspended animation tubes. That’s how we have found other prisoners.
To leave us out like this? That makes no sense. It lets us plan and work
together. Of course, that could be what they want us to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t help but think that this is a bit too
easy. We have a way out. There isn’t much security wandering around. They
aren’t torturing or even asking us questions. What if we are the test group to
see how humans work together? If we escape, would they see where their design
for holding humans went wrong and just design a better system?”

Manny frowned. “You have thought a lot about
this, Alex. I don’t know. If they are testing you humans, why do you let them
see you at your best?”

“They may not be testing us. If they aren’t,
then we shouldn’t let this opportunity pass.”

“And if they are?”

“Then we break their test. We make it seem like
this was a walk in the park and let them worry about what we are capable of.”

Manny shook his head. “Humans are so scary.”

“What? Why would humans be so scary?”

“On Iltia, it would take days and weeks to make
a decision like this. All of the options would have to be presented, debated
and thought through. Captain Curtis showed you the passage way and you stripped
off your shirt and crawled in. He even told you that you could get stuck in
there and they would have no way to bring you out, and you didn’t hesitate.”

“That is just part of leadership, Manny. Your
military I’m sure had Iltia’cor like that.”

“No, I don’t think so. Not like that. There
were brave warriors and leaders who would make decisions that affected
thousands and millions of others, but I think you humans call it snap decision
making. You are able to gather thousands of bits of small data and within
seconds make a decision. The scary part is how often you are correct in your
decision. An Iltia might make the same decision eventually, but the speed at
which humans make those choices is frightening.”

“It’s intuition, Manny,” Alex said.

“Yes, I have read about that, but to watch it
in action is something else.”

“Gunny, do you have a second?” Sergeant Hopkins
said as he walked over to where Alex and Manny were talking.

“I think I have nothing except time right now,
Hopkins. What’s up?” Alex asked.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” Manny said as he
started to walk away.

“Manny, stay if you would. Maybe you will have
some insight on this,” Hopkins said. “So I was looking at Davison and Levin a
little earlier. They have both been in human form for over two years and they
say that it is more comfortable to stay in a form rather than change form,
right?”

“Yeah. So what about it?” Alex asked.

“Well, when we get out of the immediate holding
area, what if they were to take on the form of Otina? That might give us an
advantage.”

Alex nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

“No,” Manny said. “Won’t work. The Otina are
only about half the mass of a human. Same reason the Pelod can’t take the form
of an Iltia’cor. Well, maybe an Iltia’cor child. But they have to stay the same
mass when they morph.”

“Well, there goes that idea,” Hopkins said.

“It was a good idea,” Alex said. “I just wonder
if they would even be strong enough to be able to morph if it would have
worked.”

Alex glanced over at the Pelod. Then he focused
on them.

“What is it, Gunny?” Hopkins asked.

“The Pelod are pretty good mimics, but there is
something peculiar about the way they look,” Alex said.

“Yeah, once we knew they were on Earth, it was
pretty easy to pick them out.”

“But we should have been able to see it before.
It’s like when people would say that all Africans look the same or all Asians
look the same. That’s bull and you know it.”

“Yeah, even when we started recognizing them as
aliens, we could tell that not all Iltia’cor or Hedali look the same. Even
though they all look similar.”

“That’s right, Hopkins,” Alex said. “There is a
similarity, or in the case of Pelod and Humans a difference. But the Otina all
look the same. I mean identical.”

Manny laughed. “You don’t know, Alex?”

“Know what, Manny?” Alex and Hopkins both
turned back to the Iltia’cor.

“The Otina are clones as far as we can tell,”
Manny said. “I am surprised that you didn’t know that.”

“I know why they have taken us,” Hopkins said.
“They are wanting to take our DNA and improve themselves!”

Alex and Manny both looked at Sergeant Hopkins
with confused looks.

“I don’t think that can happen, Hopkins. The
Otina that we have examined don’t have the same DNA structure as we do.”

Hopkins relaxed at that news. “Well that’s
good.”

“But the fact that they are clones is news, I
would have thought that our scientists would have figured that out pretty
quick.”

“They are clones, but they aren’t all
identical,” Manny said. “There are hundreds of lines of them and they make
adjustments fairly frequently from what we know.”

“But why?” Hopkins asked.

“I don’t know, but it has been that way since
we ran into them.”

“How long have you known the Otina?”

“They were the first race we met. The moved
into the Iltia system and kidnapped us until we drove them out.”

“How long ago was that, Manny?” Alex asked.

“Over eleven hundred years ago,” Manny said.
“It took us close to one hundred and fifty years before we drove them out of
the system.”

Alex nodded. “This is information we could use
in Earth command. When we get out of here, I’ll have Kitch coordinate with your
historians to see how you did it.”

“Oh, we didn’t really do anything, Alex. We
fought against them and they kept finding ways to cause problems. Then one day,
they just left.”

“Just left? No major battle or weapon system
that you brought against them?”

“No, they just left. We found hundreds of bases
throughout the system when they disappeared. Many of them held the technology
we used to settle other planets and develop interstellar engines,” Manny said.

“That’s why they attacked the signing,” Alex
said. “It wasn’t just a random attack against the Hedali, it was to stop the
Hedali from making contact with us.”

“Why would they want to do that?” Hopkins
asked.

“I don’t know,” Alex said. “But I think the
Otina were doing something in our system that was important to them and they
were interrupted by us meeting the Hedali and the Pelod.”

“And then by the Iltia war,” Manny added.

“Yes, then by the war.” Alex tried to piece the
puzzle together, but there were too many parts missing.

“Gunny,” Adams said as he came over to the
small group. “It’s time if you want to try some recon.”

Alex followed the young Australian to the room
with the access tunnel. Hu was already there and looking anxious.

“Don’t worry, Hu. If all goes well, we will be
walking back in the front door,” Alex said as he pulled off his shirt.

Hu smiled as he followed Alex’s example and
shed his shirt, shoes and pants. Alex nodded to him and then lowered himself
head first into the access tunnel.

Alex was already several feet along the
horizontal part of the tunnel when he heard Hu panting behind him. He was
worried that Hu might be claustrophobic, but it was a chance they all had to
take. Alex reached the end of the crawl space and worked his way to standing. A
few steps and pulls later, he was able to push free the panel that led into the
storage room. He pulled himself into the room and looked back down at Hu. The
Chinese soldier was pulling himself upright. Alex lowered a hand and Hu took
it. When Hu reached the storage room, he looked a little shaken, but he wasn’t
completely freaked out.

“How many times have you done that, Ramirez?”
Hu asked.

“Eighteen,” Alex answered. “It gets easier once
you realize you can get out.”

Alex went to the door and listened. Soon he
could hear the footsteps of the Otina patrol and motioned Hu to remain still.
After a long count to twenty, he signaled Hu to approach the door with him.

“I am going to leave the room and see what I
can discover. If you hear any disturbance, get back in the tunnel and work your
way back to the others. Don’t worry about replacing the panel, they will be
looking for how I got out anyway,” Ramirez told the Chinese soldier.

Hu nodded and Alex turned to the door. He knew
it would make a slight sound, but Alex was hoping there would be no Otina close
enough to hear.

He pushed the button and the door slid open.
Alex stuck his head out and looked in both directions. The door opened into a
hallway. To the right, the hallway turned to the left about five meters feet
away. To the left, the hallway turned about twelve meters away to the left.
Alex decided to go to the left, hoping that the hallway would work its way back
to the holding area. This was also the way the patrol was heading, so unless
they doubled back on him, he could make sure he didn’t come upon them too
quickly.

His bare feet made no noise as he walked down
the hallway. He looked for doors, viewports, cameras or data panels. There were
none. Just the odd glowing wall panels that made up most Otina bases that he
had seen.

Alex made it to the turn in the hallway and
looked around the corner. About ten feet further, the corridor came to a
T-junction.  Alex moved carefully down the passage and looked in both
directions. The passage to the right led to a doorway. Beyond it, Alex could
hear several Otina speaking.

The left branch went about twenty feet before
widening to about twelve feet across. A doorway on the left wall made him
hopeful.

He slipped down to the doorway and found an
access panel. A forcefield was lowered across the entryway for the door. The
Pelod had described the panel and had given Alex and the other humans the codes
to bypass any security. Alex punched in the combination of symbols and pressed
the blue button. The forcefield shut down. He pressed the green button and the
door slid open. He jumped through and looked at the stunned men on the other
side.

“Captain Curtis,” Alex announced. “We can
escape.”

Chapter 9

“Nine
minutes and twelve seconds,” Adams said. “That leaves us thirty eight minutes
and forty eight seconds before the patrols will come around again.

“More than enough time,” Curtis said. “We need
to figure out where their hangar is and what kind of ships they have on the
base.”

It had been two days since Alex had made his
first recon trip. He had verified that the patrols did not pass the holding
room door and the majority of the Otina were stationed in a nearby room. The
hallway that ran past the front of the holding room turned back to the right
and Alex believed it might be a second door to that same room that most of the
Otina were in.

He believed it might have been their barracks.
He was pretty sure that their hangar was just beyond that room.

He had seen what he believed was the Otina
communications room, as well, and was trying to decide whether they should try
to send a message or take a ship.

Captain Curtis was set on taking a ship.

“We could lure the Otina out with a diversion
and have someone slip into their barracks,” Singh suggested.

“No,” Curtis said. “We don’t know if they would
all come out, and if they did, whoever went in would be trapped most likely.”

“What about ambushing one of the patrols,”
Grieg said. He had been a special forces operative in the Norweigan army. He
had not revealed that until Alex saw his sword and wings tattoo one day. Alex
had worked with several FSK groups before India and knew they were a top notch
outfit.

“I don’t doubt we could take out a few of their
patrols,” Alex said. “But we aren’t really sure how many there are.”

Grieg nodded in agreement. Alex could tell he
really wanted to kill some Otina. He took his capture personally.

“What if there is another access tunnel
somewhere?” Manny asked.

Alex did not want to go through another hamster
course again, but it was an interesting idea.

“Have you seen any panels that might look like
they can be removed, Gunny?” Curtis asked.

“Not really, but I haven’t been looking for
them specifically. Next recon out I’ll pay better attention,” Alex answered.

“Grieg, next time Alex goes out, back him up. I
want to see if we can spot another access tunnel,” Curtis said.

“I’ll be waiting by the door,” Grieg said. He
grinned like he was a kid on Christmas morning.

“Gunny, five minutes before the next patrol,”
Adams said.

Alex nodded and went to the room with the
access tunnel. He stripped down to his t-shirt and boxers and headed down the
tunnel. He heard the patrol passing as he removed the access panel in the
storage room and then quickly made his way to the holding cell.

He punched in the code and lowered the field.
Grieg hopped out of the room and smiled again. Alex motioned to the corridor
that would swing back around to the barracks and Grieg followed him.

They rounded the corner and Alex pointed at the
open doorway a few meters ahead. He felt a tug on his sleeve and saw Grieg
pointing at a panel on the ceiling. It was slightly smaller than the other
ceiling panels, and was painted instead of glowing.

Alex made a basket with his hands and Grieg
stepped up. Alex watched as he lifted the tall Norwegian the extra few feet
needed to reach the ceiling.

Grieg pushed on the panel and it lifted up. He
smiled down at Alex and then pulled himself up into the crawl space. He moved
in up to his waist and then waved back at Alex.

“Great,” thought Alex. “He’s not going to fit.”

Grieg dropped down to the corridor and motioned
that the space was too small for him to crawl through. He signaled that he
wanted to lift Alex up.

Alex sighed and stepped into Grieg’s hand. He
reached the ceiling easily and lifted himself into the narrow entrance. It was
actually a little roomier than the access tunnel under the holding cell and he
had no problem pulling himself completely inside the ceiling. He motioned Grieg
to stay there for a second and replaced the panel. A little effort allowed him
to turn and look to where this duct system headed. If he was correct, it would
lead directly over the room that he believed was the barracks.

He pulled himself forward and looked down the
area he had to crawl through. He would have to be careful not to make noise,
but he was pretty sure he could crawl at a fair pace. If Adams was right, he
would only have about twelve minutes to crawl forward, twenty four minutes to
crawl backward, and then less than a minute to get back to the holding cell.

He pulled the panel up, and set it aside. He
motioned to Grieg that he was dropping down. Grieg stepped aside and Alex hit
the ground softly. Grieg helped him stand, and Alex motioned that he wanted to
be lifted again.

Once he was at the ceiling, he replaced the
panel and dropped back down.

He and Grieg slipped around the corner and
punched in the bypass code to lower the force field.

Captain Curtis waited just inside the door.
“You are back quick, any problems?” he asked.

Alex smiled and shook his head. “No problems at
all, Captain. Grieg here has eagle eyes. Spotted a panel on the ceiling just
around the corner. The space is too narrow for him, but I should be able to
traverse it just fine. It crawls out over the barracks, and if I am judging the
direction and distance correctly, it might pop out either in the hangar or real
close to it.”

Most of the humans had gathered around to hear
the latest reconnaissance information. When they heard the good news, they
smiled and high-fived each other.

“This is good news,” Curtis said as he turned
to look at everyone. “But we aren’t out yet. We only suspect that the hangar is
beyond that room. Just like we only suspect that there are a few Otina who hold
this base.”

Alex nodded. He had a plan for getting out, but
plans often had a way of collapsing because some information was missing or
erroneous.

“We can wait until the next patrol goes by and
try it again. Grieg, we need to teach you the bypass code in case I get stuck
up there. I don’t want you out in the cold,” Alex said.

“That’s a good idea. If you do get stuck up
there, we will wait for three patrols before Hu goes out and we mount a
rescue,” Curtis added.

Alex nodded. “Hu, you need to learn the code as
well, then.”

The three men went over to a bedroom and Alex
showed them the side of the bed. Alex had asked the Pelod to describe the panel
precisely and then he had used the metal tab on his pants zipper to carve a
copy to practice with.

Alex ran through the sequence three times and
then let both men try it over and over again. He was almost satisfied that they
had it when he saw Adams step into the room.

“Five minutes until the next patrol, Gunny.”

Alex stood and nodded to the young Australian.
He looked down at the two men studying the drawing of the panel.

“About 15 more minutes, Grieg. Then I will be
at the front door.”

He waited for the Norwegian to nod in
acknowledgement and then headed to the access tunnel.

Nine minutes and a few seconds later, Alex
keyed in the bypass code and Grieg stepped out of the holding area. They walked
around the corner and Grieg lifted Alex up to the panel in the ceiling that
would be the next phase of the recon assignment.

Alex pulled himself inside the small crawlspace
and placed the panel back in place. Grieg would position himself by the door to
the prison area and Adams would signal him when another patrol would approach.
Alex hoped that he would be back before that occurred.

The small tunnel led Alex above the room that
he was sure were the barracks for the Otina stationed in this complex. He had
only grabbed a few glances into the room, but he had seen Otina sitting and
talking as well as a few leaning back against what looked like high inclined
beds. The Hedali preferred to sleep that way as well, so Alex was pretty sure
that the Otina had their main living quarters directly between the holding area
for prisoners and the most accessible exit.

The area would likely have been easy for an
Otina to move through. They were shorter and slimmer built than humans, which
was an advantage in a gun fight. Alex knew that advantage first hand. There
were several times in the Indian war when he knew that he was being targeted by
a marksman. He just ran for cover as fast as he could and often the rounds were
missing him by centimeters. A bigger man would have been struck.

He was always one of the smaller marines in any
unit he had ever been in. In basic, he was harassed the first few days by a few
of the other recruits. They seemed to think that a smaller build meant that you
were less of a marine.

The first day that Alex was put up against one
of the bigger recruits with pugil sticks, the harassment stopped cold. Alex was
a fitness nut and he had quickness and agility on his side. But the physical
attributes weren’t what made him a warrior. It was his will power. Sheer
determination and a willingness to go beyond what he was capable of was what
made him a lethal force.

As he squeezed through a tight area of the
crawl space, Alex once again wished he had not developed such an adventurous
spirit. But this had to be done. Curtis seemed a fine officer, but he couldn’t
have fit through the access tunnel under the holding area.  Hu could, but was
he willing to risk his life to escape?

Alex knew that death was better than
imprisonment. He had been imprisoned before. The only reason he had not tried
to escape from Leavenworth was because he knew he deserved to be there. But
every day that he sat in his cell, he thought about escape. He had planned out
where he would go, what he would do, and who he could contact to make his way
easier.

But he hadn’t moved. He wasn’t going to bring
shame on his mother and sister by breaking out of prison. He also didn’t want
to turn his back on his country, his fellow marines, and his oath. But he
thought about it every day.

The narrow tunnel widened about three meters
beyond his entry position, and he noted that there looked like a wide pipe
angled downward. He imagined that was the pipe that provided whatever nutrients
were provided by the air system.

Alex thought about tampering with the air
ducts. Would the Otina die before they realized what was happening? Would the
prisoners survive? That, Alex decided, would depend upon whether the air supply
was connected or separated. If it was connected, then was it just coincidence
that the nutritional needs were the same for the humans and their captors?

Alex shrugged past a tighter area as he noticed
the space dip down. He hoped it wasn’t a large drop or he would have to work
back to the entry point. He was also cautious to be careful not to drop his
knees, feet or hands too heavily as the noise might be heard in the room below
him.

He eased his way past a pipe and looked down to
a dropped area that was about a foot below the main passage. He was sure that
the drop indicated the crawl space had cleared the room below it and would end
in another access panel.

He shifted until he could lower his head to see
further. The access way ended about a meter after the drop, and he saw an
access panel like the one he crawled up through. He moved forward and was
relieved when he realized that he would have enough room to turn around. This
crawl was tighter and more complicated than the one under the holding area and
he had not looked forward to trying to maneuver backwards in order to get out.

The panel sat on the bottom of the passageway.
Alex lifted it cautiously and looked down into an empty hallway. He expected as
much. He slowly lowered his head below the level of the ceiling and looked
around. Not far from where he was, he saw a doorway.

Alex twisted until he could get a good angle on
the doorway. It had a blue energy field blocking it, but he was sure it was a hangar.
The only problem was that he did not see a ship.

The sound of footsteps drew his attention and
he sat back up into the crawl space. He placed the panel back in position and
waited. The footsteps travelled directly below his position. When they
continued on without pause, he let out a long, quiet breath.

Alex twisted around and crawled back the way he
came. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed as he reached the end of the
crawl space. He opened the panel and looked down to see Grieg.

Alex nodded and smiled as the tall Norwegian
looked up at him. He slid out of the crawl space feet first and felt Grieg take
hold of his legs. The panel slipped back into place and Grieg lowered Alex to
the ground.

The two men made it back to the holding cell to
see a very anxious looking Curtis standing on the other side of the energy
field.

Alex punched in the override code and the field
lowered as Curtis motioned them to hurry.

“You guys had just seconds left,” Adams said.
“The patrol should be passing by any moment.”

“I just hope they don’t notice the field is
down,” Curtis said.

The override code would lower the energy field
for about twenty seconds and it was still down as they heard the sound of the
Otina patrol going past the passageway that would lead them to see the holding
cell door.

The field went up just a few seconds later and
the men in the room relaxed as they realized that the Otina guards had not
noticed the doorway.

“That was close,” Alex said. “Next time, don’t
wait so long Grieg. It would be better for me to stay up in the duct work for
another forty five minutes than risk you getting caught out of holding.”

“Agreed, Gunny,” Curtis said.

Grieg nodded, although Alex knew that he
thought the risk worth taking.

“Did you get a good run?” Curtis asked Alex.

“Sure did, Captain. The passage leads over the
barracks and into a hallway on the other side. There is a doorway that has an
energy field. It looks like a hangar.”

The men who were listening all broke out in
grins.

Alex held up his hand. “The problem is that I
didn’t see any ship in the hangar.”

“They have to have a ship,” Jeffries said. “The
Otina here have to have a way to evacuate if there is a problem.”

Curtis shook his head. “No, I think the Otina here
just have to make do. But I would guess that they have supply ships come in
every so often.”

Alex nodded. “I agree.”

“So what’s the plan?” Singh asked.

“I don’t think we have a plan, yet,” Curtis
said. “But I have a feeling that Grieg will get his way.”

Alex nodded.

“What do you mean?” Jeffries asked.

“We will need to figure out when the next
supply ship will come and then kill the Otina, and take it,” Grieg said.

Chapter 10

K-man
loaded the cartridges in the magazine as he looked out the window of his ready
room. His men were finishing the final checks on their equipment and starting
to head toward the debarkation room on the Platte.

K-man knew his men were worried, but he had
assured them that their training and experience would allow them to overcome
anything they would encounter. This raid was going to be a big one. The
readings from the long range scanners indicated that this was the biggest Otina
installation that Earth forces had ever run across.

“Captain, we are ready to get this mission
underway,” K-man said to the video screen sitting on his desk.

“We are starting long-range bombing of their
defenses now, Colonel,” Captain Gagne said. “Target should be softened
shortly.”

K-man stood and started to head to the
debarkation room when the piercing sound of alarms rang through the Platte and
red lights filled the scooter’s hallways.

“Red alert. Combat engaged. Report to
stations,” the ships intercom blared out.

K-man returned to his desk and pulled up the
ship’s command and control screen. He saw the problem immediately. The Otina
base had a contingent of small attack vessels and they had engaged the Berlin.
Normally any base they encountered only had a handful of fighters, but this one
had dozens.

Gagne had ordered the scooters to engage the
small vessels as it continued the bombardment of the base. This would cause
delays in getting the troops onto the asteroid and would allow the Otina to
organize their defenses better.

“Lippor,” K-man said as he turned on his comm
unit. “Are you in the d-room?”

“Yes, sir. We are holding in here, the crew of
the Platte are running the halls.”

“Understood. Send two runners to the armory. I
want some heavy lasers set up around the Platte when we land.”

“Heavy defenses?”

“I think so. They scrambled around sixty
fighters against the Berlin, the scooters are making short work of them, but it
gives their ground defenses more time to prepare.”

K-man heard his aide send two men to retrieve
the heavy weapons.

“Sir, we are to set up a defensive perimeter around
the Platte?” Lippor asked.

“Correct, Sergeant. I anticipate that the Otina
will try to hit us as we disembark. We need to repel their attack and be ready
to move forward in force.”

K-man shut down his comm and turned back to the
command screen. He pulled up the Berlin’s sensors and watched as the Otina
attack vessels were slowly destroyed. The heavy rail-guns on the Berlin were
taking out the reinforced weapon positions around the Otina base, but K-man was
sure that the aliens were going to aggressively come after his teams once they
landed.

The Platte shook violently and K-man jumped to
his feet. He raced down the corridor and climbed the ladder to the bridge. The
bridge was buzzing with activity and K-man stayed against the wall rather than
interfere. He heard calls for fire control and heard engineering giving damage
reports to Captain Manning.

