The Warlord Page 11

  However, after all that hospital food, if they were going to have a party, it would have been nice if they had put out some real food, or even a bucket of chicken.

  It appeared that his crew had been briefed ahead of time on their participation. After the first initial welcome, most of them made a discreet exit.

  Luke was left at the table with Grant, a female officer he vaguely recognized…Luke couldn’t remember her name…and Carrie. Several other officers sat in chairs against the side walls.

  Grant started. “You remember Elaine, my tactical officer.”

  “Of course,” Luke said. “Good to see you again, Elaine.”

  “Your Majesty,” she replied giving him a little bow.

  Luke let her formality slide for the moment, but he was not going to allow the Your Majesty crap to creep back into his daily routine.

  Carrie startled him by saying, “Forget that. While you’re on the planet, you need to put up with being king. I told everyone that from now on, they should address you formally. Once you get in space, I don’t care.”

  Luke had forgotten Carrie could pick up on his thoughts. “Yeah, but…”

  She cut off his argument. “The population here is overjoyed now that the First Family is back. They put up with King Haejeog but it seems they were not happy with his move away from the First Family. When word got out that the new king had arrived it was like turning on a light. We put out the word that you are the reason the Bakkui are in retreat, which is true, and there hasn’t been any resistance to your authority. It’s like the people were waiting for you. The concept of royalty is deeply imbedded in their psyche, so just accept it.”

  “All right,” Luke agreed obediently. Ever since becoming his sister, Carrie had a tendency to be bossy. He’d have to be careful around her.

  Carrie laughed sweetly. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t pry. I’m just monitoring you now because you’ve been sick. Grant can tell you what happened after you passed out in the last battle. Go ahead, General Jefferies.”

  “Thank you, Highness. Luke, there’s not a lot to tell. Right in the middle of the battle you said you were talking to Annie and then you fell flat on your face. That was it. And like Carrie said, once the locals found out who you were, any resistance just disappeared.”

  “What about the dreadnought?” Luke asked grimly.

  “It took off before we knew what was going on. I’ve watch our recon video of their departure and one thing I can say is that they’re as fast as our Phantoms. It went to lightspeed in no time.”

  “The Bismarck,” Luke said.

  “Huh?”

  “Annie calls it the Bismarck.”

  Carrie spoke up. “So, you can access the information she implanted in your brain?”

  Luke nodded. “I’ve been sorting through it for the past two weeks since I woke up. How did you know about it?”

  Carrie smiled and patted his hand. “Big brother, I’ve been peeking into your mind for a lot longer than the last six months. Annie did some damage, but considering the amount of data and the conditions you were under, she probably couldn’t help it. I healed a couple of bruised neurons, so to speak, but I’m not very good at this either.”

  Luke touched his head. “You’re not reassuring me.”

  Carrie ignored his comment. “What I don’t understand is how Annie knew how to do this at all. That takes some ability, I can tell you. The only person I know who has this skill is Princess Gimi. She taught me the little that I know.”

  Luke shrugged with a sad face. “I’m afraid Gimi won’t be teaching anyone anymore. She was on that ship with Annie. Gimi had been teaching Annie how to improve her mental powers with the implant. But she’s dead now.”

  Carrie was shocked by the news. “Dead? How?”

  “I don’t know,” Luke admitted. “Annie didn’t either. I have the impression that Gimi wasn’t in the best of health. But they told Annie that Gimi had passed away. Annie didn’t believe them.”

  “They?” Grant asked. “Who’s they? What are you two talking about?”

  Luke glanced at Carrie. “You haven’t told them anything?”

  Carrie shook her head. “I mentioned the treaty, but I haven’t talked about the details. I don’t really know any. I asked Patrick about the treaty and he’s never heard of it.”

  “Who’s Patrick?” Luke asked.

  “Sorry. The local planetary AI. His real name is too hard to pronounce so we call him Patrick. Anyway, he said that King Peyha’s homeworld, Haman Five, has like the mother of all AI’s. That’s probably the only place that has the information. I sent Sadie with a royal order to dig around.”

