Resurrection (The Inherited War) (34 page)

By the time Thalo made his way into the makeshift infirmary, most of the unfortunate beings had received some minor care from the Marines and were preparing to move out to the transport.

“Sorry Sir,” The Colonels voice broke the silence, “we were unable to capture one of the bastards alive.  We have ten POW’s that are fit to move back to the transport and five others that need a medical transport.  I have called it in and it will be here in twenty minutes.  Do you need to do anything else here, Sir?”

“No, their computers are slagged.  I will take the ten back up to the transport and whatever men you want to send with us.  Well at least we saved some people if nothing else.”

“Aye and none of my people got hurt.  That’s a win in my book Sir.”  The colonel sounded sincere.

“Mine too, Colonel, mine too.  Alright I'm leading the way out, have your people and the POW’s follow me.”  They were all ready to go, so Thalo turned and lead the way back up to the airlock they had entered earlier.  The transport had repositioned itself after the all clear had been given and they had discovered the living beings being held prisoner.  They had no extra suits so the transport needed to be accessible to the nearly naked beings.  Thalo got to the door and stood off to the side while first the POW’s shuffled by then the marines.  He stepped into the transport and turned to seal the outer hatch.

He let the flight crew know that it was safe to depart and took a seat next to the freed beings.  Almost all of them looked haggard and worn out.  All but one.  “Hey Nixa.”  Thalo said after he deactivated his helmet.

“Yes, Worlder.”  He replied.

“Sorry pal if I knew your name I would use it.  Mines Thalo by the way.  Glad we could help you out.”

“Sorry, mines Race.  And thanks for saving us.”  The Nixa responded.

“Don’t mention it.  If you don’t mind me asking?   Are you a recent capture?  I only ask because you don’t look as drained as the others.”

“No, not recent.  I was born and bred on the Esii homeworld.  Until recently I was a breeder, not a feeder.”  He responded sullenly.

“What happened?  What changed?”  Thalo prompted him.

“You don’t know?”  He said with disbelief on his face.

“No.  To be honest, we have no idea what prompted this mass attack on our system.  We have been hemmed in here for over a month.  Besides, no one ever goes to the Esii system and comes back.”  “Well,” he thought to himself, “Cole better.”

“I'm not completely sure about the total time but I would put it at a little over a month ago something happened on Esii.  Something bad.  Earthquakes rocked the planet and caverns and caves around the world began to collapse.  Volcanoes erupted and lava began to fill the cities of the Esii.  I overheard some talking, I wasn’t sure that I heard right to be perfectly honest.  But from what I heard is something very important to the survival of the Esii was killed and it was destroying the planet.  Whatever it was that died, according to the breeding room guards, could be found somewhere here.  In your system.  That’s why they tried so hard to conquer it during the war twenty thousand years ago.”

Thalo's mind raced at this startling information.  Something was killed that the Esii needed to survive.  Esii fleeing their homeworld en mass.  Cole was still alive.  And he was kicking ass.  It had been so very long since he had heard from Split.  The last message was the one telling them to come in a few days.  That was over a month ago.  He had received nothing new since. 

Cole had done something to drive the Esii off of their home world.  He had made his rescue a thousand times easier.  But they had come to the one place in the galaxy that would prevent that rescue.  The rescue fleet was bottled up and ineffective as a rescue.

“Shit.” He muttered aloud.  He was going to have to pry loose a ship from this mess.  Maybe they could jump out without the Esii fleet knowing, pick up Cole, and hop back before it was too late.  Yeah right, there was as much of a chance of that happening as the Esii just packing up and going.  It sounded like this was the one place in the galaxy they had left.  Thalo glanced at the Nixa and snorted.  The creature had fallen asleep.  Thalo knew he wouldn’t be getting much sleep until he figured out a way around this mess.

~

The door to the medical bay swished open as Thalo approached.  It was surprisingly quiet for having just gone through a major battle and receiving the POW’s from the disabled Esii ship.  Said ship had been subsequently wiped from the face of the galaxy as soon as the medevac had cleared the blast radius.  For the most part, the pilots of the small drone attack fighters had taken Sky’s warning to heart and had avoided staying bonded to their small ships when they got destroyed.  It didn’t physically harm them but left them with a horrible headache and in some cases unconscious. 

That was one of the great things about the human fleet.  You could send wave after wave of small drone fighters to their deaths and never lose a pilot, permanently.  Thalo stopped and scanned the med bay.  He saw the group of fifteen survivors from the Esii ship on one side and the two unfortunate pilots who ignored Sky’s warning and were suffering from deep throbbing headaches.  Thalo smiled as he saw one of the pilots sit up and groan.  She was massaging her temples and looked ready to vomit.