“Colonel,” Manning said when he saw K-man on
his bridge. “We’re going to set down hard on that rock, we took a couple of
decent hits and I want to get us out of the sky until we can figure out how bad
we are hurt.”

K-man nodded and left the bridge. He pulled up
his comm on the way to the debarkation room.

“Lippor, we are heading to the rock. The Platte
has been hit, so we might be landing hard. Do you have the heavy lasers?”

“Yes, sir,” Lippor responded. “The team is
ready for a delta deploy and will get a perimeter set up.”

“I am heading your way. Should be there in less
than a minute.”

K-man turned off his comm and secured his
helmet as he made his way to the debarkation room.

The hiss of his helmet’s seal as it activated
was followed by his heads up panel coming online. He activated the comm channel
for his officers by focusing his eyes on it.

“This is Kiskaliski. The Platte is landing now.
She took some fire and we will be debarking as soon as we hit dirt. When each
of you land, set up a delta deploy and establish a perimeter around your LZ. I
expect they will come after the scooters while they are on the ground.”

“Roger, Colonel,” Captain Harding said. “I’ll have
the Yangtze coordinate a landing that will give you cover.”

“Thank you, Captain,” K-man replied. “Others
note that the Yangtze will be our point, others coordinate landing with
Harding.”

K-man had reached the debarkation room by the
time he had given the rest of the orders for the landing. The door shut behind
him and Greenaway started the depressurization of the room. K-man noted that
all of his men were already in position to debark in the manner they were
trained.

“Colonel, we are setting down in ten seconds,
it might be more bumpy than I would like, but we are going to drop you with
Ramp Alpha facing the compound as planned.”

“Thank you, Captain,” K-man said. “We’ll try to
keep the Otina from putting more holes in your hull.”

The Platte landed on the asteroid and the ramps
dropped quickly. The marines found their legs after the hard landing and rushed
out onto the Otina held ground. Blasts from the Otina forces came flying in on
the Earth troops. K-man shouldered his rifle and fired at the distant figures
as he trotted down the ramp. The scope was the same one he had used on Earth.
It was hard not to make a mental adjustment for gravity, but he had experienced
enough low-atmosphere and no-atmosphere fighting to keep that in mind.

The lack of oxygen for their fire-arms had been
overcome by a company back on earth which had devised an 0² compression feeder
that could be attached to the firing chamber. It allowed enough oxygen into the
chamber to allow each cartridge to fire correctly.

He peppered a far embankment with some .50
caliber rounds and saw as the Otina manning a large weapon ducked behind the
reinforced wall.

“I need a heavy laser on that position,” he
ordered. He pulled a handheld laser targeting device and focused it on the
Otina heavy weapon. A few seconds later, one of his team’s lasers fired and
ripped through the position.

“Sir, we have taken some casualties,” Lippor
reported. “The Otina are trying to move along the far ridge and are firing some
sort of mortar-like explosives. Walsh and Henning were hit. Henning is pretty
bad off.”

“We’ll get a medic team in. Paint that ridge
and get one of the lasers on it,” K-man ordered.

The Yangtze started to land, which broke up the
chain of fire that was coming down on K-man’s team. He pulled up the active map
on his helmet’s display and saw that the Otina were starting to withdraw back
into their compound.

“We are moving in, Watts. Bring your team to
our right flank as we go by you. Peterson, your team will come in behind us.
Yoshino, we need your medics at the Platte, we have two down,” K-man said.
“Let’s go, team.”

K-man started trotting toward the Otina
compound. They had some defenses that were still holding, but their targeting
computers were very bad at hitting a small moving target.

K-man figured that as bad as their targeting
systems were, they must have relied upon heavy vehicles and entrenched
positions to wage war. The Earth forces generally overwhelmed the Otina even
when heavily outnumbered. Superior technology and superior manpower was no
match for superior training and ability.

The rest of the scooters had landed and K-man
could see the green stars of the unit commanders all converging onto his
position.

Captain Watts had a demolitions team that would
breach the door if they found it sealed, but K-man liked leading from the
front. He would lead his team in and start securing the Otina base section by
section.

The front gates of the compound were two huge
doors that would slide open to reveal a hangar. This was a typical design for
an Otina compound. The difference with this one was that the compound was
gigantic according to long range scans. The underground levels were hundreds of
feet deep, and there was a fair sized energy source at the center of the
asteroid, almost three miles down.

The doors were sliding closed as K-man and his
team approached. The doors were much thicker than K-man had seen before and he
doubted if the demolitions team would have much success.

“Team, fall back from the door. Berlin, do you
have time to help us?”

Captain Gagne’s voice came over the channel.
“We are putting out a few fires up here, but how can we help, Colonel?”

“I’m going to paint a door for you, would you
mind knocking?”

One of the things that the task force had
practiced was breaching a hardened base by using one of the Berlin’s rail-guns.
They had never had to use the tactic before, but K-man was sure this would be
the only way he could get his team into their compound.

“Roger, Colonel. We will put a rock right where
you tell us.”

K-man and his men fell back into the perimeter
of the Yangtze. Sporadic fire from the Otina kept their heads down, but K-man
found a good angle to light up the hangar doors.

“We are clear, Captain,” K-man said.

A few seconds passed before the doors to the hangar
were obliterated by the heavy projectile fired from the Berlin. K-man had seen
the craters left from the Berlin’s bombardment of the heavy weapon positions
around every Otina base they had raided, but this was the first time the Berlin
had fired on an asteroid with the ground troops already on the rock.

The force of the impact buckled the ground and
K-man was concerned about damage to the Yangtze. His men seem stunned by the
sheer weight of the impact, but no one seemed injured.

“Are we okay?” K-man called to all of the
troopers. He sent the signal that would have all of the men register their
status. Once he saw a green light from all of his commanders, he pushed forward
once again.

The hangar was wide open and exposed to the
advancing troops. K-man counted at least five large transport vessels and
several other smaller ships. The hangar could easily hold four times the amount
and there were empty bays near the top that must have held the fighters that
were scrambled against the Berlin.

This was a major base. K-man thought maybe this
was the command base for all of the Otina in the system. If so, then they had a
good chance of finding Ramirez here.

K-man and his men moved easily through the
rubble at the entrance of the hangar. Occasionally there would be some motion
on his sensor indicating that an Otina was firing on his men, but the threat
was generally neutralized before he could spot the enemy.

The resistance they had met outside the
compound melted away as the Earth forces moved further into the Otina base. The
hangar was secured as quickly as his men could get to the far end, and soon
three doors that led into the compound proper were breached and secured.

K-man had close to two hundred troops for this
assault. He had lost six men before they reached the hangar doors and another
two in the hangar. There were another twenty wounded too badly to continue, as
well. The med teams would be busy before this day was over.

“Looks like we have command and control
located, sir,” Lippor said.

A schematic of the compound appeared on K-man’s
screen. A room flashed in red light indicating where the techs felt was the
best position for the Otina command room.

“Let’s move,” K-man said to his team. Two
scouts pushed ahead as K-man and the rest of the Earth troops followed about
ten meters behind. There were a few Otina who would pop out of a side door or
passage to challenge their progress, but nothing that slowed them down until
they were almost on top of the marked room.

“Sir, we have about ten Otina manning a
position up ahead,” Sergeant Bueno said in a whisper. He sent a video feed to
K-man as he stayed behind cover as much as possible.

There was a large room with a high ceiling that
the scouts had approached. They were in a doorway hidden from view. Bueno had a
fiber optic camera that allowed the scouts to see around corners before
exposing themselves.

The room had a reinforced door, indicating that
the command room was exactly where the techs said it would be. Above the
doorway was a defensive bunker where some Otina had taken position. From the
feed Bueno was sending, K-man could see that the Otina were under about ninety
percent cover. They hadn’t seen the Earth scouts or they would have started
firing immediately.

“Gordon, come with me,” K-man said. Sergeant
Gordon was an experienced sniper. K-man motioned to him that they were going
hunting and the two of them carefully made their way to where the scouts were
positioned.

“Gordon will spot and I’ll fire. When I start
firing, roll some smokers out,” K-man said.

The Otina were nervous, but several of them
kept their heads above cover. K-man turned his scope to infrared and waited for
Gordon to mark his targets.

He sighted down his scope and looked at each of
the four targets Gordon had picked for him. Then he prepared himself to fire.

Gordon pressed the button that lit up the green
light in his scope and K-man squeezed the trigger.

The recoil on his rifle didn’t cause his shot
to wobble as he tracked to his second, third and fourth targets, firing as soon
as he had the shot. The scouts rolled their smoke grenades right when the first
Otina was hit and by the time the other aliens had realized they were under
attack, four of them were dead and the source of the gunfire was shrouded in
heavy smoke.

The infrared scopes allowed K-man and Gordon to
clear the rest of the entrenched aliens in just a couple of seconds.

“Clear here,” said Gordon as he scanned the
area.

“Clear,” K-man said. “Move up, men.”

The rest of the troops moved to where the
scouts had positioned themselves. The smoke hung in the air as K-man moved
across the room toward the reinforced doors. Greenway moved forward to breach
the door. He pried open the door’s control panel and hooked his tablet into it.
A few seconds later, the door slid open.

Captain Watts charged into the room with a
small squad. K-man expected to hear the sound of weapons being discharged.
Instead Watt’s voice came over the comm.

“It’s clear, sir. But… you need to get in here,
Colonel.”

K-man moved into the command room where Captain
Watts and the others stood looking at the bodies of about twenty Otina.

Most of the aliens sat at their stations. A few
had toppled onto the floor.

“Take atmospheric readings, I want to know what
happened,” K-man said. “Greenaway, get in here and see what we have.”

The computer tech pushed the body of an Otina
out of a chair and sat. He started working on the alien system. He had become
quite adept at understanding all of their systems and his role on K-man’s team
had expanded dramatically on the last several raids.

“Sir, we have a situation,” Greenaway said as
he kept pulling up screen after screen.

“Self-destruct?” K-man asked. Every base they
had taken on this current mission had launched a self-destruct command.
Greenaway was very fast at countermanding them.

“Well, yes. But I shut that down already,” said
the tech. “The problem we have is that they are purging their system of files.
I’m doing what I can to stop it, but they are determined not to let this
information fall into our hands.”

“What kind of information?”

“Not sure, sir. Just dumping what I can into a
separate file system. I’ll know more when I can look at what I can save a
little closer.”

Another voice came through K-man’s comm unit.
It was Major Reynolds, one of the new officers assigned to the team at Ellison.

“Colonel, we have secured down to level four.
There is still some resistance on level three at the armory, but everything
below us looks like tech and computer systems. I don’t think there are any
POW’s here, sir.”

“Keep me updated, Reynolds.”

K-man went over to where Greenaway was working.
“How much data are we talking about?”

Greenaway never looked up from his station.
“Not sure, sir. A ton, I know that. More than I have seen before. I’m not sure
how much I am saving, but we are losing a bunch each second.”

“Keep it going. Michaelson, do we have the
results from the air sample?”

“Just getting it in now. Looks like… Wow, looks
like eight percent arsenic levels in atmo. We definitely will need to go
through the chem shower before we can get out of this gear.”

“Will it cause problems with our suits?”

“No, not corrosive. Just highly toxic. Someone
wanted to make sure that none of these Otina talked to us.”

K-man looked at the screen that Greenaway
worked on. Whoever was in charge wanted this information gone. With any luck,
Greenaway could save what was important.

Chapter 11

Williams
had expected there to be some infection levels in several of the subjects, but
two of them were much higher than the others.

“What could cause mosar to spread that way?” he
muttered.

“What?” Loudon asked. Dr. Jennifer Loudon was
the best exo-biologist he could get his hands on with the security restrictions
that were placed on him by Kitch.

Not that the restrictions mattered, she was the
best exo-biologist period. She had been in medical school when the Iltia’cor
invaded. She devoted herself from that day forward into learning as much as she
could about alien biology.

“I was just trying to figure out the pattern
for these levels,” Williams said. “Look at them.”

Her eyebrows went up as she looked at the
numbers.

“We are sure that these people were all
secondary contacts with Swanson?”

“Yes, they never had direct contact with him.
They only had contact with his alpha circle.”

“What about contact with each other?” Loudon
asked.

“What do you mean?” Williams looked up from his
tablet.

“I mean, what if they were being exposed to
mosar from a secondary source? Could the rate be based upon how many other
people with mosar they are around?” Loudon asked.

Williams blinked. “We’ve been looking at this
all wrong,” he said.

He pulled up the lists of those people who had
been confirmed as having mosar in their system.  He started putting together a
graphical map and sent it to the large display panel on the wall.

“We need to find out if each of these people,”
he said pointing at those who showed higher levels of mosar than they expected,
“know any of the others.”

“These two do,” Loudon said. “They work in the
same office.”

“What about this guy?” Williams asked. “His
level is the highest of any in the beta ring. Could he know more than one other
person?”

“I’ll have to call him and get that
information,” Loudon said. “What do you think is going on, Doctor?”

“I think we are looking at this like a
biological infection. But it isn’t. Look at the pattern.”

Loudon shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t see a
pattern.”

“Radiation,” Williams said. “This is like
radiation poisoning.”

“So if they aren’t contagious… what are they?”

“They are radiating out mosar. They aren’t
causing mosar to grow in the others, the amount of mosar they have is because
of proximity to someone else who has mosar.”

“Would the amount of mosar a person has cause
them to radiate more of it from their body?”

“I don’t know,” Williams said. “Just a theory
now, but I don’t believe a more highly infected person would cause higher
levels to be radiated.”

Loudon’s jaw opened and closed several times
before she spoke. “How long would a person need to be near an infected person
for the mosar to spread?”

“I don’t know,” Williams said. “It’s just a
theory. But if it is spread like radiation and not like a disease, then not
near as long as I had thought.”

“We’ve been near every person we have found.
Every person we have found has been around hundreds of people.”

“And we have found hundreds that don’t have any
mosar in their system. I don’t think a half hour in the same proximity is
enough to cause damage.”

Loudon relaxed at the news. “We should still
test our staff and ourselves.”

“I believe you are correct, Doctor,” Williams
said. “I’ll set up the tests for our staff tomorrow. Why don’t we get started
with ourselves right now.”

Loudon laughed and motioned to the mosar
scanner. “Shall we flip for it?”

“No, ladies first,” Williams said with a fair
attempt at a bow.

Loudon walked behind the privacy partition and
disrobed. Williams turned on the mosar detector and did an initial baseline
scan.

“Would you hurry up, the floor is cold,” Loudon
said.

“Just finishing up now. When you have a green
light step up on the platform. Make sure you don’t have any jewelry or other
accessories on. That means your glasses, Doctor.”

Loudon swore under her breath and took her
glasses off. She set them down on her clothes that were folded on a chair and
waited until the light near the top of the scanner turned from red to green
before she stepped onto the scanner platform.

“Just relax, it will take about two minutes,”
Williams said.

“I would never have guessed that, Doctor. I’ve
only heard you say that to every patient we’ve had.”

Williams shook his head at her sarcasm.

The preliminary scan showed some mosar.
Williams still wasn’t sure what health risk the element posed to humans, but he
was still concerned since it wasn’t native to the human biology.

He watched the levels. They were in alpha
stage. Less than one part per million. This is where most of the others were
located as well. The beta stage was one to three parts per million and there
were fourteen of over eight hundred subjects in that range. Swanson’s body was
estimated to have been in the fifty to one hundred parts per million range.
Even that low of an amount, about six percent of that of a Hedali, was lethal
when faced with a mosar weapon.

Loudon stepped out of the scanner when the
light turned back to red.

“Well?” she asked. “Am I going to have to wait
three business days for the results?”

“Alpha,” Williams said. “Sorry, Jen. You do
have some mosar in you.”

She sighed as she dressed behind the partition.

“I suppose that is the risk I was taking by
getting involved in this project.”

“Indeed,” Williams said as he started resetting
the scanner. “I expect that I will have just as much, if not a little more,
than you.”

“Do you think it has to do with interstellar
flight?” Loudon asked as she finished dressing.

“I’m not sure. Dolsen had that theory. She
pointed out that none of the other races had noticed mosar in their system
before they started travelling outside their system. She suspected that it
might be some sort of parasite that lurks in deep space and latches on as we
travel through it.”

Loudon came out from behind the partition.
“What if it is a result of the warp fields that are required to travel faster
than light?”

“That might explain it, but the Hedali were surprised
that we didn’t have any mosar at all in our solar system even though there were
life forms. I suspect that we will find that in most solar systems, mosar
exists even if there isn’t any life. There is something particular about this
system. I just have no idea what that could be.”

Williams walked behind the partition and
started to take off his clothes.

“I would be interested to see if the non-living
materials on Mars are seeing an introduction of mosar because the Pelod have
been living there,” Williams said.

“That is a good idea. I’ll make a call or two
tomorrow and see if we can get some localized readings. If it is, then we can
look at the radius of infection and see if we can determine how far mosar can
spread from its source,” Loudon said as she worked on the control console.

“This floor really is cold,” Williams said as
he stood naked behind the partition. He had always tried to ignore the
discomfort that those who were tested must have felt to be unclothed in a
strange lab behind a white sheet. But now that he was experiencing it, he knew
it would be hard not to empathize with his subjects in the future.

“Looks like we are ready, Doctor,” Loudon said.

The light turned green and Williams stepped up
on the scanner. He knew that it was just his imagination, but could feel the
waves that would send the data back to the sensors.

“I hate to say it, Doctor, but I think we may
have to try this again,” Loudon said. “I think I messed this up somehow. It
wasn’t calibrated correctly.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just gone haywire. I’m shutting it down,
go ahead and step out.”

Williams stepped out of the scanner and looked
over at her. “What was going haywire?”

“The scanner was saying there were over nine
hundred parts per million. I must have hit something.”

Williams shrugged. Nine hundred parts would be
close to ten times what Swanson was suspected of having. He had never seen the
scanner do that before, but maybe Loudon had pressed something wrong.

“We are setting up again. Should be green
soon,” Loudon said.

Williams shuffled his feet against the cold
floor as he waited for the light to turn green. He had never seen the scanner
give a false reading before, but he figured that had to be the case. Loudon had
been in contact with everyone he had since this project started.

The light turned green and he stepped into the
scanner.

“I’m sorry, Doctor,” Loudon said. “I don’t know
what I have done to this thing.”

Williams felt his stomach sink. “Just let the
test run through completely, then do a reset and we’ll do it again.”

“Okay. Do you want to do the reset?”

“I’ll come over and make sure everything is set
up.”

The seconds stretched out for Williams. He had
a bad feeling that the scanner wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t want to jump to
conclusions.

The light turned red and he stepped off of the
platform and threw on enough clothes to be modest. He then went to where Loudon
waited by the terminal.

Williams watched as Loudon reset the scanner.

“That’s right,” he said as they watched the
system ready itself. “Everything looks good, I’ll go back in.”

He walked back behind the partition and
stripped down again. He stepped up on the platform and waited for Loudon to say
something.

“Doctor,” she said. “It’s still showing the
incredibly high readings.”

“It’s right, Loudon,” Williams said.

“How is that possible? We have been exposed to
essentially the same number of infected people.”

“I don’t know,” Williams said. “Maybe I was
already infected before the project started.”

The light turned red and he stepped back out.

“Did you know Swanson before this?” Loudon
asked.

“No. No contact. The only thing we would have
had in common was what all of the members of Earth force had in common during
the war. None of the other combatants during the war that we have tested had
near the levels that he did. Or I do.”

“Maybe there is a genetic issue that allows you
to receive more mosar than others,” Loudon suggested.

“That’s a possibility. I think it must be
environmental, still. But we can start looking at the genetics side of it. In
the meantime, I am to be sequestered away from everyone who has not already had
regular contact with me.”

“Do you think… I mean, do you think my levels,
for example, will remain steady even as heavily infected as you are?”

Williams shook his head. “I don’t know. I think
so. Let’s scan you every day and if you show signs of increased infection, I’ll
secure myself away. If need be, I can work remotely.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, Doctor,”
Loudon said as Williams stepped out from behind the privacy partition.

He smiled at her. “Why, that was a nice gesture
of warmth and camaraderie, Doctor Loudon.”

“Not at all,” she growled at him. “I just meant
that if we had to sequester the lead of the project, then we would probably
have a pandemic on our hands.”

Williams dropped into his chair and pulled up
some data files on his system. “Let’s see what we missed in Swanson’s records.”

“What are we looking for?” asked Loudon as she
pulled up the files on Swanson.

“Anything that might connect him and me,”
Williams said.

Williams started with Swanson’s background
records. Swanson’s mother had diabetes. So did William’s mother. He had started
compiling a list of similarities like that when Loudon spoke.

“Doctor, did you know Swanson was at
Do’yar’on?”

“Yeah,” said Williams. “I read that.”

“That is quite a similarity, isn’t it?”

Williams looked back at her. “What do you mean?
I’ve never been to the system.”

“If he survived the attack on board the
Hemingway…” Loudon left the sentence hanging.

Williams shrugged. “I was never on the Hemingway.”

“You were on the Fitzgerald just a few weeks
later,” Loudon said. She was shaking her head at Williams as if he were doing
something incredibly stupid.

He jumped to his feet when he realized how
stupid he was. “We both survived an attack by the Iltia’cor gravitational
weapon.”

“There you go,” she said, waving her hand at
him dismissively.

Williams jumped back in his seat and pulled up
the list of men and women who served on the Hemingway at Do’yar’on. There were
twenty-seven who survived the engagement. Of those six had died since then.

Three of the twenty-one lived in the DC area.

“Loudon, let’s pull these three in for scanning
tomorrow,” Williams said.

“Tomorrow is Saturday, Williams. No one will be
here.”

“I will. I’d call them in tonight if I could.”

“You seem really sure that this is the key,”
Loudon said.

“I am.”

“I don’t want to seem overly skeptical, but it
doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Williams swung his chair around to face her.

“This is the answer to why mosar spreads from
person to person. Gravitation. It isn’t radiated in any way we could describe,
and it isn’t a biological agent that spreads by finding a host. It’s a particle
that transfers from one set of molecular binding to another when the new
molecular binding is weaker in specific gravity. The ironic thing is that the
introduction of mosar itself creates a weakness in the specific gravity of the
matter that it infects.”

“So it’s easier for someone who has mosar to be
infected by more mosar?” Loudon asked.

“In theory.”

Loudon shook her head. “What theory?”

“The one we are working on,” Williams said. He
turned back to his screen and started pulling up some gravitational charts.

“This theory isn’t more than a single point of
datum that you have woven a lace of conjecture around.”

“That’s right, Loudon. Now are you going to be
in the lab when I pull our three contestants in?”

“I wouldn’t miss it, Williams,” Loudon said
with a smirk. “Because if you are wrong, you will have to buy the coffee
supplies for the rest of the year. And if you are right, my name goes next to
yours in the history books.”

“If I’m wrong, I deserve to pay for the coffee.
But if I’m right, then we have a chance to stop this before it spreads.”

