Undrat knew he wasn't the brightest neo-sapient in the galactic arm. None of his people would ever be known for hyper-intelligence or cleverness or ingenuity. They were not grand philosophers or intellectuals. They admired intelligence, admired cleverness, even though comprehending it beyond acknowledging it was largely beyond their capabilities.
That did not mean his people were worthless. His people were the kind of people that slogged through history, their eyes on the goal, ever walking forward. In the long drawn out march of time they had discovered each thing slowly and progressed to the next even if it took centuries or millennia. It did not concern them that they were considered one of the less intelligent neo-sapience species, they knew what was important.
Hard work. Perseverance. Endurance.
For over fifty million years they had been one of the Neo-Sapient Species watched over by the Unified Council. Their home-world had been forgotten as they spread out among the Lanaktallan worlds. They were largely uninterested in colonies or expanding their race.
They were content to enjoy the finer things in life.
A job well done. A difficult and lengthy problem that the solution was perseverance being accomplished. Enduring whatever had to be endured.
Over the aeons Undrat's people had always worked for the Lanaktallan. They were proudest of the fact that they were often moved by the tens of thousands to a new colony to provide the manual labor that a robot had not yet been programmed and fashioned to do.
They had been part of the Unified Council for so long that most of the other species viewed them more as furniture or a standard issue part of anything that required labor.
Undrat's people were robust. Their thick skin let them endure harsh solar emissions, their thick bones and heavy muscles let them handle work on planets up to 1.6G, more than twice the preferred gravity of the rest of the Unified Council species. Their internal organs allowed them to eat and flourish on bare nutripaste without even most of the additives that the majority of races required. They could eat rudimentary crops and usually even local food species with no difficulties. They healed quickly, even from injuries that would kill most of the Near-Civilized and Civilized Species.
But they weren't the brightest or sharpest.
Undrat had worked in a warehouse when the humans came. He and his men had watched the humans land. Had seen them and had admired their form, much like their own. Bipedal, two arms, moving with power even if they didn't always move with grace.
He had largely ignored them, preferring to keep with his own work, which was carrying boxes and crates, running grav-dollies, and doing other hard jobs.
His muscles were thick and solid, his endurance deep and rapidly recovering.
He could work a whole nine hours and after fifteen hours of rest be ready to work again. He could lift his own body weight above his head.
The Lanaktallan who was his Overseer had always praised Undrat and his fellow workers. After all, the Tukna'rn people were the backs the colony had been founded on. He was valuable property of the Fu'uku'ugu'utmien Industrial Conglomerate, with bar codes down his arms, across his back, chest and forehead, and across the back of his neck that he had been born with, the bar codes tattooed into his very gene code.
If he had ever been curious enough to look he would have found that he and every one of his fellow Tukna'rn were more valuable to the Conglomerate than a fork lift. He would have just nodded, not really understanding why it should be surprising. He could work on any surface he could stand on, could work in different gravities, in different weather, with different cargos, without the need for programming or expensive mechanical maintenance.
Of course he was more valuable. He could be put in cryosleep to go to the next world and virtually ignored for centuries if need be.
The Terrans, the humans, had arrived and then came the great roars of THERE IS ONLY ENOUGH FOR ONE which made no sense to Undrat. Did not the dining facility have enough for everyone to eat? Was there not enough work to go around? Did not the Fu'uku'ugu'utmien Conglomerate not own all the resources of the planet and the people upon it?
The reply of THEN DIE ALONE! made no sense to Undrat either. He could not imagine being alone for long. Tukna'rn and every other species capable of thinking were always in groups.
Before he could be disturbed by having to contemplate the roars the sirens had gone off.
Undrat had been sent into a shelter beneath one of the great warehouses. He and his fellow Tukna'rn sat patiently, eating and sleeping and everything else according to the computerized schedule. At time the floor shook and faint vibrations could be felt.
Eventually the roar of THERE IS ONLY ENOUGH FOR ONE! had ceased.
The shelter had sounded the 'all clear' and Undrat and his fellow Tukna'rn had been allowed back onto the surface of the planet. They had emerged, blinking at the harsh light that somehow penetrated the thick cloud cover. Their skin flushed a deep bluish-green in response, reacting to the increased radiation from the sun and the clouds.
The Overseers had gone. Fled. Left.
The Overseer in charge of Undrat and his fellow Tukna'rn workers was confused and angry. He approached the Terrans and whatever it was that the Terrans told the Overseer seemed to anger the Overseer more.
Undrat himself heard the Overseer tell the Terrans that the Tukna'rn people were valuable assets, extremely valuable property of the Fu'uku'ugu'utmien Conglomerate and that he could not believe that the Conglomerate had abandoned them.
