The War of Pawns (The Human Chronicles -- Book Three) (37 page)

The strangest part of the evolving routine on the base was also one they should have anticipated. It seemed that one of the primary thoughts the newly freed men from the prison had on their minds had nothing to do with getting home, or even enjoying their new-found freedom. It had to do with the green-shirts. Some of the men had been held captive for 10 years or more, and during that entire time they had had no contact with the opposite sex. So now that they were free to wander the base, as were the women, the men began to spend more and more of their time trying to seduce the women.

This action produced its own side effects. The green-shirts had been spirited away from Earth many months, and even years before, and had been subjected to the most degrading treatment imaginable. Some were raped, while others had been artificially inseminated. But all had borne numerous children, some as many as five or six during their time with the 2G’s. The last thing these women had on their minds was more sex, even if it was of their own terms.

This caused an issue for the horny men from the prison, where tempers sometimes flared. Even some fights broke out among the men over the few women who were open to hooking up.

This situation continued for most of the first week. Eventually, the 86 men and 64 women reached an understanding of sorts, and a relative peace descended on the base.

The base was so huge, at one time accommodating over 10,000 2G’s, that all the freed men and women could claim their own domiciles. Adam began to grow concerned when the non-converts began to settle into a somewhat contented state of mind, right there on the base. He began to wonder how many would actually join his slowly growing army?

Some of the men and women had volunteered immediately. Even though not all these early recruits were of fighting grade, Adam took them anyway. Every force still needed their support personnel, and having these people around would help free up the SEALs to do most of the heavy lifting.

Vanholden had been one of the earliest volunteers. He had also helped to organize viewing sessions of the President’s speech, as well as interviews with the current members of Adam’s army. As the first week stretched into the second, Adam’s force had grown by 40, to include 28 men and 12 women.

There was still a small, but insistent, group of about 20 men and 18 women who insisted on returning to Earth. Adam was good at his word, and had found three of the men who had piloting experience back on Earth. He had them trained as pilots for one of the Klin ships that he would allow to be used for the trip back to Earth.

He was also surprised to find that four of the seven scientists were also opting for the return trip. It seemed that the thrill and spontaneity they’d experienced when deciding to join Adam had begun to wear off. Some had abandoned families when bolting for the landing craft. Adam couldn’t blame them, but still he feared for their lives – all their lives – as they would return to face the Klin and their single-minded and heartless goal of perpetuating the war. The Klin had proven that they weren’t beyond cold-blooded murder of millions of people to further their agenda. They would not hesitate to kill every last one of these men and women if they saw them as a threat to that agenda.

Two weeks into their stay on Calamore, Adam called a crucial strategy meeting among his top lieutenants. Final plans had to be defined that would get them on the right track, and they had a number of other issues to discuss.

The meeting was attended by all the regulars, but now included Derrick Vanholden, along with another recent volunteer named Josh Cohen and a green-shirt named Ingrid Sorenson. Cohen had held the rank of Colonel in the Israeli army at the time of his abduction, so his skill set could come in handy.

As far the women were concerned, it turned out that Annabelle Pasqual was not much of an intellect, and had no desire to take a lead position. Ingrid, on the other hand, was a fiery pistol of woman who had a wit almost as quick as Sherri’s. The two women quickly became inseparable.

“Okay, we need to get down to brass tacks if we’re to have any chance of success against the Juireans,” Adam began the meeting. “First of all, we have to have the freedom of movement within The Expansion, and we certainly can’t do that aboard the Juirean battlecruiser and the Klin ships. Riyad…”

“My pirate fleet consisted mainly of Silean Exitor-class ships. These are sleek, fast ships with decent weaponry. They have a compliment of about 25, and are the preferred mode of long-range transportation throughout The Fringe. Any of these ships we came upon, we’d make a point of retaining. The other merchant ships we attacked were usually stripped and set adrift.”

“Where can we get these ships – Silean, you called them?” Tobias asked. Adam really enjoyed having the lieutenant at his side. Even though he always deferred command to Adam in the most respectful way, it was hard for him to forget his officer training. Adam had a certain level of expertise himself, but everyone knew that Tobias was the only real officer in the room, at least until Cohen had been brought into the chain of command. But even though Cohen outranked Tobias on a strictly military level, Tobias was a SEAL, and by default, this whole operation was under American control. Cohen was perfectly content with this arrangement.

“Two ways, Mr. Tobias: We can either steal them, or we can buy them. If we steal them, then we have to lie in wait until one happens along, and then hope we can take her without too much damage. That will take time and considerable effort, and we risk taking casualties along the way.”

“That leaves buying them,” Chief Rutledge commented. “What do we use for money?”

“I have a plan that should get us most of what we need, but that route will also be risky. It involves making a call on an old friend of Adam’s and mine.” Riyad looked over at Adam and saw the look of confusion on his face. “Kroekus.”

“You’ve got to be kidding? He wouldn’t let us within a hundred kilometers of him or his headquarters, not after our last meeting.”

