Spirit of Empire 4: Sky Knights (37 page)

Seeton’s gaze moved to Atiana and Galborae. “Earth is an emerging world, just as yours is. It’s more advanced, but all life there would have ended had it not been for Lady Krys.”

Krys interjected. “Enough, Governor. Admirals Trexler and Buskin led the fighting. The last battle was the largest to date and it was a near thing.”

“Agreed, My Lady,” Seeton replied. He turned back to Atiana. “My point, Your Majesty, is that Tranxte is not the only emerging world to suffer in our war.”

“I’ve been so informed, Governor. Conditions on Tranxte are beyond horrible, but we are survivors. You’re saying there would have been no survivors on this world called Earth?”

“Probably not.”

“Then I understand your priorities.” She shot a look to Havlock, then focused hard on Ellie. “That does not mean I free you of your obligations.”

Ellie turned to Mike with a triumphant gleam in her eye. “We Queens never give in, do we?”

“More important, you never give up,” he replied.

Ellie turned back to Atiana. “I like you. You and I should spend some time together during the next couple of weeks.”

“I would enjoy that, Your Majesty, but I need to get back. All of us need to get back as soon as we can. Too much is at stake.”

Krys interjected. “I would like them to accompany us to Lianli, Mother.”

Ellie looked at her in surprise. The list of invitees going to meet the Leaf People was limited. “Are you certain?” she asked.

“I am, though Governor Havlock insists they return to Tranxte. They have an enormous challenge ahead of them.”

Ellie turned back to Atiana, ignoring Havlock. “She’s talking about the task of cleansing Tranxte of gleasons.”

“That’s the part I see, Your Majesty,” Atiana answered, “but Governor Havlock sees farther. He sees that only as the first step. Step two, and according to him probably the hardest step, is guiding an emerging world through its emergence. He wants my people to become who and what we choose to become, not something created by your Empire.”

Seeton had been leaning against a wall. At those words he stood up straight and stared hard at this colonel who, until recently, had been under his command. As governor of Tranxte, Havlock might still be under his command, but the waters were a little muddy there, particularly in view of the fact that he’d been Named by a Knight.

Mike stood as well. As First Knight, he had taken responsibility for two major projects of burning immediacy: first, dealing with the Chessori, but second, how the Empire was going to bring Earth through its emergence. He knew full well what was at stake here.

Ellie did not stand. She leaned back into her chair in contemplation. This meeting had suddenly elevated itself: here was a problem fit for the Chosen. “You have a plan?” she asked, directing her gaze to Havlock.

“Only the germ of a plan, Your Majesty,” Havlock replied. “We have to bring the locals along without giving up the store, and we need to challenge them every step of the way. I want to shepherd them but make them emerge through their own energy.”

“Can they? Can you?” she demanded.

Havlock spread his hands. “Your Majesty, my forces are focused on the gleasons right now, but two of my people have taken it upon themselves to introduce the Empire to Tranxte in a way that puts the gleasons second. They’ve been given the titles of Teacher and Healer. They have a knack for knowing how much they can press onto the local populace without alienating them. Our plan includes the locals doing a lot of the fighting. While I’ve been fighting gleasons, they’ve been teaching the locals how to help me fight, but they’ve also been introducing the Empire to them, and they’ve been effective.
”

Ellie looked to Hawke and Kori and made eye contact as she nodded her head.

Seeton was more focused on Havlock. “Does General Stymes know?” he asked.

Havlock’s lips firmed. “I’m here with a primer, sir. His troops will get some special training on the way to Tranxte. Once there, our Teacher and our Healer will polish those skills before sending them out.”

Seeton cocked his head to the side. “Stymes might need a little training himself.”

“He will, sir. None of this is doctrine.”

Stven spoke up. “Your Majesty, Governor Havlock has developed a general outline for a process that will go through a lot of refinement in the years ahead. I have a feeling some of my people will want to observe first hand and provide guidance in the process.”

“You’re saying the Rress might help?” Ellie asked in amazement. The Rress rarely left their home world anymore.

