Inherited War 1: Retribution (19 page)

35

“Landing on The Pitt was an interesting experience.  We had been so far from anyone and anything that seeing the diversity of the galaxy on display was exhilarating. According to Sky there are over a thousand different known species, from a thousand different worlds spread around the galaxy.  It was easy to tell the ones that had been in contact with Pure Humans because while they retained much of their original traits they were very human looking too.  I think that is why I drew so many stares as we walked through the city.  I looked a little like everyone while being different too.  Humanity had been gone for so long no one could recognize the race that most likely brought them to the stars.  Seeing males of Sky’s own race was a novelty as well.  To be honest, I had pictured them like lions, the women out doing everything while the men lazed around and roared every once in a while to scare others off. Live and learn I guess.”

The embassy was a large two story cube.  It had a set of wide double doors
in the front and evenly spaced windows on the first and second floors.  Cole didn’t recognize the building material but it looked to be made from one solid piece.  It made him wonder if the building was a giant mold they poured some concrete like material into.  It was plain grey with no adornments of any kind and lacked anything to make it stand out from the other buildings on the block.  The ground was the same material as the building and also unadorned with the usual features humans would have used.  They walked swiftly to the doors which were flanked by another pair of guards.  Passing between the guards, they entered building. It took Cole a second or two to adjust to the dimness of the interior.  When his eyes adjusted he was a little surprised at what he saw.

The Embassy
didn’t look like any governmental building he had ever seen.  The interior was wide open and the only interior walls appeared to be all the way in the back.  He assumed it was a small office partitioned off from the open area that made up the rest of the building.  Cole had assessed the situation in an instant.  Down the wall to his left were orderly cots with foot lockers.  He counted forty total that went two by two from the front of the building all the way to the rear.  Some were occupied others empty.  He counted thirty Nixa that appeared to be the soldiers who went with the beds.  In the middle of the building were what appeared to be, high school lunchroom tables.  The tables were sparsely populated with off duty Nixa soldiers and some very ragged, tired looking Nixa civilians.  On the right of the building were the civilian beds and what appeared to be stairs leading down into the basement.  “This isn’t what I had in mind when you said embassy Sky.  Embassy must mean different things to us,” Cole said quietly.

“There is no real government here so there is no real need for an embassy.  This building and these soldiers are here to ensure that any Nixa being brought here to be sold as slaves
, are liberated and given a chance to return home.”  The speaker stood up from the table directly in front of them.
 
“We have no ambassador here, just soldiers and those we free from bondage.  Now would you follow me to my office? I believe you have a story to tell.”  With that, he turned around and headed to the back of the building and his office.  As they walked down the aisle, Cole got a good look at what he thought were the liberated Nixa, some looked healthy and well off.  Others looked beaten and starved.  Cole could feel anger radiating off Sky.  The male Nixa preceded them into the office.

“Major, I want to thank you for admitting us and taking the time to listen to our story.”  Sky started to say but was interrupted before she could finish.

“We scanned both of your DNA profiles when you came through my gate.  I am perplexed by the results we got back.  First you Ma’am, your DNA indicated you are the world renowned geneticist Dr. Sky.  This is impossible because all
Nixians know she died over twenty standard years ago.  So please let’s settle this little discrepancy first before we move onto you.”  He pointed at Cole.  “I am waiting Dr Sky, if that is who you actually are.”

“My story and Coles are intertwined so you will know who we both are at the
end of this tale.  It was roughly twenty years ago when I was kidnapped.”  Sky dove right into the story from the beginning.  Cole listened intently because while they had discussed it, he had never heard her tell it from the beginning and he was interested to hear her take on some of the things he had done while away from her.  It took the better part of two hours to tell the tale and Cole jumped in periodically from time to time to flush out his parts.  “That’s when we decided to come here to seek the information we need to continue on,” Sky leaned back in her chair and waited for a response.

The Nixa
Major had his finger steepled under his chin and looked to be deep in thought.  “What a fascinating tale.  You expect me to believe that this thing right here is a direct descendant from the Pure Humans?  That he is some great savior who will restore order to the galaxy?  I think not.”  That was as far as he got before Sky was out of her seat and over the Majors desk.  She knocked him backwards out of his chair and landed on top of him on the floor.  She got real close to his ear as she held him down by his throat.  She snarled a quick staccato of words pitched low enough that Cole couldn’t understand what she was saying.  The Major occasionally squeaked out an occasional yes and no to her questions.  Silence reigned for a few seconds before the Major nodded his head as best as he could.  Sky released her grip of his throat and offered him a hand to his feet.  She returned to her chair as the Major righted his.  They both sat down.  “I apologize for my remarks and disbelief of your story.  As Dr. Sky has pointed out, all the DNA evidence supports her claim and I am now inclined to believe you until you are proven to be wrong.  Truly, I am sorry, I didn’t want to believe that the great Doctor had been given up wrongly for dead and suffered through captivity for so long without our people knowing.  We all will bear the shame of that mistake and should strive to atone for it.”  He shifted his view Cole.  “Your part of the tail can be easily verified.”  He pushed a button on his desk.  “Bring in the weapon we found.”  He released the button and waited a few moments.  The door opened and two soldiers came in carrying a crate between them.  They set the crate on the Major’s desk and left’ closing the door behind them.  “We recovered this on a raid to free a group of Nixa being traded on a ship in orbit.  We assume it is a Pure Human designed artifact because it clearly has power but no way for us to activate it.  If you would please activate it and prove who you say you are?”

