The siblings stared at the officer, who had introduced himself as General Bates. He lounged against one wall, his neatly attired figure relaxed and seemingly at ease. None of them would fold. This was a mission that he was on, and he would not stop until he had the answer that he wanted or until they and all the citizens in their small little city were annihilated.
That was Jeval’s thinking at that moment, and he found himself wondering if there would be any satisfaction at all in just going ahead and killing the man, in unleashing his gift against those ships. He knew that he had not allowed the ship on the pleasure planet to communicate the news that there was a Revant aboard the ship that had taken Ruckland and his supposed consort and slave off that planet, but perhaps The Federation had heard that from someone who had been on the planet and seen them all together.
Talon’s fingers drummed along the surface of the table. His eyes were narrowed with thought, and Marik wore a blank expression that said he was thinking hard. Renall leaned forward across the table, his fingers forming a steeple before his chin. He said, “I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
General Bates said, “Oh you did. You heard me very well.”
Jeval asked, “Do you truly think that we would believe that you wish to topple The Federation?”
Bates lifted a gray eyebrow toward his equally gray hairline. He was an older human, and the lines in his face marked his age. He said, “Do not pretend that you do not know this must happen. War is inevitable. The Federation is falling apart; it was corrupted long ago, and it has no reason to try to right itself.”
Talon asked, “Did you swear a loyalty oath to them?”
Bates said, “I swore an oath to uphold and protect the universe. I swore an oath to do whatever was necessary to end terrorism and to help abate war. I have thought long and hard about this decision. I assure you there is not one person on any of the ships that are above you and on your surface that does not agree with me in this decision.”
Jeval said, “Or so you say. It’s quite possible this is a Federation trap as well. We agree to join forces with you to take them down and then you have just cause to blow our people to smithereens and take our planet.”
Bates came to the table and took a seat across from the four siblings. His face held a weary cast, and his fingers rested on the surface of the table, held together lightly within each other. He said, “I understand that you don’t believe me. I don’t blame you for that. I chose you, all of you, because each and every one of you has reason to hate The Federation. Each of you has been declared an outlaw at some point or other in your life, and some of you still are. Each of you is a warrior, and from what I’ve heard, your women are too. Or at least, the ones who have skills equally as good.”
Jeval sat back in the seat, his face betraying nothing of his thoughts. There was only one way to be sure. He said, “The Federation knows not everything about us.”
Bates said, “They know enough. I know enough. I need assistance. I am willing to fight against the tyranny that The Federation has brought to the universe, but I cannot do it alone. I need powerful people with powerful contacts; you have those contacts.”
Talon said, “Or you could just want our contacts so that you could imprison and murder them too.”
Bates snorted. “There is a huge criminal element in the universe. I’m quite sure that you know that the last people they wish to be friends with are Federation officers. But you know, as do I, that the greatest amount of weaponry is lodged within their realms and not The Federation’s.”
Bates was right there. Still, he wasn’t sure if he trusted the man. Bates looked at the siblings, and they all looked back, regarding him steadily. Each of them gave a small and almost imperceptible nod.
It was the last thing Jeval wanted to do, go running about in that man’s brain, but if they were going to know for sure, he was going to have to do it.
Very well then.
If nothing else, if Bates proved to be a liar, they would know exactly what it was The Federation had planned. And they would be able to warn anyone against believing offers like these. He was fairly certain it wasn’t just him and his siblings that had been targeted for such an offer if it was a false one.
There were probably Federation generals and lesser officers making the same offer to others all across the universe right now in an effort to weed out criminals and to take control of smaller planets who had so far refused to accept The Federation’s decree of martial rule.
He leaned forward, holding a steady gaze on the general’s eyes. He spoke softly. “You will speak only truths from here on out. I am going to be in your mind, and I will know when you lie. Even if they put in a block, even if they’ve implanted you with the thought that you are doing this of your own free will and that you truly are rebelling against The Federation, I will know it.”
Bates blinked a few times. His face took on a smooth and unlined look. His mouth opened but no words came out. It was amazing how men of such power never thought to guard their mind against an invader. The truth of the matter was there were very few telepaths left in the universe, and there were even fewer mind-crawlers like him. That gift was so rare these days that it was mostly myth.
