“Thank you for the water, sir.”
“How long had you been running from those warriors?” he casually asked as he knelt, shook his hair back, and sipped from their shared container when she offered it back.
“I don’t know for sure.” She shrugged and checked her wristband readout. “Maybe three hours before I ran into that canyon. Which reminds me,” she said as she took the container again and sipped, “thank you for saving my life. I owe you one.”
“Before we’re out of this, I’m sure you’ll repay the favor.”
“Any time, sir.”
“I was thinking of sooner than later.”
She tilted her head and stared at him, scooting closer to his location while still kneeling. “Sir?”
“As I told you, you’re now on my team. While landing much earlier today, our light-pods were shot down along with all our supplies. I was the only survivor to crawl from the wreckage. There should have been four men with me. If I’d failed in my mission and hadn’t made it back to a point where they were supposed to wait, one of them would have taken my place. That was to have kept up until one of us succeeded or all of us were dead.”
“Should I be hearing this, sir? I mean, I don’t have security clearance for any field op of this nature. I may be on your team but this sounds way over my head.”
“As I see it I don’t have a choice. I need a backup plan. You’re all I’ve got.”
She arched one brow. “Thanks … I think.”
He shook his head and smiled. “I
meant
that I need help. This plan must succeed. It might be a way to save thousands of lives.”
That caught her interest. The very nature of the words and the way he uttered them meant this was something big. “How, sir? What’s goin’ on?”
He huddled closer and pointed due east, toward a small pile of rocks and an escarpment on the other side of them. “About two clicks away, there’s supposed to be an oasis. At least it passes for one on this damnable rock-of-a-planet. It’s located just on the other side of that outcrop. We’ll find water, food, and some civilian clothing there.”
Lyra moved closer and was almost mesmerized by his silvery gaze. Even in the hazy light, the brightness of his eyes was striking. “So this is an undercover operation?”
“It is. Though my contact was expecting five men, she’ll get one man and one woman. Before going in we’ll have to come up with some different story than planned.”
She sipped more water and nodded for him to go ahead with his explanation. Whatever “going in” meant, it didn’t sound like her idea of fun.
“About three clicks past the oasis, a pleasure cruiser has landed on the surface. She’s called the Venus and she’s now officially listed as a Condorian haven. One of our enemy’s commanding officers took her over as his base of operations. He did this while his ground forces slaughtered ours.”
“Sir, how do you know all this, or should I ask?”
He gazed into her face for one long moment. “If you’re captured out here, you’ll need that spare round in my laser. I’ll need one too. We can’t be forced into talking.”
“I-I understand,” Lyra insisted when he hesitated.
Soldar continued. “The woman who owns the pleasure ship is an allied spy. Her name is Aigean Florn. She saw most of her family decimated by Condorian raiders while running a brothel on Taurus Stellar. The allies managed to save two granddaughters. They are being protecting on my home world of Craetoria. She figures she owes us.”
Lyra nodded. “If Condorian commanding officers are on the Venus, you must mean to get aboard and take the ship out. If she relocates, you’d still be on the ship and might find a way give her location to our fleet.” She paused. “What about the innocents working aboard?”
“If all we wanted to do was blow that particular pleasure ship into infinity, we have a current fix and could do it. The problem is, once they know about the vessel, about a thousand enemy officers located elsewhere would simply move up and take the place of those few we’d manage to kill.” He shook his head. “No … destroying the Venus and the Condorian officers on her is only part of the mission — the very last part,” he maintained as one hand curled into a fist. “I mean to get aboard, stay alive as long as possible, and collate the information Aigean’s people are obtaining concerning enemy battle plans. It’s come to her attention that Condorians like to talk when they’re full of illegal drugs and liquor and have been sated by whoring.” He swallowed some more water before continuing. “The Condorians kept Aigean and her crew alive only to provide high-ranking officers with a luxurious place to quarter and exploit her prostitutes. They do this in virtual secrecy from their own troops. Their minions would turn on them for withholding pleasures in a war zone.”
