32. “We will not fight your battles for you."
"Welcome. It was my decision, after yesterday, to be part of your briefing for today’s mission myself. Yesterday, Rodentia corps learned of the existence of the Song Singers, and the fact that it is one of the missions of the Theseus to provide them with humanitarian aid as appropriate to civilians trapped within an active war zone. It is my understanding that many among you have strong feelings regarding this mission, having formed fast and firm bonds with the Singers that you met yesterday," Nathan said, trying not to pay attention to how badly he was perspiring in the small of his back. It was a strange place for nervous sweating, he thought.
"In case it has not reached your attention, I wish to inform all of you that the Singers who were rescued yesterday have been returned to their people, where they will hopefully educated and treated well. Three dozen members of Rodentia corps rode with them and have been given permission by me to remain with them, pending permission of the government providing asylum to our refugees. We have no say in this decision, however, it is entirely up to the Aurealian government. Either way, Katherine will be returning to give us an update, and I ask you to be patient until then. And for those of you who have raised the issue, it was not that we were unwilling to care for the refugees rescued yesterday, but that we were unable to do so. We simply did not have enough food."
Nathan paused, allowing the interpreters to catch up. Rather than relying on Athena, several of Rodentia corps, Lewis and a number of others who were used to dealing with humans, were providing live interpretations for him. He was doing his best to moderate his rate of speech to make things easier for them. Hopefully, soon, he would begin receiving lessons to know whether or not his speech was accurately being translated.
"Today’s mission is also about helping the Song Singers. I regret that you were not informed of them until they were found in the facilities we sent you to map and sap, but we did not know they were there. These singers, their general location is known. However, they may not be like the singers you met yesterday. They have been … they have been hunted. They may be traumatized. Some of them for years. We have come with the best of intentions, to help them and rescue them, but they may not willingly accept our help. I hope that they will, but we must operate under the assumption that they will see us as a threat, or that we will be considered yet another trick being played upon them by the Horthians. However, I have thought of a method to help earn their trust, and I will be asking Rodentia corps’ help to make it a reality."
Nathan waved his hand, and a holographic flint spear appeared next to him. It was so anachronistic as to be tragic; the Aurealians had FTL, yet they died with only a spear to defend themselves by the hundreds of thousands on Hrustius worlds.
"This is the Aurealians weapon of choice. Actually, choice isn’t the correct word. It’s what they have, all that they have. We’re going to change that."
He waved his hand, and another spear appeared. This one made of ceramics and steel, which he had ordered printed by the Theseus, hundreds of thousands of them over the last few hours. "We’re working off of a lot of guesswork, but these new spears should feel the same in their hands, yet be stronger, sharper, and more durable than anything made with natural materials. Most importantly of all, they each have a tracker inside them which will help us identify the aurealian carrying it, track them, and protect them. And when it is time, to rescue all of them at once. I am asking for Rodentia corps help in getting one into each of their hands as swiftly as possible. We have enough for all of them, and even if we run out, we can make more."
There was a rustling in his audience as the Rodentia had trouble keeping still. He grinned, relieved. They were eager to help make his plan work. Deciding that he’d said enough, he stepped back and let Lewis and the other leaders of Rodentia corps take the lead.
~~~~~~~~~
The engine that the humans used to accelerate to relativistic speed for the purpose of engaging the ‘skip’ drive was commonly called the TORCH drive. Although less common than it once was prior to the invention and spread of the Aurora drive, the TORCH remains in use for intra-system travel. It has continued to receive research and design upgrades, even after it was mostly phased out.
By comparison, the Deathsworn TORCH engine is less efficient, yet produces higher thrust. The Aurealian is both more efficient and more powerful, contributing to their ability to outmaneuver their opponents. But there is no hiding it. The high velocity plasma volumes used for the generation of thrust are clearly visible from vast distances like the ejection of coronal mass.
It is for that reason that the whisper drive exists. The humans possess three versions of the technology which boast a varying degree of thrust and efficiency. The Aurealians possess only one method, while the Deathsworn possess none at all.
It is Aurealian policy to detonate any ship with a whisper drive rather than allow it within five light minutes of a Deathsworn for fear that they will be able to deduce the method of its operation. For if the Deathsworn gained the whisper drive, there would be no warning when they targeted an Aurealian holdfast.
~~~~~~~~~
Yellow listened to the hum of the engines as the shuttle carried her through the atmosphere. The Neurelian government had granted her and her littermates and all of the rescued kips refugee status, but they would not allow the humans to land their PMT drones upon the surface of the world in order to facilitate the transfer. Instead, shuttles were operating in shifts, bringing food to the kips trapped in orbit on the journey out, and loads of the young refugees to the surface of the world below on the return trip. It was expected to take two days to unload them all, but Yellow and her litter were the first. It was silly because the humans could accomplish it all in two or three hours, yet the Neurelians insisted on doing things their way. But Yellow and her siblings went first.