It was just part and parcel of that dark gift that he had been born with though. It was the one he used the most because it was the one that was the most useful and the least harmful to the people upon which he used it.
He leaned forward again. His hand dipped into a pocket and produced a round credit coin. The coin flipped back and forth across the top of his knuckles and then in between each finger. The general’s eyes went to that coin, and his mouth went even more loose and slack. His eyes stopped blinking and just stayed open, staring widely. Jeval let his mind wander toward the general’s. He felt resistance there, felt the general trying to push back despite his weakened state. That was good; if the general tried very hard to keep him out that meant he was hiding a secret.
Well, he intended to find out exactly what that secret was.
He pressed forward again. The general’s mind was like a honeycomb, filled with many different compartments and spaces. It was like walking through a maze. Jeval knew that the direct route would leave him nowhere. This was a man who compartmentalized things in order to live with them. He peeked into one of those chambers of the general’s mind and recoiled in utter horror as he watched a memory float through the general’s head.
That memory was of the general standing in a room filled with many tech-nodules. Along with the tech-nodules were many men wearing the same insignia he wore and the very upper echelon of The Federation’s members. Bates was shouting, “They will all die if you do this! They are our people! How can you do this to them?”
That memory spun out, and Jeval watched it unfurl. The general had been against some invasion or another, but his had been a single voice in a large crowd, and his words had not been heeded. His eyes were now the general’s eyes, and he turned them toward one of the tech-nodules and watched, feeling the cold horror that ran through Bates as Bates had watched it happen: the destruction of a planet filled with females and small children, but no men. He watched as Bates sank into a chair and muttered, “Why? For God’s sake why?”
One of The Federations leaders stepped forward. “It is not for you to question what we do, Bates. It is for you to carry out our orders. I would hate to think that you choose to betray us and to willfully discard your duties.”
He felt the general’s fear at that moment. The general lifted his head and said, “I would never perform a dereliction of my duty. I’ve always upheld my duty. I just do not understand why. There was nothing there to harm.”
The Federation leader said, “They would not surrender, and their men are all dead because they fought with this continuously. You know that; besides, the planet has one of the few remaining wormholes left in the universe and we need it for trade routes. All they had to do was agree, but they chose not to. They chose to die. You keep that in mind.”
He left that memory and walked through more. He watched Bates order deaths that he wished he didn’t have to order. He watched as the general read several pieces of classified information, and put his head in his hands and wept with pity for whoever it was that was going to die.
Then he saw what the general was hiding. He knew that was the thing he needed most to see because every time he drew near it, the general pushed him back, trying his best to hold secret whatever it was that was there.
What was there, was a man.
Not just any man either: a pirate named Blade that he and his siblings actually knew well. But in the general’s memories, the pirate, known to be not only bloodthirsty but fully against The Federation, and to the point, where he would often take Federation ships even though it meant losing much of his crew, stood in front of the general—much younger and far less battle-scarred, saying, “Why can’t you see what they are, Father? Why do you uphold them? You can see that they are destroying the entire universe, and yet you go along with it. You are complicit in their crimes.”
He was his son! The human pirate called Blade that The Federation had been trying to capture for many years was the general’s son!
No wonder the general hid that!
But he had more as well. He had faked his son’s death, pretending that his son had been lost in an accident on a pleasure planet. He had personally killed several people who might have been able to say otherwise. He’d killed people in order to protect his son and to send his son away and into a new life.
That was not all well. His son had recently raided a very large Federation stronghold and had uncovered secret and highly sensitive documents. The general had no idea of what was in them; he only knew that now that his son was in possession of them, his son’s life was as good as over. He also knew that his son would use whatever was in those documents to try to strike out at The Federation.
The rest was even more interesting. The general had been falsifying documents for years and killing anyone who would point out the discrepancies. He had been hiding the fact that for years his son had been amassing a vast rebel army, mobilizing them in the largest and most isolated outposts. The general, however, had all of that information. He hid it from The Federation and all who were within it, but he knew. He knew that his son was about to strike against The Federation in a way that would guarantee war across the universe.
A war that the general was no longer willing to sit out. He had come to the decision to join forces with his son, the son who had no idea that his father was now attempting to drum up an even larger army.
A single thought floated through the general’s head, and Jeval heard it. The words struck him right to his soul.
