Late one night about a week after the initial attack, Wellku contacted the General across a secure channel reserved for critical diplomatic communication requesting that the General meet him alone at a Rychii research center nearby. He promised the General he would be safe and that he had life and death information regarding the prisoners’ safety he needed to discuss. The General was suspicious but figured his personal shields would protect him and he would be tracked the entire time so he summoned his driver and headed out. Upon arrival, the General burst through the door of the meeting house, his rage barely contained, and found Weelku, also alone, in the lobby. “How did you get access to this channel Wellku? Your infamous security seems to be nowhere near as effective as your leaders say it is. I thought it was a Rychii specialty?”
“Oh it is General, but so is loyalty and a deep hatred for invaders. Especially the kind of invaders that would wrap us in a velvet prison so they might slowly and gently cover our eyes and blind us while they steal the very soul of our people.”
“That would be the Given, I suppose? Poetic words but that is quite a paranoid interpretation of events, even for an extremist such as yourself. Should the Given and Rychii come to an agreement, you would likely almost never see us not because we would blind you to events but because frankly because we have more important things to do elsewhere. Why some among us considered your primitive planet worth saving is beyond me. To me, Rychii is nothing but a cauldron of untamed savages who have spent millennia doing little but killing each other and are centuries away from accomplishing anything that might interest the rest of the civilized universe. You accuse the Given of senseless killing but that shows that the only thing you know less about than Given motivations is your own Rychii history books. We would have better served to leave you to the real invaders that roam these systems. Should they find you, the Rychii would learn the real meaning of terror beyond anything you thought possible and your petty complaints about the Given would crumble to dust. Ignorant fools!
“Quite sure of yourself, aren’t you General? Well, you can save your empty concern for some other weak tribe that might actually believe it. We’ll take our chances without Given interference and so the first step is to rid ourselves of you. The great general of the Morta turned statesman and spy. Your loss might weaken the grip of the Given on our little rock, might it not?
The General scoffed aloud, “And how will you accomplish that Wellku, your weapons cannot penetrate our personal shields, as you well know. And you must also be aware that we are required to always have the fields active due to the deadly bioagents?”
“We are, General, we are. But we’ve been working on a little something since the Given arrived for our first round of talks, adapted from your own tech by the way. Burrowing transport nanobots are what my engineers call them. Not sure what they were being used for originally but they are interesting in that they proved to be a perfect vehicle for transmitting the Host and Guest. Yes, the infamous bioagents have a name and we understand their cycle much better than we have shared with you to date though they continue to be a source of mystery to even our best scientific minds. They have been with us as long as there has been an “us”, interwoven with our evolution, so unsurprisingly a deep complicated shared history exists, one that you would not find in the history books you have been so diligently reading. Pairing this deep knowledge with the nanobots, your nanobots, has made it possible for us, the stupid little primitive Rychii, to penetrate your envirosuits and force fields with the bioagents of which you have now become very infected General. To make it even better, we used a new strain, the Host and Guest are quite a melting pot of mutations and variants you see, that cannot be cured by any known tech. Those are quite iffy anyway, death rates are alarmingly high, even among the Rychii who have evolved to tolerate tinkering with their presence.
Oh, the irony and the joy of poking a hole in your insufferable arrogance by literally poking a hole in your suit has been quite a treat. I should enjoy it even more as your scientists struggle to solve the Host and Guest puzzle. Without our help, of course. It will be quite difficult, even for the mighty Given, lots and lots of time and money. The Host and Guest are, how do my scientists describe it? Sticky is what they say I think, very, very sticky. So would the Given be willing to sacrifice so much for one man? They are so very busy solving all the galaxy’s problems, you said so yourself. I’d say probably not? I know I wouldn’t if I were them. You can’t take the Host and Guest off world since they won’t survive and if you study them here, you are looking at permanent envirosuits and a hostile native population. With no guarantee you can avoid infection. That’s a long tough road to save one man.