It was sort of a silly reason to be first, she thought. She was going first because Human Doctor Katherine had been worried about the terrible cut on her face, which had been put there by an Other. Human Doctor Katherine had then asked for her help in speaking with Chorus Leader Tetoma, to convince the Neurelians to help. Human Doctor Katherine actually seemed a little surprised at how eager the Chorus Leader had been, and mere moments after they had finished speaking the shuttles had begun moving.
"You were not certain that they would accept us," Yellow accused the human once the hologram connection ended.
"I was not. Do not tell the others," the human admitted openly.
"Why did we come here if you did not think we would be welcome?"
"It wasn’t that I thought they would turn us away. It was that I didn’t know what they would do, not for certain. The war with the others has forced your people to make some very difficult decisions, Yellow. I came here believing that there was a chance we would be turned away, but I was quite certain that would be the worst that would happen. To be honest, I am surprised they are taking everyone, I had thought that they would accept a few thousand, give us some supplies, and sent us away to another place where more of you would be accepted, and we would divide you up like that. If it had, there are other places that we could have gone next, including to my own people. However, by the laws of my people, as long as the Aurealians are willing to accept their own refugees, we must deliver you to them first."
Yellow accepted the Human Doctor’s explanations without too much fuss. It did make sense that if the humans had trouble with dealing with so many kips, then perhaps her people would as well. She was still quite certain that she was better off than she had been when the Others had been dominating her life. She had proof of their ill intentions written on her body, after all.
The ride down to the planet was a little bumpy and unforgettable as her litter watched from the windows as the atmosphere lit on fire from their reentry. She had known that it would, but it was very exciting to actually see, and her litter mates thought so as well. They had followed her all through the great trek before, and had not gotten lost in the massive habitation complex that the humans had housed them in, and so they rode down to the surface together, as they had done everything in this life together.
"What do you think it will be like?" Purple Dots asked her. "Will we sing the songs of learning, as we did before? Perhaps that is the proper way to raise kips, and the only difference is whether or not the Others will eat us when we are grown."
"I do not think so," Yellow sang. "The humans styled their habitation complex after the ones that our people build. And it was pleasant, wasn’t it? The light was nice and dim, the food was pleasant. And there was water for washing! When have we ever had water for washing before? When I had been covered in gore, I felt like I was profaning something, stepping into that pool after the hologram. I was simply too numb and bloody to care."
"So that’s how it was for you," Purple Dots sang sadly. "I didn’t know. You were silent for a long time once we were safe, it was as though you had forgotten us."
"I am sorry, sisters, but I had. But now, I am so very glad that you had not forgotten me in my weakness."
"You of all of us showed no weakness, Yellow. You stood up to the Other’s with just your body in defense of the dancers, and you found how to use the blasters. Many more of us would have died were it not for your bravery and strength," another sister, Little Triangles, sang.
"Yes. All of us saved by Team Theta owe them greatly, but we also owe you, sister, for showing us the way," Red Oval agreed.
"I wish more of the dancers had been allowed to come with us," Yellow sang sadly, "And that they would be allowed to stay. They are funny little things, and they truly did save us. The humans might have made the weapons and the ships, but it was the Rodentia corps that found us and rescued us from the maw."
"We will find some way to show our gratitude," Purple Dots vowed. "Someday, somehow, we will."
"If not in this generation, then the next, or the next," Yellow agreed, and the vow passed from her lips to those of her sisters. Unbeknownst to them at the time, that song would spread much further than they could have ever predicted.
~~~~~~~~
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Tetoma was Chorus Leader. Which was exactly what it sounded like. One voice of many, trying to lead the others but easily drown out. The short-sighted ones were angry with her for the squandering of resources. Neurela was a jewel, a bastion, a secret haven. But it was not a breadbasket. It produced only so much food for their people, and all imports must be carefully brought in on whisper drives. Whisper drives, because it was too dangerous to light a TORCH near Neurela, where anyone might see.
The weapons which kept the planet safe had been bought with lives. Literally, the price had been the lives of Neurela citizens, drafted by lottery in exchange for ships, weapons, and emplacements. Hundreds of thousands of drafted soldiers, mechanics, and scientists had been pulled from their comfortable home underneath a dim star and forced into the service of their people. Tetoma was attempting to argue that the children rescued from Horthus Prime would not only fill that vacuum, but so much more.
Her opponents were angry because allowing the children to stay would impair the planned population growth metrics. They were angry because all of the children were female, which weakened the reproductive rights of other females. They were angry because they did not understand how much had been lost when the worlds of the Hrustius had been taken in the early days of the war and did not see this for the opportunity, the blessing that it was.