“Hey Williams, there is a fourth person in the
D.C. area that will need to be tested, isn’t there?”

Williams turned to look at Loudon. “Who?”

“Ambassador Martin. Wasn’t he on the Fitzgerald
with you?”

Williams nodded soberly. “Yeah. You’re right.
I’ll call Martin myself tomorrow morning. We need to get Ramirez, too.”

Chapter 12

“The
supply ship should be here within the hour, Gunny. Are you sure that this is
the right time?” Curtis asked.

Alex looked over at room where the two Pelod
were resting.

“They don’t have much time, Captain. If we
don’t move soon, they won’t survive.”

“You really think they can recover at this
point?” Curtis asked. “I mean, they seem in real bad shape.”

“I agree, and that’s why I think we need to get
them out of here as soon as we can.”

Curtis shook his head. “Gunny…” he sighed. “You
know that the aliens are not a priority. If it comes down to it… they just
aren’t our problem.”

“Captain, the supply ship is large enough for
all of us to board. This shouldn’t even be a discussion,” Alex replied.

“I just think it might be wiser if we could be
sure how many Otina are with the supply ship. You got a look at two of them,
what would it hurt to wait another eight days?”

“Captain, we have been over this, haven’t we?
There are twelve Otina permanently stationed here. On both of the supply ships,
I observed four Otina unload supplies and bring them into the compound. Two
others were seen on the ship. Now, I agree that there could be more, but if we
take out the twelve in the compound just as the ship is landing we can jump the
four bringing in supplies and make a run for the ship. If we wrest control of
the ship, we can all escape.”

Curtis nodded as Alex recounted the plan that
they had all agreed to.

Alex pulled in even closer to Curtis. “Are you
losing your nerve?”

Curtis glared at the Gunnery Sergeant, but Alex
continued. “It happens. I’ve seen it plenty. Don’t worry about it and don’t
beat yourself up. Just remember your training and everything will be okay.”

Curtis nodded. Alex knew the captain was a good
officer; he had just never seen an actual firefight. He joined the U.S. Army
after the Iltia’cor invasion, but he never put his boots on the ground where
there was any action.

Plenty of men who turned out to be good solid
troopers got scared before they went into their first action. Alex knew that even
the toughest got scared no matter how often they had seen combat. The secret
was to lie to yourself and let the fear wash over you without it affecting you.
Much easier to describe than to achieve, but once you knew how to do it, you
could at least focus on the mission once again.

“Okay, Gunny. You are right, let’s get that
supply ship and get out of here,” Curtis said. He sighed and looked surprised.
“You know, you are right. Now that I’ve made the decision, I feel calmer. I can
trust the training and the men.”

“Good, Captain. Let’s go tell the rest.”

Alex and Curtis walked over to the group of
humans standing and sitting on the far side of the common room in the holding
area.

Alex noticed that Manny was again missing from
the room. Even in the six weeks that they had been held in the Otina base,
Manny had still not found acceptance from the other humans. Alex understood. It
had taken him some time to not hold all Iltia’cor responsible for what their
people did, and tried to do, to Earth.

Manny took it well. He even said he understood
their reaction, but it irritated Alex. There were plenty of humans that were
friendly and open with Manny, and Alex had hoped he would find at least one of
the other humans that he could be friends with while they were stuck here. But
that didn’t appear to be happening.

Both of the Pelod were too weak to even stand
on their own for long, and Manny felt that they shouldn’t be alone. While they
did not engage the humans in too much conversation, they took some form of
solace in Manny being with them.

Alex shook his head as he thought of that.
Maybe humans were just too new and alien for the other races to feel
comfortable with.

“Adams, how long before the next patrol?”
Curtis asked as he and Alex approached the other humans.

“Nine minutes, eighteen seconds,” Adams
answered.

“And how long before the next transport?”

“Around thirty-three minutes, if they keep to
the schedule.”

Curtis nodded. “I’m giving the green light to
this operation. Hopefully within an hour we will have control of the Otina
supply ship and will be heading out of here. Are there any questions?”

“What are we going to do about the aliens?”
Singh asked.

Liao nodded as he cut his eyes toward the room
where Manny and the Pelod were.

“We will take them with us. They are prisoners,
the same as us and we will get them on the supply ship,” Curtis answered.

Liao said something in Chinese. Alex was sure
it was at best just a complaint.

“That’s the way it is,” Curtis said as he
locked eyes with the Chinese soldier.

Liao nodded and Curtis continued.

“We will try to send a distress call from this
location before we leave. If there are any Earth forces near us, they should
pick it up and start heading our way. Otherwise, we will need to determine our
location and head toward the closest friendly port.”

Curtis looked at Alex. “All yours, Gunny.”

“I’ll be right in, Captain,” Alex said. He
turned toward the room that the aliens were in and walked through the doorway.

“Hi, Alex,” Manny said as the marine entered.

“Hi, Manny.”

Davison was lying on the bed and Levin was
sitting up against the wall. Both of the Pelod had their eyes closed and Manny
had a troubled look on his face.

“How are they?” Alex asked.

“Not good,” Manny said. He sighed and then
looked at Davison. “He seems to be in the worst situation. He hasn’t spoken in
quite a while. He sleeps more than he is awake anymore.”

“We are starting,” Alex said. “If everything
goes well, we will have a ship and be out of here soon.”

Manny broke into a big smile. “That’s great
news, Alex. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I don’t think so, Manny. You just stay here
and take care of them. We will likely need your help getting them onto the
ship.”

Manny nodded and Alex turned to leave. Hopkins
was watching from the door.

“We are ready for you, Gunny,” he said.

Alex clapped him on the shoulder as he walked
by him.

“Ready to see more of this base?” he asked
Hopkins.

“Definitely,” Hopkins said. “I’ve been here for
seven weeks. These glowing walls have lost their appeal.”

Alex went into the room where the access tunnel
was. Curtis and Adams waited for him.

“Patrol should pass in three minutes. You’ll be
able to leave the storage room as soon as you get there,” Adams said.

“Good luck, Gunny,” Curtis said as he helped
Alex into the crawl space. “We’ll be waiting by the front door.”

Alex lowered himself into the now familiar
tunnel. This was his sixty-third crawl through in the last four weeks. He hoped
it would be his last.

He reached the end of the narrow passageway and
removed the panel into the storage room. Twice he had almost been caught in the
room, but the combination of the Otina’s obsessive scheduling combined with
Adams’ ability to keep perfect time in his head had kept Alex from being seen
during these recon missions.

Alex listened at the door that led into the
hallway. He knew that the patrol had passed several minutes before, but he
never missed a chance to reduce risk on a mission. The door slid open into the
empty hallway and Alex quickly and quietly walked to the main door of the
holding area.

The other humans were waiting near the
entrance. As soon as Alex punched in the override code on the door’s control
panel, the energy field dissipated and the waiting men hurried out. It took
twenty seconds before the field reset, but no one wanted to risk being in the
doorway when it did.

Grieg led half of the men down the passage to
the right. He would lead the assault on the control room.

Alex led the others down the left passage and
waited around the corner of the barracks. When Grieg attacked the control room
they expected an alarm to be raised. When that happened, Alex and his team
would go into the barracks and kill any Otina they found. It was hoped that the
Otina would be surprised and the humans could get weapons in a fast assault.

The seconds seemed to stretch forever as Alex
waited for the any sign that Grieg had started his assault. The flashing of a
blue light and the sound of the Otina in their barracks scrambling about set
Alex’s feet to motion. He heard several of the other humans follow close behind
him.

Alex rounded the corner toward the barracks and
saw six Otina in the room. Four were running toward the door on the opposite
side of the room, while two were still gathering their weapons.

Alex dove at the nearest and tackled him. He
grabbed the arm of the Otina and pushed it backwards until he heard and felt a
snap. He then grabbed the weapon that had fallen from the alien’s grasp.

The high, shrill sound of the Otina shrieking
in pain caused the other four aliens to come running back into the room.

Alex lifted his new won weapon and fired it at
the far doorway. Two of the Otina were hit with the blasts from the energy
weapon he held. The other two aliens started firing back at him. Alex scrambled
to his feet and ran back to the doorway where he could find better cover.

“Where is Jeffries?” he yelled to the others.

“He ran in and took the other Otina,” Singh
said. “Once the firing started, he ran past us and down the corridor.”

Alex looked back in the room. Both of the Otina
that had been assaulted by the humans were stirring. Alex snapped off a couple
of quick shots and ended the threat they might pose. This mission had no room
for prisoners.

His shots drew the attention of the Otina
hiding behind the door on the other side. They started firing at him and he
ducked back behind cover.

There was the sound of more fire and then
silence. He waited a few seconds and then heard Jeffries.

“Clear here, Gunny,” the lieutenant said.

Alex looked around the door and saw Jeffries
standing over the dead Otina. He had slipped around the corridor and taken them
from the flank.

Alex motioned the others to follow him.

“Good job, Jeffries,” he said as they crossed
the room. Jeffries had already figured out how to use the Otina weapons. It
took just a second to show Hu, Singh, and Hopkins how to use the weapons and
then they were running down the hallway to find Grieg and his team.

As they neared the control room, Alex could
tell that something had gone wrong. Two Otina were dead near the door, but
smoke and the crackling sounds of busted equipment came from the room itself.

Curtis was standing near the doorway with Liao.
Grieg was kneeling in the room where Alex could see two of the humans down.

“What happened?” Alex asked as they approached.

“The patrol took us in the flank,” Curtis said.
“We got them, but they shot up the control room something bad.”

Alex looked at the situation and gritted his
teeth. Liao and Grieg avoided looking at Curtis as he spoke. Grieg was wrapping
part of a torn jacket around Adams’s arm. Fleischer wasn’t moving.

The pattern of shots indicated that both Adams
and Fleischer were hit with friendly fire. Curtis was moving his Otina weapon
uncomfortably.

Alex knew they would have a difficult
conversation later, but now they had to prepare for the supply ship.

“Do we have access to the security system?”
Alex asked.

Grieg stood and pointed to something inside the
control room.

“Four of the consoles were hit with fire,” he
said. “I don’t know how much access we have.”

Alex stepped past Liao and Curtis and looked in
the room. Several of the monitors and systems had been destroyed. One was
sparking heavily and didn’t look like it could be repaired. That was assuming
any of them would know how to repair it.

“Let’s get Adams and Fleischer to the
barracks,” Alex said. “Captain, give Lieutenant Jeffries your weapon and help
Grieg, Hu, and Singh move the wounded.”

Grieg gave Alex a tight smile and a small nod.
Even when you know that a friend has been killed on the battlefield, it’s better
to think of them as wounded until after the job is over.

Grieg picked up Fleischer’s shoulders while
Singh moved to take the unmoving Norwegian’s feet. Alex knew that Grieg would
try to keep from looking at Fleischer’s face for as long as he could.

Adams was helped to his feet as Hu and Curtis
escorted him down the corridor behind those carrying Fleischer.

Alex looked at Liao and Hopkins. “You two have
the best experience with computers, try and give me some control in this base,”
he said.

Liao and Hopkins both started working on the
consoles that were undamaged. Alex tried to figure out how he might be able to
get the partially destroyed console repaired. He had some training in
mechanical repair, so he thought he might be able to figure it out.

After a few seconds he realized that he was
like a prodigious three year old who was a master of Legos being asked to
repair a microchip board.

“Do you guys have anything?” Alex asked.

Liao shook his head. “This is just the life
support and sensor array. I can see the supply ship coming in, by the way.”

“It looks like this is just the incoming
communications station,” Hopkins said.

Alex looked at the damaged control stations.
Outgoing communication and security systems were all gone. They would have to
hope that the supply ship had some system that they could use to send a signal
to Earth forces. He looked around the control room.

The pattern of shots told him what happened.
Grieg and Curtis had gone in and attacked the Otina in the room. One of the
Otina technicians had hit the alarm before he was incapacitated. The other
humans were heading into the room when the Otina patrol saw them from the
hallway and started firing.

Curtis had panicked and started pressing the
fire button on the Otina weapon as he turned toward the doorway. He hit the
button nine times. Two of the blasts had hit Fleischer, one had winged Adams,
and the other six had destroyed most of the control stations.

Each of the Otina in the hallway had been hit
with two blasts each, fairly high. Grieg had taken his time and double tapped
each of his enemy. He aimed high as the other humans took cover below his fire
alley.

Alex knew that there would have to be an
investigation once they got back. He had seen his share of friendly fire cases
during the Indian War, and had even testified in three hearings. No one liked
to deal with them, but when men died because of panic or poor training, it was
in everyone’s best interest that they be handled professionally.

But first they had to get home. And that was
what Alex was going to deal with right now.

“Gunny,” Hopkins said. Alex realized he had
zoned out for a second.

“Yeah, Hopkins, what is it?”

“Where does that door lead?”

Alex walked over to Hopkins and looked to where
he was pointing.

When Alex had scouted out the small compound,
he had never been able to get into the control room. He was sure there wasn’t
another room behind the angle of the wall, but there was a door tucked away,
just out of view of the hallway.

Alex motioned Hopkins and Liao to move into defense
positions. He readied his Otina weapon and pushed the button to open the door.

The door slid open and Alex saw a small room.
There was a table in the center of the room and a single computer console on
the far side. Cabinets lined both right and left walls.

Alex lowered his weapon and moved into the
room. He opened one of the cabinets and looked at the equipment inside.

“It’s a med facility,” Alex said. “It has
another computer station in here, maybe we can communicate with that one.”

“We are receiving a message, Ramirez,” Liao
said. “It looks like the supply ship is coming in.

“Ok, Hopkins, go let Curtis know that the ship
is incoming. Liao, check out the computer in the med bay and see what you can
figure out. I’m going to go get the aliens ready.”

Hopkins dashed ahead of Alex and Liao moved
into the med bay. Alex went down the hallway until he came to the door to the
holding cell. Manny was on the other side of the door. Levin was leaning
against him.

Alex keyed in the override code and the mosar
field dropped.

Manny helped Levin to step through the doorway
and Alex pulled him clear of the opening.

“I take it you were successful, Alex?”

“We were—“

Alex jumped back as the energy field snapped
back into place.

Manny’s eyes were wide as he took another step
back.

“That was only a couple of seconds, Alex. What
happened?”

“I’m not sure, Manny. The alarm has been set
off. I guess the override code still works, but only for a shorter time. Go get
Davison, when I lower it again, you will have to jump through. Let’s not take
any chances.”

Manny nodded and went to gather the other
Pelod.

“Levin, are you okay? Still with us?” Alex
asked the alien he supported.

The Pelod nodded, but he just couldn’t seem to
speak. Alex knew they just had days to get them medical treatment.

Manny carried Davison as he approached the
doorway again. Alex punched in the code and Manny literally jumped through the
doorway. It was a good five seconds before the energy field was re-established,
but after weeks of the field being down for right at twenty seconds each time,
five seconds seemed very short.

“Come on, Manny,” Alex said. “Our ship should
be here soon.”

Chapter 13

Alex
supported Levin as he followed Manny. The large Iltia’cor carried Davison as
gently as he could.

The barracks room held the rest of the humans,
except for Grieg and Liao. The door that opened into a short hallway to the hangar
stood open. The Otina bodies had been tossed on the side of the room away from
the hangar door. Fleischer’s body was lying near the far door. Someone had
removed his jacket and draped it over his upper body in order to cover his
face.

Adams was sitting in a corner talking with
Curtis, who looked like he was going to be ill. The Captain was pale and
shaking.

“Hopkins, where is Grieg?” Alex asked as he
helped Levin sit down on a bed.

“He went into the hangar to scout,” Jeffries
said.

“Good, I’ll join him.” Alex started down the
hallway when Grieg stepped through the mosar field.

“You look awful, Grieg. What happened?” Alex
asked as the tall Norwegian came near.

Grieg started coughing and wheezing. “I don’t
know,” he said. “Maybe they have adjusted their mosar fields. I felt warm going
through it and it feels like smoke in my lungs.”

Alex helped him into the barracks room and sat
him down.

Grieg shook his head and squinted.

“Something wrong with your eyes?” Alex asked.

“Just fuzzy. Nothing awful. Maybe the air in
the hangar has something in it.”

“Did you get a good look?”

“Yes, there isn’t a control panel for the mosar
field on the other side of the door. It must be activated from the control
room. Maybe the Otina on the ship can control it,” Grieg said.

“With that field in place, we can’t take any of
the weapons or other equipment into the hangar. We will have to ambush them
inside here,” Alex said.

“Yes, and if they can’t drop the mosar field
from the ship, then they might leave and we will miss our chance.” Grieg looked
over at Curtis and frowned as he said the last few words.

Alex closed his eyes and focused. It always
seemed that the impossible answer was just out of sight and if he could just
think hard enough, he could find it.

“What else did you see,” he asked Grieg.

“There is a small cabinet with a couple of
pressure masks and oxygen tanks,” Grieg said.

“That sounds good. You and I will suit up and
wait for the Otina to land and come off the ship. When they do, we will rush
them and get on board. They will have repressurized the hangar before they
exit, so the others can charge them once we start the attack.”

Grieg nodded. “That sounds like a good plan.
How much time do we have?”

“Excuse me. Gunny?” Curtis said.

Alex hadn’t seen the Captain slip up to him. No
one had mentioned what had happened in the control room, but Curtis knew. He
knew and he was broken by it. Alex had seen it before.

“Do you think… I mean, I think I should be one
of the ones to take that risk.”

Alex shot a quick glance at Grieg. The tough
special forces soldier gave Alex a single, curt nod.

“I think that is an excellent idea, Captain.
You and Grieg probably need to go get ready now.”

Curtis smiled and stood. When his eyes fell
across Fleischer’s body, his smile faltered and he quickly looked away.

“Come, Captain, let’s get ready,” Grieg said.

Alex watched them go. He knew that Grieg was
professional and was giving Curtis a chance to redeem his actions.

“Gunny!” Hopkins called.

Alex looked around and saw Hopkins motioning to
him. Liao was standing in the doorway practically bouncing up and down with
excitement.

Alex hurried over to them.

“What is it?”

“I can get access to their main communications
system. I don’t think we can transmit voice, but I think we can send text
communication,” Liao said.

“Show me,” Alex said as he headed down the
hall.

“Should I stay here?” asked Hopkins.

“Yes, if the ship comes, I’ll rush back,” Alex
shouted over his shoulder.

Alex hurried to catch up with Liao who had run
on ahead.

The Chinese soldier stood by the console as
Alex entered the small medical facility.

“Here is where we can access the communication
system,” Liao said as Alex sat down. “We don’t appear to have a way to transmit
voice, but this clearly looks like a way for text to go out.”

Alex watched the screen as Liao went through
what he had discovered in the few minutes he had access to the Otina station.

“So we type in our message, and then do what?”
Alex asked.

“If we click this here, it will broadcast,”
Liao said.

“In general?”

“I believe so. This is how we can chose to send
a message to someplace specific. I believe if you leave it open, anyone can
pick it up.”

“We can use it like a distress signal.”

“Yes, but the Otina might be the only ones
listening into this frequency,” Liao said.

“Can you adjust the frequency?”

“Yes, it is right here.”

Liao showed Alex the screen that had a strange
series of figures, but it was clear that they were settings and numbers for
transmission.

“Excellent. I have no idea how to read that,
but I think you are correct. That looks right.”

The sound of shouts made both men turn their
heads.

“The ship!” Liao said as he rushed for the door.

Alex jumped up from the seat in front of the
console and chased after Liao.

When Alex ran into the barracks, he saw Manny
watching the fight down the short hallway. Alex smiled at his friend and turned
to see Liao run through the mosar field separating the hangar from the rest of
the compound.

Curtis suddenly appeared in front of the
glowing energy field. He was pushing and grappling with an Otina. The alien
seemed frantic. It clawed at Curtis’s hands as the Captain shoved it right into
the mosar field.

Alex stopped cold as he watched the Otina
disappear into the field. The Captain stepped away from the doorway.

“That is the fourth one he has killed that way,
Alex,” Manny said.

Alex knew that the Iltia’cor wasn’t a warrior,
but he had always taken death with a sense of stoicism. This time, Manny
sounded hurt and sad at what had happened.

Jeffries and Singh both walked back through the
field and stopped in front of Alex.

“Gunny, I don’t know if Curtis should be in
charge anymore,” Jeffries said.

“I agree with the Lieutenant,” added Singh.
“Grieg allowed him to take charge of the ship, but he executed those Otina. We
could have thrown them in the holding cell.”

“I’ll talk with him,” Alex said. “Lieutenant
Jeffries, I would suggest that you prepare yourself to take command.”

Singh rubbed his eyes and Jeffries twisted his
shoulder around while Alex spoke.

“Are you guys okay?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, just felt warm going through the field,”
Singh said. “My eyes started burning and my lungs have felt heavy since then.”

“Same here,” Jeffries added. “And I felt a pop
in my shoulder.”

“Must be something in the field,” Alex said.
“Maybe they added an extra bonus to affect humans.”

“I don’t know,” Jeffries said. “I could… feel
it, maybe? That’s about the closest I can say, I could feel it when I went
through. When I came back, I expected to feel the field again, but I didn’t.
When I came back through it was just like going through a mosar field like
before.”

“How many fields have you gone through?”

“About six during the war,” Jeffries said.

“Six? I didn’t know you were a ground pounder.”
Alex said.

“I wasn’t, I was a load support specialist, but
I got put into an engineering team. We had to go through breach drills. I went
through the fields in training.”

Alex nodded. “Odd. Is everyone having the same
symptoms?”

“Seems like it,” Singh said.

“Liao thinks he may have figured out a way to
send a signal using the computer here. Let Hopkins look at the controls on that
boat and see if he can lower this mosar field. We need to get the aliens on
board and take off as soon as possible,” Alex told Singh.

“Want me to go get Captain Curtis?” Jeffries
asked.

“Yeah, you get Captain Curtis and Grieg. Listen
to Grieg’s advice when you inform the captain of your belief that he isn’t
capable of command anymore. I am going with Liao back to the med bay to see if
we can’t get a signal out.”

Alex left Jeffries with a very uncomfortable
assignment, but he knew that the Lieutenant would do the job in a careful
manner. Jeffries had a good head on his shoulder and a winning way with people.
He wasn’t one to constantly point out what couldn’t be done, which was
refreshing for someone like Alex who was always thinking of the challenges
before him.

Alex looked over at Manny as he was leaving the
barracks. The large alien looked upset and bewildered.

Alex took two steps out of the room and
stopped. He went back to the doorway of the barracks.

“Manny,” Alex said. “Would you mind coming to
the med bay with me? You can read a little of the Otina language, right?”

Manny shook his head. “Not much, Alex. I never
studied it and have only seen a few pieces of their writing.”

“Come on anyway, if you can get us even another
piece of information, that will be helpful.”

Manny looked down at Davison. The Pelod wasn’t
moving.

“I don’t know if I should leave the Pelod,”
Manny said.