Then the Conglomerate had returned with the forces that kept unruly colonists and workers in line. MilSec, CorpSec, and the fabled Executor Security Forces arrived in ships. Undrat had heard the Overseer tell the Terrans that of course the forces coming in weren't hostile, they were just there to protect valuable conglomerate property.
Then the alarms sounded and the shocked and distressed looking Overseer led Undrat and his fellow Tukna'rn workers into the shelter again.
Strangely enough, for reasons that Undrat did not know and did not think to ask, even more workers were led into the shelters by the Overseer. Many different species, some of whom even did the more intellectually demanding jobs of monitoring computers and other important systems.
The Undrat simply sat in the shelters and waited. They counselled the other species not to complain, after all, there was food, air, water, and enough room to sit and even exercise facilities to maintain one's strength and endurance.
Again, there was the rumblings and vibrations.
The Overseer seemed extremely concerned, often wringing all four hands as he sat in the Facility Overseer's office.
At one time Undrat himself saw something strange. The Overseer was talking to a hologram of another Overseer, who was obviously giving the Overseer orders. The Overseer suddenly picked up a chair that the Tukna'rn used when sitting in the Overseer's office and smashed the holotank with it.
Three sleep shifts later the elevator came down and a squad of armored Overseers with "EXEC-SEC" written on them exited. They asked for the way to the Overseer's office. Undrat was tasked to show them.
Undrat knew his people were not considered very intelligent and that he was an average Tukna'rn.
But 'within standard species median' did not mean 'stupid.'
He heard the Executor Overseer sneer about how Undrat and his people were 'lounging in such opulence and safety' and how 'they would be better used to clog the guns of the Terrans' rather than 'inhabiting a shelter better put to use by their betters'.
His people were incurious not unintelligent.
Undrat did not like what they were saying. His people were not animals. They were not wastes of resources. They were valuable and coveted property of the conglomerate and his Overseer was proud of them and admired by his peers for overseeing such industrious properties.
When he got to the Overseer's office he was ordered to stand there, as if he was a robot. That did not bother him, he was used to short commands.
The Executors ordered the Overseer to 'evict the neo-sapients so they could be armed to force the Terrans to fight them' and the Overseer protested.
Undrat did not care about the argument at first. It was between beings who far outranked him and usually gave orders.
But one statement got his attention.
The ExecSec commander said it, pointing at the Overseer.
"Kill this fool."
Undrat reached out as the ExecSec officer drew his pistol, put his hands to either side of the Lanaktallan's torso, and twisted as he squeezed. Ribs crunched and the spine crackled as Undrat twisted the Lanaktallan's torso and bent it to the side.
The other Tukna'rn did the same. Undrat's father, Ildrut, brought both fists down on the armored flank-spine of the one next to him, breaking the Lanaktallan in half.
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The Overseer merely stood and watched.
Neural pistols went off and neural bolts thudded into the Tukna'rn, who felt them as a slight burning tingle where they hit and raised welts like they had been bitten by a particularly aggressive insect. A plasma pistol was fired twice, catching the paper clothing on fire but only causing the skin of the Tukna'rn to darken and painful burns on the first two layers of skin to happen.
Then it was over.
The Overseer stood there and nodded slowly.
"You are loyal and valuable property," he said softly. "You did not betray the Conglomerate, the Conglomerate has betrayed you and every being in this shelter."
The Overseer looked up from the bodies of the dead Lanaktallan, killed by heavy strikes of blunt fists and the pressure of the Tukna'rn grip.
"Gather their weapons. Any who come down the elevator are to be killed until further notice," the Overseer said.
But no more came down.
Finally Undrat, who went everywhere with the Overseer, even slept in the same room as him, always carrying a riot shield and a heavy plasma rifle, saw the Overseer talk to one of the Terran lemurs on his vid-display.
It was nearly a month later when the Overseer stated that he, and a handpicked group, would ride the elevator to the surface and speak to the Terrans.
Undrat rode the elevator silently, holding onto the rifle.
If the Terrans attempted to harm the Overseer, then he would kill them.
Unlike the Tukna'rn, they would be as fragile as everyone else in a universe built to challenge even the Tukna'rn people. IF a fist did not do it, then he had a plasma rifle.
He would not let the Overseer, who had shepherded and cared for the Tukna'rn since the time of Undrat's father's father's father's father's time, to come to harm.
The clouds were low and heavy. The air smelled of burnt plants and like a greenhouse that had caught on fire. The air was heavy with soot and ash and lightning ripped at the clouds and the ground in equal measure.
The Overseer had been wise to order everyone into hazardous environment suits. The world did not look as it had.
Undrat looked around him. It looked as if a forest had grown where the tarmac of the great warehouse complex had once been, and had then been burnt away to leave behind sticky black ash.