“So welcome to Rychon as a permanent resident. I’m afraid there might not be quite as many occupational opportunities for you here as you have enjoyed on the Given home world but I’m sure you can look forward to a long career as a barge crewman cleaning toilets or something similar. If you can avoid a long stretch in one of our wonderful prisons, that is. It’s quite unlikely you’ll be able to being a war criminal and all that but if you do, I can perhaps put a word in for you, since even a former general needs to eat I suppose. Or maybe there is another alternative?
“As much as I know you would enjoy finding your place among the Rychii however low that might be, I did forget somehow in my excitement that I’d like to offer you a chance to instead be a martyr and inspiration to your people, something your failed leadership would not have otherwise offered you. It has come to my attention that there is an imminent equipment failure in orbital control equipment aboard the ship holding the Given prisoners. All will be lost, I’m afraid, as soon as that ship starts to drift, which will happen very soon from what I understand. Four hundred Given lives extinguished in a most gruesome fashion as well as a number of Rychii crewman. What a shame. If only someone could get there in time. But wait…waaiit, maybe someone could. There just so happens to be a Given transport in a service hangar nearby that might be available. Said transport has a small team of inexperienced security personnel that could be easily distracted in order to allow a brave general to steal it in a vain but bold attempt to return his people home. You see, it turns out this general was able to discover where the evil Rychii had taken his brothers and sisters and rather than work through the proper channels, who has time for that, especially not a highly decorated general, he decided to take the impulsive step of recovering them before they could be moved or the information leaked. That’s how he would explain it in a debrief session, isn’t it?
“Seems like a wonderful plan, a story to be told and retold around countless family gatherings, except for the bittersweet ending or maybe because of it? You Given do like your songs of sacrifice don’t you? So pathetic, and really, really annoying if you must know. No one really believes in that stuff, do they? Anyway, so it turned out in the end that the General was somehow infected with the bioagent. My god, how could it have happened with all that Given tech in play protecting him? Hard to say, but somehow it did. Just as the General was locking on to the ship in order to bring his fellow Given home, the bioagent, the Rychii scourge of the Host and Guest struck him down. It does very unkind things to anyone infected as you get to a certain altitude, the General had already lost many soldiers to its ungodly curse, so it was a terrible misfortune that it got him as well. Tragically the variant the General was infected with had a lower than typical altitude ceiling so it began to affect him sooner than it should have, almost making it impossible to attempt a rescue. Even though he was dying he fought on and was able to save the ship and everyone aboard. My scientists are saying you will have just enough time to lock on with a tractor beam once you are within range, but no more so remember, no dawdling and don’t get too close. That speeds up the Host reaction I’m afraid. Oh your people will be so proud of you! I can just hear them now. What a hero! What a hero indeed!
“So you are a bright fellow, General, had me figured out in no time, am I right? Let me see if I can return the favor. Would the great Given war hero and captain of the Morta let hundreds of his comrades die when he had a chance to save them? One small life in exchange for hundreds, any of which would have gladly sacrificed their lives for you. Of course he would do anything to bring them home to their loved ones, wouldn’t he, hero that he is? Especially when the alternative is a long, bleak existence on a primitive alien world full of savages. Not to rush you, but you have but minutes to decide which way you will go, General, that’s part of the deal and as an extra incentive, you should know if you stay it will get out, through the most reliable sources and with verifiable evidence, that you had the information longer than you will say and could have done more to save those poor prisoners. But instead you just sat on the news so you could mine the situation for political and personal gain – just terrible, deplorable. I know, I know, you could deny it and maybe no one would blame you. You could simply call for aid right now and wash your hands of the whole mess, but the doubt will be there, won’t it? What exactly did the General know and when? Why didn’t he act sooner? That’s a lot of dead bodies to explain, even for a master like you. Well, what do you think General? Quite a conundrum isn’t it? Time is ticking away, my friend. Ticking away. What will your destiny be? Towering, dying war hero who made the ultimate sacrifice for his people or, how can I say this diplomatically, something less. Much, much less.”