Alex understood. Manny had been able to keep
his mind together by giving himself a mission. While the humans were trying to
escape, Manny was trying to keep the Pelod alive.

“We’ll take them with us,” Alex said. He
stepped over to Levin and helped the alien to his feet.

Manny picked up Davison and the four of them
started the trip down to the med bay.

Alex could hear Grieg and Curtis coming from
the hangar to the barracks as they left. He knew that Jeffries would be in
charge by the time they got back.

When they entered the med bay, Levin made his
way to one of the cabinets and opened it. Alex watched as he sorted through the
different medicines stored there and then found what looked like a small suction
cup.

The Pelod took the device and put it over his
mouth. He began coughing and fell to his knees.

Manny placed Davison on the low table and moved
to help Levin. The Pelod placed the device over his mouth again. This time he
didn’t cough, but looked up at Manny and smiled.

“There is something in our lungs,” he said
softly.

This was the first time in days that Alex had
heard either of the Pelod speak.

Manny started going through the other cabinets.
Alex figured he was looking for another of the breathing devices.

“Ramirez, look at this,” Liao said.

Alex looked where the Chinese soldier was
pointing on the monitor.

Alex saw a field of stars and parts of stone
and debris.

“External camera?” he asked.

Liao nodded. “I believe so. There are two
angles. See.”

Manny was looking over Alex’s shoulder.

“I think I can figure out where we are, Alex.”

“Great, Manny! You sit down and work on that.
Liao, let’s see if we can figure out any of these numbers.”

“Gunny, you and Liao need to come to the
barracks now,” Jeffries said. Hopkins and Grieg were behind him.

“Sure, what’s going on?” Alex asked.

“We are leaving. I have Singh, Curtis and Hu
getting Adams and Fleischer on board the supply ship. I looked at their flight
controls and nav system and I’m sure I can fly it.”

“Were you able to drop the mosar field?”

Jeffries shook his head. “No, and I don’t think
we will be able to.”

“I won’t leave Manny and the others behind,”
Alex said.

“This isn’t a request or suggestion, Sergeant.
This is an order. Report to the hangar and board that vessel.”

Alex spread his feet and stared into Jeffries
eyes. “No, sir. I’m staying here. If we can get a message out, we might be able
to get help to us.”

“Dammit, Ramirez!” Jeffries said. “You are a by
the books man. You know why I have to do this.”

“Just leave me here, then. Send someone when
you get picked up. If the Otina return, they can’t get through the mosar field.
And if they do, I can hold them in that entryway.”

“I’m staying with Gunny,” Hopkins said.

Jeffries threw his arms into the air. “Ten
minutes into my first command and I have a full blown mutiny on my hands.

“Fine. If that’s the way it is then that’s the
way it will be. Ramirez, I will be putting this in my report. Hopkins, they
probably won’t ask much about you, but if they do, I won’t sugar coat it.”

Hopkins nodded and slipped into the med bay.

“Good luck, Gunny,” said Grieg. He smiled and
reached his hand out.

“Good luck to you, too, Grieg,” Alex said as he
shook hands with the Norwegian.

Jeffries shook his head and then motioned to
Liao and Grieg to follow him.

Alex turned around and saw Manny staring at
him.

“Why, Alex?” Manny asked. “You can leave. You
too, Hopkins.”

“I wouldn’t leave you, Manny. First, you are my
friend. Second, you never leave a man behind if you can help it,” Alex said.

“I agree,” Hopkins added. “The others may not
have seen you and the Pelod as part of our team, but you were. If we hadn’t
learned the override code from the Pelod, we wouldn’t have been able to escape.
That right there makes them part of the team. It’s not right that they were to
be left behind.”

Alex looked over at the Pelod. They both were
wearing those little suction cup like masks over their mouths and noses.
Davison was still lying on the table, he seemed to be breathing, though.
Something Alex hadn’t been sure about in the last couple of days. Levin was
sitting on the floor. He watched their conversation with no visible emotion.
His eyes showed interest instead of lethargy. Whatever those little masks were,
the Pelod seemed to be responding well to the treatment.

“Alex, I can see the hangar opening,” Manny
said. He was looking at one of the camera angles on the console. The edge of
the hangar door was visible on the left side of the screen. It slowly opened
and the nose of the supply ship could be seen.

Alex and Hopkins walked over to see their
fellow prisoners escape their prison.

“I sure hope they find someone soon,” Hopkins
said.

“I hear you,” Alex muttered. “Not looking
forward to the Otina finding out what happened here.”

The door to the hangar was fully opened and the
ship started forward slowly. Alex knew he had made the right decision, but he
felt more than a little helpless relying upon a rescue at this point. There
would be no escape for him, this time.

“God speed,” Hopkins said as the supply ship
filled the screen. The ship turned away from the camera and started to
accelerate away from their prison.

Two bolts of light appeared from off the left
side of the screen and the supply ship started ripping apart. Manny bellowed in
fear and surprise and Hopkins’  jaw dropped open. Alex couldn’t move. He
watched in horror as the vessel disintegrated and the men who were so close to
escape perished in the cold emptiness of space.

Chapter 14

“Golding,
I need a med team here, on the double,” K-man yelled. He heard the whine of the
heavy weapon as it charged up for another blast.

“Lippor, you keep Greenaway behind that pillar.
Do you hear me?”

Lippor pulled the wounded tech behind the thick
metal pillar and covered him protectively.

K-man flipped his scope onto infrared and
prepared to jump into the open.

“Phillips. Lester. Cover me!”

K-man dove into an open area of the ground as
two of his men popped up from behind cover and sprayed the heavy weapon
position with a sheet of lead.

K-man was still sliding when he got a good look
at the position through his scope. He sent a .50 caliber round straight through
a narrow opening and into the head of one of the Otina firing on his team.

K-man’s scope spotted another figure through
the dust and debris and his finger squeezed again. The Otina dropped, but K-man
knew that he had missed his mark. There was a wounded alien along with one on
the other side of the weapon.

He scrambled to his feet as he saw the weapon
turning towards his position. Two steps were all he figured he had before the
weapon would fire again. He was right. Even as he threw himself toward a half
closed doorway, he felt the shards of metal and mineral slam into his back from
the blast of the weapon.

He bounced off the door and back into the open.
He hoped that none of the Otina soldiers decided to pay attention to him. He
tried to turn over, but his body wouldn’t move.

He heard the shout of some of his men and the
clatter of automatic weapons ripping into the hardened defenses. He had
wondered if the Otina would ever modify their defenses. He had hoped that they
wouldn’t. But today, on this raid, they had shown that they were capable of
anticipating the human’s attacks.

Heavy weapons had been stripped from the surface
and had been situated inside the facility. One of his squads had been ripped to
shreds when they got caught unaware. He had led his team into the same
situation, but Lippor had heard the whine of the weapon before it fired and had
cried out a warning.

Two other squads were facing similar weapons
throughout the compound.

“Colonel, we are taking heavy fire from the
ground,” Manning’s voice cut through the chatter.

K-man managed to roll onto his side. The whine
of the heavy weapon had not started again which gave K-man hope that his men
had knocked out the position.

“The Colonel is down,” Lippor said. “No. Wait,
I see him moving.”

“Kiskaliski here,” K-man said as he moved to
the door he had bounced off of. It hurt to speak, but it hurt to even move.
“Lift off and hover. Get the Nightingale out of range. Commanders, get your men
into the compound. Once there, let our boys in the air know they are clear.
Scooters, pour down death when you get the signal.”

K-man jerked as a pair of hands lowered him to
the ground.

“Easy sir, going to put you on your stomach.”

K-man recognized the voice. It was one of his
medics. He couldn’t remember his name. He saw the rubble and debris that
littered the floor. The pain in his body was intense, and yet he didn’t think
he had taken any major injury. He was able to move after all.

He realized he was lying down. He could hear
the medics speaking. There were two of them now, he was sure. Then the pain
started easing up. That felt better. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened his eyes, he was shocked at how
bright it was.

“Unfortunate timing, Colonel.”

Doctor Preston was pulling a light away from
his eyes.

K-man blinked against the light and tried to
sit up. He felt the restraints cut into him.

“You are strapped in tight, Colonel,” Preston
said. “Had to do some work on your back. I was really hoping you would be out
until we could move you to a bed.”

“What happened?” K-man asked. He remembered the
heavy weapon. He couldn’t remember much after that.

“You dove into the open, fired at a heavy
weapon, drew its attention, and survived. At least that is the way it was told
to me.”

“How are my men?” K-man asked.

“You need to rest. We’re going to move you onto
a bed now, so just try not to speak while we unstrap you and get you
comfortable.”

“Will I be okay?” K-man asked as two men
started to remove the restraints.

“No damage to your spine, and minimal injuries
to your back. The armor held up well and you were hit with shrapnel for the
most part. You will be sore for a good long while.”

“I need to get back to my team.”

“No, you are going to spend the next couple of
weeks here, under my supervision. Your XO and aide will be in tomorrow to brief
you, but you are my patient and my patient will be getting rest.”

K-man gave in to Preston’s orders and tried to
relax. The drugs that filled his veins encouraged him to close his eyes and
sleep. He knew he should, but he was worried about Greenaway. He had seen his
young tech’s head snap back when he was hit with a large piece of shrapnel from
the initial blast of that gun.

The men who were unstrapping him lifted his
body carefully and set him onto a portable bed. He looked over to see the
surgical table that Preston had him strapped to. It was essentially a frame
with leather straps that held the patient in place. The frame could rotate and
swivel into any position, allowing the surgeon to work smoothly when a patient
needed multiple procedures.

“How long?” K-man muttered.

“Two days on the table,” one of the men said.
“Had to keep you there until the wounds from your back started healing.”

K-man blinked. When he opened his eyes, he knew
he had fallen unconscious. He was in one of the few private rooms in the
medical facilities on the Berlin.

He tried to sit up, but it hurt too much.

“Do you want to sit up, sir?” Lippor asked.

“Yeah, see what you can do about that,” K-man
said. His lips felt dry and his throat was parched.

He felt the bed start to rise and after just a
few inches he saw Lippor standing at the end of the bed pressing a button.
Soon, K-man was reclining in a comfortable, sitting position.

“Thanks, Lippor. Is there anything to drink?”

Lippor walked over to a side table and picked
up a bottle of water with a straw sticking out of it. He handed it to K-man and
waited.

K-man drank and gave the bottle back to Lippor.

“That was nasty. What was in it?” he said.

“Something new they are trying. Supposed to
accelerate the process of healing from severe burns.”

“How bad are they?” K-man asked. He knew the
doctor told him he had been hit with shrapnel, but he didn’t know he was
burned.

“Quite a few third degree spots where your
armor melted into your skin, but mostly second degree. About seventy square
centimeters of skin had to be removed over all,” Lippor said.

K-man winced at the words. He was sure that one
of the bags hooked up to his arms was full of drugs. He also understood that
the threat of keeping him in bed for two weeks was serious.

“What happened with the operation?”

Lippor held up a folder stuffed with paper.
“All in here, sir.”

“I can’t imagine what we are doing with folders
of paper, Lippor. Can’t we get everything on data chips now?”

“We can,” Lippor said. “We just don’t. Paper
still makes people feel important.”

K-man was going to make a comment about
computers when he thought about his tech.

“What happened to Greenaway, Lippor?” K-man
asked.

“He’s alive. Won’t know more until the swelling
goes down. I spoke with him yesterday, but he was still out of it. Drugged out
of his mind.”

“How bad was he injured?”

“Broke C-3 and C-4 vertebrae. Paralysis from
the neck down is what they are afraid of. Keeping him under for the most part
and letting his body heal.”

“How many did we lose?”

“Thirty four dead, seventy five seriously
injured. That includes you and Greenaway.”

“You seem to have come out without a scratch.”

“Just lucky, I guess.”

“You’re going to turn out to be another Ramirez
if you keep being that lucky,” K-man said with a smile.

Lippor looked away. “Nah, no one is like
Ramirez.”

He fished out a stack of forms that was
paper-clipped together.

“But speaking of Gunny Ramirez, here is what I
have been waiting to talk to you about.” Lippor held the stack up for K-man to
read.

“Private Barry Mitchell? Who is he?” K-man
asked.

“He’s the last person to see Ramirez.”

K-man leaned as far forward as he could as he
reached to take the paper with a weak hand.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir. He was sitting right next to Ramirez
when the ship was hit by the Otina. Said that he saw Ramirez and an Iltia’cor
named Mantriq being put in the cryo-tubes.”

K-man flipped through a couple of the pages.
Just general background information.

“What do we know from him?”

Lippor took the pages from K-man. “Sorry, told
the doc I wouldn’t let you get too involved. What we know is that Ramirez,
Manny and Mitchell and three others were taken from the ship. One was with
Mitchell. A businessman from Osaka. He died some days before the raid according
to the Otina records.”

K-man leaned back. Even holding the papers and
flipping through them seemed to strain his arm and eyes.

“I want Mitchell brought to me,” he said. “I
need to question him.”

“I’ll see what I can do, sir. You get some
rest.”

K-man nodded and then felt himself drift into
sleep.

It was five days later when Mitchell was well
enough to be wheeled into K-man’s room for a debriefing. Others had questioned
the young private, but K-man wanted to speak with him personally. Salazar had
held off on naming a new lead ground commander for Earth System Defense forces,
so technically K-man was still in charge; as long as that was the case, he
wanted to gather as much information about this mission personally.

K-man was flipping through a couple of reports
when Lippor knocked on his door.

“Come in,” he said. He pulled his headset down
to rest around his neck and turned off the music.

“Colonel, this is Private Mitchell,” Lippor
said as he stepped out of the way of a wheelchair being pushed in behind him.

“Private Mitchell, this is Lieutenant Colonel
Kiskaliski,” Lippor finished the introductions as the nurse locked Mitchell’s
wheelchair into place and left the room.

“Good afternoon, Private,” K-man said.
Mitchell’s eyes had the thousand yard stare. It was common with soldiers who
had seen a lot of action, but K-man knew it was also symptomatic of someone who
had suffered torture.

“Good afternoon, sir,” Mitchell said. He spoke
slow and soft, as if he put thought into each sound.

“I’m sure you have been asked a lot of
different questions about what happened to you, but I would like to know what
you can tell me about Gunny Ramirez,” K-man said.

Mitchell looked at K-man and furrowed his brow.
“I don’t know. I only saw him for a few minutes. He wasn’t taken to the same
prison I was.”

“The last time you saw him was on the Iltia
transport?”

“Yes. Well, no. The last time I saw him they
were putting him in the cryo-tube. I had started vomiting and the Otina pulled
me away from the tubes. After I finished, I looked back to where they pulled me
in and they were putting Sergeant Ramirez into a tube.”

“How did he look?” K-man asked.

“He was unconscious. They just strapped him in.
He had a few burn marks along his side where they zapped him. Manny looked like
he had been zapped a few times as well.”

K-man looked over at Lippor. “Manny? Who is
Manny?”

“Mantriq,” Lippor said as he flipped through a
folder. “He is an Iltia’cor that Ramirez was assigned to shepherd around. Part
of our reconciliation efforts with Iltia.”

K-man turned back to Mitchell. “Tell me about
Manny.”

“I don’t know what to tell you. He is the only
Iltia’cor I have ever spoken to. He seemed very nice and was interested in
where I was from.”

“What did he do when the attack started?”

Mitchell shook his head. “I’m sorry, I won’t be
much help there, sir. I must have hit my head during the initial impact. I
remember speaking with Manny and then opening my eyes on the Otina ship.”

“You say you saw burn marks on Manny from the
shockers?”

“Yes, sir. He had two marks on him that I
remember seeing.”

“What were they doing with him when you last
saw him?”

“They were closing the lid on his cryo-tube.”

K-man shook his head. “That seems odd somehow.
I don’t think an Iltia’cor could fit in one of their cryo-tubes.”

“Unless Manny was a smaller Iltia’cor,” Lippor
said.

Mitchell shook his head. “No, he was over six
and a half feet tall and huge. Big shoulders.”

“They might have been able to squeeze him in,”
K-man said.

“No. Now that you mention it, the tube wasn’t
the same size as the ones they put me and Ramirez in. It was much bigger. Manny
fit in with room to spare.”

Lippor looked at his commander with a puzzled
look.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” K-man said. “Maybe we have it
wrong. We assumed they attacked the transport to grab Ramirez. Maybe they were
after Manny.”

“What do you mean? Ramirez is still missing?”

K-man ignored Mitchell’s question.

“Lippor, pull up the data on the Iltia
exchanges. Find out how long Manny had been on Earth,” K-man said.

K-man looked at Mitchell. “Private, thank you
for this information. I’ll have someone take you back to your room.”

“I don’t know what information, sir,” Mitchell
sputtered.

“Here it is,” said Lippor. “Mantriq was on
Earth for just over eight months. But what does that mean?”

“In one of the reports I read that the Otina
had recently taken some Pelod prisoner as well. Find out anything you can about
the ones taken.”

K-man hit the nurse call button and smiled at
Mitchell. “You couldn’t have known, Private. But I have seen at least a dozen
Otina bases where we have freed prisoners. But they were always human or Hedali
prisoners. And not once have I seen a cryo-tube that would comfortably fit an
Iltia’cor.”

“Sir, you’re not going to believe this. The six
Pelod that have been suspected of being taken were all assigned to
manufacturing plants on Earth. They were all on Earth for over a year before
they went missing.”

“It’s Earth. There is something about Earth
that the Otina are looking for.”

A member of the medical staff appeared in the
door.

“Sir, is there a problem?” he asked.

“No problem, I think we have bothered young
Mitchell here long enough. He has been a great help to us,” K-man said.

“Thank you, sir,” Mitchell said with a smile.
“Think you could put in a good word for me and get me something decent to eat?”

“Whatever you want, Mitchell. Have them bill me
for it,” K-man said. He smiled as the young private was wheeled away.

“Sir, I am putting this into a communique. Who
do you want it to go to?” Lippor asked.

“All the way up the food chain,” K-man said.
“Salazar and Kitch for sure. Put Doctor Williams and Ambassador Martin on there
as well. We need someone to understand what we are looking at.”

Chapter 15

Kyle
walked into the conference room and smiled. An entire tray of chocolate donuts
sat next to the coffee. He picked up two donuts and sat them down at the table.
He then poured some coffee into one of the mugs. They all had the emblem of
Earth Force and Kyle smiled as he thought about how he had hated the design the
first time he saw it.

He reached for the sugar and picked up three
packets. After a second, he picked up a fourth. Sara wasn’t here to chastise
him for his diet right now, and he was an old man. He deserved to have his
coffee as sweet as he wanted.

“That’s not going to help that pot belly,”
Kitch said as she swept into the room.

Kyle winced as she sat her folders down on the
table. Several aides followed her into the room, all careful not to get in
Kyle’s way as he stepped back to the table.

“Good to see you, Kitch.” Kyle said with a
smile.

She sat down and looked at him. Part of her job
was the worry and stress that lived in her eyes. But when she flashed her
smile, he could see that she was happy to see him again.

“It’s not every day that I get to have coffee
with old friend. Even less rare when I get to have it on the taxpayers’ dime.”

“I noticed you didn’t spare the expense on the
doughnuts,” he said as he took a bite.

“Those aren’t all for you, by the way. The
Chancellor will be here as well, and Williams will be furious if there are none
left.”

“Bah,” Kyle said. “Ever since he left the
Corps, Carl has been late for everything. If he misses the doughnuts, it’s his
own fault.”

“Speaking of missing the doughnuts, I spoke
with Sara,” Kitch said as an aide put a cup of coffee and a doughnut on the
table off to her side. “She said that you were to have no more than two, and
that you were not allowed to take any home with you. Something about a diet?”

Kyle shook his head. “No. No diet. I admit I
need to work out more, but I’m not going on a diet. And who is going to take
the rest of those home?”

Kyle looked over at the table. “You bought two
dozen. All chocolate.”

“I don’t know who is taking them home,
Ambassador, but I told Sara that you were only getting two.”

Kyle opened his mouth to complain further when
Chancellor Thomas and his team entered the room. Ostensibly, Kyle was the
highest ranking person at this meeting, but it occurred to him that he was the
only one without a staff.

“Good afternoon, Ambassador. General Kitch,”
Thomas said.

Kyle grimaced as he looked at Thomas. When they
had first met, Jim Thomas was pudgy with a short beard. Now it was Kyle that
had a pot belly and wore a mustache and three day old scruff. Thomas had lost
most of his hair due to stress in the Iltia war, so his wife had convinced him
to shave his head and lose the beard. He had also taken up running and was
looking fit and trim.

Kyle looked down at the doughnuts sitting in
front of him and sighed.

“Chancellor, I’m glad you could make it. Doctor
Williams said this was information that we needed to see in person,” Kitch
said.

“Yes. Well, in many ways, Williams is an
anachronistic man. A top flight researcher and engineer with a collection of
vinyl records, print books, and photo albums full of actual film photography.
Thoroughly interesting and infuriating at the same time. I’ll be interested to
see if this meeting was really needed or if I could have stayed in Baltimore,”
Thomas said as he sat down.

A cup of coffee and a doughnut were sat in
front of Thomas by one of his aides. Kyle was relieved when he saw Thomas take
a bite. Kyle followed with a bite of his own doughnut.

The aides made sure everything was set for
their bosses and left the room.

“What have you been up to, Ambassador? I get
your reports, but how has retirement from the Marines treated you?” Thomas
asked.

Kyle liked the Chancellor. He had never really
thought highly of politicians in general, but Jim Thomas was a genuinely kind
man.

“It has been good, Chancellor. I never realized
how much stress I carried around. The votes on the Galactic Council are
important, but nothing like the day to day stress I had dealt with for decades.
It’s also good to have a normal home life. I missed seeing a lot of Sara when
she was growing up. I’m glad my wife did such a good job raising her. Sandy
would be very proud of how her daughter turned out,” Kyle said.

“How is the boyfriend?” Kitch asked.

“Jack is a nice enough guy, I guess. But I
don’t know how serious she is with him. Some days, I expect to hear that he
proposed. Others, I wouldn’t be surprised if she told me it was over.”

Thomas laughed. “Ah, the exuberance and passion
of youth.”

The door opened and Williams walked into the
room.

“What? Did I miss a joke?” he said as he looked
at those sitting at the table.

“Maybe if you weren’t late all the time, you
might catch one,” Kyle said.

“It would take more than him being on time to
catch a joke,” Kitch said.

Williams set his folders on the table. “Hey!
Chocolate doughnuts! Glad you got plenty, General. The Ambassador here will
likely eat them all before we are done.”

“Fine, I’ll go on a diet,” Kyle growled.
“Tomorrow.”

He took another bite of his doughnut and looked
at each of his oppressors in turn.

Williams walked over to the table with the
refreshments and poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Now you don’t know what the Ambassador had to
go through today,” he said to the others. “I asked him here a little early
because I wanted to run a test.”