There was a heavy vehicle present. A large tracked vehicle, with a heavy cannon on it. The back was open, a ramp leading from the interior of the vehicle to the ground. Six bipeds with two arms walked down the ramp, all of them in some kind of black armor.
Undrat could tell they were Terrans. They moved like the Tukna'rn people. With strength and power, even though they were taller and thus more slender. He nodded to himself that they all had weapons, after all, the Overseer had stated that the Conglomerate was fighting the Terrans over the Tukna'rn and other neo-sapients on the planet.
Of course they were. The Tukna'rn were valuable property.
Two of the six Terrans were carrying something fascinating to Undrat. They worse what looked like a kind of loading frame that Undrat had been trained to use when the object to be loaded was too much for even his strength. The frame was also attached to a heavy looking gun with a barrel as thick as Undrat's arm, the bullets leading into the gun were bigger than Undrat's fingers. It even had a small screen angled for the Terran to be able to look at it. A datacable went from the gun to the armored arm of the Terran.
While the Terrans and the Overseer spoke, Undrat stared at the large gun. Curiosity, finally stirred to life by the entire situation, tickled at him. A strange feeling, but one that urged him to ask a single question instead of just mutely staring.
"Is it heavy?" Undrat asked, speaking without first being asked a question. He was not addressing anyone of rank, he knew that. The Overseer was talking with the two who obviously had ranking. There were merely the two with the big guns and two others with heavy looking rifles that looked almost unfinished.
The Terran looked at him, its face hidden by the black front of his helmet. It hefted the big gun. "It's pretty heavy."
"How much does it weigh?" Undrat asked, curious as to how much a Terran could carry.
"Ninety-two kilograms outside the man pack frame," the Terran said. "Total weight with the gunner's man-pack frame is one-hundred-twenty kilograms."
Undrat's datalink, which helped him with things he was slow to do, told him how much it weighed, which was as much as he weighed.
"Is it effective?" Undrat asked.
The Terran gave a nod. "Light and medium armored fighting vehicles don't stand a chance. If a tank gives me too long, I'll rip it apart. The clankers and the dwellerspawn don't stand a chance."
"Then it is good," Undrat said. falling silent. He admired the gun's lines, how lethal it looked.
If he had that, he could keep anyone from harming the Overseer, the Tukna'rn people, or the other neo-sapients in the shelter.
The Overseer had stopped talking, turning to look at him. Undrat pointed at the heavy gun and the Terran carrying it.
"May I look at it more closely, Overseer?" Undrat asked.
"If it does not bother the Terran, you have my permission loyal one," the Overseer said. He turned back to the Terran. "They are a good people and I do not allow them to come to harm. They are loyal, work hard, and ask for little in return but what they need to survive."
"Answer his questions, Corporal," the Terran said.
"Thank you for indulging him. Curiosity from his people is not common," the Overseer said. "They are slow to act unless ordered, but ultimately a gentle and trustworthy people."
Undrat put the rest of what the Overseer was saying out of his mind as he slowly moved over to the Terran.
One always moved slowly and obviously when approaching a stranger.
"Have you had it long?" Undrat asked.
"This particular one? About a month or so," the Terran said. "Command ordered at least one heavy gunner per squad once the Dwellerspawn started spawning heavy units in greater numbers."
Undrat looked around. The vegetation looked weird to him and he realized he never really paid too much attention to the plants unless he was tending to a greenhouse or field of crops.
"What are Dwellerspawn?" he asked.
"Bioweapons from outer space," the Terran said. "They landed a month ago, we had to use atomic and biowarfare to counter them."
"Oh," Undrat said.
"Have you been in the shelter the entire time?" the Terran asked.
"Yes," Undrat said, still staring at the weapon. He could see how it operated, although he was not sure about the function of the large orbs attached to the back of each of the ammunition boxes. Perhaps more ammunition? But why store it in a round object when a rectangular box would be more efficient?
"How long?" the Terran asked.
"Five hundred twenty-three sleep cycles," Undrat said. "We will have to go to half rations soon."
The Terran nodded.
After a while the Overseer turned around and made a motion at the Tukna'rn. "Follow. We must prepare for something."
Undrat was slightly disappointed to leave the interesting looking weapon behind, but he followed the Overseer. They moved to one of the cargo loading areas for the shelter and the Overseer brought up the elevator. He ordered the Tunka'rn to rest and they waited.
After some time the Overseer waved at Undrat and his cousin Akdru to follow. They moved over to the heavy door and opened it.
Heavy blocky looking vehicles towing a heavy trailer were backed up to the door. The Overseer and the two Tukna'rn used hand motions to guide the three trucks as they backed up. When they reached a point halfway to the cargo elevator they stopped.
