“How many men did you lose, Major?” I asked.
“Nine,” came the reply.
I was doing the math in my head and realized that fourteen of our unarmed military had gone up against four Noridians; five if you counted our unarmed liberated prisoner. The price was nine of our guys killed and one wounded.
“We may still have a problem or three,” the Major continued.
“If that was a kinetic projectile that destroyed the ship it was launched from orbit. That means that a Noridian ship could still be there. Dr. Andretti tells me that it wouldn’t be uncommon for the entire crew to come planetside. That would explain the delay in freeing our prisoner; one of them would’ve needed to stay behind long enough to take out our ship but we can’t count on that.
“We also can’t communicate with Major Reagan. Their assault team took out the Coridian communications equipment when they were freeing their pal so we’re going to have to wait for their return and hope they don’t get surprised.
“We also have to figure out what to do with our prisoners.”
Of the five Noridians three were dead. Only the gunman that had been after Julie and I and our original prisoner were still alive. He went on to explain that the prisoners were currently sedated and under guard.
Julie now spoke up for the first time. She had been very quiet since the incident and hadn’t left my side; going as far as to grab my arm when they tried to separate us to clean her up.
“How did they find us here?” she asked.
Iron Jaw ground his teeth and said, “We don’t know. All we can go on is what Dr. Andretti says and she is guessing that either Silva was wrong when he said the Noridians couldn’t trace their ship or more likely, that they guessed several locations we might head to and sent small teams to all of them.”
“Which means,” I said. “That when they don’t hear back from these guys they’re going to know we’re here.”
There was heat in Julie’s voice when she said, “We need to find some guns and blow them to pieces when they arrive.”
Major Reynolds was shaking his head. “The weapons the Noridians were carrying with them are bio-locked and as truly hard as I find this to believe Dr. Andretti insists that there are no Coridian or Stigerian weapons here and that they don’t even have the designs to make any.
“We could probably figure out some basic design parameters ourselves but there’s no real time for that—let alone testing and training.
“What we are going to do is arm ourselves with swords and knives. Dr. Andretti has found some Stigerians that are willing to manufacture these items for us. We can also develop some defensive and advance warning procedures. They won’t find us unprepared again.”
What I assumed were Stigerian medical personnel were now surrounding Major Reynolds so Julie and I started walking slowly through the foyer. I didn’t know where we were going but I sensed that Julie was perhaps still a little dazed so I just went along. Including when she stopped and put her arms around me, head to my shoulder, holding on tight.
We stood like that for a moment; silent. I had the same deep feeling again that I needed to protect her but this time it wasn’t a surprise; it was like I’d always felt that way.
Without lifting her head she said, “They’re going to come after us. How can we defend ourselves with just swords and knives?”
“It’s better than rocks,” was the only thing I could say.
Chapter 30
Major Mathew Reagan, US Army
The ship we boarded to travel to the retreat was very different than the one we’d travelled on thus far. From the outside it looked more like an oversized US Space Shuttle except without the wings, tiles, or seams; it was totally smooth.
The inside was roughly triangular with a casual sitting area up front and rows of curved seating occupying the widest portion in back. In the front of the cabin where I would normally expect to find the door to the cockpit was just a wall with a view screen.
Semi’s First Protégée Dien and two female Stigerians were escorting us to the retreat. While the Stigerians provided refreshments Dien was explaining that ‘First Protégée’ was indeed a title but it was one she had given herself. Semi was gracious enough to mentor her and this was her small way to show appreciation and respect.
While she was polite and answered almost every question I threw at her she reiterated that I would have to speak with Semi about communicating with Earth.
I was feeling a little irritable until I heard a little voice in my head whisper, ‘Do you miss her already?’
With years of practice it wasn’t that hard to slip back into a professional mode of thinking and the truth was I didn’t need the distractions right now.
A trip that would’ve taken our fastest rocket months took the Coridian shuttle only a few hours. Once we had arrived on the airless moon we were escorted from the pressurized landing bay to a small area that had both steps going up and going down. We went up a few steps into what had to be the most breathtaking observation deck imaginable. The room itself was shaped like a small dome, with a slanted two-thirds of it totally transparent. There were tables and comfortable seating for maybe a dozen people but no one was sitting or talking right now.
Dien had explained to me that the retreat was located near the terminator of one of the smaller tidal-locked moons of a double ringed gas giant. What I hadn’t realized is that this meant that nearly a third of our view would always be taken up by the unfathomable colors and depths of the gas giant itself while the other two-thirds encompassed a massive set of rings angling through our vista. Vivid colors I couldn’t begin to describe would actually change hue depending on whether they were being lit by the star of this system, the reflected light of the planet, or the dim reflections of a million far away stars.
None of us had spoken yet and I think I had subconsciously started counting the many moons circling this planet when Semi said, “Welcome to my retreat.”
Anzio was quietly muttering something in Italian when I said, “Thank you Semi for sharing this with us and thank you for giving us a moment to take it all in.”
She smiled and nodded to me before stepping over to Anzio, taking his hands and whispering back to him in Italian. I’m not sure what she said but judging from Anzio’s smile it was nice.
For the few moments of their conversation it occurred to me how right they looked together. All Noridian women are tall and Semi was taller than most but Anzio still had several inches on her. He was also showing more confidence and natural flair than I’d ever noticed.
They shared a final laugh and then she moved on to great Dr. Decker. All in all she was a very lovely, very gracious lady.
“Semi, we need to get a message to our people back on Earth and we were hoping to pass it through some of your people there.”
We had retired downstairs to a dining area and were speaking over what was actually a quite good dinner.
“Major, we would be happy to assist you,” she replied. “However, I’m not sure that your people are going to trust a message coming from us or that we’ll even be able to get it to the people that need to hear it.”
Captain Silva interjected. “Major, I can provide a conduit to Military Intelligence and I’m assuming you have some one-time codes that could validate your identity?”
When I nodded Semi picked up the thread again, “Good, then when we return to Stiger you can use our equipment there to send your message. In the meantime though I’d like to speak to you about your situation and how we might be able to help each other.”