Is there anything a father would not do for his son?
He went deeper, probing every recess, looking for blocks and implanted memories. Looking for telltale signs that a tech or a scientist had somehow altered or tampered with the general’s brain, but he found nothing.
The truth was right in front of him. He had seen the pirate who was the son of this general seated before him. He knew their faces were similar, too similar to ignore the resemblance.
He spoke hastily to his siblings, all while keeping Bates in his trance. They took the news with as much shock as he had expected, but they quickly arranged their faces into blank and inscrutable expressions so that he could awaken the general, who would likely not even know that his brain had been probed when he did awaken. He brought the general out of it with a quick snap of his fingers.
The general blinked and said, “Again, I know you have no reason to believe me, but I assure you that the fight against The Federation is my fight. I have culled from the ranks of The Federation military those who would stand against it.”
Talon, not willing to let go of the advantage of their knowing his secret said, “How can you trust them?”
The general said, “Many of those who are in Federation service are not there of their own free will. You must know this. Many are forced into service due to labor and service laws handed down to the generations.”
Renall spoke softly, “When The Federation took over their planets, they demanded their sons and daughters for military service for eternity. They will forever be enslaved to that service to The Federation. Many of them rebel against it, I am sure, but how can you be sure that the ones who are with you are truly against The Federation?”
Bates said, “I checked into each and every one of their families. Many of them have families in the rebellion on their home planets. You know that the uprising has begun. It began several years ago. There are quite a few worlds engaged in war, flagrant and open warfare, with The Federation. Because we’ve never been able to actually hunt down their weapons suppliers, squashing the actual rebellion has been difficult.”
They all knew why that was now. They had always assumed that that pirate was the luckiest creature in the universe. The truth was he was being aided and assisted by a father who was a high-ranking general in The Federation army.
Did he even know that his father was on his side?
Bates said, “I need your help. I cannot go where you would lead. I am willing to follow for a change.”
Jeval said, “If you truly wish to rebel against The Federation, you will need every skill you’ve ever learned in your lifetime of waging war at hand. If you truly intend to join up with the rebellion, they will practically insist that you remain in charge, at least in charge of your own troops.”
The general nodded. “I am aware of that. I have always been a man who followed orders. I have always been a man who believed in the greater good. The greater good is no longer being served so I can no longer follow the orders that I have been given. The Federation must fall.”
Jeval nodded. He didn’t want to agree. He didn’t want to go to war. He was tired of fighting and running and hiding. He was sick and tired of a life spent dealing with the scars and wounds and bloody consequences of war.
But the universe had been at war for centuries, many of them. The period of peace that The Federation had brought had been short-lived as The Federation grew greedier and more demanding of its citizens. It took more for itself and left less for those who were merely citizens of a planet that The Federation ruled.
Talon looked down at the table. “There is one thing that I demand in order to join up with you and to assist you.”
General Bates face took on a hopeful expression. “So you would consider it then?”
Talon said, “I didn’t say that. I’m just saying that Old Earth needs assistance now. They need food, and they need water. They need medical assistance. They need the rovers eliminated. Can you promise that some sort of assistance will be sent to them when this is over?”
The general said, “Your ships must not have been there in the last few weeks then.”
The brothers exchanged glances. Jeval asked, “We have a ship headed there now but what do you mean?”
The general said, “It is destroyed. Did you not hear that news? Oh, I suppose you did not. You’re far too isolated, and you don’t have the tech to get news from that far across the universe.”
His eyes looked down at the desk, and his shoulders slumped. “They claim that it was an invasion by hostile species, but it wasn’t. The Federation decided that the war there was too much to deal with and the promises that they had made too expensive to keep. They couldn’t have the rest of the universe looking on and saying that The Federation did not keep its promises to one of its first Allied planets, so they destroyed it.”
A huge and yawning chasm opened up in Jeval’s chest. Old Earth had indeed been one of the first to ally itself with The Federation. At the time, it had been one of the strongest and most powerful planets in the universe.
The Federation had seen to it that it had fallen, and had become nothing more than a figurehead.
He knew just how many people had been there, and how many people had died. His mind went back to Margie, the woman that he loved whether he wanted to admit it or not, and he didn’t. Loving her was way too dangerous and there would be consequences such as he had never known before. His voice was thick and tight. “How did they destroy it?”