The General’s mind was racing and the dissonance of the situation made it difficult to think through what was happening. Could he actually have been infected or was Wellku simply trying to force him into some kind of suicide trap? There were a thousand ways Wellku could use this situation to set him up, but his gut feeling told him it would play out mostly the way Wellku had described. This was a long play on Wellku’s part it seemed but what was the endgame? Why create this entire bizarre scenario when simpler, safer plans would achieve the same thing if simply killing him was the goal? He had no idea. If Wellku was hoping for his death by the bioagents he could have just waited for the General to leave the planet on his own so that possibility didn’t make much sense. Unless he wasn’t infected. But Wellku must want something more. What was Wellku’s motivation? If he could somehow understand why Wellku was doing this, maybe it would help him find a way out from under it.
The General could not process the possible contexts though and didn’t have enough knowledge of Rychii politics to ascertain that Wellku’s true goals went well beyond any punishment of the invading Given. It was political theatre designed to facilitate the effort to topple the existing government and return him to prominence, restore a way of life he had seen ripped from a future he had spent a lifetime to build and desperately wanted to reclaim. Even though the General could not see the truth behind Wellku’s motivations or guess at his master plan, he felt like he was safe enough to at least leave the planet. Once that was done, he could then figure out what to do about his possible infection or any other trap out there when he was airborne. One step at a time, one problem at a time. That was almost always the way to think yourself out of any impossible situation, and he had been there many times in his long career and beaten foes tougher than Wellku. Just worry about the door in front of you. Once you get through it you can concern yourself with the one after but not until then or you run the risk of overwhelming your mind, trapping yourself by fighting multiple battles at once. Wellku was a general, had clearly thought this through and had significant resources at his disposal but he was also more than a little unbalanced and he would make a mistake eventually. When he did, the General would be ready, but for now, he had little choice but to play along. He needed more information.
“How do I know you aren’t lying Wellku? This sure feels like a setup.”
“I thought you might ask that General, any reasonable man would and I of course have your answer ready, simply look at the screens behind you. On screen 1 with the scrambled location coordinates, is the transport holding your fellow Given. Note the lifeforms scanner results if you would. The profiles are Given are they not? Yes, that’s them. You can be sure of it. If you look closely at Screen 2, you’ll see the propulsion diagnostics for their ship. To the navigator they appear fine, but the results are being faked. In actuality they have less than an hour before the small device located there on Screen 3 in the lower left finishes eating through the main controller. The backup is getting the same treatment. Catastrophic failure, but quite undetectable I’m afraid as that substance is part of the fuel makeup slightly modified, in case you were thinking of perhaps letting everyone perish and then trying to pin the crime on us. You would stoop to doing that wouldn’t you? Well that’s not going to happen! So are you convinced General? I feel I must remind you again you are quickly running out of time and your date with destiny awaits.”
The General stared at Wellku, trying to control his anger and disgust at the kind of soldier who would fight in such a dishonorable fashion. “I will go, Wellku, but you have not won. You never will. Even if I die, the Given will continue to come, we never give in to intimidation or stop trying to protect the universe. Once it is decided a people are to join us and we to help them, the decision is made, final and the ones like you, the lowlifes and sneaks, never escape. Your deep dishonor will make you visible to all Given and you will die a coward’s death, Wellku. The Given, all of us and any of us, will see to that. The Rychii will be far better off without you, and without you will have a chance to finally look beyond the petty squabbles of local politics and bitter tribal wars to see a brighter future than what you and your petty tyrant cronies will offer.”