Thalo walked over to her and in an overly loud voice said.  “Snow, didn’t they tell you to disengage from your bond before you blew up?”  Thalo’s voice thundered through the quiet space.  Her hands flew from her temples to cover her mouth as she fought for control of her stomach.  Thalo already had a sick pan and was holding it out for her.  Snow snatched it from him and emptied the contents of her stomach into the pan.

“Go.  To.  Hell.”  She forced out between clenched teeth.

“I told you,” Sky’s voice quietly said from behind Thalo.  “First timers never listen.  And it doesn't get better it gets worse.  Don’t do it again.”  Sky walked up and slapped a patch onto Snows exposed hand.  In a matter of moments Snow let out an audible sigh of pleasure as the pain faded and then left her head. 

“Right, I won’t make that mistake again.  So did you come down just to torment me or do you have news?”

“News, of sorts.”

“Did Split contact you?”  Thalo could hear the cautious optimism and fear in Sky’s voice as she asked the obvious question.

“No, sorry.  But one of the rescued prisoners had an interesting story to tell.”  Thalo related everything the male Nixa had told him and interjected some of his own hypotheses.

“Cole, it had to be Cole.  Right?  Who else could defeat an entire race that was holding him prisoner?”  Sky had a spark in her eye that Thalo hadn’t seen in a while.

“I drew the same conclusion.”  Thalo replied.

Her smile faded.  “But, is he with the fleet out there or still back on the planet?  Is there still a planet?”

“Our last report from Split was that they had escaped.  So we have to assume he is still on the planet.  If he isn’t,” Thalo shrugged,” then there is nothing we can do.  We could never get close enough to search all those ships.  According to our stellar cartographers Esii is still there.  If he is still on that planet then he is still alive.  Cole and Split working together would have figured out a way to survive.  Hell they drove the Esii off of their own homeworld; they could survive the cataclysms the Nixa described.”

“Why hasn’t Split contacted us then?”  Sky asked.

“I have no idea.  His transmitter must have been broken and he has been unable to fix it.  Or the conditions on the planet are so bad it can’t send out a signal.  I honestly don’t know.” Thalo once again saw the hurt in her eyes as she nodded her head and turned her attention back to her patients.

CHAPTER 26

Cole sat perched on the edge of the container and gazed out over the shimmering plain before him.  Even though the sun had set hours before, the landscape was brightly lit.  The massive fields of lava had still yet to completely cool and gave off a ruddy red glow.  This is what most people thought hell was supposed to be like.  Massive volcanoes spewing heat and smoke into the night, while massive lakes of fire dotted the landscape.

No reprieve for the living anywhere.  Anywhere but the small plateau above it all.  Heaven it wasn’t, but haven it was.  It had been a little over a month since Cole and Split had freed the remains of humanity from one prison and led it to another.  Cole gave one last glance to the impossible terrain just outside of the shield that was currently keeping them all safe before rising and walking back to the middle of the compound.

He deftly hopped down from the top of the container and landed on the ground.  That was it.  That was his free hour for the day.  Now he belonged to those he had saved.  It hadn’t taken long for the routine to be established.  He was forceful on his hour of quiet every day.  At first he had been more than willing to answer everyone's questions.  Now he was tired of it.  He wouldn’t mind it so much if someone would think of something new to ask but he got the same questions every day from different people.  Were they safe? Yes. Did they have enough food?  Yes.  Water?  Yes.  Air?  Yes.  When was the rescue coming?  Soon.  Was I absolutely sure Earth was gone?  Yes.  Were there more people elsewhere?  I don’t know.  And the topper was, why was he in charge?  Because I knew what was going on, and when we got off this rock I would have the connections to find us a new home.

Cole was sure Thalo or Sky knew of a place that would be habitable for humanity to settle.  In the meantime there was plenty of room for them all at the shipyards.  They could stay there long enough to find and equip a new home.  They just had to get there.  Cole noticed a smaller than normal crowd milling around outside of his personal container that he shared with Split.  As he walked to his daily question session, he couldn’t help but notice the state of the women in camp.  The skin tight suits failed to hide the most pressing problem on the horizon.  If someone didn’t come for them soon, the camp would be awash in newborn babies.

Not just a few thousand but tens of thousands of babies.  After they had gotten all the women in suits and the two portable medical bays set up, they had discovered that every women was pregnant with at least two fetuses.  Some had triplets and two had quads.  In a few short days, the human population may very well triple in size.