“That’s for sure. The average Condorian is nothing but a damned savage! It’s long been my opinion that their superiors just point ’em in the right direction and let ’em go. They’re like a pack of feral beasts. They don’t have any compunction about killing wounded, or consciences when it comes to leaving civilians out of the fray. “
“For the very reason you’ve just mentioned, the ship’s presence isn’t widely known among Condorian underlings.”
“Yeah. I get it. There are a lot more Condorian fighters than superiors. They’re kept in reasonable control by the promise of keeping goods pillaged after battle.”
Soldar slowly nodded. “As long as Aigean provides those Condorian supervisors with the pleasure they seek, they let her and her crew survive. But she knows the Venus’ days are numbered. She and her crew will eventually become expendable. Especially as enemy officers seek to keep her a secret from their own ground troops,” he confirmed. “It’s to our advantage that Aigean recruits men and women from all over the known universe. Most have families that’ve suffered at Condorian hands. According to what was relayed when she last made contact, her employees will readily give us the information gleaned from their nightly liaisons.”
“What else, sir?”
He gazed at their surroundings before answering then he turned and moved closer. “Because of Aigean’s covert information, we’re learning of future battle plans in this sector. She was able to get word of Condorian tactics by leaving microchips that had been secretly recorded on her ship, and then embedded in beacon markers. The beacons were left on planets recently decimated in battle. Our forces found the first one with dead allied bodies. The circumstances surrounding its discovery were odd enough that allied agents opened it and located her message — ”
“Of course! Aigean’s civilian rescue beacons would be of no concern to the Condorians since they’d transmit exactly like those that are set off by thousands of dying allied fighters … all of whom are slaughtered by the enemy as they lay wounded.” She shook her head in amazement. “It’s a brilliant plan! Condorians don’t bother turning off beacons. The transmissions draw allied medical vessels forward,” she confirmed. “That’s the reason why most of us won’t activate our personal transmitters unless we’re damned sure the Condorians have moved on. Nobody wants to get our hospital ships destroyed. We haven’t got that many left.”
“Precisely! Many injured warriors die for want of a doctor’s care. They refuse to turn on their distress units. As Aigean relayed, Condorian officers always order her to land the Venus near a battle, but away from the front lines. They sate themselves while their warriors take out our forces. As she relays, Condorian elite direct battles from her pleasure rooms.”
“
Bastards
!”
“I concur. There has never been a more insidious enemy. Condorians are little more than parasites feeding off the rest of us. But their supreme belief in victory has provided a hole in their defenses. Aigean has left word of Condorian battle plans in numerous beacons on a dozen worlds. As you’ve surmised, their transmissions are the same as thousands coming from a destroyed planet. Hiding her information thus was yielding information we couldn’t have gleaned any other way. It was always correct. Her efforts were a huge risk, but they were paying off. Unfortunately, her
last
message was longer. It seems to have been recorded in segments, over a number of days. In it, she advised us that she wouldn’t be able to contact us again. What she had to say was highly concerning.”
Lyra swallowed hard. “She was about to be caught?”
“No … not
her
. But some of her people were killed when they wouldn’t respond to questions Condorian generals put to them. Enemy strategists became suspicious of allied fighters showing up to defend mining outposts like this one.” He pointed to the ground to indicate Reisen Four. “Allies were showing up to fight in greater numbers with better armament. The Condorians believed someone — possibly from the Venus — was leaking information.”
“So … that’s that,” Lyra said. “If Condorian officers suspected Aigean’s crew, using beacons to communicate isn’t an option now. And she and her crew are probably done for.”
“Aigean last relayed that Condorians searched for and destroyed any required rescue equipment she had, including transmitters. She barely managed to get a last one off the ship. Obviously, it included information I’m telling you.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I don’t understand what your unit could do now. Even if you could disguise yourself, get on Aigean’s ship, and slowly gather information about future battle plans, how would you transmit it? Every civilian aboard will be watched. The bridge would be well guarded.”
