Warrior Chronicles 3: Warrior's Realm (13 page)

“General Addison,” one of the two men began, “Some decades ago, I had the honor of meeting your friend John Wills. At that time, as a token of friendship, he gave me an ancient canine skull. A wolf skull to be exact. Using its DNA and cells you provided the scientific community from your wolf Sköll, we have been able to clone the canine represented by the artifact John gave me all those years ago. General, I would like to present to you the first specimen of the species
Canis dirus
to walk beside man in over ten thousand years.”

Oh my gods! A dire wolf?
Cort stood and walked to the podium. He kneeled and allowed the wolf to smell the back of his hand before scratching the top of its head. The wolf jerked its head back and tried to bite Cort’s hand, but Cort was too fast and knocked the animal down. Before it could recover, Cort pushed the wolf’s neck to the floor of the stage and held it there while the wolf struggled.

Finally a low growl escaped its mouth and Cort let it up. The wolf stood, then sat, in front of Cort and allowed the man to pet him.
I have a new alpha. For now.

“I am sorry, General. We did not expect that. We understand if you do not wish to accept the wolf.”

Cort stood and said, “Absolutely not. He is the greatest gift I have ever been given, either in this time or my own past. I cannot thank you enough, Doctor Tsao, either for the honors you have paid me today, or for this gift. What you just saw was absolutely necessary. I established myself as his leader, and he accepted me. He trusts me, and I can trust him. With my life even. Which brings me to what I have to say.”

“We are in this together,” Cort said as he turned to the gathered crowd. “Humanity is now one pack, and I need your help.”

Cort spoke for less than five minutes and received a standing ovation, before bowing to the gathered officials and leading his new wolf down the steps on the side of the stage. He spoke to Yuan Tsao, the scientist that had been John Wills’ friend, and learned more about the cloning process used to bring the wolf back from extinction. He found out the Asians had developed a kind of synthetics for the wolves, based on Kay Gaines’ bio-synthetics, and that his new wolf had them. The Asians also agreed to supply them for all of the military wolves of the Federation.

Solitude

That night, the introduction of the new wolf to Zandra and Coke could have gone better. Zandra was not happy with the new pup, but was sure in her position as a beta. Coke on the other hand, had to fight to keep his place. Cort wouldn’t let Kimberly interfere until it was clear that Coke was going to lose, regardless of his greater size, then he made her slap them both. Coke was shocked by the blow to his snout more than anything else, but the new wolf needed two additional slaps to submit to Kim. “Remember what I taught you about hierarchy back on Mars,” Cort said. “He has to know you are an alpha like me.”

“I know, baby. But it goes against my nature to slap him.”

“Says the woman who personally
spaced
Atlantica spies back on Mars.”

“Maybe so, but they had it coming,” Kim was petting both male wolves now. “These two are just getting to know their places. And poor Coke lost his.”

“But if an enemy attacked Coke now, he has an additional ally.”

“So what are you going to name your new one?”

“Bane.”

“Ooh! I like that. You know, we needed another wolf, anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Cort asked.

“I’m pregnant, baby.”

“What? I thought we were going to wait." Cort was confused but smiling.

“When I converted to the bio-synthetics, my birth control was not turned on. I don’t know if it was the medical staff’s fault, or mine. Either way, we are a having a baby,
baby
.”

“Are you happy?”

“Yeah, I am.” Kim looked at him and softly said, “We can still wait if you need to, but I’m ready.”

“If you are ready, I am.” Cort remembered Diane’s smile and said, “You just have to accept that it will be the most well-protected baby in human history.”

“I can live with that.”

--

Speral’s ship landed the next morning. It was an unscheduled visit, and when the airlock opened, Bazal’s tank emerged. Cort was working with Bane, and the pair arrived when Kim and Bazal were almost to the administrative building complex. Bane started to growl but stopped when Bazal turned to him.

Stop, Bazal. You may not
ever
influence the wolves. Not under any circumstances. Do you understand? Not any wolf you ever meet.

I do, Cortland. I apologize.

Bane resumed growling, the hair on his neck standing on end. When Cort said, “Bane! Heel!”, the dire wolf backed up slowly, and stayed beside his new alpha, waiting for the walk to resume.

“Hello, Cortland. It is good to see you again. You have a new wolf.”
He is different, isn’t he? He seems more,
primal
, than his companions.

“Yes. Bane was a gift from a government on Earth. He is a different kind of wolf, called a
dire wolf.
His species has been extinct for thousands of years, and was engineered using an ancient skull and modern technology, along with modern wolf tissue.”
He is much more primal. He is in fact, much more suited for me. He is a vicious as I am. I am sorry for snapping at you, but I cannot let him be calmed.

Bazal watched the wolf and read him. Turning back to Cort, he said, “I see. He is a noble beast. Hopefully, he will come to accept me as a friend to your pack.”
He is wild. Almost feral, Cortland. Be careful with him. He still weighs challenging you. He accepts you, but is of a mind to assert himself as
your
alpha
.