Bates said, “With mega-neutron atomizers. It’s dust now. There is nothing left. They even destroyed the moon and the outlying planets even though they were uninhabited and always have been.”
Jeval sighed inwardly. Bates was a man on a mission, and not just a mission to rebel against The Federation, but a mission to keep his son from dying—or maybe to join him in death. The two things were equal in the longest view.
He twisted a bit in the chair. Bates regarded them all. His eyebrows beetled together. “Do you know about…about my son?”
Renall said, “I think the better question is are you doing this to simply save your son? Because the truth is if that is your reason, then you put all of our lives at risk.”
Bates hung his head. His voice was gruff. “I am doing it because of him, in part, yes. But the larger part is that The Federation plans to kill anyone and everyone in its way. They’ve discovered a wormhole, one they don’t yet have the tech to use, but they have time to work it out, and the brain power. Beyond that wormhole lies parts of the universe we have never seen before. They intend to go after it, to take it as their own. Imagine that: even more planets and worlds that they could rule if they could only open that wormhole.”
Jeval stiffened. He had read only as far as he needed to in Bates’ mind. That the man wanted to atone for what he considered his past sins was obvious. This he had not seen but the bitterness in Bates’ voice told him it was the truth, and all of his siblings heard that truth tolling through those words too.
Bates continued. “Right now the best way to strike at The Federation is to close that wormhole. It can be done, but there will be much sacrifice on all sides. The first part would be, of course, to get to the labs trying to work out the process and destroy them before they can.”
Marik pointed out, “You are talking about taking a massive amount of lives.”
“The greater good, right?” Bates tone was bleak. “I am aware of that just as I am aware that not all who work there are totally loyal or even feel right about what it is that they are doing. But as long as any of those with any of that information lives, they will be a threat to the safety of the universe. We have no idea what lies beyond that wormhole. It may be too big for even The Federation to handle. Their arrogance could destroy everything, and add their greed to it and you have a recipe for total annihilation.”
Marik said, “You’re saying whatever beings exist over there, they may be powerful enough to take The Federation on, so why not let them?”
“I’d prefer The Federation not sacrifice most of the population of what we have always thought was the universe while they tried to do so,” Bates said in a tart voice.
Jeval said, “That’s logical.”
Bates said, “I had to weigh the choices. I expect you will as well. Yes, we will have to take a lot of lives. I understand this. But the loss of life that could happen if we don’t is too great.”
Jeval already knew that. They all did. He said, “We want peace.”
“As do I,” Bates said, “But we all know there’s only one real path to it, and it is a bloody one.”
Renall rested his forehead in his hands. “So why our planet?”
“It’s far enough out of the way to stay out of The Federation’s spotlight. It corners the universe, and it would be a good place to hide ships and weaponry, to stockpile those things as there is so much open surface.”
The general’s answer didn’t surprise any of them. They’d already reasoned that out as well but hearing it from his lips made it seem so much more like a foregone conclusion.
They had no choice. If what Bates thought might happen actually could happen, they and everything else in the universe would die.
He said, “I have one more question.”
Bates said, “Only one?”
Jeval gave him a tight smile. “Only one that I can think of right now. They destroyed Old Earth, so what is to stop them from destroying us as well?”
Bates sighed. “Nothing. The odds of any of us surviving this are so low they might as well not exist. But if we can make sure the tech they are using to try to open the wormhole, and none who might have the science used to work out a plan to do so survive, we could stave this off.”
Renall said, “Stave it off?”
Bates said, “We have to let the universe know what it is The Federation plans. Until all stand against them, there’s no way to kill them off. You know this. There must be a total rebellion, not just the pockets of it we have seen over the years.”
Bates’ eyes turned to Jeval. “I need you because I know of that thing you possess. You could topple their entire research lab from a distance, and you know it.”
Marik leaped from the chair he sat in. “To do so would mean his death! To do that would drain him totally dry and kill him!”
Bates said, “Then give enough for the men I command, that we will all command, to get into that place and level it. If it means dying inside those walls as they implode around me, I am willing to do that. I am willing to die for this. I am. I do not expect you to feel the same, of course.”