The suits were the most important piece of personal equipment they had.  The suits could monitor the health of both mother and child and keep them all comfortably cool or warm depending and could apply counter pressure to offset pregnancy pangs.  The air scrubbers were keeping the air breathable so they didn’t have to walk around with the helmets up anymore, and the portable AC unites were keeping it cool enough that it was bearable.  No one was allowed to completely remove their suits, though.  Cole wanted everyone to be protected in case of shield failure.

The shield itself had performed admirably.  In conjunction with the overpowered power generators, the shields had kept them alive.  The shields had held up to the planet itself.  They had kept the rising tide of molten earth at bay, and finally had protected them from the orbital bombardment of the Esii fleet overhead.  That had been the tensest part of their ordeal so far.  For days after the exodus by the Esii, the Esii fleet had pounded the shields protecting the humans.  With Split and Cole on constant watch over the shields and generators, they had hunkered down and waited the Esii out.

Finally the Esii must have realized they couldn’t break through and had given up.  Cole also mused that they were probably getting hungry and needed to go looking for a new energy source so had given up on destroying the humans.  Hell, it wasn’t like they were going anywhere anyway.  Though they had left behind a small flotilla of ships in a geosynchronous orbit to keep their eyes on the stranded humans.

Cole walked back through the crowd of waiting humanity.  He had told them over and over that someone was coming to rescue them.  Every day he reassured them, promised them.  Help was on the way.  He felt he was losing their trust.  They still followed his orders.  Followed the water and food rationing he had laid out.  Slept in shifts since there weren’t enough cots for everyone.  But behind the kind words and thanks he still received on a daily basis, there was the doubt.

He stopped where he thought appropriate and said some words to groups of people, shook hands, and listened to their problems.  Like it or not he was their leader.  But he wasn’t a politician.  His phrases and words were more suited to soldiers on a battlefield that a horde of pregnant women.  His speeches often brought blushes and covered laughs from his audience but in this time and place it was what was called for.  Blunt direct honesty.  Smooth words that slithered around in your head and could mean multiple things were fine for governments unafraid or unthreatened.  When you were fighting for your life direct honesty aimed at those you protected did more for morale than any rhetoric could ever accomplish.

Cole moved through the camp and made contact with as many people as he could.  He got more than a few smiles directed at him from multiple women, which he returned in kind.  It was easy, every flirtatious smile brought the image of Sky to his mind’s eye.  He never showed favoritism to anyone.  Everyone got the exact same amount as everyone else.   Except those he was training.  Cole, West, Split and the converted to their side ex-special forces soldier had been drilling two hundred or so volunteers in weapons and tactics for the past three weeks. 

Cole was determined to have a force of humans on his ships when they got off this rock that could represent his race.  He didn’t want anyone asking why humans weren’t fighting to save themselves.  They didn’t have much space but they had unlimited ammo thanks to the power generators and the men were becoming very proficient in using the alien weapons.

Cole finally finished his circuit of the camp and came to a stop at the gaping maw of the shaft that lead back down into the plateau.  Split had convinced Cole last night to allow him to go back down in the supply area and search for anything salvageable.  He had started that search this morning.  They needed com gear.  The warp transmitter that Split had been using to talk to Thalo had been badly damaged in the fighting and they had no way to contact their friends.

Cole was still miffed at the non-response to Splits last message.  Thalo should have gotten it and come to rescue them already.  Cole was definitely going to have a talk with his good friend about that.  Coles musing was interrupted by the sound of a grav lift activating from below.  He took a few steps back as the lift rose and brought a heat scorched but otherwise undamaged container to the surface.  West was standing on top of it.

“Hey boss.”  West said as the container floated away from the shaft.  West jumped down and walked over to friend. 

“How is it down there?”  Cole asked him.

“Not as bad as we thought.  The magma, or is it lava?  I can never remember.”  A thoughtful look stole over West’s face as he thought on it.

“Lava.  Magma is still in the planet.  It becomes lava when it reaches the surface.”  Cole supplied.

West shrugged his shoulders.  “Whatever, anyway it only got a few feet deep.  It’s hot as hell in there but these containers are fairly heat resistant and the ones stacked on top of the bottom ones should have survived.  Split thinks we can get all of them to the surface then go back and try to get into the lower ones if possible.  No order this time, we are just moving them as we find them.  Hope we get lucky, like I got last night.”

“Damn it West, can’t you think with your head, ever?”  Cole let out a groan.

“Shit man, you know me and it’s been a while.  I've never turned a willing lady away.  Especially not that one.  There is something about her.  Granted, sitting in an empty transport container eating globs of the crap we call food isn’t a good first date, but it can only go up from here.” 