Terrans got out and moved to the back, lowering the ramps in the back.
Inside were boxes marked as food, medicine, clothing, toys, blankets, entertainment, and survival parts.
The boxes were thick heavy metal, the kind Undrat had only previously seen on spaceships.
One of the Terrans told the Overseer that he could have the boxes sterilized by fire or UV light, it was safe for the contents.
The Tukna'rn worked without complaint alongside the Terrans to stack the contents of the trucks onto the elevator. Once it was fully loaded, the Overseer and Undrat's father rode it down.
It was back in half an hour and Undrat was proud of his fellow Tukna'rn in the shelters for unloading the elevator so quickly.
It went on, until finally the Overseer told the Terrans that the shelter's stocks were full again.
Undrat was glad. He was tired now but did not want to show it in front of the Terrans.
When he rode the elevator down with the last load of supplies, the Overseer told them all how he was proud of them, how they had done their people, and all the people in the shelter, proud that day.
When asked how much longer that the people must stay in the shelter, the Overseer startled them all.
"Until the Terrans say it is safe. The mad lemurs of Terra fight against the planet itself as the planet was corrupted by something vile from outer space," the Overseer said. "They are winning, but it is slow. We will all be safer in the shelter."
"This is our home. Should we not fight beside the lemurs?" Undrat asked.
The Overseer looked at him. "I am proud of your willingness to fight next to the lemurs, but no, you are untrained in combat. I will not waste your life."
Undrat felt pleasure in the fact that the Overseer still considered him valuable.
So Undrat stayed in the shelter. Helping maintain it, waiting patiently for the Terrans to say it was all clear.
Less than a hundred sleep cycles passed before he was allowed to leave the shelter.
The habitation where he had lived was gone, a pile of scorched rubble now overgrown with grass and moss. The dining facility was little more than crumbled plascrete. The vast warehouses were flattened, the tarmac reduced to thick soil.
The Overseer led them to a place with thick walls. For almost a week he simply waited to be told what to do. He sat on his bunk for most days, watching the colorful programs on the vidslate he had been given, the cloth one piece clothing as comfortable as the boots.
After that the Overseer told them that they would help the Terrans.
He carried boxes, moved machinery, helped the Terrans as they kept "Refugee City Tau" working and providing comfort for everyone.
One day the Overseer came to Undrat's room that he shared with three others. The Overseer sent the other three out and sat down on a chair, folding his arms.
"Worker Undrat, while we were in the shelters you expressed a desire to fight next to the mad lemurs of Terra," the Overseer said.
"I did," Undrat said after a moment. It took him a moment to remember, but he remembered it with perfect clarity.
"Is that still true?" the Overseer asked.
Undrat sat and thought about it. The Overseer waiting patiently. Finally Undrat looked at the Overseer.
"It is."
The Overseer nodded. "The Terran Confederate Military Forces are recruiting neo-sapients like your people. You are a good solid dependable being and a hard worker. I will be pleased to refer your name to their recruiters."
"Thank you, Overseer," Undrat said, and meant it.
The Overseer left.
Two days later the Terrans came and got him. They had him take tests. Written, verbal, video. Tests of logic and math and spelling and problem solving. He answered the questions one by one if he could, if he could not, he simply moved to the next one once he realized he could not answer it. After that came the physical tests. Then tests regarding his emotional and psychological state.
Three days later the Overseer informed him that he was accepted into the Terran military and that he was to go and choose one of the many jobs he had tested for.
The Overseer urged him to be diligent in his studies when the Terrans trained him for his new job.
Undrat agreed.
A day later the Overseer came to see him off as the Terrans loaded him and others into a heavy vehicle to take them to Camp Alpha for training.
A year later, Undrat went to see the Overseer in his new uniform. The Overseer expressed pleasure in seeing him and expressed pride in Undrat at graduating from the difficult Terran military training.
He told the Overseer that he was a "Heavy Weapon Specialist" in the Terran Army now.
The Overseer urged him to be diligent and attentive to training and his duties, as the Overseer was in ensuring that the neo-sapients, the people, under his care received the highest level of comfort and necessities he could.
Another year passed. Undrat trained hard, mindful of the Overseer's words. He often wrote to his family, and the Overseer, about his training. He learned how to use many different weapons, from a simple magnetic acceleration pistol to the massive 155mm Hellbore crew served self-propelled gun. He learned to operate weapons from the doors of strikers, mounted on vehicles, or just plopped into the dirt. He learned how to call for close air support, for artillery, for orbital bombardment, for medical dustoffs.
The Overseer wrote back, praising Undrat for his diligence.
It had been two years to the day that Undrat had joined the Terran military when it happened.
The sirens went off again.
This time, the words from beyond were different.
YOU BELONG TO US