They would all die, most likely. On that score, Bates had been one hundred percent correct. The retribution for destroying that research lab would be swift and harsh. Jeval said, “I will help. I think they all will too, but I want a promise from you.”
Bates said, “If I can give that to you, I will.”
It was a concession, but not enough of one. “If we all die there, you must have some sort of decoy in place; you must be able to make it look as if the attack came from elsewhere, was plotted out elsewhere, so that the people here don’t find themselves being hit with the same weapon blast that destroyed Old Earth.”
Bates’ smile was not nice. “Oh, I have a plan for that already. I have spent the last year inserting evidence that proves, substantially, that several of the highest-ranking Federation officials are our allies. Because of that, they shall die too. The best way to kill off anything is with a headshot; don’t you agree?”
Jeval couldn’t argue that. None of them could.
Bates asked, “Do we have an accord?”
Jeval looked at his siblings. They had all known for some time that the war was coming. They had all known that the rebellion against The Federation would catch them up in its grip. But were they willing to cast their lot with this man and his plot and risk everything when it might be simpler to just sit it out and wait to see if his dire predictions about the unknown wormhole and The Federation’s opening of it, and the possible consequences of that action, came true?
They were.
They had no choice at all really.
Margie stood by the door as he came out of it. His gaze went to her. He had refused to allow himself to consider the words and actions she had used when Bates had demanded an audience.
He’d had to block that from his mind because if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to focus on that conversation with Bates, and he would have been distracted by all the questions her words and her being there at his side brought up.
Now that the thing with Bates was over, he had no choice but to let those questions come. They would not stay buried anymore.
His siblings and their mates drifted off. Bates left and got back on his ship, but the ships didn’t leave. Margie stood there, her wide eyes locked onto his face and her bright lips slightly parted.
Those lips he wanted to kiss so badly, that face he wanted to cup between his hands and just stare at until he burned every detail into his memory.
Because he might not come back from the mission he had just agreed to undertake.
Margie looked down at her feet and then back up at his face. A wry smile played out on her mouth. “You’re not going to tell me what just happened, are you?”
“Yes, but…but not here.” That surprised him. He had not meant to tell her. It was not the time. The last thing he needed was to have a heartache left behind. This was a suicide mission, and that was why he had insisted that Renall and Marik stay behind. He and Jessica and Talon alone would go with Bates to the research lab, and Bates damn well better be able to provide the backup and troops he had promised, but even if he did, there was little likelihood he would return alive.
Jessica would know the odds, but she would go anyway. She would because that was her nature and she would die with Talon before she lived without him.
For one moment, he really wondered if he could say the same thing about Margie, and if he could, would he allow her to go?
No.
Hell no.
He loved her too much to see her die.
Loved her.
That hit him like a jagged bolt of the purest and most deadly lightning. He loved her, and the last thing he wanted was for her to die.
They set off, and she asked, “Do you want to come to my hut? I have some honey and those figs you like. I…I picked them this morning.”
Just that morning, after he had made love to her and left her. Had she picked them just for him?
She had, and he knew it. She disliked the fruit, hated it in fact, with a real and vibrant intensity and made no secret of it. His chest hurt; he was sure if he touched a finger to that chest of his, he’d feel his heart breaking right there below the skin. “Yes, thank you.”
They turned up a grassy path. She said, “You know what?”
“What?”
“I don’t regret it. None of it.”
His head ached now too. The pressure building in his brain was from his mind trying to tell him to stay silent, to not put into words the feelings he had managed to hold at bay for so long. “Oh?”
“I don’t. Not going. Not being your sex slave, and being your sex slave,” there was a laugh lurking in her voice, but there was sadness in her words too. “I don’t even regret having killed that being that tried to kill you. In fact, I would kill any who would try and never regret it.”
She stopped walking. The sun lay on her face and hair, and there were silvery tears running down her face now. His thumb pressed against the bottom of her eye, rubbing one tear away. He said, “Margie, you know why this can’t be.”
“Because you can kill people, blow things up just by wanting to. Because you are afraid that you will somehow get me pregnant and that our child will die.”
Now was the time to tell her that he had to go. That he probably wouldn’t come back.
He said, “Let’s go inside. This is private.”
Her crestfallen face hurt him to the core, but she didn’t argue, and for that he was grateful.