And they were angry because they did not share her sudden faith in humanity. They were not neutral after all! When the humans had appeared, they had pledged to take no direct action in the conflict between Aurealians and the Deathsworn fleets, but had vowed to provide humanitarian aide to both sides. It had seemed like an insult, a salt in the wound, that this mighty force, which destroys all set before it merely by its attempts to defend itself, would offer aid to the enemy. But at the time, Tetoma had not understood what ‘humanitarian’ aide was for the very reason that the humans defined it in terms of their own species.
Now that she had seen it in action, she recognized it. Her species had once held such ideals as well. "We will not fight your battles for you, but neither will we let you go silently into the light. Scream for our aide, and we will help you help yourselves."
Did the humans know? Did they understand just what they had done in returning these children? All of the greatest scientists and leaders had come from the Hrustian worlds. They had learned from the ancient teachers from the great hegira, from before the long sleep and the long night, when there had been no Aurealians alive at all in the universe.
"This simply is not the way that things are done," Norathan, one of her main naysingers objected to the media. Tetoma listened to the audio as her transport was brought to the nearest spaceport to welcome the new arrivals. "While we celebrate the liberation of these children, the fact remains that they are not Neurelian. They were not born under the light of our sacred red sun, and but now we say they are allowed to die here, the same as those who have lived here and kept her safe for generations? Since the Deathsworn menace first -"
She cut the audio off. "Libik, have Norathan’s security feed him his Urata paste tonight. He has outlived his usefulness, now that he has publicly denounced these children."
"I will send the message," her security officer acknowledged. "Shall I begin looking for his replacement?"
"Anyone with a pulse can sing disharmony. Let the vacuum pull out the dissidents for a while before we give them a leader to rally around. We’ll need to know how large the opposition to our goals will be, now that we have goals worth living for. Oh to get new hope when I am so old, the universe is so very cruel. Where was hope when I was a child, and the humans came and scared us prematurely white?"
"Are you elders ever going to forgive them for that? They were literally checking every star in the cluster one by one, of course they were going to find us," Libik reminded her.
"And good that they did, but you likely have no real idea how close your parents came to eating the Urata. Families were gathering for the final farewells. And then the ship was simply gone, and the humans did not even seem to register the panic they had caused. They scared us into acknowledging the weakness of Neurela’s defenses, and forced our leaders to act. Thus, the draft, the mines, the weapons. If and when the Deathsworn find us indeed, we will at least exact a price in blood before we go into the light."
"But we will go into the light," Libik argued. "We have never successfully defended a world from sustained Deathsworn attack. Our survival methods rely on secrecy and obscurity, in the darkness between stars, or around red dwarfs like this. If only we could convince the humans to--"
"No, Libik, the humans have done what they can, what their laws allow them to do. I will demand no more of them than they have already given us. They have given us hope , Libik. Children of a Hrustian world! Oh, the terrible things that have been done to them, but from the time they opened their eyes they have been singing the secrets of the universe! That is why Norathan will eat his Urata tonight, because he is too blind to see, too deaf to hear the hope that those children represent! Our people had much hidden on the worlds of the Hrustius, much that was taken for us when the Deathsworn declared us prey and enemy. We have been fighting back with simple transport ships with missiles and direct energy weapons strapped onto them because those are the ships that we can build. Those are the ships that we can maintain. We use fusion power because we cannot generate antimatter like the humans do. Because our scientists, our engineers, all of them were on the worlds of the Hrustius. And all of them ate the Urata when those worlds fell.
"And now the humans have just given them back to us. One hundred eighty thousand scientists, engineers, geneticists, physicists. I do not think the humans even understand what they have done with this gift, how this will change things.
"Soon, our days of hiding in the dark may be over."
~~~~~~~~~
Nathan debated with the others for hours on whether or not to go on the mission with his men. He won in the end by the simple fact that he was captain now, and they had to do what he said. Lucy wanted him as overwatch, while Nathan felt that the corps would do better without him holding their tails. The mission was simple, after all.
They were just going to run around, broadcasting in the Aurealian song-language that the humans in the sky had sent them new weapons to defend themselves with and where to find them. Any hostility from either Horthian or Aurealian was an immediate recall notice, and the hunting reserves were already heavy with PMT relays. The matter would simply be finding the Aurealians when it was time to leave. Thus, the spears.
Nathan felt a little guilty that he was only sending spears . But he did not want to alarm the Jurassians by giving the Aurealians a stockpile of weapons which posed an actual threat. If anything, the spears might lure Horthus and his generals into continuing in their mistaken belief that the humans were on the back foot, having suffered significant losses and casualties.