  “When was that?” Luke asked.

  “Three months ago. She’s overdue.”

  “That doesn’t help. I’d really like to talk with Sadie right now.”

  “You can,” Carrie said. “I sent a copy. My Sadie is at the spaceport. She already made you a new George. She had all of his memories up until you left Earth for Japurnam.”

  Luke bobbled his head as though glad about that bit of news. “That’s good. I never really got used to Grant’s Phantom.”

  Grant chuckled. “Phantom? Boss, that’s so old school. We’re giving our Phantoms to the locals now. I’ve got one of those new, fancy warships.”

  The statement brought the ghost of a smile to Luke’s face. He looked at Carrie. “Has Riley been up to his old tricks again?”

  “Oh, yeah!” Grant answered. “He calls it the Starfighter.”

  “Starfighter?” Luke snorted dismissively. “The F-104 was a piece of junk. It was nothing more than a blowtorch with a metal chair strapped to it.”

  “True,” Grant acknowledged. “But when it was new, what was it known for?”

  Luke knew that answer. “It was fast.”

  “Oh, yeah! It was really fast. And this new baby lives up to that name. Don’t be making fun of your new Starfighter, boss. It makes the Phantoms look like the Wright brothers.”

  Luke smiled with honest pleasure. Everyone acknowledged Riley Stevens as the foremost genius in the Milky Way Alliance. Even Sadie had complimented him on his achievements.

  “Okay,” Luke said. “You got my interest up. Let’s go check it out.”

  “Not a chance,” Carrie cut in. “You’re well enough to get out of the hospital, but let’s take it easy for a few days.”

  “She’s the boss,” Grant agreed. It was clear he would not go against Carrie. “But Luke, you didn’t answer my question. Who is this they you’re talking about?”

  Carrie nodded. “You tell them,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw that information in your mind. If I didn’t know better, I’d have guessed it was from brain damage. But it’s real. As far as I can tell, Annie gave you the straight skinny.”

  Luke looked around the room. Everyone thought they wanted to know the information that Annie had drilled into his head; and that Carrie had clearly hinted at. But he knew better. He’d been struggling with it for the past two weeks.

  Annie had sacrificed herself to warn him, and had also sacrificed their daughter. That alone was enough for him to take this battle to the next level. And that was just on a personal basis. On the larger playing field, it was much more.

  “We’re in an entirely different ballgame now,” Luke said. “Patrick, can you project the image I’m sending you on the display screen?”

  “Of course, Your Majesty.”

  The screen illuminated and Luke was not surprised by the gasps from his crewmates. The creature on the screen was totally alien. It looked like a fat goat with arms. The four thick legs ended with cloven hooves. They joined at a surprisingly narrow waist and the top half of its body was thick and powerful, like a weightlifting champion. It had two arms that ended in a hand with flexible digits and an opposing thumb. Its head had broad water buffalo-like horns that curved forward along its featureless snout. It was nude and showed no indication of being male or female.

  “Ho
l-lee crap!” Grant swore.

  “You can’t be serious,” Elaine mumbled.

  Incredulous gasps were heard around the room.

  “It’s true,” Carrie said looking at the unbelievable creature on the screen. “It turns out we are not alone after all. As of now, we’re up against some real no-kidding aliens. And they’re not like My Favorite Martian on TV. Annie’s impression is that these guys are threatening to wipe out humanity because we broke a treaty.”

  “What treaty?” Grant exclaimed.

  Luke shrugged. “I don’t know. Annie didn’t either. They were using her as a negotiating chip. They were after Gimi, but inadvertently caught Annie in their sweep. Once they realized she was married to me, the new king, they came here to talk to King Haejeog about how to use her for leverage.”

  Grant shook his head. “Leverage doesn’t exactly work against you.”

  Luke said, “For Annie’s safety, it might. But then we arrived and opened fire. Annie said they figured that meant there would be no discussions. She told me these guys are ten times worse than the Bakkui and that we need to get ready for war. She calls them Greys.” He nodded at the creature. “For obvious reasons.”