Cole stood and looked into the box.  Sky started to protest but Cole waved her to silence.  He didn’t think what was in the box was a
weapon, it didn’t look like one to him.  He stared at it for a while before reaching in and taking it out.  It was rectangular and about three feet long.  It had what amounted to a pistol grip on one side that he assumed was where he would connect with whatever it was.  He wrapped his fingers around the grip. The hum of the object coming to life reverberated around the office as Cole obviously was connecting to the artifact. A few moments later he set the artifact back in the box and started to chuckle.  “That was not a weapon.  It is a portable observation drone unit.  It was probably for deploying small atmospheric drones on planets with atmosphere too thick for satellites to be of any use.  The readout says it’s still in working order and is at full power, I adjusted the programming to allow you to use it if you want.  An interesting piece of tech, but definitely not a weapon.”

The
Major stood up and resealed the drone unit in the box and called for the soldiers again who came in and removed it from the office.  “Well, that settles it I guess, only a Pure could have activated that.”  The Major stood and saluted Cole.  “As the highest ranked representative of the Allied planet of Nixa, I place myself and my soldiers at your disposal.  My name is Major Fury and I am honored to meet you.”

“The last thing I want right now is an official response to any requests I make.  It is too dangerous to officially involve any governments to my cause.  Until I can destroy th
e Esii Sun Eater, every world that helps me may become a target.  I need a non-affiliated crew and information that can pinpoint the exact location of that ship.  I have heard the stories of how your race supported my ancestors and I do not want that kind of destruction to find you again.”  Cole leaned forward as he spoke.  “If you could perhaps get us in contact with some Nixa that are not officially part of the government and who would volunteer to help of their own free will, I would appreciate it.”

The
Major thought for a moment before responding.  “There is a group that operates here with no sanction from our government that may be able to help.  I will send a message to the Twin World Embassy here as well, to see if they are willing to renew the old alliance.  The others of the old alliance do not have a presence here so it will take time to contact them.”

“
Major, I want it perfectly clear that word of my origins and ancestry are not to pass beyond these walls.  I will not hide who I am but I don’t want it spread around faster than it should.  Leave the contacting to us, we just need the leads from you for right now, please.”  Cole had to make sure that the Esii and whoever they were working for, couldn’t trace any of his dealings back officially to any governments, at least until the Sun Eater was dead and gone.

“
Well Doctor, Captain, I believe I can help you then, on both accounts.”  The Major stood up and waived them out of his office.  “Give me a few moments to call some contacts and get some things set up.  Please take advantage of whatever hospitality we have here.  We have plenty of food and beds for resting.  The bathrooms are down the stairs and to the right.  Now I must get to work. I will inform you when I have anything to report.”  With that he closed the door and left them to fend for themselves.

“I could eat
, how about you?”  Cole asked Sky.

“You can always eat but be
careful, this place may only have Nixian food.  I am going to go take a look at some of the rescued of my people.  See if they need any medical help.”  She turned and walked away, heading towards the bunks holding the worse looking Nixians.  Cole walked away from the office and sat down at the nearest unoccupied table.  He looked around, everyone seemed to be openly ignoring him while staring at him from the corner of their eyes at the same time.  At some point these people had to get used to him being there but he wasn’t about to push it.  He watched Sky go from person to person checking on their well being.  If he couldn’t find a crew, he counted himself lucky to at least have her on board.

It only took a few hours for the
Major to set up a meeting with his contacts.  The Major transferred the necessary information to their mini comps and also had their weapons returned to them.  He wished them luck and told them to return if they ran into trouble.  He gave them his emergency contact freq and promised he would come running with his entire company if they needed him.  Cole and Sky thanked the Major and left the building heading for the front gate.  “You are going to have to tell me some day what you said to him behind his desk to change his mind so fast.”  Cole said out the side of his mouth.

Absolutely
straight faced Sky responded.  “A girl has to have some secrets.”  And kept on walking without breaking her stride.  Cole chuckled to himself and followed after.

36

“
The Pitt is probably the most confusing city I have ever been to, ever.  Apparently the streets and walkways are not permanent.  They change and shift depending on who is living in the area.  Different species move in and out of The Pitt on a continual basis.  They change the area they move into to suit their needs. So the buildings are only semi-permanent and can be torn down or moved with little effort.  This makes navigating off the main causeways almost impossible.  Some areas stay the same which gives you some landmarks to work with.  The docking bays, Embassy Street and the wealthy neighborhoods stay relatively static.  Not to mention that just because a bar or other business started on the ground floor doesn’t mean it still is in the same place.  I doubt there is any one being living there that knows every street and walkway by heart.”