“You know us, Your Majesty. Can you imagine us not getting involved?”

She smiled. “You’re right.” To Havlock, she said, “You might have more help than you anticipated. You might have more help than you want.”

He shook his head. “I’ll take all the help I can get, but no one can come until we’ve dealt with the gleasons.”

“And how are you dealing with them? It seems an impossible task to me.”

Havlock made short work of his story of caravans, the healing of kings, soldiers, and citizens, and the building of relationships among kingdoms. He ended with, “The caravans have successfully pulled most, if not all the gleasons, from the cities and surrounding farms. We’re working on expanding that program. When General Stymes brings the rest of his forces, we’ll train them and send them out to kingdoms all over the globe using what we’ve learned as a model. His 1,000 squads won’t be enough, but we’ll get a better sense of what’s needed after he’s in the field.”

“If I have this right,” Mike asked, “before General Stymes’s guys go into the field, they’ll be introduced to the locals by someone specially trained in the process?”

“That’s the idea, Sire, though in actuality it happens at the same time. Sergeants Hawke and Kori, and either myself, Queen Atiana, or Sir Galborae appear before the front gates of the castle with a full squad of marines and a shuttle. It can be tense.”

“It will take a while to get the new marines up to speed.”

Havlock nodded. “Yes, Sire. Care is our motto. We won’t go faster than circumstances allow because mistakes are too expensive. Every nation we fail to convince will potentially become a major obstacle in the future.”

Mike leaned toward him. “Wouldn’t some trained civilian experts do a better job of introducing your troops to the locals?”

Havlock shook his head. “I wish that was the case, Sire, but no. We’re dealing with kings and their guards, all of them proud and exhausted fighting men. The only thing that works for them is to see us killing gleasons, but in the long run it’s equally important for them to know we have not come to conquer. Future generations have to believe we helped them through their emergence, not forced them. Once these kings know we’re on their side despite our magic, they learn to use our weapons and tactics and take over from us to some extent. That process begins with us bringing these people out to our caravans. The local kings join us, they kill gleasons with our weapons, and we make it a point to ensure that every king is in the forefront of his caravan when it reaches his castle.” He looked hard at his First Knight. “We still suffer significant losses on these caravans, Sire.”

Mike leaned back in his chair. “I see why Lady Krys named you governor. It’s an effective blending of civilian and military strengths. It feels right to me, Governor, and I’m impressed. I might pay you a visit one of these days.”

“Come armed and come in body armor, Sire. Never forget, these are gleasons we’re fighting.”

Ellie stood up, and everyone followed her example. “Oh, sit down, all of you,” she said crossly. “This is a working meeting.” She eyed Havlock and his group. “That includes you. I like your plan as far as it goes, Governor. You don’t have a blueprint to follow, but you’ve managed to go beyond simple military objectives. I congratulate you.” She paused with a glance toward Krys, then she brought her attention back to her newest governor. “That’s not why you’re here.”

“Uh, Your Majesty, I’m not exactly certain why I’m here.”

Stven spoke up. “She’s your Queen, Governor. She’s not one for games. You know precisely why you’re here.”

Seeton looked on with great interest as Havlock responded. “In truth, Sire, I’m not certain why we’re here except for the fact that Lady Krys had visions of us."

“Isn’t that reason enough?”

“Is it? We haven’t even begun our search. It could take years.”

“Your search for what, Governor?” Ellie asked.

“Wait,” Krys demanded. “Start at the beginning. Start with your speaking face to face with a gleason in an open field.”

A roar sounded from the back of the room. Otis stood there with his feet splayed, shaking his head and snarling.

Ellie’s mouth dropped open, so surprised was she. The two of them had been through a lot together, but she had never seen him lose his composure. She turned from Otis and directed her gaze to Havlock, then to Atiana and Galborae. “Otis is the first Great Cat to ever be Knighted,” she said. “He has stood with me through amazing trials. His people were nearly annihilated by gleasons some 2,000 years ago.”