“What kind of test?” asked Thomas.

“Mosar. You were testing him for mosar, weren’t
you?” Kitch asked right on top of the Chancellor’s question.

“Yes,” Williams said as he sat down. “I needed
to see his results before we had this meeting.”

“I’m guessing that you had a strong suspicion
of what the results would be or you wouldn’t have scheduled this meeting
directly after the test,” Kyle said.

“You are correct, Ambassador,” Williams said.

“And since you didn’t come in here apologizing
for wasting our time, I guess you were correct,” Kitch added.

Williams smiled. “You know me all too well,
General.”

“Spit it out, Doctor. What did the test show?”
asked Thomas.

“Ambassoder Martin is highly infected with
mosar. His levels are only matched by four other people that I have tested,”
Williams said as he opened a folder and slid a copy of the report toward each
of the others at the table.

“This… this can’t be right,” Kitch muttered.
“These readings are off the chart.”

“Yes,” said Williams. “They are enormous. And I
think I know why. One of the other subjects with levels that high is none other
than myself.”

Kyle looked at Williams with a sharp glance. He
knew that his friend had discovered something when he was told that he needed
to be tested. He was afraid of what he might hear next.

“The gravity weapon,” Kyle muttered.

Williams nodded. “The Iltia’cor gravity weapon
somehow raised the mosar levels in our system. Captain Swanson was our first
case of a human with mosar that we discovered. He was on the Hemingway in the
Do’yar’on system. Two others of that crew have also been tested and have levels
the same as myself and the Ambassador.”

Thomas looked anxious and his eyes flitted from
Williams to the door.

“Is this a danger? I mean, being in the same
room as both of you…”

“Relax, Chancellor,” Kyle said. “We have been
infected for over a year. You have been around us many times since then.”

Thomas cleared his throat. “Yes, of course. I
didn’t consider that.”

“What are the effects of mosar infection?”
Kitch asked.

“I’m not sure,” Williams said. “We haven’t seen
any adverse effects yet. But…”

“But if we let it spread, we won’t have any
chance of stopping it,” Kitch finished for him.

“Precisely. I have prepared an order for you to
send, General. It will require all crew of the Hemingway to report to
Washington to be tested. There were only three crew members on the Fitzgerald,
and two are in this room.”

“Alex,” Kyle said. “Alex and the others are out
there without this knowledge. They are as susceptible to mosar as any alien.”

“Yeah, I thought of that,” Williams said with a
sigh. “But we can’t worry about the handful of men and women who are infected
at the highest level. We need to focus on the rest of our people.”

“What do you suggest?” Thomas asked.

“From our preliminary data, a person who is
around another person with mosar has their own levels increase. But they need
to have significant contact before this occurs. Same proximity, we figure
around 10 meters, for extended periods of time. We are estimating around ten to
twenty hours a week.”

“So family and co-workers, but not casual
contact in public,” Kitch said.

“Exactly. If this was a medical infection, we
could isolate by means of quarantine. But putting everyone who is infected
together would simply increase their levels of mosar,” Williams said.

“House arrest,” Thomas suggested. “A modified
version. They could work from home or get jobs which don’t require close
co-workers.”

“That’s a possibility,” Williams said. “But we
are still trying to determine how quickly it spreads and how many people are
already infected.”

“What about animals, materials? Could I have
infected my house with mosar?” Kyle asked.

“I don’t know. We haven’t had time to test
beyond people associated with Swanson and now those on the Hemingway and
Fitzgerald.”

“I’ll assign you some more staff,” Kitch said.

“I appreciate that, but we need to weigh the
need for faster research against the need for secrecy,” Williams said.

“You’re right,” Thomas said. “If word got out
that humans were infected with mosar, it would cause a panic.”

“Worse, it would allow any potential enemies to
know that their mosar based weapons might not be useless against us after all,”
Kitch said. “Right now the idea that we are immune to the heavy weapons on most
race’s ships is enough to have everyone play nice with us. If they start
thinking they might be able to succeed where the Iltia’cor failed, then we
might be in jeopardy.”

“True, but I would say at this point that only
those who were on board the Hemingway and Fitzgerald are in danger of mosar
weapons.”

“What do you mean?” Thomas asked.

“Those who are in the alpha group probably
would not even feel it if the mosar was stripped from their bodies.” Williams
said.

“Have you tested this?” Kyle asked.

“No, and I wouldn’t want to do human testing
until we are certain of the safety. We are going to try white mice, if we can
detect an alpha level of mosar.”

“You think you can cleanse it from the
population,” Kitch said. Her eyes widened as she saw some hope.

“Yes,” Williams said. “If we have good results
with the trials, I am hopeful that we can remove mosar from the people infected
at the alpha, beta and delta levels.”

Thomas furrowed his brow. “What about those at
the highest levels?”

“Isolation,” said Kyle.

“Correct,” Williams said. “We would isolate
those we couldn’t remove the mosar from safely.”

“What about inorganics?” Kitch asked. “If our
people are clean but our ships aren’t, we are still stuck with the problems of
mosar weapons being used against us.”

“I don’t have an answer for that, General. I
wish I did,” Williams said.

Kyle’s phone beeped. He had forgotten to turn
it off when he came in the conference room. He looked down to see if it was
Sara. He had promised he would always take a call from her. Instead he saw it
was a priority message.

He looked around the table. “Who would be
sending me a priority message?” he asked.

Kitch and Thomas looked at each other. As far
as they knew, they were the only ones with Kyle’s priority clearance code.

Kyle opened the message. It was from
Kiskaliski.

“K-man,” Williams said as he glanced at his
phone.

Kyle started reading the message. It was
something about an Iltia’cor that was captured by the Otina.

“General. Chancellor. You both need to check
your messages, this one is addressed to all of us,” Williams said.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Kyle said. “K-man
is saying that Ramirez wasn’t the target of the Otina raid on that transport
ship. But why else would they expose their ability to pull a ship out of a warp
field and attack so openly?”

“This Iltia’cor. I don’t see anything special
about him,” Kitch said. “Adept at human languages. Is a good astrophysicist.
But otherwise doesn’t seem to be a prime military target.”

“It’s not what he knows that’s the reason,”
Williams said. “It’s what he is. Look, K-man has figured it out. The Pelod that
were captured had all spent time on Earth for months. So had this Iltia’cor.
The Otina want to study aliens that have spent long periods of time on Earth.”

“But why?” Thomas asked. “What could spending
time on Earth possibly have to do with taking aliens as prisoners.”

“Medical experimentations,” Kitch said. “That’s
what it is about. The Otina in our system are all about medical
experimentations. The Pelod said that it was odd that we were finding so many
research stations in our raids. They said that each Otina tribe seemed to focus
on something different and this one was interested in medical studies.”

“The answer is in front of us, I think,” Kyle
said. ‘We just have to figure out what we need to be asking.”

Thomas suddenly stood up. “No, the answer is in
this room. It’s mosar. The fact that we didn’t have it before, and yet the fact
that we can have it spread into us means that it isn’t humanity that is
special, but our solar system.”

“That makes sense,” Williams said. “What if
there is something about the Earth that prohibits the spread of mosar?”

“Then how are other humans getting it?” asked
Kitch.

“Maybe because some of the carriers just had
too much for the Earth to hold back,” said Kyle.

Williams stood up. “I need to get back to the
lab. I’ll get my team working extra hours until we can figure out some
parameters. I could use a team of biologists with high clearance to start the
white mouse study, General.”

Kitch nodded. “I’ll find some for you. This
project has got to be our top priority.”

The door to the conference room opened a crack
and a young aide of Kitch’s stuck his head in.

“General, sorry to disturb you. You have a
priority message from Admiral Salazar that he needs you to read immediately.”

“Thank you, Marrin,” Kitch said as she pulled
her phone back out.

Kyle and the others watched her with feigned
disinterest. They were all hoping that Salazar would have news of Alex, and
that the news would be good.

Kitch shook her head and smiled. “Gentlemen, we
have a new target. We know where Warlord Jii will be, and we have a chance to
take him.”

“That’s wonderful news,” Thomas said.

“Yes, but has there been any word of Ramirez?”
asked Williams.

Kitch steeled herself and looked directly at
Williams.

“No. And with the news from Kiskaliski and the
opportunity we have to grab Warlord Jii, the rescue of Gunnery Sergeant Ramirez
is no longer a priority mission.”

Kyle looked down and realized that he had
devoured the two doughnuts in front of him during the short meeting.

“Screw this stress, I’m taking a box of those
doughnuts with me,” he said.

Chapter 16

Alex
and Hopkins ran toward the barracks. They both slid to a stop in front of the
door leading to the hangar. Hopkins pushed the button to open, but there was no
response.

“What is wrong,” Alex asked.

“Not sure, Gunny. I pressed the button,”
Hopkins answered.

Alex pushed Hopkins back and pressed the
button. Nothing happened.

“I’m going to try the override code,” Alex said
as he punched in the sequence.

The door slid open and Alex was pulled off his
feet and into the doorway. He was barely able to grab the edge of the doorway
before he was pulled into the hangar. Hopkins had wedged himself against the
wall near the door and extended an arm toward Alex.

“Take my hand, Gunny,” Hopkins yelled over the
wind rushing by them.

Alex grabbed Hopkins hand and they both worked
to pull him back into the barracks room.

Alex reached over and hit the close button on
the panel next to the door. The door slid shut and both men collapsed to the
ground.

“The explosion must have destroyed the hangar
doors,” Hopkins said.

“Let’s not try that again,” Alex said.

Hopkins looked at the door. “They’re dead,” he
said. “I just… I can’t believe it. If I had gone with them…”

“Hey, we are alive. And we now have no one out
there to carry a message for us. So we have to figure this out on our own,”
Alex said. He stood and extended a hand to Hopkins.

“You really are amazing,” Hopkins said. “You
are what my dad would have called ‘a man of action.’”

Alex laughed as Hopkins took his hand. “And
what does that mean?” he asked as he pulled his fellow survivor to his feet.

“It means you assess the situation, modify your
thinking, and decide on a plan before the rest of us have comprehended what
just went on,” Hopkins said. “That is something special.”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret, Hopkins,”
Alex said. They started walking back to the med lab.

“I was just like everyone else until I had to
pick out a pet at the pet store. I spent over an hour trying to decide between
a hamster or a turtle,” Alex said. “My father was many things, but being
patient in a pet store at the mall was not one of them.”

“What happened?” Hopkins asked.

“I got the turtle and we left the store. On the
way home, my father told me that he was going to give me a book to read and I
was to give him a book report on it in a week.”

“How old were you?”

“I was six.”

“What book was it?”

“It was a book on military strategy that
detailed a theory by a man named John Boyd. His theory is called the OODA loop.
Have you heard of it?”

Hopkins shook his head. “Can’t say that I
have.”

“It stands for observe, orient, decide, and
act. My father gave me the book to show me that the inability to decide would
be something that holds me back in life,” Alex said.

Hopkins stopped and dropped his head. “What if
you make a bad decision?”

“That’s part of it,” Alex said. He walked back
to where Hopkins stood. “It’s okay to make a bad decision. A bad decision is
often better than not making any decision. Thomas Edison took hundreds of
attempts to make the light bulb according to a biography of his. But he
accepted those failures. He referred to them as successful discoveries on how
to not make a light bulb. Bad decisions are the same way. They can teach us
what not to do.”

“So that’s why you can react so quickly?”

Alex shrugged. “Now you know my secret. I hear
all the time that I am not thinking things through, but the fact is that I
gather as many facts as I can about a situation. I select those facts that
allow me to see the situation clearly. I make my decision based upon the way I
can see the situation. And then I act upon that decision.”

“No second guessing?” Hopkins asked.

“Sure, but you have to learn to trust
yourself.”

Hopkins shook his head. “You’ve been practicing
this for decades. That’s amazing.”

“Hey, it got me in a lot of trouble when I was
younger, trust me,” Alex laughed. He motioned Hopkins along. “Come on, we need
to see how we can get a message out. While we are alive, we can survive. If we
can survive, we can get rescued.”

When they arrived back at the med bay, Manny
looked over at them.

“I’m sorry Alex and Sergeant Hopkins. I can’t
believe that happened.”

“Nothing anyone could have predicted, Manny. We
just have to focus on getting a message out,” Alex said.

“Of course. I am starting to figure out the
camera controls. If I can see enough of the stars, I should be able to give you
a general region that we are located in.”

“Keep working on that, Manny,” Alex responded
as he went over to Levin.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Alex asked.

“I’m… better. The breathers seem to be
working.”

“Breathers?” asked Hopkins and he squatted
beside the Pelod. “What are they?”

“They provide a rich oxygen and nitrogen mix
while providing nano scrubbers that gather and filter away larger
particulates,” Levin said.

“That would be very helpful technology to
have,” Alex said. “I assume Pelod technology?”

“Yes, and top of the line. Whatever nutrients
they are pumping through the air system that is keeping us from starving and
dehydrating is slowly suffocating me and Davison.”

“Why aren’t we having the same thing happen to
us?” Hopkins asked.

Levin took another few breaths from the
breather before answering.

“I have had plenty of time to think about this.
I would guess that the structure of your lungs allow the nutrients to be
absorbed much faster than a Pelod’s lungs would. The same for the Otina and the
Iltia’cor.”

“Faster? You mean that you are still able to
absorb the nutrients?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Levin said. “We have still maintained
reasonable strength and body weight, we just kept losing the ability to breathe
easily.”

“That would suggest that the Otina weren’t
expecting to keep Pelod prisoners,” Alex said.

“Or they wanted to kill them slowly,” Hopkins
suggested.

“Not helpful, Hopkins,” Alex said. “What we
need to figure out is why they captured the Pelod if they weren’t prepared to
keep them as prisoners.”

“Yes, but I don’t think we can find that out
without asking them,” said Levin.

“Maybe,” Alex said. “Tell me, where were you
captured?”

“We were on a survey ship looking at some
asteroids in the Kuiper belt. The Otina ship followed us into the asteroid belt
and attacked. We never suspected they would attack once we sent them our
identity signal.”

“Why not?” Hopkins asked. “Since you had signed
a treaty with us and had agreed not to sell them anymore weapons or technology,
why would they hold back from attacking you?”

Levin smiled. “Because political situations are
fluid. Both we and the Otina know that business could start up a year, ten
years, a hundred years from now. They wouldn’t want to antagonize the people
who could sell them the best technology.”

“That’s what you assumed, anyway,” Alex said.

“Yes. That is what we assumed.”

“How many were on the survey ship?” Alex asked.

“Nine of us.”

“And what were your jobs?”

“There was a crew of three that ran the ship.
The other six were geologists, chemists, and engineers.”

“What are you and Davison”

“I am a geologist and Davison is a chemist.”
Levin said

“How long did your team work together?” Hopkins
asked.

“I had only met the others a few days earlier.
Me and Davison had been on Earth before we were assigned the mission.”

“Wait,” Alex said. “You and Davison were on
Earth? For how long?”

“About ten months. We were part of the team
that was sent to the Pelod steel manufacturing facility in Brazil.”

“Had any of the others on the ship spent any
time on Earth?”

Levin shook his head. “No. In fact they were
asking us about what it was like to live there. It is a prestigious thing to be
selected.”

Alex looked over at Manny. “I think I may know
why you are here.”

Alex walked over to Manny and looked at the
monitor.

“Can you see enough of the stars to get an idea
of where we are?”

Manny shook his head. “No, not enough yet, but
I am able to get the camera to move quite a bit. See?”

He pointed to the monitor and Alex watched at
the camera moved in a small sweep across the field of stars.

“I also think we are rotating,” Manny said.
“The stars on the left keep slipping out of view and new stars keep appearing
on the right.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, that’s good. You should be
able to get a wide enough section of the star field to figure out where we
are.”

“I hope so. I think I can, but if we are in an
obscure region, it might take me a while.”

“Don’t worry about that, Manny. I know you will
figure it out. I have a question, though. You were sent to Earth around eight
months ago, right?”

“Yes, Alex. I reported to you as your guest
when I arrived.”

“I just wanted to make sure. Were there any
other Iltia’cor that have spent as much time on Earth?”

“No, Alex. Plostr’car was sent at the same time
as me, but he requested to return to Iltia after a month.”

“Why?”

“He said the air smelled funny and your star
was too bright. Gave him bad headaches.”

There was a reason that the Otina had taken the
Pelod. And Alex was sure that Manny had told him the reason that the Otina
attacked the transport heading back to Iltia. It just didn’t make any sense to
him. Why would the Otina want aliens who had lived on Earth.

“Hey, Gunny,” Hopkins said.

“I’m going to go set up the barracks as a
sleeping quarter for us. I think we should set up a barrier in front of the
door in case the Otina decide to pay us a visit.”

“That’s a good idea, Hopkins. And see if you
can shut off the alarm lights. They are driving me crazy.”

“Will do.”

“Alex, I don’t know if it is all the excitement
or what, but I am feeling a little tired and unstable,” Manny said as Hopkins
left the med bay.

“Now that you mention it, I am too,” Alex said.
He had assumed that the adrenaline was just wearing off after the last hour of
excitement and fear. But he was feeling drowsy.

“Hey Hopkins,” Alex yelled. Hopkins had left
the med bay and was headed toward the barracks.

Alex followed and found him trying to push a
cabinet in front of the door. Hopkins’ breath was ragged and he moved with
jerks and starts.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine Gunny. Just seem to be tired.”

Alex shook his head. He couldn’t think
straight.

“Let’s get back to the med bay. Something’s
wrong.”

Hopkins nodded and followed Alex back to the
med bay. Each step Alex took felt odd. He felt as if his feet were fuzzy and
the floor always seemed either too high or too low every time he took a step.

Alex stepped into the control room when he
heard a gasp. He turned and saw Hopkins on his knees. His face was pale and his
eyes were glassy.

“Come on,” Alex said as he pulled him up.
Hopkins just collapsed on the ground.

Alex wanted to yell for help, but he couldn’t
seem to. He grabbed Hopkins’ arm and started dragging him. Alex couldn’t
remember why he needed to get to the door, he just knew he needed to.

A tall man appeared in the door and helped Alex
into a room with a table. Someone was lying on the table. He heard a noise and
spun around.

Alex felt his legs give out from under him as
he saw the tall man dragging another man through the door.

The tall man did something and the door slid
shut. There was a hissing sound and everything went black.

Alex lifted his eyes and tried to sit up.
Something on his chest prevented him from doing so.

“Relax, Sergeant Ramirez,” a voice said.

Alex turned his head to see Levin. The Pelod
was holding a mask to his face and had a hand on Alex’s chest.

“Breath deep,” Levin said. “You passed out from
the lack of oxygen.”

“Passed out? What happened?” Alex asked. His
words came out muffled, but apparently clear enough for the Pelod to understand
them.

“The blast from the supply ship must have
damaged more than the hangar doors. The automatic vents that seal the air in
the compound were damaged or maybe there is a physical breach. Most of the air
in the facility is being sucked into space about as fast as the life support
system can generate it.”

Alex nodded. He remembered Hopkins being
dragged into the room and the hiss of the door as Levin shut it.

“Is this room sealed?” Alex asked.

“It is for now. We will need to refresh it from
the life support system every so often. But we will be fine for a few weeks.”

“Good. We need to get a message out to the
Earth forces as soon as possible. It may take them weeks to get here.”

“I don’t think it will take that long, Alex,”
Manny said.

Alex rolled onto his side and looked toward the
Iltia’cor.

Alex pushed away Levin’s hand as he pushed
himself to his feet.

“Did you find something Manny?”

“Yes, Alex. I believe we are within a few
light-years of Earth,” the Iltia’cor said.

Alex stumbled over to where Manny was seated
and looked at the monitor.

“Are we continuing to rotate?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Manny said. “It’s not very fast, but
every few minutes when I swing the camera to the right, I see a few new stars.
There is another asteroid or something that came into view just before you woke
up.”

Alex looked back at Levin. He was checking on
Hopkins. The other human was still unconscious, but Alex could see his chest
rise and fall in a steady rhythm.

“How long was I out?” Alex asked.

“A while. Levin was positive you would be okay.
He was less sure about Sergeant Hopkins.”

“Levin, is Hopkins going to make it?” Alex
asked the Pelod.

“Yes, he just has something wrong with his
lungs. I have looked for something to help him in the cabinets, but I didn’t
find much.”

“His lungs,” Alex said. “He went through the
mosar field. If they were feeding us nutrients through the atmosphere, then
some of the nutrients may have been embedded in his lungs.”

Levin nodded. “That makes sense. The burning
away of those nutrients may have irritated the delicate lung tissue.”

“What about Jeffries shoulder?” Alex asked. “Why
would his shoulder have popped when he went through the mosar field?”

Levin shrugged. “I don’t know, that makes no
sense at all.”

“Alex,” Manny said. “You need to see this. We
have a planet starting to come into view.”

Alex whipped around to look at the monitor. He
was not fully recovered from his issues with oxygen, and he needed to lean on
Manny as he looked over the large alien at the monitor.

“Keep the camera there,” Alex said.

“That does look like a planet,” Levin
whispered.

Alex saw that the Pelod had come over to look
at the monitor as well.

“If you said the stars put us within a few
light-years of Earth, then how can that be a planet?” Alex asked.

“The only way is if we are still in the Earth
system,” Manny said.

Alex blinked a few times as he saw the edge of
a planet start to come into view along the right edge of the screen.

“Can you pan the camera down, Manny?” Alex
asked.

“Yes, but there isn’t much to see.”

Manny swiveled the camera down and Alex’s
breath caught.

“Those are rings. I know those rings,” he said
as he pointed to the broad dust rings that slipped into view.

“We are in the Earth system. We are on a moon
or asteroid orbiting Saturn.”

“Are you sure?” Manny asked.

“Positive. Now we know where we are, we just
have to figure out what message to send.”

Levin raised his eyebrows. “You have figured
out the Otina written language?”

“No, but I was thinking about this. Even if we
knew their language, we wouldn’t want to send a message that they could read.
They would realize that someone had access to one of their facilities and it
wouldn’t take them long to figure out who. By the time Earth Forces decoded it,
the Otina would probably already have a gunship here.”

“That’s true,” Levin said.

“So what kind of message can we send?” Manny
asked.

“A coded one,” said Alex. “We have never been
able to trace an intercepted Otina message back to the source.”

“That’s because they use a multi-phasic—“

“Yeah, yeah, technical mumbo-jumbo,” Alex said.
“The important thing is to send a code that Earth Forces can decipher before
the Otina can track back.”

“But how will you send a message without
knowing what you are saying?” asked Manny.

“I just need two of their letters,” Alex said.
“Manny, can you pull up the transmission screen? I’d like to make a collect call.”

“What?”

“Just pull up the transmission screen and I’ll
tell you what to send,” Alex said.