  The alien had dull gray skin of an almost uniform color.

  “They look like big hairless billy goats,” Elaine said. “Except their horns are backwards.”

  “That’s their real skin color,” Luke said. “And they all look the same. She can’t tell them apart.”

  Grant gave Luke an accusing glare and said, “You said there were only humans in the galaxy.”

  “Well,” Luke gestured toward the display screen. “Obviously I was wrong. I just repeated what Sam told me. Maybe he was lying or maybe he didn’t know either. I never heard anyone else talk about these guys.”

  “They don’t look that intimidating,” Lieutenant Fitzgerald observed. “Are they taller than they look on the screen?”

  “Annie said average height between four and five feet.”

  “They’re naked,” Elaine pointed out. “Is that how they go around?”

  Luke shrugged. “This is how they always appear to Annie. I doubt they disrobe just to speak to her.”

  “Is Her Highness still alive?” Elaine asked.

  Luke’s face grew dark. “She was. They better hope she still is. And our daughter too. Annie must have already given birth. We were going to name her Rosa. If both of them aren’t healthy, then these ugly things will only be found in history books because I will wipe them out. That much I promise.”

  Carrie patted Luke on his shoulder. “Calm down, please. Or I’ll send everyone out.”

  “Who are these guys?” Grant asked. “Where do they come from?”

  “Patrick,” Luke said. “Display a map of the galaxy and overlay the space ruled by the Greys.”

  The screen changed to show a diagram of the galaxy’s spiral arms. On top of the image, the AI added a translucent oblong-shape that overlaid about half of the galaxy on the opposite side of the galactic core. It generally divided the galaxy into two sections.

  “This is what I got from Annie,” Luke explained. “I have no idea if it is accurate, but this is what they told her.”

  “That doesn’t look good,” Grant mumbled.

  Luke continued to direct Patrick. “Now add our Alliance planets and while you’re at it, add the boundary lines for the Nobility Families.”

  White circles appeared depicting the locations of Earth, the early planets that Luke had visited, the Nobility planets that Luke had assumed control of, and the irregular shapes of the fifteen sections of Nobility space. Finally, all the Alliance’s colony planets appeared.

  The colony planets were in Grey space. Grant snorted. “You screwed the pooch on those colonies, didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t know about this then,” Luke countered.

  “That probably doesn’t carry a lot of weight with them,” Grant said.

  “I expect not,” Luke retorted, giving Grant an angry glare.

  “Look at Earth,” Elaine said. “We’re so close to their space.”

  “That explains a lot of UFO stories, doesn’t it?” Lieutenant Fitzgerald said.

  “Let’s not go there,” Carrie suggested. “We’re not talking about aliens who wear little hats with propellers. Show it again, Patrick.” The alien reappeared on the display. “According to Annie, these things could be an existential threat to humanity.”

  “Not to put too fine a point on it,” Grant drawled.

  “The point is,” Luke said sharply, breaking into the speculation. “The point is that we need to identify exactly what kind of threat this is and what we can do about it.”

  “If anything,” Grant added.

  “No!” Luke countered strongly. “That’s defeatist talk. Look at what the Alliance has already done. We beat back the Bakkui when the Nobility thought it was impossible. We recruited allies inside and outside of the Nobility. And in that last battle, we were beating the crap out of that dreadnought…that Bismarck. You said it turned tail and ran. We can beat these things. There is no question about that. None!” Luke’s eyes shot lightning bolts at Grant. He was tired of the man’s naysaying attitude.

  Grant backed up quickly. “Got it. Sorry.”

  Luke pointed at the screen. “Look at that thing. I can promise all of you right now that no four-footed, bug-eyed, bone-headed, hairless goat is going to tell us what to do. If it wants to negotiate, fine. If you don’t already know, let me explain the fundamental law of wartime negotiations. Like the old pilot said, you negotiate with the enemy with your knee in his chest and your knife at his throat!” He glared at everyone in the room to underline his position. The expressions of those around him were subdued but proud.