Wellku raised his eyebrows in amusement and smiled, more convinced than ever he had the upper hand. ‘’The Given sure produce a steady stream of threats and promises General, depending on who you are trying to impress I imagine, but from where I stand, you don’t seem so good at delivering on either of them. But we’ll just have to wait and see who is right won’t we and who is standing in the end? Now back to the matter at hand. You will need to follow this route here to the rear entrance of the hanger. The door will be unlocked and a body will be just inside on the floor. Have to make it realistic don’t we? Grab his weapon on the way by, you will need it later. Communications along the route will be jammed and monitored so please don’t get any ideas about trying to bring in reinforcements. The transport will be located in the front of the hanger. Shoot out the mechanism on the hanger door with your conveniently found weapon and you should be on your way. The coordinates of the Given prisoners will already be programmed into the nav. Good luck, General, it has been a rare pleasure to spar with an officer of your stature. I would have hoped for more but I benefited greatly from the experience. In the next life, as they say. Remember now, stick to the plan or this will not end well for anyone, especially your captive comrades. We’ll be watching and listening.”
The General turned silently away from Wellku and began moving towards the door. He had no idea what Wellku could actually be planning, where the traps, if any, might be but the General knew he needed to get that transport up in the air if he wanted any chance of escaping. Being on the ground made him much too vulnerable and limited the possibilities to counter. He started along the route to the hanger, moving purposefully but not running, trying to think. What had he seen in the place where they had met, in Wellku’s voice and eyes that he could use to give himself an angle to play or lever to press. Anything in order to find some breathing room to try and figure out a strategy to get out of this. He wondered if he should ignore Wellku’s warning and attempt to contact Jehz or his military security team but figured it would not be worth the risk. Wellku knew every possible variation of the route he would be taking and had probably made true on his promise to jam his comms and detect any unauthorized use.
Arriving at the hangar, the door was open as Wellku had said, though the General was surprised to see the lock had been blasted by what looked like Given weaponry, the tell-tale translucent multi-color burn marks were unmistakable. Could Wellku possibly have gotten help or turned a Given prisoner to his side? How else would they have been able to bypass the weapon controls? Somehow this strange night was getting stranger thought the General. Having a Given turn traitor was extremely rare but not unprecedented, as even the deep bindings of the Given culture sometimes failed to take hold. He hadn’t seen it in a long time though and couldn’t help wondering who it might be, who among the ground crew seemed the weakest. He began running through a list of the units in his mind, he knew most of their names and families. Which ones seemed vulnerable from personality profiles and psy scores and how had it been missed? He tried to push it out of his mind, there was no time to dwell on the possible traitor but it was becoming hard to manage his thoughts. He kept running through the list as if naming the elusive traitor would somehow release him from this situation.
Stepping inside the hanger he saw a figure writhing in pain on the floor, badly injured, dying, blood pouring from his mangled leg. Grimacing, the General stepped back. He was repulsed not by the violence, which he had lived with his entire life as a Musa, but by the crudeness and lack of purpose it exhibited. Excessive and quite unnecessary to the plan, the General thought, why not just put this poor soul out of his misery once his purpose had been served? Did Wellku think this could possibly upset or intimidate him or was it to punish the victim somehow? It was another clear sign the Rychii, and especially Wellku seemingly took great pleasure in chaos and violence for its own sake. The General leaned down to pick up the dying man’s weapon from the ground and noticed the gaping wound in his leg had the distinctive shape of those caused by a Given war gun, a weapon a general would never carry and not the model that was used to blast open the hanger door. He could understand the illusion of making it look as if he had shot his way in but why the Rychii would want to make it look like the General had an accomplice he could not fathom. So much about this plot made no sense to him which set General’s mind uncomfortably on edge. It meant the plan was either deeply chaotic and likely to implode dangerously in numerous random ways or had a higher order he couldn’t yet perceive making the patterns of it difficult to recognize and react to. Both were deeply unsettling to the General as his reaction would need to be calibrated based one or the other. But how could he determine the truth? This fictional accomplice could be either a random thread of Wellku’s scheme designed simply to make both he and the Given look bad or somehow the key to understanding this entire drama. Intriguing and frustrating as the question might be, he had no way of knowing which and no time to try and figure it out. He had to keep pressing.
