*
The attack was reported seconds after it began. “Who is it?” asked Lijfomid, but no one knew. One officer suggested they fire on all the cities but Lijfomid squashed that idea. It would not be wise. They would have trouble recruiting for future missions if it was known that they fired on their own. And he wanted the cure. Isjidakawi had given him 25mls of plasma, but Lijfomid didn’t trust him. It could have been water. He was feeling sicker despite the so called anti-bodies. He was in charge and he wanted to survive.
A message from one of the cities said they were all surrendering and the leader of the attackers was waiting to accept the Commander’s surrender. The city commander said the attackers said they had the cures to the diseases.
Quickly, the communicator was switched on and Lijfomid looked at the scene. Aliens he couldn’t identify, but thought he had seen before, had all his city officers at gun point. At least he thought they were guns. Some looked like pipes.
“Who is the Leader?”
“I am,” replied Mathew. “Am I speaking to the Commander Lijfomid?”
“Yes. What are your terms?”
“Unconditional surrender. No anti-virals until all the ships have landed. You’d better hurry. Some of you will be running out of time.”
He’d got that right, Lijfomid thought wearily, “Accepted.”
Mathew cut the link. He turned to Az. “Is that all there is to it?” Az had coached him as to what to say.
Az thought carefully. “Lijfomid didn’t try to bargain. He didn’t even ask what you were. Either they are going to fire on the cities or they are going to surrender. I’d guess they’ll land. Especially if they want to live. We’ll soon find out.”
Az’s voice was going through the Translator. Seeing the Niseyen, one of the officers, Lidisihad, had added the Niseyen language to the current menu of his Translator and turned the volume to “Private.” Now he would hear it through his ear piece. Lidisihad had been through a full Machine treatment which no one knew about. He was not expecting to die. He had mild symptoms only so far and he had had the plasma. He had told no one about his Treatment. He had no intention of donating or selling his anti-bodies either. He was not going to be weakened by blood loss when suffering a haemorrhagic illness. He wasn’t stupid. He needed all his blood and anti-bodies for himself. Not worried about contagion therefore, he had stayed inside this morning. He was very angry. He was also very observant. He had had many Niseyen in his command. Although small, they were good mercenaries. But this Niseyen was acting as though he was in a leadership or advisory role. Interesting.
The others, including the leader Mathew, looked like jare Niseyen but were not speaking Universal. There were other subtle differences; sparse clothing, facial hair, a variety of colourings he had never seen before in Niseyen, and then Li walked in with a load of guns. She handed them around, keeping one for herself! Lidisihad stared at her. A female and a child at that! In a combat zone! Wearing very little clothing with her arms and legs bare! And injured. She had a lot of blood on her side, was moving as though in pain and had a bandage on her arm. No one was reacting to her injuries! No Niseyen he knew acted like that. And her hair, so long. As she turned towards him, he saw her eyes. Before he thought, he blurted out, “What are you? You’re not Niseyen.”
She looked at Mathew who nodded. “Terran,” she answered.
No better off, Lidisihad continued to puzzle.
“Why did you attack us?”
She glared at him, “You killed my parents. Half of us died on the first day of your attack.”
He stopped himself from asking why not the other half. It might not be wise. He continued to fume, observe and puzzle. Who were these People? How long had they been plotting to kill the Keulfyd and why? Lidisihad had a very good memory. He had never seen these People before.
Az was sent off, Li in tow, by Mathew, to check for safety issues, casualties, and send a message to the Aliens that were in hiding or not yet captured.
Az did this first. He found the Main Public Communicator, next to the Headquarters room. He was going to enjoy this. He switched it on to Main and spoke, “This is a message for all those in hiding. Your leaders have surrendered. Report to the Mess Hall. As soon as the ships land, we will start moving you to another place. Once there, you will be given the various cures. I suggest you hurry. Some of you will have very little time left. Soon, a whole lot more of you are going to be very sick.”
That last bit was a bluff suggested by Helkmid. But their confidence was probably already shaken by all the deaths this morning. According to that lot in Headquarters, they knew it was a neurotoxin but didn’t know the delivery system. If he told them it was children with drain rods, they wouldn’t believe him.
As he walked towards the Mess Hall, he heard something. As he got closer, he felt all his hair start to rise. Someone was sobbing. The type of sobbing that tore your heart. He saw a crowd and ran, followed by Li. Helene was on the ground holding Tasha. The little girl was dead. But how? Az had been a mercenary. He automatically looked for the cause. Her gloves were off. Her hands were bare. Had she continued firing? She knew not to. Why had she done this?