Chapter 17

K-man
shifted his shoulders as he slid his uniform shirt on over his t-shirt. It felt
odd wearing something so close to his back. Not painful, just odd. His fingers
quickly worked the buttons and he looked in the mirror. The uniform looked a
little tighter across the stomach and a little looser in the shoulders than it
had before he had been injured. His belt had betrayed him as well. The clip on
the buckle fell a good quarter inch further along the webbing than it normally
did.

“Sir, are you ready? Need any help?” Lippor
said as he knocked on K-man’s door.

“I’m good, Lippor,” K-man said. “I assume
Admiral Salazar is on board?”

“His ship just docked. I just checked on
Greenaway and they are moving him to the conference room now.”

K-man looked at himself in the small mirror
sitting above his dresser and nodded. Twelve days in a hospital bed may have
softened him, but he still looked like he belonged in the uniform.

Lippor led the way to the conference room. The
Berlin was thrumming with the energy of a crew preparing itself for a big
assignment. They had been ordered back to Ellison to receive their new
assignments, pick up additional crew, and to be briefed by Admiral Salazar.

It seemed strange to think of the space station
around Jupiter as home, but that is what many of the men of Strike Force Alpha
felt about Ellison. K-man smiled to himself as he remembered they weren’t
Strike Force Alpha anymore. They were now Earth System Defense.

Politicians and bureaucrats always wanted to
change names of groups. One of the mysteries of life K-man decided was better
left unexplored.

The main conference room on the Berlin was
right below the bridge. Captain Gagne was already seated and looking at his
tablet. His frown indicated that he was not thrilled with the report from
Salazar. K-man didn’t suspect anyone who had been with this particular group
would be.

“Your tablet,” Lippor said.

K-man took the computer that Lippor held out to
him. He saw that Greenaway had been situated on the other side of the table.
His head was still immobilized in that cage like contraption and he was still
dressed in the hospital gown that he had worn since he was brought in with a
broken neck.

“Thanks, Lippor. I’ll let you know if I need
anything else,” K-man said.

“Yes, sir. You have about five minutes before
the Admiral arrives.”

K-man nodded as his aide left the conference
room. He switched on his tablet and walked over to where Greenaway was sitting.

“How are you feeling?” K-man asked.

“Better now that I will be heading home, sir,”
Greenaway said. “Did you know they are reassigning me to D.C.? Some research
lab there.”

“Good, your family won’t be too far away. And
you will still be able to serve from Earth.”

“Yeah, that’s the good news about breaking your
neck, I suppose. They aren’t giving me good odds to walk again. But we’ll see.”

“We’ll miss having you. You saved our bacon too
many times not to miss you,” K-man said.

“You’re making me blush, sir. Besides, we all
know that you didn’t think techs should be in combat,” Greenaway said.

“I was wrong,” K-man answered. “Most of the
techs I have seen in the field are more than worth their spot on my teams.”

“Thank you, sir. Serving on your team was the
highest honor I could hope for.”

“Now you’re making me blush, Greenaway. Just
get better,” K-man said as he sat down beside his tech.

There was a flurry of movement and K-man saw
that Gagne was standing up. Salazar was brisk as he entered the room and K-man
popped to his feet as soon as he saw the general enter.

“As you were, gentlemen,” Salazar said. He
placed his tablet on the table and motioned to one of his aides to get him a
cup of coffee from the refreshment table.

“I would like to say that I am in a hurry to
get somewhere, but I’m not, honestly. I just want to get this meeting over
with. We will only have a couple of days to get everything situated before the
Berlin and her escorts will be departing Ellison.”

K-man sat back down as he watched Salazar. A
few more gray hairs than the last time he had seen the admiral, and quite a few
more wrinkles around the eyes. He looked like he needed more sleep as well.
K-man knew that Salazar was under a lot of pressure.

“Thank you,” Salazar said to his aide. Those
not involved in the meeting finished what they were doing and left the room
before Admiral Salazar spoke again.

“You are Greenaway?” Salazar asked. “Of course
you are. I’m sorry for your injuries. But I am very glad that they couldn’t
keep you off of the computer.”

K-man narrowed his eyes and looked at his
tablet. He had figured that Greenaway was there to confirm the new locations to
look for the captured Iltia’cor and Ramirez. He had seen several reports from
Salazar’s office about assigning some extra troops and vessels, but Greenaway
hadn’t been involved in that.

“We will be asking for your help in
coordinating the fleet, Captain,” Salazar said to Gagne. “And of course, we
will have you back in command of the ground forces as soon as you clear medical
waivers, Colonel.”

K-man looked up from his tablet. “Yes, sir. Did
you say fleet, sir?”

“Yes, Colonel. Did you get a chance to look at
the report you were sent?”

“The last report I saw was from last night,
sir. I was in medical all morning. Haven’t had a chance to check my messages
yet.”

“In that case, let me catch you up as quickly
as possible. Your young Greenaway here has discovered where Warlord Jii will be
in less than six days. We are assembling a small fleet to capture or kill him.”

“What about the Iltia’cor?” K-man asked. He had
almost said Ramirez.

“That is no longer our priority. If we can take
Warlord Jii, it is hoped that we can drive the Otina from the system.”

“I notice that you have the Grant assigned to
us,” said Gagne. “I take it Admiral McKendree will be in charge?”

“Yes, Captain. McKendree will be fleet
commander,” Salazar said. “He has asked that you provide the command and
control of the support medical scooters. He wants Captain Harlow to be in
charge of the landings.”

Gagne nodded. “Harlow would be good for that.”

“I know you have had a lot of freedom, Captain.
But McKendree is Fleet Commander.”

“Yes, sir,” Gagne said.

“Sir, if I may speak?” K-man asked.

“Yes, Colonel. What is it?”

“Who is going to replace us in the search for
the Iltia’cor?”

Salazar sighed. “Greenaway, pull up the map if
you would.”

The lights dimmed in the conference room and a
panel in the center of the table slid open. Lights projecting from both above
the table and from inside the open panel turned on and a hologram appeared.
K-man recognized it as the Earth System. Earth itself was a tiny dot orbiting
the sun in the center.

“We have discovered that Warlord Jii resides on
a very large vessel that has stealth capabilities,” Salazar said. “The ship
itself is reported to be heavily armed and the stealth technology is way beyond
anything that we have access to. We would ask other races about this
technology, but we don’t want anyone else to know that we have this report.”

The hologram shrunk until the entire solar
system was about the size of K-man’s fist. The sun was barely big enough to see
clearly. Around the edge of the hologram field was a haze. K-man knew it was
the Oort cloud: a debris field of billions of asteroids that was the remnants of
the creation of the Earth system.

Three red dots pulsed in the image.

“Those are the Otina bases that refuel Jii’s
ship,” Salazar said.

Two of the dots stopped pulsing and the
hologram zoomed in on the third dot.

“This one is where Jii’s ship will be in six
days. We are pulling every Earth Force vessel that can reach Ellison in the
next 48 hours into this fleet. We will strike with everything we have at this
location.”

K-man shook his head and frowned as he listened
to Salazar. He looked down at the report and tried to understand the scale of
the attack.

“You disagree with the decision, Colonel?”
Salazar asked.

“Yes, sir. I don’t think this is the right
course of action,” K-man said.

“Why?”

“I can’t help but think this is what he wants
us to do. We should hold something back.”

“Your concern is noted, Colonel. But these
orders come straight from General Kitch. I addressed the same concerns that you
have and these were the finalized orders.”

K-man nodded. He didn’t agree with the orders.
It felt like a trap. But he knew that Salazar was right. If Kitch gave the
order, then this was the operation and goals they were to carry out.

“We will have a full n-tac array going in?”
Gagne asked.

“Yes. This is our last ditch choice. If we
can’t get Jii either because he is able to defeat our assault or if it looks
like he has a chance to run, we will activate the n-tacs.”

“What are n-tacs?” Greenaway asked.

Gagne looked embarrassed. It hadn’t occurred to
him that Greenaway might not have the clearance to speak openly. K-man nodded
at Salazar when he realized the admiral was waiting for his approval.

“An n-tac is a tactical nuclear warhead that
some of our teams take into an assault. I assume that you did not have the
clearance needed to know about them, but you will be getting that clearance in
a few days when you report to your new assignment,” Salazar said.

“Whoa! How long has that been going on? We
didn’t do it, did we Colonel?” Greenaway asked.

K-man nodded. “There were certain missions that
n-tacs were deployed. We never came close to needing them. Well, once. But we
didn’t need them.”

“We can discuss n-tacs later, gentlemen. Let’s
work on the plan for the assault,” Salazar said.

“Will we be taking the fueling station first,
or will we wait for his ship to dock?” K-man asked.

“We wait for his ship. We don’t know how long
he can go without refueling, but we don’t believe he would leave himself
without enough fuel to get to another station or maybe even an interstellar
base,” Salazar said. “We know where he will be, so we will strike while his
ship is not stealthed.”

“Can we warp in?” Gagne asked.

“Not close enough to surprise him. The asteroid
traffic is too dense for that. We will warp as close as we can from the Kuiper
Belt about an hour from strike time and then move in on ion. He will see us
coming, but we are hoping that he will not be able to drop back into stealth
while he is refueling.”

“Do we have eyes up there?” K-man asked.

“No. Nothing except the data that Greenaway
decoded for us. We have to assume that the refueling will begin when the
schedule says. We will drop in about half an hour after it starts.”

“So we set up a perimeter with scooters, the
cruisers engage the heavy weapons, and we try to board his vessel? Very…
pirate-ish of us, isn’t it?” Gagne asked.

Salazar laughed. “Yes, and we will rip their
sails if they attempt to hoist them.”

Greenaway started to ask what that meant but
K-man was already answering him.

“It means that the cruisers will target the
engines on Jii’s ship.”

“Correct, Colonel. Half of the cruisers will
target the engines, and the other half will target any heavy weapons on the
facility.”

“Where are we landing?”

“The scooters will land directly on his ship.
We assume that there will be bays for smaller ships and docking ports, but we
will be retro-fitting the scooters with high energy laser cutters and forcible
hatchways. We will just drop onto her, cut into her skin, and our troops will
move in and find their leader.”

“Sound straight forward enough,” K-man said.
“Any news on the mosar situation?”

“What do you mean?” Salazar asked.

“I just don’t want any of my men to go through
any mosar fields if there is a chance they can be killed by them. Are you sure
that we will be safe?”

“The folks back home have figured out what
happened to Swanson. I haven’t been brought in on it, but they assure me that
we won’t be sending anyone into harm’s way because of mosar.”

The next several hours were dedicated to
logistical and personnel concerns. Supply ships, transport, communications and
officer personalities and conflicts were all addressed. K-man would be in
charge of the insertion teams. There would be fifty scooters with teams of
around sixty troops each. Three thousand ground-pounders to assault a single
ship.

Admiral McKendree arrived on Ellison while they
were still in conference, so he was brought in by video for his input.

K-man was exhausted by the end of the meeting.
It must have shown, too, because Salazar addressed it.

“Kiskaliski, are you okay?”

“Yes, sir. Just a little out of shape.”

“We have six days until we see action. Will you
be back by then, or does Major Reynolds need to step in?”

“If I’m not back in form, I’ll let you know in
plenty of time to brief Reynolds, sir. But I’ll be fine.”

“I need you at one hundred percent, K-man.
Don’t make me decide if you’re not.”

“I won’t, sir. I’ll be able to lead the
assault.”

Salazar nodded. “Good. But to be safe, I want
Reynolds brought up to speed on everything. And I want him at the briefing
tomorrow as well.”

“Yes, sir,” K-man said.

Salazar picked up his tablet and folders and
left the conference room. K-man sat back and sighed. He knew that Salazar
trusted him, but he still felt like he needed to prove himself.

Gagne smiled and shrugged at K-man as he left.

“Sir,” Greenaway said. “Would you mind taking
me back to my room in medical?”

“Sure,” K-man said. “But don’t they normally
have someone help you move around?”

“Yes, sir. But I need to speak with you
privately if I can.”

“That’s not a problem,” K-man said. He gathered
his tablet and slid it in a pocket on the side of Greenaway’s wheelchair.

“What do you want to talk about when we get
there?” K-man asked.

“Could you take us around the other way? Near
engineering?”

“Why?”

“Well, sir, it’s because I don’t trust my room
and I would rather say what I have to near the noise and background radiation
of engineering.”

K-man was silent. He didn’t know what to say to
that request, but he turned down the hallway toward engineering.

“So what is this about,” K-man asked.

“Some of the things I read, sir. In the Otina
files, I mean. I reported them to the intel chief, but I haven’t heard them
brought back up. And I have been listening for one portion in particular.”

“Maybe they haven’t found a need to let anyone
know.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, sir.
The Otina. I don’t think they are who we know them as.”

“What do you mean?”

“There were histories, and I mean tons of
histories, buried in the data. They all kept referring to ‘the Otina’ and
Warlord Jii.”

“I don’t see why that is unusual, Greenaway. Warlord
Jii is in charge of the Otina in our system.”

“But that’s it. When the records referred to
‘the Otina’, it was always singular and it always referred to Warlord Jii. And
the records go way back. Well before the Otina were in our system according to what
the Pelod say.”

“How far back?” K-man asked.

“At least two thousand years”

K-man whistled low. “That is quite a ways back.
What did those records say?”

“They talked about humans and how they were
untainted. Warlord Jii wanted a full report on them.”

“Warlord Jii? Maybe Jii is a hereditary title
or something,” K-man said.

“I don’t think so, Colonel. I think Jii is the
only Otina in the system. And I think he is thousands of years old.”

K-man considered what Greenaway was saying.

“Why did you feel like you had to tell me?”

“Because, Colonel. When you get on his ship,
Jii may not look like what we call the Otina.”

Chapter 18

Williams
sat back and rubbed his eyes. Too many spreadsheets, too many databases, and
too little sleep was taking its toll on him.

“These numbers don’t make any sense,” he said.

“Maybe if you said that a different way you
would see the solution,” Loudon said.

She was irritated at Williams. He knew that
because he was irritated at himself. None of the numbers made sense, though.
One of the reasons he liked numbers is that they always made sense. You could
rely on them. They worked according to logic and rules. But these numbers
didn’t.

“Look, Fielder’s and Lewandowski’s are
unchanged, but Cerce’s numbers have gone down,” Williams said.

“I know, you showed me when I came in,” Loudon
said. She was doing her best to ignore him.

“But how could mosar stay stable in two and go
down in the third?”

“You talked to them already. Was there anything
that they did different?”

“No, they all went to the lake this weekend.
They all ate and drank essentially the same food. They all avoided other
people.”

“Maybe Cerce has something in her that fights
off the mosar,” Loudon suggested. This was not the first time she had done so.

“No, if it were genetic, I think we would have
run into that. Cerce did something different than the others.” Williams said.

“So call her in and ask her again.”

Williams nodded. “Yeah, I will just have to
keep prying until I can figure it out.”

“Great, while you’re out, pick me up some
lunch. Something green and leafy. Unless you are going for pizza. Then get me
sausage and olives.”

Williams looked at the time. Loudon was right,
it was lunch time and the day was slipping away from him.

He pushed his chair away from his station and
stood up. He wouldn’t need to leave the lab to call Cerce in, she was one of
the technicians who worked for him. When it was discovered that mosar could be
passed from person to person, he had all of the members of the lab tested. They
all had similar numbers. The three technicians who worked directly with Loudon
and him had identical numbers.

Loudon joked that they were a built-in control
group, but it was more than just a joke. They were measured every day for their
mosar levels. They were encouraged not to have close contact with other people
for more than ten minutes at a time.

All three were single women in their early
thirties. They were used to working on classified projects, so they were able
to handle this quasi-quarantine. For the last four weeks they had tested the
same every day. But this morning, Cerce’s levels had dropped. It wasn’t much,
but enough that it was noticed by the scanner.

Williams had her tested three additional times.
Each subsequent test confirmed the initial result. Cerce had somehow lost mosar
over the weekend.

He was headed to her office when he saw her
walk into the lab’s break room.

“Cerce,” he called to her.

She turned and looked at him. Her typical smile
dropping into a scowl as she realized who called her name.

“Doctor Williams, I have asked you to call me
Lina multiple times,” she said as she shook a plastic container at him.

“Sorry, force of habit,” he said as he caught
up with her. “I need to ask you some questions.”

She grunted in frustration and walked into the
break room. Williams followed her.

“What do you need to ask me? And it better not
be about this weekend again,” she said as she sat at a table in the middle of
the break room.

“Why don’t you ask me about the update to the
statistical map?” she asked. “Actually, I’m not done with that yet, so don’t
ask me.”

“I know I’ve peppered you with questions all
morning, but something had to happen to get the results we did.”

“I don’t know. We didn’t do anything different.
We listened to music, we watched some chick flicks, we drank wine.”

“Did you all drink the same wine?” he asked.

“Yes. Two bottles and we all drank about the
same amount.”

“And you didn’t eat anything different?”

“No. We all had steak and spinach salad.
Although Karen had a ribeye and me and Emma had filets.”

“You know the ribeye is a more flavorful cut,
don’t you?”

Cerce glared at him. “You and Karen both. What?
Was the cow created in Texas?”

“It’s just that the marbling through the muscle
tissue—“

“I don’t care!” She threw her arms out to the side.
When she did, the collar of her shirt pulled open and Williams noticed that
there was an outline of a necklace where she had a mild sunburn.

“Did you get a sunburn?” he asked. He realized
he was staring at her chest and pulled his eyes back to hers.

“Yeah. Was pretty stupid. I went out on the
deck to read and didn’t think the sun would be that strong. Got a decent burn,”
she said. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice when I was being tested this
morning. Figured you would have sneaked a peek.”

“No, I never look at the subjects when they are
being scanned,” Williams said.

He thought Cerce was offended by that somehow,
but he continued his thought.

“Did the others lay out in the sun this
weekend?”

Cerce shook her head. “No, they stayed in the
shade when we were outside.”

“Do you normally get sun?”

“No,” Cerce shook her head. “I burn too easy. I
was only out in the direct sun for maybe an hour.”

“Would you be willing to participate in an
experiment?”

“You already have me spending most of my time
with Karen and Emma.”

“We might be able to figure out what caused the
aberration in your results this morning.”

She narrowed her eyes at Williams. “What would
I have to do?”

“Sit out in the sun for an hour a day.”

“What? In my lab coat?”

“What were you wearing this weekend?”

“Shorts and a tank top.”

“Then wear that.”

“Do you mean that I get to go and suntan an
hour a day during work and I will get paid for it?”

“Yes. I think we can arrange it up on the
roof,” Williams said.

“Can I wear a bikini?”

“Sure, whatever you are comfortable in.”

“Would you help me pick one out?”

“I don’t know anything about fashion, maybe
Doctor Loudon can help with that.”

Again, she had a disappointed look cross her
face.

“I have to go. Do you think one of the others
would want to use a tanning bed? I want one of you to stay out of the sun as a
control, but if UV radiation is part of the answer, we might be able to get
some results from a tanning bed.”

“I’ll ask them,” Cerce said as she practically
ripped the top off of her lunch container. She was definitely upset about
something.

“Thanks, Cerce. I need to go set up the
perimeters of the experiment.”

“Don’t mention it Doctor Williams,” she said.

Williams left the break room and headed toward
his lab when his phone buzzed in with a priority message. He checked his phone
and saw that it was from Greenaway, the new computer analyst downstairs.

Williams was walking past the elevator and the
door stood open. He slipped in and pushed the button for the second floor.

He was rather excited and wanted to tell Loudon
about the nugget of information he had been able to pry out of Cerce. If there
were signs that direct exposure to sunlight could not only inhibit but actually
reverse mosar development in humans, this would change the way they could handle
this infestation.

The elevator stopped and Williams stepped out
onto the second floor. Greenaway was a new addition to the research facility.
He had some sort of serious injury from one of the raids on the Otina bases,
but Earth Forces wanted to keep him on as he was very good at deciphering and
using Otina computer systems.

Williams was never down on this floor, so he
didn’t know where the communications labs were. He saw a reception desk and got
instructions from the young woman after several minutes as she kept answering
one phone call after another.

The office where Greenaway was located was at
the far end of the complex. Williams thought about heading back to his office
and calling Greenaway, but he had already come this far, he figured he might as
well go and meet this computer whiz-kid.

Williams did not expect to see a young man in a
wheelchair with a cage around his head. Two monitors were set up high enough on
the desk that the immobile man could easily see them. Williams saw a lot of
activity on both screens including an online game that normally takes a lot of
focus. Williams knew that because it was one of his vices.

“You must be Greenaway,” Williams said from the
door of the office.

“Yes, and you are?” Greenaway said without
turning.

“Doctor Carl Williams. You sent me a message
and I figured I was close enough to just drop in and see what was so urgent.”

Greenaway’s chair rotated until he could face
Williams.

“Thank you, Doctor. I would have sent you the
files to look at, but this way I can show you exactly what we found.”

“Good, but you do realize that I’m not involved
in any projects on this floor.”

“I know, but I think the message I intercepted
might be for you. I sent it to my commander, but he didn’t know what to make of
it.”

“What makes you think it might be a message for
me?” Williams asked.

“Take a look,” Greenaway said. His chair turned
until he was facing a large wall-mounted monitor. A series of squiggles and
lines appeared and Williams realized he was looking at a string of Otina language.

“See, this is the message that is broadcasting
over and over again.”

“Okay,” Williams said. “But I don’t read
Otina.”

“Wouldn’t matter if you could, it’s all
gibberish,” Greenaway said. “But this message is only made up of two letters.
One is phonetically close to the English letter ‘M’ and the other is close to
‘O’.”

“So… variations of ‘moo’?” Williams asked.

Greenaway chuckled. “That’s what went through
my mind as well. I thought we finally may have an answer for all of those
cattle mutilations in the past.”

Williams smiled. He had just met Greenaway, but
he liked a man who didn’t let something like he had been through turn him
bitter and dour.

“So what is it?”

“It’s a code. When I realized it was just two
letters, I figured it must be sent by someone who didn’t know the Otina
language.”

“Who would send a message in a language they
didn’t know?” Williams wondered out loud.

“Someone who only had access to an Otina
communications system and was under duress. Like a prisoner.”

“Yeah, I could see that.”

The screen shifted and the letters became a
series of ones and zeros.

“I thought it might be binary and could give us
a location,” Greenaway said.

Williams looked at it and shook his head. “No,
there is no series breaks and even with the message repeating, it is too long
to break apart effectively.”

“Right. And the Otina know binary,” Greenaway
said.

“They do?” Williams asked.

“Sure, they use it in their computer systems,
the same as we do. Binary really is universal. Well, at least galactic.”

“If it isn’t binary, what is it?”

“That was the key, and when I figured out who
it was from, I found the answer.”

Williams turned from the screen to look at
Greenaway. “Who is it from?”

“Gunnery Sergeant Alexander Ramirez.”

“Are you sure?”

“I made an assumption. I figured if anyone
captured by the Otina could find a way to send a message, it would be him.”