Because in a day of plasma blasters, who uses a spear?
More than that, however, the spears would contain medical scanners, allowing the Theseus to identify any of the Aurealians who needed immediate intervention or help. It was the best plan he could come up with in the time he had before the Aurealian armada arrived.
And so, for the second time in two days, Nathan crawled into his jarhead coffin. This time, when he was phased down to the surface of the world, he fell the proper six inches.
"Fucking Simon," he muttered to himself. He still didn’t know how to handle that shit. Actual sabotage. Perhaps it had been meant as a prank, but Steve was a weapon. Playing around with the PMT safety standards on any weapon to cause them to fuse on target was sabotage, and there was no way to classify it where it wasn’t. And Simon knew it as well as the rest of the crew.
The impossible part was not what Simon had done, however, but what Nathan could do about it. Nathan needed Simon to keep working for the Theseus to accomplish any of the three mission goals, but Simon wouldn’t be motivated to perform if he knew he would be spaced at the end of his service. Simon needed a carrot at the end of the stick, but Nathan wasn’t even certain that he had the authority to pardon Simon for his crime. And he didn’t have the time to find out, either. He didn’t want to know, because he didn’t want to have to decide one way or the other. If he knew, he’d have to decide, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet.
"If it had just been me," Nathan muttered to himself. "If I could just forgive him for it, then it wouldn’t be an issue. But he fucked with everyone who was relying upon me, and I cannot just forgive that."
"Talking to yourself is not an inspiring habit in a pack leader. Not if you plan on leading from the field," Rusty informed Nathan from right on his ass, making the young captain jump six feet in the air after the coffin finished interpreting his reflexes. When he landed and turned to face the squad of commandos which would be escorting slash assisting him on this mission, they were looking quite pleased with themselves. They had each managed to sneak up on him quite thoroughly before Rusty had broken the silence.
"Alright, very funny," Nathan grumbled. "Time to get serious. These Aurealians are counting on us."
"You are one talking to himself and jumping up in air, not us," Rusty reminded him. And the commandos vanished into the brush. With the near black of their armor and the near black of the local chlorophyll equivalent, there was abundant cover for the canines, and for himself as well. And plenty of stuff for him to simply bump into clumsily with his exoskeleton as he ripped through the brush.
It was strange to him that the plants were nearly black instead of a familiar green. Their chlorophyll was actually apparently more efficient, but the sugars that it folded required special enzymes for earthlings to digest them. Just like most of the proteins of the animal equivalents of all Jurassian slash Aurealian worlds. All of them required special digestive enzymes which required laboratories to build and fold, and your body was left over with excess amino acids which ‘didn’t fold right.’ In an emergency a human could survive on the food of such worlds only for a few weeks before multi-system organ failure.
Thinking of that, Nathan queued up a bite of jerky from his suit and began to chew. Cloned beef, of course, but seasoned just like the real thing. And he’d had the real thing, back at the commune. That put him in the one percent of humanity, there.
It was still too bright out for the Aurealians to be moving. Nathan knew that they had extremely sensitive eyes, and that they didn’t like to pop out of their burrows or dens or whatever they called the primitive homes they were forced to live in until well after sunset. But he figured he would at least let them know he was here, and that he was friendly.
"Hello. To any Aurealian hearing this, I am your friend. My name is Captain Nathan Sawyer of the United Earth Origin Sapient Council United Forces ship, the Theseus. I am a human. Humans have not been in this region of space for very long, but we know of the Aurealians, of your people, and we do not approve of the hostility you receive from those who currently own this planet. It is my obligation to inform you of the following. If you can hear the sound of my voice, then you have been designated a civilian located inside an active war zone by my government. If you can hear the sound of my voice, then it is my obligation by law to help you survive the oncoming conflict. If you can hear the sound of my voice, then I want to help you to the best of my ability. If you can -"
"Who are you talking to, human?" a Jurassian asked, and Nathan jumped again. Without giving the matter much thought, he shot the witness with a nonlethal shock lance.
"Athena, initiate PMT transfer of Jurassian witness at soonest possible time. He is being detained, legal status unknown at this time. Put him in the brig and we’ll question him when he wakes up," Nathan said, calming down.
The Jurassian vanished. Hopefully he wasn’t anyone important. It would be just Nathan’s luck to accidentally abduct a Named One of significant --
The Jurassian wasn’t alone. Without thinking too much of it, Nathan opened fire again with his shock lance. Except this time, the target wasn’t Jurassian. But the settings for the lance still were.
"Oh shit, oh fuck, please don’t be dead."
Stargazer did not hear him, for the lightning had stopped her hearts, and she had fallen unconscious to the ground.