Without thinking he said, “Why did she keep firing? Did she forget?”
“No,” said Bea. “We talked about this. We all had trouble with the gloves. They catch on the side bits. They slowed us down. Tasha and Donny said the older kids would carry on firing if they ripped their gloves. If they thought they should. They said me and Bella were to stop though. They said we’d done enough. They said we were too young to be a kamikaze.”
“What’s kamikaze?”
Bea answered, “When you do something. And you know if you do it you will die. But it means you save many others.” She looked sadly at Tasha, “It wasn’t an accident.”
Az walked away, stunned to his core. This little girl had knowingly and deliberately given her life. It was planned. That was a Niseyen tactic. “Do your people do that often, this Kami whatever.”
“Kamikaze. Yes we do. It makes more sense in battle for a few to give their lives for the many,” Li was in tears too.
“We have that same philosophy,” he said softly. “It makes us hard to beat.”
He passed the Mess, more Aliens were arriving. The Cats were the main guards he saw. Good idea.
Az continued around, checking for dead and injured. He saw several Cats dead or badly injured. He missed Kelly. She had gone with Kaz. Ludmilla was their medic. He was looking for her. She should be in the hospital. Following the other Terrans, he found her. She was busy getting herself organised. At least she seemed to be OK. A bit injured though. There were some bandages he could see and a lot of blood but maybe it wasn’t hers. Some Cats were helping her, very enthusiastically. They were emptying the bags of sick Aliens. They were neither polite nor gentle. Most of the Aliens who could, were dragging themselves out of their bags rather than go flying on to the floor and then get clawed outside. It was a very fast and effective method. He had to admire their efficiency.
Li and Az found themselves recruited. Az knew the routine here. He wheeled the bag under a Cleaner, switched it on till it flashed and it was ready for a new occupant. Li copied him. Within a few minutes, they had a whole area cleared, the bags ready.
Li finished the last bag and looked around. All the Aliens were gone and the bags were filling up. They had all learned the routine but she checked each incoming. Breathing, alert or not, bleeding stopped. A lot of the injured were Cats. They were so big and heavy it took four of them to lift a Cat onto a bag. Shocked, she saw Simone being carried in. Her right arm was blown off and she had chunks out of her face. Her side was soaked in blood. She was alert though. Li helped her onto a bag then noticed to her horror that her right leg was gone too below the knee. Her whole right side seemed to have been damaged. She wasn’t bleeding though.
“What happened?”
“Bad. Our team copped it. Some dead.”
“Just hang on. Stay a
live. We’ll get you into a Machine. Your arm and leg will re grow.” Li hoped this was right. She held up her arm and called for Ludmilla.
Within half an hour Az was back reporting to Mathew. “Tasha is dead, the other children OK. It was Simone’s team that ran into the main trouble. The sentries were Relogs. They came out in a rush and ran full into them. Minka is dead, Anne and Simone badly injured, Julia’s injured but she’s mobile. They wiped out the Relogs though. Some of the Cats were with them. They got hammered too. The other teams have injuries, some very bad, but no more fatalities so far among Terrans. Some Cats are dead though. I don’t know how many. Anne and Simone need a Machine. So do some of the Cats. Can I fly them out?”
“Can you do it by yourself?”
“Li will come. She can fly.”
Mathew smiled, “Now why am I not surprised? Check with Helkmid and Ludmilla. Make sure they’re stable enough to fly. Go.”
Az commandeered one of the ground cars. It was quickly loaded with the worst of the injured and soon they were in the air. Az was in a hurry. He flew at full speed. It didn’t matter if they were detected now. On board he had Anne, Bea and eight badly injured Cats. No medical staff. None could be spared. Kelly had ordered all the children to be removed with the medical flights. She told them they were needed to fetch and carry and help with the wounded. It was really so they wouldn’t see what was to happen next. The dead were going to be dumped and there were a lot of them. But first, the prisoners were going to the islands to be guarded by the Priskya.
Az’s flight was bad. Two of the Cats died and Anne was barely alive. Little Bea stayed with her, begging her to live. Az called ahead, telling one of Helkmid’s staff that three, in Ludmilla’s judgment, would have to go straight in. The others could wait but not long. Bea couldn’t understand why Helkmid said Simone had to stay behind.