“Okay, if it’s from Ramirez, what code is it?”

“Morse code,” Greenaway said.

The screen shifted again and the ones and zeros
that had been binary shifted into dots and dashes.

“It says W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S-M-M-I,” Greenaway read
from the line of code. “That is the best translation I can come up with.”

“He sent me a message. That clever
son-of-a-gun,” Williams muttered.

“Do you know what it means?” Greenaway asked.

“It means that he is closer than we thought. He
just gave us his location. And he gave it in a way that the Otina couldn’t
figure it out.”

“I’m sorry, doctor. What do you mean? What is
MMI?”

“Roman numerals. MMI is two thousand and one in
Roman numerals.”

“So he is around Jupiter? That doesn’t make
sense. The Otina could never have a base that close to Ellison. We would pick
up the energy readings in days.”

“That is Ramirez. He better be lucky that I
didn’t get hit by a car or something, because I am the only one who would have
been able to figure it out.”

“Still confused.”

“When I retired, we spent a few weeks just
hanging out. Alex never appreciated the classics, so we watched old movies
every night. One of the first ones was the old “2001” based on the Clarke
novel.”

“Right, and they go to Jupiter,” Greenaway
said.

“The story takes place around Jupiter, but Alex
kept saying Saturn every time we would discuss it. I think… I hope… it was just
to irritate me,” Williams said.

He looked back at the monitor with the Morse code
scrolling by.

“He sent a message that only I would
understand. He is around Saturn.”

Williams looked at Greenaway. “Send this
message to General Kitch and Admiral Salazar. We need to get a team over to
Saturn immediately.”

“I’ll send it doc, but I know that they have
pulled all available ships for a top priority operation.”

“You know about that? Were you the one who
figured out where the target would be?” Williams asked. His respect for
Greenaway seemed to be growing by the second. “Don’t say anything, you have
your clearance to think about.”

Greenaway’s jaw seemed to fight being held
closed. He didn’t seem the type to be silent unless he had to.

“Listen, Greenaway. I want to thank you. I
don’t know how long it would have taken someone else to get my name from that
message. This is a personal thanks.”

“Glad to help, doc,” Greenaway said with a
smile.

Williams trotted out of Greenaway’s office and
down the hall. He pulled out his phone and called a number. When it kicked over
to the message service, Williams entered the priority code.

“Come on, pick up,” he said as he waited.

“Martin. Go,” came the voice on the other end.

“Ambassador, this is Williams. We found
Ramirez,” he said.

There was a long pause. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir. It was a message that only he would
send and it gave his approximate location.”

“That’s great news, but why are you calling me
directly?”

“Because all capable Earth Force vessels are
busy. You know why. I need your little transport and a small team for escort. I
don’t know what kind of shape he will be in.”

“I can do you one better,” Martin said. “I have
a Pelod vessel that I can force into service. Let me call Smith.”

“Sounds great, sir. Will be waiting for your
call.”

Martin hung up the phone and Williams slipped
onto the elevator when the doors opened. He knew he would miss lunch today. But
that was okay. He had a good idea of how Cerce’s mosar levels had dropped and
he had just figured out how to get Ramirez back home.

Chapter 19

“Two
minutes out from drop,” Gagne said over the channel.

K-man’s visor was displaying his team’s ready
status.

“Reynolds, what is status for Bravo and
Charlie?” K-man asked.

“All green, sir,” the major responded.

K-man was impressed with Reynolds’ command of
tactics using the simulator and had recommended that he be kicked into the
command room rather than be on the ground. McKendree agreed to the position
change and set Reynolds up as the runner for the mission.

“Delta is online and ready as well,” Golding
said.

K-man had asked Captain Golding to lead Delta.
If things got hot somewhere, he wanted someone who had proven himself a leader
in the most stressful situations. Golding had personally led a charge against
three heavy weapon positions on Epsilon75. K-man doubted he would have made it
out alive if Golding had taken a more measured approach.

“We are dropping ion engines, scanners are
showing a massive ship,” Gagne’s voice said. “Engineering, prepare cutters.”

K-man knew it was just a mental trick, but he
could almost feel the Platte dropping straight down on the Otina ship. The
concussion of weapons being fired vibrated through the vessel and the high
pitch whine of the giant laser cutters coming online let K-man and his team
know that they would soon be in combat.

The scooter landed on the Otina ship with a
thud. The massive magnetic skids would hold the ships together until Captain
Manning triggered the explosives that would allow the Platte to maneuver away from
the giant ship.

The engineers were working their lasers
frantically.

“Punch through,” one of them shouted. The
massive cylinder in the middle of the debarkation room started rotating as the
lasers embedded into its perimeter were sent deeper into the enemy’s outer
hull. The one area where the Earth planners were taking a chance was hoping
that the enemy’s hull would be less than four meters thick.

“We have air,” another of the engineers said.
“You are good to go as soon as we get it up.”

K-man listened to the muffled explosions that
came from the enemy ship. Once the cutter had cleared past the hull, a series
of charges dropped into the breach. The outer walls of the cutter would create
a passage way from the Earth vessels to the Otina vessel, but the charges would
clear out any immediate enemies.

That was the plan, anyway.

An Engineer started taking out one of the
panels on the cutter wall. That would be the chute K-man and his men would use
to enter the enemy vessel.

“Five seconds until the cutter is clear,” one
of the engineers said.

“This is bravo, we are green,” Captain Smithson
reported.

The cutter pulled out of the column and the
panel on the side dropped to the floor. K-man waited for his forward team to
drop in before he went.

“This is alpha, we are green,” he said to
command as the first of his troops disappeared from sight.

He hooked his safety line onto the hatch and
stepped out into the dark, smoke filled shaft. He held on tight as he zipped
down the tube and landed with a thud. He fell to his left and rolled onto his
knees to clear the way for the next man down.

The smoke was thick, but the infrared filter on
his visor said that there were no Otina in the room they had dropped into.

There were the reverberations of weapons firing
from the Otina ship and shaking as weapons fired from the Earth ships found
their mark. The section that alpha team had dropped into seemed vacant, but
there was noise of movement and activity not far away.

K-man located two doors in the rather sizable
room and found a quick defensive position where he could see each.

“Room is secure,” First Sergeant Watkins
confirmed. He was alpha’s lead scout and the first man down the tube.

“Roger, Watkins. Burling, take down the heavy
pack,” Reynolds said.

The door on K-man’s left slid open and three
Otina ran into the room. Sentack opened up and dropped all three from his
position. A scramble of action beyond the door was followed by the sounds of
alarms and flashing blue lights in the room.

“They’re trying to gas us, sir,” said Watkins.

“Platte, seal the debarkation room. Have those
Engineers make sure they have their masks secure. We’ll deal with
decontamination after we finish.

“It’s not that type of gas, sir,” Lippor said.
“We need to get out! Platte, block the pipe!”

Lippor jumped up and ran for the door on the
right. Watkins was right behind him.

“Move, men!” K-man ordered. He looked around
and saw Burling struggling with the heavy gun. “Burling, leave it!”

Sentack went back to help Burling. K-man turned
back to the door way and saw that most of his men had gone through. Lippor and
Watkins were waving him forward from the opening.

K-man stepped through the door when the flames
rushed in behind him. Screams from the men behind him buffeted his ears through
his comm unit as he was swept up in the fiery tempest. The door slammed shut as
K-man spun around to go help his troops.

“Who the hell shut the door?” K-man yelled.

Watkins was standing next to the door panel. He
held his hands up and took a step back.

“I didn’t touch it, sir,” he said.

“Reynolds, we just had them torch a section. We
lost Burling and our squad gun.”

“Good to hear you are alive, they blew a hole
in their own skin,” Reynolds said. “The Platte has taken some serious damage.
We can’t get another scooter over to your area. The rest of alpha is under
heavy fire and the breach has you cut off. You will need to try to meet up with
bravo.”

K-man looked at the men who had rushed into the
corridor. There were ten, including himself.

“How is the debarkation room?” K-man asked.
“Did they seal it up in time?”

“No, sir.” Reynolds said. “Manning is reporting
that all hands were lost in the debarkation room.

K-man shut his eyes and tried not to get sick.
There were twelve engineers and almost forty of his men still in the debarkation
room.

“Reynolds, are the Otina trying to escape?” he
asked.

“We have dozens of small escape vessels
launching from all over the ship and station,” Reynolds said. “A steady
stream.”

“Roger, we will move toward bravo and try to
connect.”

“Sending them your position now, alpha,”
Reynolds said.

K-man motioned his men away from the door they
had scrambled through.

“God, Lippor, you saved our lives,” said
Sanders.

“Kill the chatter,” K-man said. “We can give
high fives and toasts later.”

Still, he patted Lippor on the shoulder as he
moved toward the front of the group.

“We don’t have much in the way of penetration,
sir,” Watkins said.

K-man knew that Burling had been carrying the
majority of C-4 that the team had been assigned. It would be difficult, if not
impossible, to breach a door that was locked.

“We’ll just have to keep scrambling,” K-man
said. “Don’t let ourselves get cornered.”

“I suggest dropping down a deck or two so we
don’t tempt them to burn us out again,” Lippor said.

K-man nodded. It was a good idea.

“Sir, what’s to keep them from just blowing the
ship?” Roberts asked.

“Their leader is on board. If we can keep him
from getting off, they won’t blow the ship. If he gets to an escape pod, they
probably will,” K-man said. “So that should encourage us to move.”

“Down here, sir,” Watkins was standing at a
narrow stairway.

“Looks like it goes down at least four decks.
And it’s in the direction of the bridge,” the scout said. “If they were right
about where the bridge is,” he added.

K-man started down the stairs but Watkins and
another of his scouts quickly passed their commander and took point positions.

K-man had a hard time thinking of these steps
as ladders, although that was what they should technically be called on a ship.
They were broad, with a much smaller drop than ladders on any Earth Force
vessel.

Five decks lower they ended and opened into a
large room with a high ceiling.

“At least twenty hostiles,” Watkins said. “Some
are in the open as decoys.”

He motioned to a group near the far wall who
were not utilizing cover near as well as they should have.

“Yeah, I count six on the starboard and eight
on the port,” said K-man after a quick glance.

He must have been spotted by one of the Otina,
because the hot zing of their energy weapons echoed around the group of human
troops as they moved into cover at the bottom of the stairs.

“Smoke grenades?” Lippor asked.

K-man was about to give the affirmative when
the bulkhead in front of him melted away.

“Flanks,” he yelled as he headed to his right.
He heard the pounding of the boots behind him as his team assaulted the dug in
positions of the Otina soldiers.

The pop of the human weapons and the zing of
the Otina weapons were overwhelming. The chaos ended a few seconds later and
K-man looked around.

“Report,” he said.

“Sanders bought it and Giles is wounded,”
Watkins answered.

“Can Giles move?” K-man asked.

“Yeah, and he can still shoot he says.”

“Then we keep moving.”

“What happened, Colonel?” Lippor asked.

“They figured out how to use mosar weapons
against us,” said K-man. “Clever, really. They took away our cover.”

“Why haven’t they done that before?” Watkins
asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe they never wanted to harm
their own ships or compounds before and they figure this ship is a lost cause.
Or maybe they never thought of it,” K-man said. “In any case, we need to keep
moving. We have got to get Warlord Jii.”

The men nodded and started to move through the
door Watkins picked. Watkins was born to be a scout. He could look at a map
once and be completely oriented no matter how many twists and turns were thrown
in front of him. K-man let him pick the path toward the Otina command section.
There they would meet up with bravo team and be able to assault the bridge.

Several minutes passed before K-man checked in
again.

“Base, this is alpha. What is happening with
bravo?”

“We lost contact with them. They were heading
into a fire fight. Haven’t got a signal since then.”

“What do you mean you don’t have a signal?”
K-man asked.

“It just disappeared,” Reynolds replied. “Like
it’s being jammed.”

“Where were they last?” K-man said.

“About four hundred meters thirty-five degrees
from your position, two levels above you.”

“How close to the bridge?”

“They were between seventy-five to eighty meters
away,” Reynolds said.

“We are heading that way, base.”

K-man motioned Watkins to pick the path for
them and they moved quickly down another corridor.

“Sir, I am picking up a lot of radiation
ahead,” Lippor said.

K-man stopped the team. “Base, we are getting a
large radiation reading. Do you see that?”

“No, alpha. We are reading normal.”

“Check again, base. I’ve pulled up Lippor’s
scan on my visor and the levels are off the chart. In fact, I would like to
pull my team back a ways.”

“Again, alpha, everything looks good from up
here.”

“Can you get any reading, base?”

“Hold on. Nothing’s changed since the start.”

K-man motioned Watkins to take the team back
the way they came.

“There is the problem, base. If bravo went into
the area, there would be something going on in the area.”

“Let me check something, alpha. Hold on.”

K-man nodded to Lippor. The sergeant had saved
them twice today already.

“Alpha, this is base. We just pulled up an
infrared visual of the ship and it is very hot just ahead of you. They must be
spoofing data to lead our teams into that inferno. Back out. We will have a new
target set soon.”

“Roger base,” K-man said. He switched his comm
to a private channel for his team.

“Lippor, pull up a scan of the area and send it
to me and Watkins. Base can confirm, but I want an idea of our surroundings.”

K-man looked at the schematic that Lippor’s
sensors created. The area that seemed to be the bridge was too wide open and
massive to be a control center.

“There,” Watkins said. “If I were to set up a
control station it would be there. Easy access for day to day use, a couple of
good choke points for a security situation.”

K-man looked closer at where Watkins had
indicated. It was a good choice.

“Lippor, send base our target. They can confirm
while we are moving. Let’s go see if there is a rabbit down that hole.”

Lippor sent the transmission as the others
double checked their weapons.

“Sent, sir,” Lippor said.

K-man nodded to Watkins and the team moved out.

Rumbles and shudders shook the team as they
made their way down several decks and through several more passageways. When
they reached a closed door, Watkins motioned them back and he and another scout
opened the door and slipped in.

The door suddenly snapped shut. A heavy jerk
knocked K-man and several of his men to their knees and all went quiet.

One of the other scouts pressed the control
button on the door panel and the door reopened. He slipped his head around the
corner of the door and peered into the room.

“They’re gone, sir. Must have been a booby
trap. The entire room looks like it has been scoured.”

K-man grimaced. Watkins was one of the best men
in Earth Forces and a great soldier.

“Move in,” K-man said.

The rest of the team slipped into the door.
K-man looked up at the ceiling and around at all of the walls. The room was
perfectly round and except for the door on the far side, there was nothing in
the room at all.

K-man took point and set himself by the control
panel of the door. When his team was set, he opened the door and glanced in.

He jerked his head back as he saw several Otina
with their weapons trained at the door. His neck was wrenched as he fell back
into several of his men. When his vision cleared, he saw that his visor was
shattered.

“Grenades?” one of his men asked.

“Do it,” he croaked out. “Lippor, how is atmo
here?”

“Good, sir.”

K-man reached to his collar and detached his
helmet. He felt someone lift it free from his head.

“Are you okay, sir?” Lippor asked.

“Yeah. Neck hurts but I didn’t feel anything
pop.”

The grenades exploded and K-man saw a second
set thrown in right after. His men weren’t taking chances at this point in the
mission.

The hollow thump of an explosion in the
distance hurried K-man to his feet.

“It’s clear,” one of the troops said. K-man
thought it might be Walker, but he wasn’t sure. His ears were ringing pretty
bad.

“Move in,” he ordered. After wearing his helmet
in every engagement for almost a year, it felt odd to be running into danger
with no protection for his head.  He felt naked somehow.

A few shots from Earth Forces signaled the end
of any resistance in the next room. A main door sat ahead of them and an open
doorway was off to the right.

K-man motioned someone to check out the open
doorway.

“Looks like a lab of some kind,” Lippor said.
“Two doors.”

“Walker, keep an eye on that main door. Let’s check
the lab first,” K-man said.

The lab had monitors and charts all over it.
Two tables in the middle were covered in equipment, most of which seemed to
have been tossed around by the fight that was ongoing.

K-man hunkered down in a defensive position as one
of the doors in the lab was opened.

Two of his men slipped in and signaled that it
was clear.

“You will want to see this, Colonel,” Genovese
said.

K-man walked over to the open door and looked
in. A blue glowing cylinder dominated the room.

“What is it?” Lippor asked.

“I have no idea. Get an image of it and send it
to base,” K-man said.

A cabinet had been thrown open and items and
equipment were strewn in front of it.

“Did anyone touch that?” K-man asked.

“No one has touched anything,” Genovese said.
“It was like that when we came in.”

“Someone was in a hurry,” Lippor muttered.

“Let’s check the second room,” K-man said.

The humans went back into the lab.

“Sir. Base is saying that it is some sort of
hibernation or cryo-tube. They aren’t quite for sure, but they want more
images.”

“Okay, Lippor. Go get some more footage for
them,” K-man said.

“Opening the door,” Genovese said.

K-man readied his rifle and slipped behind some
cover.

The door slid open. K-man heard some movement
inside what appeared to be a small, dim room.

Genovese and another of the soldiers moved in.
There was no sound of gunfire, but the men didn’t give an all clear signal.
K-man moved up to the door.

“Genovese, report,” he said as he stayed behind
the corner of the door.

“I don’t know, yet, Colonel,” Genovese said.
“Something is back here, but it’s behind a partition. Whatever it is, it is
trying to hide.”

K-man walked carefully into the room. His two
men were carefully positioned to have an advantage on whatever was behind the
narrow partition that separated off a section of the room.

He understood his men’s hesitation. No Otina
had ever tried to hide before. Most resisted even when surrender would seem to
be the wisest option.

He motioned Genovese to advance. He pulled his
rifle in line with the partition and waited.

His man slid around the edge of the thin wall
and held still.

“It’s an alien, sir,” he said.

“Not an Otina?” K-man asked.

“No, sir. Not an Otina. What should I do?”

“Hold there, Genovese.”

K-man stepped over to where his man was and
looked around the corner. There a figure cowered against the wall. He guessed
the alien was about five foot six inches tall, taller than an Otina by six
inches or so. Thin, and old. His skin was purple and blotched. It seemed as
thin as aged parchment.

“Well, sir, what do we do?”

K-man’s first thought was that they needed to
give Greenaway the biggest medal they could.

“Contact base. Tell them we need extraction. We
have captured Warlord Jii.”

“What, sir?”

K-man trained his rifle on the alien who had
stopped cowering and took a casual stance. The arrogance and irritation on
Warlord Jii’s face was in sharp contrast to the fear and panic he seemed to
exhibit just seconds before.

“Good for you,” he said to K-man. “I figured if
I was ever captured by a primitive, it would be by a human.”

“Sir, he’s speaking English,” Genovese
helpfully pointed out.

“Just make the call,” K-man said.

“You have me, I’ll go with you. But I want it
understood. I will only speak to your Ambassador once you take me on your ship,”
Jii said.

“You want me to guarantee that I will take you
to the Ambassador? Not going to happen,” K-man said.

“Take me to him? Bah. You would be foolish to
take me to Earth. No, you need to take me to the place you call Ellison
station. No closer to Earth than that. And you need to get Kyle Martin out
there. I’ll speak to him. No one else.”

“Extraction team is heading our way, sir,”
Genovese said.

“How did you know I was who I am?” Jii asked.

“That’s classified,” K-man said.

Jii laughed. “Now that is a good answer. Ever
wonder if you really wanted to know everything? What if nothing was classified
to you?”

“Let’s move. We need to get to the extraction
point.”

Jii stared at K-man. “Not much for philosophy,
huh? Very well. You have the weapon and I’m just an old one with all of the
answers. Take me where you want to go.”

K-man ordered his men to form up around their
prisoner. It was very disconcerting to feel that Jii was still in charge of his
ship.

Chapter 20

“27…
28… 29… 30,” Alex counted. He let go of Hopkins’ feet as the sergeant dropped
onto his back. His breathing was labored and he was red in the face.

“Come on Hopkins, we need to do some lunges
now.” Alex tried to pull Hopkins to his feet, but the exhausted man fought him
off.

“No… No more. Just let me die here,” he panted.

“Come on, man. If they find us dead, at least we’ll
look good,” Alex said.

Hopkins rolled over on his side and staggered
to his feet. “I have had many goals in my life, Gunny. Leaving a good looking
corpse has never been on the list.”

“How did you get through basic?” Alex chided.

“That was twelve years ago, and I had this
little thing called caffeine to help me over the wall.”

“Exercise will keep your mind sharp. If more
Otina show up, you need to be at peak physical and mental condition.”

“You suck, Gunny.”

“That’s the spirit, Hopkins! Now how about ten
lunges.”

“Okay. Ten.”

“Each side.”

Hopkins groaned as Alex started counting off
the lunges that would wrap up this series of exercises.

Manny and Levin watched the two humans go
through their workout while Davison watched the monitor.

“I’m exhausted just watching what you are
doing,” Levin said. “Why didn’t you exercise like this when we were all in the
holding area?”

“Alex did,” Manny said. “He just did it in one of
the rooms. He has exercised almost every day since I’ve met him. Even when he
took me to see his cabin on vacation, he still did daily exercises.”

“Does it really help their minds remain sharp?”
Levin asked.

“Alex believes it does. He says that he can think
clearer and act faster when he is at his physical peak.”

Alex finished counting off the lunges and
Hopkins collapsed on the floor.

“Come on, man. Let’s walk it out. You’ll cramp
up if you don’t warm down right,” Alex said.

Hopkins said something, but it was muffled and
Alex was pretty sure he was glad he couldn’t understand it. He walked over to
Davison and looked at the monitor.

“Anything out of the ordinary?” he asked.

The Pelod shook his head. “No, the static
hasn’t changed.”

A few days after the transport ship was
destroyed as the other humans attempted their escape, a couple of Otina scout
ships arrived and attempted to land at the base. The automatic weapon systems
fired on them, and in turn they blasted the compound before retreating.

The camera that gave a glimpse at the area
around their prison was damaged. They could no longer control where it pointed,
and there was a layer of static over the view.

It had been three weeks since the attack. At
least they thought it had been three weeks. Without Adams and his amazing
internal clock, they had to guess at time’s passage.

Alex had another reason for exercising, but he
hadn’t let anyone know. Even after his years in Leavenworth and his weeks of
captivity in this prison, he had never really felt confined.

But the last several weeks in this small room
was starting to make him feel very closed in. There were times he had imagined
just opening the door and letting all their air out. At least he would see
something beyond those walls before he died.

He quickly pushed thoughts like those aside,
but it was easier when he was doing something. Anything. So pestering Hopkins
to work out with him was his new sanity therapy.

A beep from the console brought every eye in
the room to bear on the monitor. An exhausted Hopkins made it to Alex’s side
before Manny and Levin could hop off the table and join them.

“Do you see anything?” Manny asked.

“No, nothing yet—there!” said Alex.

“That was just static,” Davison said.