“All I’ll need is about six of your SEALs, and to contact my old second, a Nimorian named Angar.”

“Is he still alive?”

“I’m pretty sure. I saw his ship bolt out from Dimloe just as the battle was turning. He’s a pirate, and always will be. I’m sure he’s reestablished himself in the underworld, and would have a way of contacting Kroekus.”

“Who’s this Kroekus character?” Tobias asked.

“I’ll tell you,” Sherri spoke up, a little too loudly. “He’s about as close as you can come to Jabba the Hut in real life; a fat slob of a creature who controls most of the organized crime in The Fringe. I wouldn’t count on him helping us too much, Riyad.”

“Trust me, Sherri. I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse,” replied Riyad, doing his best Don Corleone imitation. Adam was surprised to find that even the Lebanese were fans of
The Godfather
.
 

“Okay, let’s assume that we can get our hands on some of these ships,” Adam continued, “where are we going to set up shop? We can’t stay here. This is too far from The Fringe, and besides, it’s well-known to the Klin and the 2G’s. As their Human forces begin to invade Juirean space, they will eventually return here.”

Riyad spoke again. “During my research into possible locations for a Klin base in The Fringe, I found two planets with decent gravity, other than Zylim-4. Z-4 is a bust now, so we might try the other two. However, before you get too excited, they are on close-in hot worlds.”

Carol Nash had been the only scientist to join the inner circle. She spoke next. “That could be a problem, unless our base is in the terminator zone between the hot and cold sections. Do these planets rotate?”

“One does, the other doesn’t. There’s a large underground mining facility on Viemon-2, right at that terminator zone you mention. It’s in the Castorian system, and there’s a large abandoned section that’s been tapped out by the mining conglomerates. And because of the gravity, most of the actual mining that still takes place is done by robots and automated equipment. We should be able to set up operations there. And it’s also right in the middle of The Fringe. We’ll be able to strike targets with relative ease.”

“What about the Juirean presence in the area?” Cohen asked, speaking for the first time. Cohen spoke perfect English, having acquired a lot of his advance training at the Naval War College in Rhode Island. He had also been born in America, in Kansas City, but his family had immigrated to Israel in 1987, when he was 17.

At first, he and Riyad had been very leery of each other, but as they began to work closer together over the past two weeks, they began to see that their new reality trumped any animosities from the past. Adam was glad to see that they had gained a certain respect for each other, and that working together would not be a problem.

Adam spoke next. “We can assume that since the destruction of their fleet, the Juireans will have reinforced and enhanced their presence in The Fringe. The region has now become the border between what would be considered Juirean space and Human space. You can bet a lot has changed since we left. As for now, we have no idea what those enhancements have been, but that’s what we’re here for. With communications now established with Admiral Allen, we can not only attack the Juirean infrastructure in The Fringe, but also provide him with much needed intel regarding their forces there.”

“Won’t the Klin also be providing intel for us, meaning the Humans back on Earth?” Chris Mullis asked. “As you’ve told us before, the Klin need us to kick some butt early on in this war just to make it competitive.”

“That’s true, but we have to accept all Klin intelligence with a grain of salt. They want us to weaken the Juireans, but they also can’t have us just plow through them with very little effort – if that’s even possible. They need us to win some, and then lose some. But you’re right. At first they need us to win, just so the people back home will believe that we can prevail in this war.

“But back to Riyad’s plan. The bulk of our forces can probably stay here until you can get us some ships. We can take the battlecruiser into the Void and then use the shuttle to get us to Nimor.”

Adam surveyed the faces seated around the large conference table. They all looked anxious for some action. “Sherri, how about you help the Chief and Carol coordinate our move to Viemon-2. We’ll need as much information about the facility as the Library can provide. We’ll also need to start stockpiling supplies, weapons, ammo and the like. Unfortunately,” he said with a smile, looking at the SEALs in the room, “we’re going to have to start using the bolt launchers more, at least until we can start getting resupplied from Earth. I know, they’re awkward and limiting, but we will eventually run out of real ammo once the fighting starts.”

He hesitated again, as he noticed several of the people at the table taking notes.
Good, they’re taking things seriously.
“If there’s nothing else, then we’ll adjourn. I will meet with each of the teams individually as we approach our jump off point. We go in five days.”

Chapter Fifty-Two

Adam picked a team of six other SEALs to accompany them to Nimor so Riyad could find Angar and implement the balance of his plan. Adam was anxious to meet the Nimorian, if he was still alive.

At the very beginning of Adam’s adventure, it had been Angar who first attacked the Klin ship that he was on, and it had been Angar who boarded the Klin ship and rescued Riyad just before it exploded. He also led the assault on the Nimorian jail that provided the diversion so that Adam and the two aliens could escape back to the
FS-475
. For those first few days that Adam had existed in the alien world, Angar had been there, just out of Adam’s view, yet playing an integral part in the events that played out.