“Simone won’t die Bea,” said Li. “Her injuries are awful but they won’t kill her. She is young and strong. She can wait.”
“But there are eight Machines.”
“And there will be other flights like this. Three others,” Li said grimly. Helkmid had told them that all survivable injuries were not to come. Not this time. There were only eight Healing Machines. Simone got bumped off the flight along with two other Cats.
The other Cats and Anne survived the flight. After delivering them, exhausted, Li and Az decided to get some sleep. It was now night time.
On rising later, they reported to Alan for orders.
“You need to transport one of Helkmid’s staff back. The Okme has the rest of the Cures. Also going back are Anne and some Cats. All have had enough hours to stabilise them. There should be other Machines in other cities and there were Okme slaves, Healers, on the Keulfyd ships. They will help too. The Keulfyd will hopefully not have had enough time to loot all the Healing Centres especially considering they already had some Healing Machines. At least Helkmid is hoping so.” Az looked around. Since they had been asleep, some other changes had been made. Alan smiled, “I am to go back with you to take over the city that has been renamed Tasha. By a unanimous vote. Another city will be named after Minka.” This changing of Leaders left Az’s head spinning.
They arrived back to find the awful task of dumping the dead was in full swing. The ships had landed, two by Tasha. The survivors were on the islands, guarded by Priskya. All the main surviving Races had had their treatment but some were treated with placebos. A lot of goop had been delivered with them. The Cats had reported days ago that the goop was back on and uncontaminated. It had previously fed the slaves. The prisoners were told to drink sea water. They were not happy. Reduced to drinking water like a slave, didn’t help.
Consequences
As the survivors were surrendering, Stella noticed something. She called on the radio asking Kaz to come to the Mess.
“What’s wrong?”
“There are some Niseyen here.”
“What do you want to do with them?”
Stella thought hard. “What would happen to them in Petislay?”
“They would go on trial.”
“For murder?”
“Yes.”
“What should we do?”
“This is not a call I can make. Ask Sarah.”
Stella contacted Sarah and explained adding, “Kaz thinks if the Niseyen are left among the prisoners on the island, they stand a good chance of being killed in retaliation.”
“How many of them are there?”
“I can see eleven. They’re dressed as pilots.”
“Oh are they now?”
“Separate them out. Keep them under guard.”
Stella, accompanied by several Cats, walked through the survivors who quickly moved out of her way. The Niseyen were trying to keep a low profile at the back. She saw their shock as they saw her and her escort. Stella was armed and angry. She gestured and they promptly obeyed. They moved out of the buildings circled by Cats. They looked very unhappy. After a few minutes Sarah arrived. She was armed, dirty, bloody and bandaged. She was also angry.
“So which of you bastards murdered millions, your own people among them?!”
There was a guilty silence. Some looked up as Kaz arrived in time to hear Sarah’s question. He looked them over, recognizing several. Some looked at him hoping he would speak for them.
“So now who made the right decision?” He asked softly looking pointedly at some of them.
“They would have killed us!” said one.
“You lie,” said Kaz. “You were given the same choice I was given.”
“You were given the same choice and became a slave?” asked Sarah.
“Yes.”
“I see. Well I think that makes my decision easy. If anyone objects, we can argue it later.” She turned to the pilots. “Strip or go with them,” she ordered indicating the other prisoners.
Stella smiled seeing where Sarah was going with this. Kaz looked on impassive, trying not to think about his own decision and how he had considered the alternative. Not for long though, he told himself.
Sarah and Stella stared at the very horrified, humiliated and embarrassed Niseyen as they slowly stripped. They did not realise that to Sarah and the other Terrans, they still looked clothed. It was irrelevant. This was psychological. With this act, the Niseyen were accepting an unknown and non-negotiable term of slavery. The alternative was death. With this act, they accepted no rights, even to their own lives. They became non-people owned by others. Kaz ensured their data bracelets came off too.
Sarah turned them over to Stella to direct. She had noticed they were very uncomfortable with her, much more so than with Kaz. Stella ordered them to start loading the prisoners onto the planes for transport to the islands. She noticed the sneers and comments of some of the prisoners towards the newly designated slaves.
Sarah contacted Mathew, explaining what had happened and what she had decided to do. There were no objections. Sarah motioned Kaz over.
“Are there any risks? Will there be any problems or violence from them?”
“Heck no. They will be perfectly behaved. They can be killed for any reason. They have no rights at all. Their lives are literally in your hands. They will quickly lose all self respect and any fight.”