“No, that was something,” Alex responded.

As if confirming his statement, there was
another beep from the system.

“I just saw it too,” Hopkins said. “Maybe it’s
a rescue.”

“Or maybe the Otina are here to kill us or blow
up the station,” Levin said.

“They will have to lower the mosar field to get
in,” Alex said. “If they come in, we can get everyone out.”

“If they come in, they will be looking to kill
us all,” Manny said. “I don’t know if all of us will be able to survive and
take over their ship.”

“We are going to try, anyway,” Alex said.

Alex moved to the cabinets and tossed the
breathers to the Pelod.

“You can use those to make it to the barracks,”
Alex said. “Manny was the last to feel the effects of the oxygen loss and me
and Hopkins will just have to work fast. Hopefully they will be wearing
breathers as well, and we will have some when we have killed their soldiers.”

“Alex, we don’t even know if that really was a
ship,” Manny said. “It could have been a faulty sensor reading and I certainly
saw nothing in the static that would make me think a ship was incoming.”

Levin shook his head. “Me neither, and I was
looking right where you pointed.”

A jolt shook the med lab. Manny groaned in
defeat.

“They have landed. Assuming they can get the
mosar field down, they will be here in just a few minutes,” Alex said.

“I can use a weapon, Ramirez,” Levin said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, my father was a security officer. He felt
it was important for me to learn to use weapons in case I wanted to choose that
career path.”

“You just liked rocks better?”

“Rocks don’t shoot back at me. I feel safer
with rocks.”

“Fair enough. We have an extra zap you can
use,” Alex said. “You know how to use it?”

“It’s a Nanimor 950 series with a reconditioned
coil. It’s not a top end item, but it will work for close quarters.”

“So you know which end zaps. Good.”

Alex handed the Pelod the weapon and went to
the left side of the door. Hopkins crouched opposite him.

“How do you expect them to breach, Gunny?”
Hopkins asked.

“We don’t have any way to lock the door, so
they just have to hit the button on the other side of the panel. They might
just try that.”

“Yeah, or they might just put a brick of
explosives on the door and blow it up.”

“I don’t think so. If they wanted to just kill
us, they could set a decent sized bomb wherever the life support system is and
kill us that way.”

“True. Good to know you’ve figured out all the
ways they can kill us,” Hopkins said.

Alex motioned him to keep quiet. There were
sounds of movement and speaking not far away. Alex focused on staying loose.
There were footsteps in the control room and someone spoke just beyond to door.

Alex moved forward as soon as the slight whir
of the door’s motor began. He launched himself like a missile at the first
Otina he saw when the door slid open.

Only it wasn’t an Otina. He found himself
sprawled across a rather tall and very startled Pelod.

“Ramirez!,” someone yelled behind him. “Thank
God you’re alive.”

Alex rolled off of the alien and looked for the
source of the voice. The disorientation of a strong suction of air being pulled
out of the facility was compounded when he saw Carl Williams smiling at him.

“How did you…” Alex gasped. The air was quickly
running out.

A Pelod appeared with a mask and a breather. He
attached it to Alex’s face and pressed a metal rod against Alex’s neck.

“All vitals look good,” the Pelod said.

“You sent the message. You had to guess that I
would figure it out, didn’t you?” Williams asked.

Alex nodded. “I hoped, but I wasn’t sure. And I
certainly did not expect you to be part of the rescue team. And why are you
with Pelod?”

Five or six of the aliens were moving about the
area of the command room. Hopkins’s smile beamed from behind his mask, and
Levin and Davison spoke in an animated and friendly way with their fellow
Pelod.

“I pulled some strings with the Ambassador to
borrow this ride,” Williams said.

“Why not an Earth vessel? We’re in the system.”

“I’ll explain it once we are on board.”

Alex smiled. They had finally been rescued. “I
take it you got that mosar field down if the Pelod got in here.”

“Had to cut the doorframe completely out,”
Williams said. “We need to get moving, the temp is dropping fast.”

Ramirez realized he was right. With an open
breach into space, the heat and atmosphere that the life support system was
supplying was fading fast.

The former prisoners were hurried to the
waiting ship. Alex shuddered as the hatch behind them closed and the warmth of
the ships interior started to seep into his bones.

“Hi, I’m Carl Williams. And who are you?”

“Sergeant Gerald Hopkins.”

Williams picked up a tablet and checked on a
screen. “Good. Do you know when you were captured?”

“July 22nd.”

“Did you lose any prisoners while you were
there?”

“Yeah, when we first escaped. It was about two
weeks ago. There were eight others that made it onto the ship.”

“Ship?” Williams asked.

“An Otina supply ship. We fought them and took
control of the base and ship.”

“We saw the Otina bodies when we came in. When
did they leave in the ship?”

Hopkins dropped his head. “The Otina automatic
defenses destroyed the ship soon after it left the bay.”

“How did you and the others get left behind?”

“We couldn’t get the mosar field down between
the hangar and the base. So we couldn’t get the aliens on board. Gunny wouldn’t
leave them and I thought he might need help. So I stayed behind as well.”

“Doctor Williams, I’d like to scan him now,” a
Pelod said.

“Yeah. Hopkins, this is Medical Officer
Mueller. He’ll check you out now,” Williams told the soldier.

When they left the area, Williams stepped over
to where Alex was sitting.

“Why did you send the message that way?” he
asked Alex.

“I knew if anyone could figure something like
that out, it would be you. The Otina might have come back for us otherwise.”

“The automatic defenses were ripped to shreds
and the facility had been bombarded. I think they did come back for you.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, luckily the life support
system was still functioning and the med bay was in the far back.”

“Good idea sealing yourselves in there,”
Williams said.

“Not my idea. Levin did that. I didn’t even
realize we were in trouble at that point.”

“We have figured something out since you have
been gone.”

“Yeah, the Otina weren’t targeting me. They
were after Manny,” Alex said.

“Wow, that’s some good work. Especially since
you didn’t have access to our sources.”

“Yeah. I figured it has something to do with
his time on Earth. Levin and Davison were on Earth for long stretches of time
as well.”

Williams smiled and nodded. “You have always
been so clever. And so good at playing the mindless grunt.”

Alex laughed. “I guess I would rather do
something than think about something.”

“So did you figure out the deal with mosar or
was it plain, dumb luck that kept you from going into the hangar?”

“What? I went into the hangar.”

Williams head rocked back and his eyes went
wide. “You went through the mosar field,” he asked.

“No… I guess I didn’t, now that I think about
it.”

“Good thing, because I am one hundred percent
sure that it would have killed you.”

“What?”

“Yeah, seems that our little adventure at Helku
imbedded mosar in our bodies. Happened to the crew of the Hemingway as well.”

“When did you discover this?”

“About the time you went missing. A Captain
Swanson was killed walking through a mosar field. We started looking for it in
other people and we found it,” Williams said. “Don’t tell the Pelod, it’s not
something we want any of the other races to know yet.”

“I won’t,” Alex said. “What does it mean? The
fact that we didn’t have it was what separated us from the others.”

“I don’t know yet, but we will keep looking
until we figure it out.”

“So it spreads?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, it spreads.”

“I could have killed everybody by spreading
it.”

“Not quite, but the general idea is that we
need to stop it from spreading.”

“When some of the men went through the field,
they said that they felt burning in their lungs, or weird pains in the rest of
their bodies.”

“That was likely mosar burning off inside their
systems.”

“Hopkins had the lung thing. Will he be
alright?”

“Probably. He doesn’t seem to be having any
problems right now.”

Alex shook his head.

“So you really stayed for the aliens?” Williams
asked.

“Yeah, they were fellow prisoners. I couldn’t
leave them behind.”

“If you had decided to leave, you would have
gone through that field. Your loyalty to your fellow prisoners saved your
life.”

“I suppose it did. Jeffries wasn’t happy about
it though. He was going to include it in his report once they got away.”

Williams laughed. “Since when have you cared
about what was in your file?”

“I don’t, man. Never have,” Alex chuckled. “So
what do we do now? I mean about the mosar problem.”

“Well, the first stop is my lab in D.C.,”
Williams said. “Once we get you tested and verify the results, then the mosar
problem will be out of your hands. After that, I would suspect that you will be
debriefed fully. Then I would say go get some rest up at that cabin again.
Don’t have a lot of company, though, Kitch is thinking of a quarantine for
those of us with high levels.”

Alex nodded.

“Doctor Williams, you have a message coming
through on the bridge,” a Pelod said.

“I’ll be back, Ramirez. Get some rest.”

Alex leaned back and took a deep breath. He
realized that he would be getting hungry and thirsty now that he was out of the
nutrient infused air of his prison. He wondered how much food and water his
body could accept before he made himself ill.

He closed his eyes and felt safe for the first
time in a couple of months.

“Ramirez,” Williams said. “Sorry for waking
you.”

Alex hadn’t intended to fall asleep.

“No problem. What is it?”

“Looks like we got some good news and will be
taking a bit of a detour on the way home.”

“What news?”

“We have captured Warlord Jii,” Williams said.

“That’s great news,” Alex said. “How?”

“We had some teams out looking for you and they
stumbled upon some information. In fact, the tech who pulled Jii’s location was
the same one who deciphered your message.”

“I think I owe him a steak dinner or two when I
get back.”

“That sounds like a good plan. You will also
want to add K-man to that dinner arrangement.”

“Let me guess, he’s the one who led the search,”
Alex said.

“He sure is. He is also the one who captured
Warlord Jii. I think he may make full Colonel over this catch.”

Alex laughed. “K-man a full bird, you in
civvies and Kitch wearing four stars. Nothing else would surprise me.”

“Wait until you see the ambassador.”

“What? What’s happened to Kyle?”

Williams puffed out his cheeks.

“Fat? Kyle went and got fat?”

“Not too much, but he is a little soft now,”
Williams said. “You’ll get to see for yourself in a couple of hours. He is
coming to Ellison to interrogate Warlord Jii personally.”

Chapter 21

Warlord
Jii sat across the table from Kyle. His purple skin seemed to drape around his
bony structure. He moved smoothly, if slowly, despite the years that he
claimed.

“Your age,” Kyle said. “It seems a little hard
to believe.”

“A fruit fly would say the same to you,
Ambassador. It would scoff that you could have seen tens of thousands of
sunrises. Does it make you a liar or them ignorant?”

Kyle nodded. “So you are thirty two thousand
years old.”

“Thirty-two thousand, four hundred and eleven
Earth years. But that makes me feel so old. I am only twenty-nine thousand and
six of my home planet’s rotation around my home sun.”

“Where is your home sun?” Kyle asked. He was
off his game and he knew it. When he first saw images of Jii, he knew he would
have a hard time with this interrogation.

Jii chuckled. “My home sun. Yes, its name has
passed even from legend and myth. Not surprising. Any of the races that would
know it well enough to record it have either all died out or sit on the Higher
Council.”

Kyle hesitated. “The Higher Council knows what
your home sun is?”

“I would assume so. Tell me, Ambassador Martin,
when you saw me, did you feel betrayed?”

Kyle had. He was livid and scared at the same
time. He knew as soon as he saw Jii that he had been lied to the entire time.

“Yes.”

“Truth. It is what will free us, isn’t it,” Jii
said. “And yet truth can be dangerous, can’t it? Especially when we only see it
obliquely and at a distance.”

“Why have the Otina been doing medical
experiments on humans?” Kyle asked.

“For the same reason we have been doing them on
every race we come across. To stop the spread of mosar.”

Kyle frowned at Jii. “The spread of mosar?
Every race you have come across has had to deal with the spread of mosar?”

“Yes, although you humans are the first ones to
detect the infection before it had overwhelmed you. But that has to do with
Earth. Without your planet’s unique situation, you would have been infected
already. As soon as we came into your solar system close to three hundred years
ago, mosar would have started to infest you.”

“How do you know this?”

“We spread it. We’re the carriers. In fact, I
am one of the ones who created mosar.”

“And A’nacal? What part does he play in this.”

“I was wondering if you would say his name. He
was one of those warning us against playing with things we didn’t understand.
When we created mosar, we didn’t understand what it would do. We didn’t
understand that we would lose control. A’nacal tried to warn us. When we
realized that we were infecting the galaxy, he encouraged us to isolate
ourselves. He was hopeful that if we died off then mosar would die with us.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Jii snorted. “Because we were better than that.
Why should we hide when other races roamed the galaxy at will? Plus, if he were
wrong, then mosar would have infected everybody anyway and we would be dead.”

“The aliens that we have always called ‘Otina’,
they aren’t the same race as you,” Kyle said.

“Changing subjects. Yes, how boring
interrogations are. Very well. They are Otina. In a way. We created them to be
servants. Some serve as guards, others as technicians, others as medical staff,
and so on. They are clones, but they are individuals as well. They refer to themselves
as Otina, but to my race as ‘the Otina’. A subtle difference, but it works for
them.”

“And how many of ‘the Otina’ are left?”

“Less than a hundred. We are dying off. Every
century there are a few less.”

Kyle took a sip of water. The bright lights and
stark room did not seem to affect Jii at all, but Kyle was feeling tense. Each
revelation moved control out of his hands and into Jii’s.

“How many of the Higher Council know that
A’nacal is an Otina?” Kyle asked.

“All of them,” Jii said. “When they are elevated,
they are given the details of what is happening to them. Of why they must close
themselves off and what their fate is.”

“What is their fate?”

“Death of their race.”

“From what we have been able to see, there is
nothing in mosar that is deadly.”

Jii smiled. “That’s because you have only seen
it in its earliest form.”

“Are you saying that mosar… evolves?”

Jii wobbled his head back and forth. “You are
familiar with metamorphosis?”

“You mean like a caterpillar to a butterfly?”

“Precisely. Mosar goes through stages. The
first stage, the pupa if you will, is what infests you now. This stage lasts
for about two thousand years,” Jii said.

“Two thousand years? Except for your claims, I
don’t know of another species that lives for two thousand years, how can the
mosar transform?”

“Mosar in an area develops a kind of hive mind.
It figures out the right level of infection needed and adjusts itself. It will
also start working its way into non-organic materials as well.”

“So exactly what are the dangers of the early
stages of mosar?” Kyle asked

“Decreased levels of fertility among infected
life forms. Check with simpler creatures first, that is where it will appear.
Some races also exhibit a gradual lengthening of lifespan. I believe the
increased lifespan is to mask the loss of fertility.”

“You make it sound like mosar is alive and
intelligent.”

“It is, Ambassador. It is. And that is why I am
so interested in Earth.”

“Go on.”

“For some reason, mosar seems to recoil from
the life forms on your planet. It took me a long while, almost two hundred
years, but I think I know the answer.”

“And what would that be?” Kyle knew of
Williams’ discovery of sunlight having an inhibiting effect. He wondered if a
human might have beaten the ancient alien to the conclusion.

“Your moon,” said Jii.

“Our moon? Not the sun?”

“Your sun? No, your sun is the same as any
other star.” Jii laughed. “No, I believe that your moon has a particular
resonance that is very unusual. As ultra-violet energy from your sun passes
through the moon’s energy field, it is modified ever so slightly.”

“What happens when mosar goes beyond the first
stage?”

“Ah, yes. The Junniji are discovering this
right now. We have been feeding them advanced technologies for a few centuries
to prepare them for this. Mosar starts to control the minds of certain
individuals in power. It forms what look like micro-tumors in the brain and
exerts its will.”

“Mind control?”

“Yes. A few of our best technologies allows an
individual to resist those impulses. But some give in anyway and cause great
harm.”

“I guess that would mean that you have this
level of mosar in you?”

“Yes. The technology we have prevents it from
transforming into its final stage.”

“The blue cylinder on your ship?” Kyle asked

“That is where I treat myself, yes.”

“How long can you go between treatments before
mosar advances?”

“A couple of years, I would think. It’s an
unpleasant experience, but I generally go through the cleansing once a month.”

Kyle looked down at his notes. “What is the
adult stage?”

“That is the reason our system is not known.
It’s too dangerous to approach.”

“Dangerous? How?”

“Mosar has taken our system for itself. It is
preparing to attack our galaxy.”

Jii smiled and leaned in across the table.
“Don’t worry, Ambassador. We have at least ten thousand years before it starts
moving.”

Kyle swallowed and allowed his nerves to
settle. “Is there anything else you can tell us? I would like some details of
what has happened to your system.”

“That won’t be a problem, Ambassador. At least
I hope it won’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“Now that I have determined how your system has
stayed clear of mosar, I intend to make a trip back to my home planet.”

Kyle looked over at the mirror on the side of
the room. He knew that Kitch and the others were watching, but he wasn’t sure
how to proceed.

“Warlord Jii,” Kyle said with great care. “You
are a prisoner of Earth. You don’t get to plan to make trips anywhere.”

“Of course I do, Ambassador. I allowed myself
to be found and captured specifically because I need Earth’s help in reaching
my lab.”

“You need our help?”

“Yes. Your vessels are free of mosar. As a
result, you can approach my home planet without risk.”

“How would that help?” Kyle asked. “You are
still infected with mosar, it would sense you as soon as you left the ship.”

“That is not a problem. Once on the planet, any
lifeform that wasn’t at optimum infection level would be destroyed as a
potential enemy.”

“We would—“ Kyle shook his head. “No, stop
influencing me!”

Kyle realized he was on his feet and shouting
at Jii.

“That is what we are up against, Ambassador. By
controlling the mosar in me, I can use it to influence the mosar in you.”

“Why do you need your lab? Can’t you do your
research elsewhere?”

“No. If I start to do this research, some of
the other Otina will know it. The mosar controls them and they will attempt to
stop me. Most of what I need has already been set up in my lab. It would only
take me a few minutes to set the final data in place and test the procedure.”

“What procedure?”

“I will go into the device and attempt to purge
the mosar from my body. If that works, I will send the data to A’nacal and work
can begin to cleanse the galaxy of mosar.”

“If you cleanse mosar from yourself, the mosar
on your home world will destroy you,” Kyle said.

“Yes. And if the procedure fails, I will die.”

“I need to speak with someone, Warlord Jii. I
will be back.”

Kyle left the room and shut the door behind
him.

“Kyle, are you okay?” Kitch said.

“Yeah, I just need to talk with you about
this.”

“About what? His plan to go to his system?”

“Yes, I think we should do it,” Kyle said.

“You are out of your mind. Or he is in yours
somehow,” Kitch said. “There is no way I am going to allow him out of custody.”

“I think he’s telling the truth, Diane. And if
he is, then we need this to happen. You said that the only way we can stop the
spread is through quarantine. But that was just a theory. If the Otina are the
ones who created this plague—“

“And have spread it to every other race!”

“—And have spread it to every other race, then
they have the best chance of understanding how to stop it.”

Kitch shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m even
considering this. Who would we send?”

“Jii mentioned that anyone who wasn’t fully
infected would be killed when they reached the planet. So whoever goes would
have to have been on the Hemingway or Fitzgerald.”

“Well it won’t be you, Mister Ambassador. You
will not, I repeat, will not be heading into danger,” Kitch said through
clenched teeth.

Kyle nodded. “Fine. I won’t go. I need to have
some talks with A’nacal anyway. I need to find out the truth.”

“Do you really think this is the right call,
Kyle?”

“I do, Diane. I think we have to take this
chance of ridding the galaxy of mosar.”

“He could be lying.”

“Then we need to send someone who makes sure he
isn’t.”

Diane nodded. “You go finish the interrogation,
I’ll think about what you said.”

“Thank you,” Kyle said. He took another drink
of water and watched Diane walk back into the observation room.

“Warlord Jii, I believe that we may be able to
secure you a trip home.” Kyle walked to the table and sat down in his chair.

“Good,” Jii said. He looked at the mirror. “I
have a list of those who will accompany me. We’ll start with Alex Ramirez and
Carl Williams.”

A Word From the Author

Thank
you for reading Eclipse, Book Two in the Bright Horizons series. I was very
happy when I was encouraged to continue the story I started in Bright Horizons,
but I was also concerned that I wouldn’t know how to successfully incorporate a
sequel. I was quite pleased with the result, and even more pleased it gave me a
chance to write for the fans that gave me my start in my writing career.

In
the last several years, I have had encouragement from all over the world as
people have discovered my books. I am proud to have entertained you and look
forward to giving you hours and hours of more great adventures.

If
you really enjoyed this, I encourage you to leave a review where you got this
book. It will let others know that this is a book

worth
spending a few dollars on and will be of great benefit to me.

The
final page of Eclipse revealed that the story will continue, and in a direction
very few would have expected at the beginning of the book. Humanity has been
infected by the insidious alien lifeform of mosar, and only their former enemy,
Warlord Jii, has an idea of how to stop it. Look for the final book in this
series, Mosar, and discover the gripping conclusion of this tale.

I
would also invite you to join my VIP Fan Club. This club is free to
join and you will be kept up to date with two e-mails a month concerning new
releases, what I am planning in the future, giveaways and promotions. You can
head over to my website as well, but the
easiest way to stay in touch is through my VIP Fan Club.

Once
again, thank you for sharing this adventure. It was a great joy for me to get
to know these people, and I hope you feel the same. Have fun and keep reading!

Wilson Harp

Look for Bright Horizons on Audiobook!

Complete
the adventure with the final book in the Bright Horizons series!

Mosar

The
war with the Otina revealed the bitter truth about mosar. What was believed to
be an element missing in humans, is instead an invasive form of life set to
consume everything. Earth has joined a mission with their enemy, Warlord Jii,
to travel to the world where mosar was first detected eons before. There, Jii
intends to purge the galaxy of mosar.

But
the mission is in jeopardy even as it begins. The political situation on Earth
has taken a sinister turn, and even if the mission succeeds, Earth will never
be the same.

Betrayed
by his own government, and faced with a byzantine maze of secrets laid out by
his alien allies, Earth Ambassador Kyle Martin must find a way to save Jii's
mission. The very survival of the galaxy is at stake.

Other
Novels by Wilson Harp

EMP

In a flash of searing light, the world changed. A massive solar
flare has crippled the modern world and brought chaos and destruction. David
Hartsman is stuck in the remote farm town of his youth on what was expected to
be a short visit to check on his ailing parents. While his wife and his
daughter are hundreds of miles away at home in Chicago, David must face the
dangers associated with his own survival and the pressures of not being with
his family. In a worldwide catastrophe, every struggle is personal.

EMP is the dramatic story of one man and his struggle for survival in a world
that is falling apart.

The Ghost of Sherwood

King
Richard is dead.

The
theft of his taxes prompts the newly crowned King John to dispatch Sir Guy to
Nottingham in order to retrieve his taxes and hang the bandits of Sherwood
Forest.

The Sheriff of Nottingham feels the noose tighten around his own neck as word
arrives of King John's orders. The lawman of Nottingham has the king's missing
taxes in his lockbox and worse, there are no bandits in the Sherwood. He must
survive long enough to escape with the stolen money. The only way he can do
that is to play villain in the hunt for the mysterious outlaw, Robin Hood.