She paused while she considered the whole picture, then looked at Atiana as she said, “So now we’ve come full circle. Sir Otis personally led a battle against some 200 gleasons hired by the Rebels for just one purpose: to kill me. I survived, but Otis lost many Protectors in the process. The price the Rebels paid for the services of those 200 gleasons was, to them, a pittance—just an emerging world called Tranxte.”

Atiana, Galborae, and Milae stood up, speechless.

Ellie nodded her understanding. “So now you know. So intent were the Rebels on killing me that no price was too much to pay. I’m sorry they chose you. If I could, I would return life to your fallen. Sadly, I cannot, but now you understand our commitment to you.”

Tears glistened in Atiana’s eyes as she nodded. Milae’s tears fell uncontrolled.

Ellie stood up and went to Milae, wiping the tears away with her hands and sleeves. “I’m so sorry,” she said again. “We will not abandon you, ever.”

Milae nodded, unable to speak, and Ellie stepped back to face Havlock. “I told you I’ve stood my ground against a gleason. I know what that means. Do you mean to tell me you spoke to one?”

“Sir Galborae and I began with capturing a gleason. We tried to talk with it, but captivity killed it. We captured two more, and both of them died as well. Galborae recognized the problem: captivity broke their spirits. None of them ever uttered so much as a word to us.”

“They have a language?” Ellie asked in surprise.

“Just a few rudimentary words,” Otis growled from the back of the room
.
“Not a language.”

"Not so rudimentary, Sire,” Havlock said, turning to him. “We were also told they always function independently, never in coordinated attacks. A whole caravan and two squads met a gruesome end, and Queen Atiana’s kingdom nearly fell because of that mistaken assumption,”

"I might be partially responsible for that misinformation,” Otis said. “My apologies, Governor. You were saying three gleasons died in captivity."

“Yes, Sire. So we set out to speak with one in the open,” Havlock said.

Several gasps sounded in the room, including from Ellie and Mike.

“Are you crazy?” Ellie asked in alarm.

“Probably. Sir Galborae made the first attempt. He stood alone in a field—it was just him and the gleason. Their conversation was brief, but he learned enough to convince us that we needed to try again. That second attempt ended up with both of us in tanks, Galborae’s second foray there.”

Stunned expressions met this revelation. Mike was the first to recover. “You learned something, didn’t you, Governor.”

“We did, Sire. Gleasons kill, but not out of hate or hunger. They kill for what they call ecstasy. We would call it killing for the challenge, but it’s deeper than that. The impression I came away with is that a gleason’s need for ecstasy is stronger than its drive to procreate. Ecstasy is only achieved at the end of a challenging hunt. They’ve killed few animals on Tranxte. Instead, they focus on people. The harder the challenge, the more it draws them to the hunt. Dying only matters if it’s not combined with ecstasy, and major wounds are acceptable if ecstasy lies at the end of the rush. A uniquely satisfying ecstasy comes from dying at the same time as their prey.”

He stopped while they digested this, then added, “Keep in mind that gleasons communicate mind to mind. What one gleason experiences they all experience. On Tranxte, gleasons exist in a constant state of ecstasy.”

Otis padded up to Galborae and sat, then lowered his head. “I bow to you, sir. That discovery is the stuff of Knights.”

“In more ways than one, Sire,” Havlock said. When Otis lifted a questioning gaze to him, he explained. “Galborae was named Tranxte’s Speaker in a vision. It will one day be him who speaks for all of Tranxte.”

Silence fell on the room as eyes shifted between Galborae and Krys. “That’s not why you’re all here,” Krys said. “Tell them, Governor.”

Havlock held out his hands. “Because of the gleasons’ need for ecstasy, the only logical conclusion I could reach was that I needed to either kill all the gleasons, in other words commit genocide, or take into consideration that they are a sentient race. The Empire I know and love has stood against genocide throughout memory. It’s in fact one of the most fundamental reasons we have an Empire. The fact that gleasons have needs and desires and morals completely at odds with our own does not mean they should be wiped out. It doesn’t even mean they’re wrong. It just means they’re alien.”