  “You haven’t changed,” Carrie said with a smile. “You make the impossible seem like a walk in the park.”

  “It is!” Luke said harshly. Suddenly he felt woozy. Carrie had warned him not to get upset. He looked at her and continued, “In fact, I could use some air after being cooped up so long. Why don’t you join me so these folks can start developing a to do list?”

  Carrie gave her older brother a worried smile. “Sounds good.”

  *.*.*.*

  Luke found himself leaning on Carrie more than he intended as they approached a bench in the palace garden. The open area was well appointed with flowers and shrubs. Delicate trees and paved walkways offered plenty of shaded benches for the royal family.

  “You okay?” Carrie asked him.

  “Yeah. I just got kind of dizzy there at the last,” he said.

  “Give it another week or so before you try to save the universe, okay? I wasn’t kidding about brain damage. It’s nothing too severe, but you need to let yourself heal.”

  “I will,” Luke promised. “I thought it was important to light a fire under those guys. Grant doesn’t help; I’m getting tired of his glass always being half empty.”

  “They’re not all that way. You’ve got some good people.”

  Luke nodded. “That’s true. But they’ve been working hard for a long time. I don’t want them to get caught up in the process and lose sight of the real goals.”

  “To get Annie back?”

  “That’s my priority,” Luke admitted. “But for these guys, like you said, this is a real threat. What I got from Annie is that we need to take it seriously. It’s not like this is a normal ransom demand. Annie was scared of them. She thinks these guys are right out of a nightmare.”

  “I’m worried about all those colony planets,” Carrie said. “If we’re the ones who broke the treaty, we may have put everyone out there at risk.”

  “We need a copy of that document,” Luke said. “We have to know what’s in it.”

  Carrie brow furrowed even deeper. “I hoped Sadie would be back by now. I don’t know what the holdup is.”

  Luke suddenly looked at Carrie as if he had just remembered something. “Your kids! How are…” He massaged his forehead with one hand. “
Ack. I can’t remember their names. Sorry. Where are they?”

  Carrie laughed and squeezed Luke’s arm. “Ttal and Eolin. They’re fine. I brought them with me and they’re in class at the moment. I hired a tutor when I got here.”

  “Which is which,” Luke asked, embarrassed by his forgetfulness. “Eolin is the boy?”

  Carrie nodded. “Eolin is younger. His big sister is Ttal. You won’t recognize them. They’ve both sprouted.”

  “It’s only been a few months.”

  “It’s been over a year since you’ve seen them.”

  Luke shook his head. “Man. That’s something. So where are you staying?”

  “In the palace. I took over a wing that overlooks the royal gardens. I haven’t seen the ones on Suneuon Two, but I’m told these are just as beautiful.”

  Luke heard an unexpected pride in her words. “You like it here.” Luke said, insightfully. It wasn’t a question.

  “I love it here. I tried to settle down on Mars, as you know, but I was an oddity there. The little girl from Kansas who wound up becoming a princess. I became a tourist attraction and that’s not what I’m looking for. Here, people only know me as your little sister and a true royal. They accept my status and it means I get a little pampered. It’s comfortable here and I haven’t been comfortable in a long time.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Luke said. “Annie fell in love with Japurnam Five. She didn’t want to leave. She was going to have Rosa there.” Luke’s face clouded over. It was difficult to think of how much they both had lost; about what might have been.

  Carrie gave him a small hug. “Come on. If you’re up to it, I’ll show you your royal chambers. They’re pretty spectacular.”

  “Good idea. I may as well get comfortable because tomorrow I want to start focusing on the mission. I won’t overdo it; don’t worry.”

  “All right. Just remember what I said about one step at a time. I’ll tell Sadie to take you around a bit. Let some people see that you’re up and about. But promise you won’t tell her to fly you all over the solar system.”

  Luke sighed. “I promise.”

  *.*.*.*

  Grant said, “This baby can take you from one end of the solar system to the other, faster than you can blink.”