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The General moved carefully through the hangar, staying under cover, almost fully expecting some kind of ambush, but he saw no one. He boarded the ship, moved quickly to the captain’s chair and immediately started running a full diagnostic. No point in trying to get this ship in the air if it had been sabotaged. He wasn’t sure how much time he could spare to let the diagnostics run but the early critical system tests were clear so he gambled the rest would be too and fired the engines to life, blasted out the hanger door mechanism and within minutes was headed for open space. Perhaps now I can finally get some time to work this through and plan my next move, thought the General. He switched on his comm and tried to open a secure channel to the Morta. He got no response but could not tell if it was simple interference or if the unit had been tampered with. He began trying to adjust the calibration controls when suddenly Wellku’s voice boomed through the overhead speakers. “Did you miss me, General? Of course you did, we’ve become quite the pair haven’t we? Now you didn’t really think we would send you off with a fully functioning comm unit, did you, and assume you would keep your promise? We know better than that, so I’m afraid your friends will just have to wait until your funeral to talk to you. It will be a bit one-sided, but I’m guessing you’re not all that much of a conversationalist anyway, am I right? You seem more like a no chit-chat, get down to business kind of guy. If you don’t mind, we’ll just keep this channel open to make sure everything goes smoothly and everyone, mostly you, sticks to the plan. OK? Good. Carry on, General, you are doing great!”
The General sat back heavily in his chair. He knew Wellku would be tracking the ship closely but figured as long as he stayed on mission, he could escape close scrutiny and have a little time to contact and discuss planning alternatives with his staff. Wellku still had the hostages which meant he still had all the control. That should have relaxed him, so why didn’t it? He could be fearing a rescue attempt by the Given but it would be nearly impossible to pull off in the limited time available and not worth the risk of something happening to the hostages. So his nemesis was being extra cautious and perhaps overestimating the Given’s capabilities. Not nearly as freewheeling as his persona made him appear, noted the General, a fact that might prove useful in trying to counteract his plan. He mentally filed it away and switched to thinking of some other way he might be able to contact his ship, some kind of simple code signal, anything. There was no way his personal comm would be powerful enough but maybe he could somehow boost it. It then occurred to the General that the transport’s bio systems were likely to be intact and unmonitored as the Rychii had probably never encountered an organic design like that before and wouldn’t recognize what it was. Silently, he moved over to the bio control panel and switched on the manual comm. As quickly and quietly as he could, the General typed a message to his head of security, Rahez, explaining his situation. After giving the basic outline of the plot, the General asked if the transport had been retrofitted with a blood analysis device capable of detecting the Rychii bioagent. Confirming it had, the General moved quickly to the med station and stuck his finger into the reader. As he waited for the results, he alerted Rahez of the position of the prisoner transport and had him develop a plan to close ships from the Morta support fleet around the transport in case they were needed. They were to stay well out of immediate range and stagger their approaches to ensure their movements did not seem coordinated. After all this, they did not want to blow their chance at saving the hostages.
The General finished tapping out his order and then looked up at the screen of the bio reader. He was stunned at what he saw as the result confirmed he was infected with the Host and Guest. How was that possible? He was sure Wellku had been lying! The General took a minute to gather himself and then turned to the bio comm and began typing, the anger welling up inside of him. He had never felt so vulnerable in his entire life and it infuriated him.
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It was a painfully long wait for a response.
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Sitting back, the General relaxed for the first time since the episode began. The situation had felt alarmingly and surprisingly uncertain for a time but now it seemed as if things had turned back his way. Wellku was smart and had planned well but he was no match for the cohesive strength of the Given. It would wear him down as it had done so many times before to so many others, a heavy net of insoluble links that would allow you to struggle without knowing that struggle would only cause the weight to tire you more quickly. No one had ever broken through, for thousands of years no one had even come all that close. There was always an ambitious leader who would seek to be the first, try to exploit the Given presence and turn it to their advantage. It happened so often it was almost a cliché. It was often their brightest and boldest too, a bit of a shame, but these threats had to be smothered and eliminated and they always were. Wellku would be no different.