“He will, with time. What brings you here, Bazal?”
Carrying on two conversations at once is a pain in the ass.

Bane knew something was passing between the alpha and newcomer, but he didn’t understand it.
He may be my alpha for now, but you are the whelp, and a weak one at that.
He stepped cautiously forward, looking back at Cort, and urinated on the side of Bazal’s tank. Before he could be commanded to, the wolf returned to Cort’s side and relaxed.

“Why did he do that, Cortland?” Bazal asked.

“He was asserting his place within the pack. He isn’t sure if you are a part of it or not, but he is letting you know your place.”

“To answer your other question, Cortland, I am here because of changing attitudes on Government World. Lap is being petitioned to prevent your attack on his cousins.”

“That isn’t going to happen. The Collaborative has no influence on my decisions. But Bazal, you could have communicated that to me. Why are you here?”

“I hope Kimberly will allow me to swim.”

Kim had been silent during the walk, listening to the conversation and wondering about Bane’s behavior. When she heard her name, she had to think back over what she had heard before saying, “I’ve told you before, Bazal, you are always welcome here.”

“Thank you, Kimberly.”

AFS
Taurus

“General, we are finished,” Captain Platt said from his command chair.

Cort had listened to the the navigator and tactical officer run through the routine of placing anchor particle after anchor particle. There were over a hundred such gravitons assigned to each
Remington
class ship, and the particles had been placed so that any enemy response would be out of position when the ships transitioned to their next firing locus. The first rounds were to be fired in near orbit, and with each transfer, the ships would jump further out and fire again. The tactic would keep the ships out of each other’s way, and keep the defensive net around the planet from being able to respond effectively to the attack.

The big ships’ holds were packed with so many tungsten slugs that crew members could barely move through the ships The new magazines held enough ordnance to destroy each planet, but Cort was moving the ships to another planet immediately after each attack. There were ten enemy planets in the first target group.

“Thanks, Mike,” Cort said. “Is there any sign of abnormal activity in the system?”

“No, sir. The big ships should be okay.”

“Alright. I’m going to transfer over to the Remington when we jump back to the rally point. I want you to start placing anchors at the next target immediately. I know I don’t need to say it, Mike, but use a different pattern at each target. And watch yourself. I expect there to be some sort of enemy activity within three planets.”

“Yes, sir. I won’t even let them scratch our paint.”

“Good man.”

As they exchanged salutes Captain Platt added, “Good hunting, sir.”

AFS Remington

“Welcome aboard, General.,” Admiral Jones said when Cort floated into the access port. There was no room for shuttles because of the ammunition load outs. Even the ships’ shuttles had been moved to the Peacemaker-class ships to be used in search-and-rescue efforts if necessary.

“What’s it like floating around your ship instead of walking?”

“That’s been a challenge, sir. I would love to have the gravity on, but the munitions would collapse the holds instantly. Until we get to the fourth target we cannot use any gravity generators. Even then we will only be able to use them in a few areas.” JJ pointed to a rope and said, “That’s our ride, General.”

It took almost five minutes to pull themselves to the bridge and get strapped in. On the way, Cort found out the ships had to be spaced further apart because their increased masses were playing havoc on communications and sensors. “The nice thing about it is that we need less compensation from the engines when we fire. The recoil is much lower because of the way the mass is distributed,” JJ had told him.

“A hundred and twenty million metric tons of tungsten will do that, I suppose,” Cort said.

“Yes it will, sir.”

After they were secure on the main bridge, Cort listened as JJ went through her final preparations for the attack. All three ships had their firing patterns for the planet, and were loaded for their first shot.

“Captains, this is Admiral Jones. Synchronize your transition computers.” After her flexpad showed compliance, she said, “Synchronize firing computers.” Another pause, three more acknowledgements, and Jones touched a corner on her pad that pulled her ships out of spacetime momentarily. A moment later, they materialized hundreds of light years away and began to rain fire and brimstone upon those who would stand against the allies of humanity.

Unknown System

“Sir, we have news from Government World.”

“Yes?”

“Forty days ago, General Addison stormed Speaker Lap’s office. All three of our agents there were taken captive. We have not heard from them since. Other agents on the planet are unable to ascertain their whereabouts.”

“We’ve heard nothing at all? What about Bazal?”

“Bazal has a human military escort at all times. They arrived on Government World at the same time.”

Sirens began chirping throughout the building. The two insectoids left the office made their way to a control room.  “What is it?” The senior asked.

“Three of the human ships have arrived in system and have fir…”

The entire city disappeared.

--

It took just over twenty-five minutes for the ships to fire a total of six hundred, eighty-meter long tungsten slugs into the planet. Some of the slugs had been energized to a plasma state, even more were fired at significant fractions of the speed of light. The impacts blackened the the skies and caused seismic disturbances across the world. By the time the last slug hit the planet, there was not a living creature still alive, above or below the surface.