“Just remember, these girls have been through a lot and I don’t want to find you dead in your hooch one morning because you pissed off some hormonal pregnant women.  So keep this girl on the down low and watch your ass.”  Cole paused for a moment.  “Christ man she’s pregnant.  What were you thinking?”

“That there was no way in hell I could get her pregnant.”  He said with a smile.  “Now shut up here she comes.

Cole turned to look as the women approached.  Cole had gotten pretty good at judging how many babies each woman had by the size of their bellies.  This girl was probably only pregnant with twins.  She was slight, a little shorter than West with brown hair and eyes.  Her eyes twinkled and only looked at West.  Cole snickered.

“What?”  West whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

“Never mind, you’re screwed.”  Cole responded.

They quieted as she got within hearing range.  West cleared his throat.  “Hi Jess.”  He said as she stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.  “Uhh, okay.”  He returned her hug.  “I know you already met, but this is my old buddy Cole.  Cole, this is Jess.”

“Hello Ma’am.”  Cole said politely.

“Yes, hello.”  She had a sweet southern belle accent.  She looked back into West face.  “Are you done playing down there?”

“Umm,” he looked at Cole and his face turned red.  “I, guess so?”  It was more of a question than an answer.

“Good answer,” she said.

“Go,” Cole waved them away.  “I can take care of things up here.”  Cole smiled when without a word she grabbed his friends hand and drug him away.  Cole chuckled as he watched West being marched off to his doom.  Cole turned and waved to a few men who had come over to watch the container come out of the ground.  He quickly organized the men and got them to work emptying out the container.

Over the next few hours they emptied dozens of containers.  Some were useful others were not.  Once they had enough empties to house everyone they started to dump the extras over the edge of the plateau.  Someone suggested not wasting them and stacking them at the empty end of the plateau but Cole wanted that area clear for training and as a landing pad for the soon, he hoped, to be coming rescue ships.

They caught a huge break when Split located a water storage tank.  It was all clean portable water and would make survival even easier.  They pushed on for hours, going through container after container.  Everyone who could was pitching in now.  It was like Christmas after a long boring December.  Everyone was excited to break up the monotony.  Finally, after working for twelve straight hours unloading the container, Cole stepped back and took a meal break.   He was sitting amidst a group of his new recruits who had wandered over and lent a hand when Cole saw Split’s head rise up out of the shaft.

He watched as Split directed not one but four containers out of the hole and off to the side.  Cole immediately saw that these containers were different than the rest.  These had control panels that were lit up with power.  Cole let Split finish directing the placement of the containers before he rose and excused himself from the group he was eating with.  He told them to stay and finish their meals but they were just as curious as Cole.

“What did you find?”  Cole asked as he neared Split.

“It depends.”  He rumbled.  “Look at these.”  Split led Cole over to the first container and pressed a button on the control panel.  A one by one foot section slid away and revealed a flat viewing screen.  The screen sprang to life.  Cole was speechless as Split swiped his hand across the screen repeatedly showing Cole new pictures.

“Do you recognize these things?”  Split asked.

“Yes, damn it, I do.  Those are things from Earth.  Animals.”  Cole, giddy with excitement ran to the next container and turned on the inventory screen.  Images and symbols flashed as he ran his fingers over the screen.  “Plants.”  He stated as he ran to the next.  “Water animals, fish and plants.”  He got the third one.  “It was a mishmash of everything.  Plants, animal bacteria and even a few viruses.

Cole made it to the fourth container and stopped.  This one had a different panel.  Something else was in there.  Split was now standing next to Cole while those that had followed Cole were busy looking at the manifests to see what there was to see.

“We can recreate Earth.”  Cole said to Split.  “We’ll bring back the flora and fauna.  They must have been worried that there were things humans needed to survive, just like them.  They took DNA from animals and seeds from plants in case they had to recreate Earths habitats.  We can find a planet that can sustain life but has none of its own and bring these things back from the dead.”  Cole thought for a moment.  “I can eat a steak again.  A real steak.  I saw a cow in there.”

“Yes, all true.  But, what is in this last one?”  Split asked him.  “Can you not remember any of this?”  Split asked referring to the memory dump the Pyndingum had forced onto Cole just before he died.

“No, I'm afraid my mind isn’t set up for what he tried to do to me.  Everything he put in there,” Cole pointed to his head, “is slowly slipping away.  I can remember the specific things I searched for but I'm finding gaps when I look for new stuff.  I can’t say that I'm too disappointed though, I am losing some pretty horrific memories.”  Cole looked at the container.  He pulled out the pistol he always carried and handed it to Split.  There is only one way to find out what’s in there.”  Cole reached up and hit the seal release on the container.  Air hissed as the front end began to swing up and the air pressure equalized.