“There is one more chance. It’s a plan Aigean previously suggested in the event we had no options. We’re at that point.” He pushed his hair back and wiped sweat from his eyes.
“This is gonna suck, isn’t it?”
“It’s the last chance to get aboard the Venus,” he said.
Lyra sighed. “Okay … let’s hear it.”
“Once the Condorians overran her ship, it was obviously impossible for Aigean to contact Allied HQ via her own bridge. She hasn’t any encryption codes that would validate her transmission and, as you say, the bridge is constantly watched.”
“May I speak freely, sir?”
“Please do.”
“The Condorians would have enacted their own locking codes into the Venus’ com system.”
He tilted his head in acknowledgement. “
Very good
! You know your enemy’s battle tactics, Sergeant. But this is the part where I delineate the last chance I spoke of.”
“You actually think you can unlock those codes and transmit battle plans after the captain of the vessel or some of her crew was suspected of leaking information?” Lyra rolled her eyes in contempt. “
Sir
… if the Condorians were watching her and staff before they suspected anything was wrong, what the hell do you think they’ll do to secure their battle plans now? You have a better chance of slipping in and out of hell than getting on that bridge! In fact, any stranger who gets near the Venus will probably be killed.” She lifted one hand in supplication. “As you’ve said, the only rational reason Aigean and her crew are still alive is that they’re still servicing the Condorian officers. Can’t you see that the Condorians might take out that crew today, tomorrow, or any time they choose? How long do you think you’d have?” Her entreaty was met with silence. Lyra noted his steady gaze and that his expression remained undaunted. She tried once more. “Sir,
please
… there are about a hundred reasons why this won’t work. I may be some lowly Sergeant, but I’ve got sense enough to see that trying to get on the Venus is suicide! We can ill afford the useless loss of another spec-op boss.”
“I have my orders, Sergeant. I’m to get on the Venus and deliver to the allies what information I can, by whatever means and for as long as possible. Had I failed, one of my team was to pursue the same plan. Fortunately, the enemy didn’t know who my men were or what they were up to when we took a barrage of laser fire while trying to land. We were just another group of allied soldiers for slaughter.” He leaned forward. “But since they are dead … I now have
you
,” he finished while pointedly staring at her.
“I’ll try again,” she insisted. “Your mission doesn’t make any sense. Listen to reason!”
“You speak, I’ll listen. But I will never be convinced to quit.”
“Colonel … you said yourself that your supplies were all destroyed. I assume that included some kind of disguise to get you aboard. How is a Craetorian — a man from a known allied planet — supposed to get on a pleasure vessel where Condorian officers are fucking themselves crazy? You’ll be killed on sight. Even if you
could
pass yourself off as someone from a different race, you’d be another male vying for the attention of the sex servants. The Condorians wouldn’t stand for that. Hell, I’m surprised that someone didn’t suggest cosmetic surgery to make you and your team look like Condorians. On an operation like this, that would be necessary! You should have been better briefed, given fake credentials, and assigned fake names and backgrounds that would make sense if checked against some database.”
He slowly smiled. “You don’t know everything, Sergeant. There are a few mysteries in this universe that even you Earthlings haven’t unraveled.”
“I don’t understand.”
“If Aigean didn’t think this would work, she wouldn’t have suggested a plan that would get her and her people slaughtered immediately. What would be the point?”
“That’s exactly what I’m asking, sir.”
He continued his argument. “According to her, the Condorian admiral on her vessel has developed a taste for men. Even those from allied planets are tolerated as long as they assert their neutrality and will make themselves available to any kind of pleasuring. They’re useful for a time, even if eventually expendable.”
“Th-that’s insane,” Lyra declared.
“It’s true enough. Men from numerous brothels have been recruited to have sex with enemy officers. Condorians find having intercourse with these so-called
neutrals
is not only exotic, but highly enticing.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, Colonel …
why
?” Lyra choked out.
He raised his brows. “Why does one man want to bed another? Or why do the Condorians want to bed men from allied planets?”