“Almost there, General!” boomed Wellku. “You’ve been awful quiet. Not thinking of making a run for it, are you? I don’t believe you’ve got the fuel to get very far. We checked.”
“Of course not, Wellku. Just re-verifying the system status. Hate to come this far only to have a mechanical failure get in the way of my big moment.”
Wellku laughed unnaturally loud and long. He was still nervous. “Still capable of levity, General, I like that. You are a brave man. Too bad we could not have met under different circumstances.”
“I suppose it is.” said the General. He was raging inside but did not want to say anything that might provide a clue that a counter plan was in the works. The General reminded himself to simply play it safe, there would be time for revenge when this was over. The two leaders would meet again and indeed the circumstances would be very different thought the General, just not in the way Wellku was imagining.
Soon the transport was in sight and the General began preparing to initiate the tractor beam by routing energy from non-critical system. The focus and activity level calmed him and with the transport in sight, the thought this might finally be ending gave him a great sense of anticipation. With the last bargaining chips freed, the Rychii would have no choice but to negotiate the protection agreement to conclusion and the difficulties of the last few months would ensure that the diplomats would not weaken their efforts. Positive reviews would flow in for both he and Jehz. They had made quite a powerful pair in this engagement and of that the General was deeply proud. It was the kind of outcome he had always dreamed about. Once the protection agreement was in place and the situation had settled down, Wellku would be dealt with. The General knew he was not supposed to hold a grudge under the Musa code or seek anything but a Given triumph, but this one had crossed the line. Even a Musa Prazan purist would be able to understand that. If there was anything he could do short of openly breaking Given law to ensure Wellku paid dearly for his transgressions, he had every intention of doing it. He doubted if Wellku would even survive the wrath of the Rychii leadership long enough for it to matter once the truth about his deception came out. But if Wellku did somehow manage to wriggle free, the General decided then and there he would gladly trade one-sided favors with any official who could get him close enough to drive a Nagu blade deep into Wellku’s heart.
As his ship was nearly within range of the transport, the General tried to mentally search his body for sign of the Host and Guest illness. He felt no symptoms and his body scan was normal even though he was slightly above the altitude that Rehz had fed him as the target based on his blood test. Maybe this variety was not as sensitive as they thought, maybe he would finally get lucky. Wellku was strangely silent as the General ran through the final tests of the tractor beam. Had he expected the General would already be dead? The signal light came on, letting him know he was within range and the tractor beam could be deployed. He paused for a second, remembering the sacrifice the Given had made to protect this planet, the sacrifice he was almost forced to make. It was often thankless and resented but it ensured the galaxy and all its peoples would survive and better yet thrive. That all could be safe, even ignorant savages like the Rychii. The galaxy may not be aware but the Given knew who and what they were and the worth of what they had done. They had lived the alternative for far too long, a gentle people crushed and nearly obliterated under the power of an advanced warlike culture. Their innocent nature had been used as a weapon to exploit and pervert them until the Great One had somehow been born and found a way out. Other societies had not been so lucky and it was the Given mission, his mission, to ensure it never happened again, even to the Rychii. He flipped the switch on the tractor beam.
The General looked at the control screen, expecting to see the lock on the transport confirmed but the signal only blinked in target acquisition mode. As the General began diagnostic scan, the blinking stopped and the out-of-range message reappeared. Had he dropped to a lower orbit? A quick check of his navigation controls confirmed he hadn’t, so how could the transport be drifting away? His heart immediately began racing and his throat tightened. No, no, no, he thought to himself, this cannot be happening! Had he set the beam controls in reverse somehow? Could he possibly have made such a basic mistake? Double checking his settings it became clear there was no mistake but the hostage transport was quickly drifting away in a manner that could only happen if it was being pushed. He desperately tried to maneuver his ship gently toward the transport in the hope he could reengage the tractor beam but quickly realized he had no chance. Even if he were to sacrifice himself, he’d never be able to get there in time.