They approached the main gate to the Nixa compound, that’s what Cole thought of it as because he couldn’t bring himself to call it an embassy, and saw the same group of guards was still on duty.  As they approached to leave the guard commander detached himself from the guard post and walked toward them.  “I would like to offer my service, if it is needed for your cause.  I am willing to resign my commission and join you, if you would have me.”  His eyes shown with determination and eagerness to join them.

“I am sorry soldier but we cannot risk taking anyone with us when we leave.  After your shift ask the
Major why and he will tell you but for now you have our thanks.”  Sky said as she reached out her hand to firmly shake the guard commanders.  He took a step back and gave Sky a salute closing his fist and bringing it firmly to his chest with a slight bow of his head.

“Th
en good luck to you and remember me if you do begin looking for veteran Nixas to join your fight.”

“I will do that
,” she said as they walked by the soldier.  When they came to the gate Cole’s hand whipped out and grabbed Sky, stopping her in her tracks.  He turned her and moved her between the gate and himself.  “When you turn around look at the space where the two buildings across the street meet and tell me what you see.  Be discrete and don’t let on if you see something.”  He let go of her arm and she turned back toward the gate.  They walked side by side up to the energy shield and waited for it to be opened for their departure.  The small passage opened in the shield and they walked through.  On the far side Sky turned to Cole and pretended to adjust the collar on his duster.  “I am sorry Cole I saw nothing over there.”  She whispered in his ear as she finished adjusting his collar.

“Don’
t look straight at that spot.  Try not to focus your eyes and see if you see anything.  I think something or someone is there and they followed us from the hanger.  I’m going to flush them out.  You try to see him when he moves.”  With that Cole stepped around Sky and sprinted at the place where the buildings came together.  He was letting his eyes stay unfocused as best as he could.  It was like trying to look at those weird dot paintings that looked like just a bunch of dots but really had a 3D image embedded in them.   Whatever it was that was crouched there suddenly stood up, turned and went straight up the buildings wall.  Cole came to a shuddering halt staring up at the building, watching as the thing vaulted the edge of the wall and disappeared over the top.  “Holy hell, did you see that?”  He yelled back at Sky.  “That, whatever it was, just went up the wall and on to the roof.”  Cole ran his hand over the completely smooth surface of the wall.  He was still running his hands around the place the thing had done its disappearing trick when Sky jogged up next to him.

“
Are you sure you saw something Cole?  I tried to do as you asked, but I couldn’t see a thing.”  Sky’s face was turned up to look at the wall of the building.

Cole hunkered on the ground and felt around a bit
.  “You have to be able to feel this then.”  He grabbed Sky’s hand and held it to the ground.  He held it in one spot then moved it to another.  “Can you feel the difference in temperature?  Something was here long enough to warm up this patch of ground.”

“Hmm, yes I do feel a slight difference in temperature.  You may be right Cole, something was here.”

“Have you ever heard of anything like this before?  Some kind of personal cloaking device maybe?”  Cole asked as he stood up and turned back to face the street.

“No, nothing this good.
  There are light benders that can conceal stationary objects but nothing I know of that can hide something on the move that someone is looking at.  Did you see it before?”

“I didn’t see anything before
, but I have had the strangest feeling of being followed almost since we left the ship.”  Cole stopped for a moment and opened the link to Hal.  “Hey Hal, this is Cole.  You reading me?”

“Affirmative
, the signal is weak but I have you.”  Hal’s voice was getting through but it was weak.

“Okay
, here’s the situation.”  Cole spent a few moments updating Hal on what had happened since they had left the hanger.  When he was done with the story he asked Hal, “Have you ever heard of anything like that, something that can move invisible to a Nixa’s vision and almost invisible to mine?”

“Off the top of my processors, no, but I will connect to the local net and see if I can dig anything up.  Be careful, you have enough enemies you can see without picking up some you can’t.  Also the area you are heading to is one of the,
shall we say, seedier.  It is a real rough part of town, have a gun handy at all times.”  Hal cut his link with Cole and began contacting the local server in hopes of finding an answer.

Cole waived at Sky and brought up the map that the
Major had given him.  “Well it looks like about an hour walk from here to the bar were the contact is going to meet us.  Let’s get hoofing it.”  Side by side they walked down the street heading planetary west from embassy row.

After hearing the Nixa and her companion start walking away
, the being poked its head over the side of the building.  Taking note of their direction of travel it hunkered down to think.  It was obvious that the male had seen him and the Nixa had not.  That was impossible though, no one had ever seen one of his kind stealthed before.  He stood and looked down at himself.  His technique was flawless.  Light bent and flowed around his whole body giving back zero reflection to betray his presence.  Yet the male had clearly seen him.  He had also grown careless and not masked his body heat.   His people had mastered the arts of stealth millennia ago.  They could bend light with the power of their minds, mask and change their odors to simulate almost any smell and move as quiet as a breeze, but he had clearly been seen.  The revelation of this shook him to the core of his being.  He had to find out what this mystery being was and how he knew to find him.  By the direction they had gone, he had a good idea as to the general area they may be headed to, so he decided to take a short cut and get there before they arrived.  Like a shot he was off and running the streets and walkways trying to get ahead of his targets.