Curious Event ( Part Six)
The wind was curling around Tay and the others as the vast beast moved towards them. A small figure descended one of the ladders, almost lost against the sheer size of the creature. Then Tay's Comms lit up. That dark spot was one of hers.
Her Comms crackled in the wind. 'Captain, do me a favor and tell your Marines to stand down. I'm alone and we have a lot to talk about.’ Tay was already running, pulling her weapon as an afterthought, ‘Sergeant! Get him safe. It’s the Chief.’
The Marines could move faster than her, they had him surrounded in moments. The effect was slightly spoiled when the Captain ran straight to him and embraced him. No-one would ever admit that she might have been crying. Captains don’t cry in public.
The Admiral was quick to interrupt,' Chief, you're going to have to do better than that. Approach slowly, allow the Marines to search you, and explain how the hell you got here before us.' Roaden grinned to himself, his face hidden by his suit. ‘Admiral, I’m happy to see you too.’
The Marines swiftly scanned his suit, briefly nodding to the Admiral. ‘ He’s clean.’
The Chief looked back, ‘Big fuckers aren’t they? Admiral, that is the Tec. Those are the ones we have been fighting, not the In’Tec. Intec just means ‘Of-the-Tec’. They are a semi-hive race, sort of a village thing. They would like to surrender. But they would like to do it carefully. As I said, we need to talk.’
It took a while, as Roaden explained his odd transportation to the planet. ‘In the beginning,’ he explained, ‘the Intec had thought themselves hidden. I was simply a clever Intel capture. Then the Captain found this planet. This is one of the few homes that will support the Tec. It is...well, sacred is the best word. They called in their best, Admiral. Their bravest. They knew the odds, that we had thousands of ships. They came anyway. We killed them all, Admiral. I tried to tell Tay, but we have done a terrible thing here. We are being used to crush any of the Tec that seek to reach above their station.’
He turned away from the Admiral, addressing his Captain, ‘ Yes, they are slavers and pirates. But imagine if it was us. Banned from commerce, forbidden their homeworld for generations. What would we be then, Captain? Would our revenge not be the same? Or would it be worse? These people aren’t even hunters. They are symbionts of the Tec, not predators. The galaxy drove them to perpetual war. Captain, they have appointed me as their ambassador. I am here to find peace for them.’
He watched the Captain, hoping he was right.
Tay was familiar with the rage. She could easily recall the emotions after the shattering of a people. The shitty choices that they would make, had made. It had been her people, even today trying to repair the damage. She had been tested, and she had still dropped drones on criminals for the same sins against them, she had shattered the skull of the last creature to pretend it had a right to be superior...she realized that she was picking a side. It wasn’t the side she expected. ‘ Chief, if you are speaking the truth, then we will end this today. This cycle will end. One way or another. But I choose peace.’
The air seemed to lighten, the gravity relax. The Tec across the planet boiled in thought. They had little understanding of humans, but this human had brought hope and death wherever she landed. She carried war and peace in her fist. They would surrender to her. Roaden felt it in the deepest, oldest, part of his brain.
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The Admiral growled, ‘ Those were Intec ships shooting at us, Intec slavers taking our people. I’m not in a forgiving mood. If they want to surrender, fine. Otherwise, well, Tay has a list of targets the size of that beast and I’m in a position to use it.’
Behind him, the Tec across the plain and the planet raised a roar that should have been heard across the worlds'. Thousands of Tec, uncaring of the subtleties of human diplomacy had heard the only words worth hearing. Their people would be safe. Chief Roaden shouted at the Admiral, ‘Sir, they weren’t asking you. They were talking to the Captain.’
The Admiral stood, raising his hand. The Tec became silent. ‘That your best and bravest would come to fight against us, against the odds given, is something to treasure. There was no waste here today. Only honor and death. We will have peace, in their name and in the name of those that we have lost. As much as I hate to remind the Captain, it is my will that will prevail today. Yet I will not argue since I hold her in the same high regard. You will surrender your worlds to us. They will be guarded carefully by a combined fleet of In’Tec and humans until you ask us to leave. Together we will build your place amongst the worlds. The treaty will include many, many conditions, but you seem to be listening so, in the Earth tradition, may I come aboard?’
The vast creature bowed its legs, allowing the ladders to reach the ground. The Marines were left to stand around unhappily, guarding the shuttle as their Sergeants went ahead with the Captain and the Admiral. How the fuck were they supposed to kill this thing without heavy artillery, or an SSSS ?’ Once they had reached the top, Tay looked around with interest. The ‘ground’ was made up of bony plates, each one at least three meters long. All sorts of pins had been driven into them, obviously causing the beast no distress. The area was nearly empty, except for the group of Intec waiting for them. Tay stepped forward and put out her hand, ‘I am Tay, Captain in the HOF. Thank you for keeping my Chief Engineer safe.’
The Intec behaved oddly. It grasped her hand and turned it towards a ramshackle tower that sat at the head of the Tec. ‘Captain of the forgotten, Captain of the stolen, Captain of the many knives and the sharpened stones, we gift you this.’
Her head exploded. Her mind was suddenly swamped with a million images, a million more messages, and fears. Her mind burned with the wind around her. Slowly, so very slowly, she saw Ben. She saw Oz. She found herself standing in front of the compound, waiting for the next drone to fall onto the slavers. A voice, old and gentle, asked a question, ‘Tay, Tay would you do this again? To bring death upon them like this…’
Even in her pain, she had to answer, ‘Their weapons. They die on the sword that they used on mine. Mine.’ The pain grew, the noise grew. Images of worse, of the sight of a half-dead child slave, of the burning of ships and the human fleet victorious, pushed into her mind. Her mind screamed, holding the rage, pushing away the loss, ‘Mine! My fault! My people! Mine!’ She fell into darkness.
The Admiral stood silent. Whatever reason they had to do it, they had exposed his Captain to the world. Every image, every emotion had been shared by all. The Marine Sergeant beside him was just waiting to shoot everyone in the room. He was only grateful that he was willing to wait. ‘ Intec, what have you done? This is what you call peace? Right now we are ready to destroy you.’
The Intec hissed, ‘Of course, admiral, killer of my people. We must be human to have peace. We would fight, except that my Tec has found her worthy. She is better than you. You, you are just another weapon. She will be well in a moment, with a gift that only our people can give. The gift that makes the galaxy fear us so much that they would see us dead. You stand on my Tec and presume to threaten me, in the name of peace. Utter another word and I will call death upon you. Silence, speaker for killers, before you shame us all.’
Tay woke up, or at least she thought she did. Her dreams seemed to continue. That same old voice was still in her head. ‘ Peace, child. You have been given a gift. Today you will know what it is to be a Tec. Speak softly and slowly, for today the worlds will hear you.’
Roaden prepared the shuttle as the Marines carried Captain Tay to the medbay in silence. The Admiral had signed the treaty provided by XCC in a curt moment, leaving the stylo in the waste disposal. The war was over. Now he could go back to killing pirates. ‘Chief, is she awake?’
Roaden paused, torn, ‘ Sir, she is dreaming, or something. Her brain is running too hot. The medbay says a week at most unless she is put in cryo.’