The General ran to the bio comm and quickly typed the words racing through his mind
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Even before he had a chance to consciously think of the answer, the name rose to his lips. What started out as a whisper ended in a scream of rage aimed at the comm. “Wellllkuuu..you did this? This was your plan all along, to kill 500 hundred innocent Given and then pathetically try to pin it on me? What could you possibly gain?”
“Well, General, it wasn’t really my plan, not all of it anyway. I was really hoping the most important part, your bloody and painful demise would be accomplished by now but the Host and Guest don’t seem to be cooperating, so I will take what I can get. Plans during wartime do have a way of not working out quite right, don’t they? Oh well, the day is not over yet, one can still hope. My potential gain, if you must know was simply to destabilize the current Rychii government you Given seem so dangerously infatuated with. They are fools, unworthy of your attention and undeserving of their power. I could go on, but it’s a long story, and who has the time?
Anyway, since you are miraculously still with us, I’m sure you’d enjoy listening in on my briefing to the senate. You’re the topic of the day. They were asking for an update since they got the news a few hours ago on your daring and surprisingly violent escape. It’s admittedly a little dry in the beginning but let me just fast forward to the part where I explain how your incompetence would likely doom your poor brothers and sisters to a grisly death if their rescue was in fact what you were planning. How prescient I turned out to be wouldn’t you say? Almost spooky. I was compelled to further explain how this incompetence was compounded by the fact that you refused our offer to negotiate. Simply and flatly refused despite the obvious criminality of your overt aggression toward the Rychii. But even in the face of that disrespect and with the law on our side we were still willing to graciously work with you so that we might reach a peaceful conclusion. No matter what we tried, it did not work. You could not be reasoned with. I was really quite eloquent and they seemed very angry with you. Very, very angry. They are on a comm with that dolt of yours Dorz as we speak. You really must hear my comments for yourself though. It’s quite good. Listen.”
The General tried to quiet the sound on the comm but could not, Wellku had of course modified that as well to be fully under his control. As Wellku’s voice droned on in a tone of faux authoritative concern in response to questions about the incident in the hangar, the enraged General resolved to end this situation himself. No sense in involving anyone else, it would only complicate things afterward. This way he could at least feign being overwrought with emotion at Wellku’s betrayal and impulsively killing him. It would likely end his career but that seemed inevitable anyway after what had happened with the hostages. He would get his revenge and still walk away a war hero with a nice pension. A shame perhaps given what might have been, how powerful Jehz and he could have been together, but that was the way things turned out sometimes. There was often more than a little luck involved in ascending to the elite ranks of the Musa command. He had done well but in the end his luck had not held. He would still have influence through Jehz and a chance for a second career as an advisor. In his mind he knew he would need to accept that for all the obvious practical and political reasons. To make the sacrifice worthwhile however, he would have to successfully deal with Wellku.
To that end, he knew he had a secret weapon that Wellku hadn’t planned for, the tracker he had planted during their scuffle. He had almost turned it on more than once, wondering if the moment was right but it had never seemed quite worth it. It was now time to use it and he knew this was the reason he had saved it all this time. He turned away from the bio comm, ignoring the pleas from Rehz he knew were sitting there waiting to be read, and activated the device. Tying into the ship’s computers, the General found Wellku located in a Rychii government facility near the office they had met at when he planted the tracker and got infected. “Got you, Wellku,” said the General, “We’ll be meeting sooner than you expected and I am going to shove those taunting remarks right back down your throat.” He set a course for Wellku’s location and fired the ship’s engines into overdrive.