“It sounds like you’re saying they’re an invention, not a creature,” Nakitti noted.
“They basically are. They were bred for this sort of thing, and variations are bred for all sorts of other things in their home hex. What they were like originally, only a study of fossil DNA of their ancestors would give us a clue. Still, there it is. Thousands of airborne troops dropping around and near the Zone Gate. Those that are not killed take off and bring in more. The first waves will be experienced and fanatical specialists, the very best soldiers they have. Wager on the second wave to land in other areas and on other islands, generally above your forts. They will secure your food and force you to attack them or keep you from sending reinforcements to the center. If you pull back, they will attack from above and the coastal ships will come in. This is very efficient, and these are commanders who do not care how many they lose if they attain an objective. And they are not above accepting a surrender and then eating the prisoners.”
“By all the gods! What can we possibly
“We wipe them out, of course,” Core replied. “The advantage of knowing their entire plan cannot be overstated. I am not saying that you will not take heavy losses, but I can assure you that you can break and wipe out this center force. If you do, the mountaintop forces will be militarily irrelevant and can be mopped up if they do not withdraw at will. Without the center, he has no siege. Without the land-based force pinning you down, he runs out of supplies for his ships, food for all those logistical and support personnel and the rest of the invading army, most of which will be land-based creatures. Then your position will put you in control. They will withdraw. One defeat of this force and it will galvanize others here who so far refuse any real aid or cooperation. The same ones who would embrace Chalidang as inevitable winners will tell you that they were really on your side all along.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Nakitti commented. “What’s the plan?”
“Come. I will describe it to you in detail. Then you will take it to your people. In the meantime, keep getting all the ammunition, guns, anything you can from here. See if you can get hold of some ultra-high-pressure gas canisters and possibly some good rockets. There is also a useful weapon involving jellied petroleum. I will give you the specifications and sources. Remember, you are still fighting in your homeland. They, on the other hand, have a very long supply line and cannot easily nor quickly replace what they lose. It is a gamble on their part that Ochoa will be ill-prepared, ill-equipped, ill-led, and will be totally surprised.”
Nakitti sighed. “Well, two out of three…”
Both the Baron and Nakitti stayed on an extra day and a half getting things set up. If Core was looking for redemption, which Nakitti doubted, it certainly was doing some good things so far. The plans, the assessments, were brilliant.
If, of course, the Baron and his concubine were correct that Ochoa was the target. If not, the Baron’s future was very bleak indeed in the social hierarchy he was bucking, which Nakitti knew would mean that her own future would be even less comfortable than his.
With the support of the High Commissioner, and with some carefully applied paranoia to both the King and the Premier, the Baron was getting his way and his budget, but his neck was all the way out.
The last day of the conference, however, helped him considerably. The Cromlin ambassador rose to speak in the concurrent session that was maintained for the water breathers. They watched from the embassy on the video feeds as a creature that looked like a nasty cross between a clawed lobster and a giant scorpion faced the delegations and the cameras and launched into a more than two-hour diatribe of viciousness, hatred, and arrogance against the conference and all who took it seriously.
“One true incarnate god, one true family!” it concluded, giving the slogan of what it had called the “Movement to Restore the World.”
“This has been ordained from the start, that the children of this world would return from the stars to reassume their legacy and lead all who would have the intelligence and devotion to recognize truth and power to cleanse this world of its parasites and establish a new order, first throughout the world, then back to the stars, this time as the associates of the gods themselves! You are the weak, the decadent, who have forgotten how to struggle, have forgotten the glories of power that is taken, not accepted. Soon you will see the length of our claws and know that only by joining
“Lays it on thick, doesn’t he?” the Baron commented, unmoved.
“Well, he’s a half brother,” Nakitti noted. “You won’t find
A buzzer sounded on a device in the main office, then began to print out a series of pages, very fast, written in the commercial language of the Well World. When it stopped, the Baron beat the clerk to it, read it, and seemed to gain strength and stature. “Ha!” he cried. “The idiots have saved me!” He rushed back into the quarters and wrapped his wings around Nakitti, then stepped back, almost dancing. She’d never seen him like this.
“What
He pulled the papers from his belt and waved them in his right claw. “This message. It’s from our friend, there, the Cromlin ‘policy adviser,’ as he calls himself. He has given us seven days to join his glorious alliance or he will order the total genocide of the Ochoan race.”
She was appalled. In spite of the fact that she’d predicted it, to have the evidence right there made her sad and nervous. It meant war. “And this brings you joy?”
“Of course!” he responded, carefully putting the papers back. “I go immediately to the Council and to His Majesty with this. We’ve been getting our way, but grudgingly, up until now.
Underwater Zone Gate, Later That Same Day
Colonel General Sochiz of Cromlin was feeling cocky and arrogant as he left the embassy and made his way through the crowds toward the Well Gate, pushing aside anybody who did not yield and barely paying attention to the stares. He did not care what anybody thought of him, and his great claws could cut steel rods if he were so inclined.
Josich would be so proud of him! The way they had looked as he had spoken! The way they had simply melted away as he’d strode off the platform and through the hall and out. That was
When it was clear who he was, the others along the route to the Well Gate gave way and no one, not even those who were larger and looked meaner than he, impeded his triumphal march.
He turned the corner and saw the utter blackness of the Gate directly ahead, its hexagonal shape unmistakable. He was almost to it when he realized that, for this last, short stretch, there was nobody in the corridor.
He stopped suddenly, suspicious. This was the way assassins worked. Well, let them come! Let them see he was not afraid of them!
A noise caused him to turn to the wall to his right, perhaps five meters in front of the Gate. It had no form at first, but then took a humanoid shape that seemed to extrude right out of the wall. It looked like nothing even research had shown him, like a moving idol from some primitive tribe, made completely of dull, rough granitelike stone, a car-toonish, idiotic, and simplified face carved into it. Only the eyes said it was something more, the burning fire-orange eyes in the tranquil water, and the fact that it walked to him.
“Who are you who would block we?” the Cromlin general shouted. Both of Sochiz’s forward claws went up. One snatched at the creature while the tail reared up and the syringelike point at the end struck at its head.
And broke off.
The creature reached up and, with a stony hand, held the claw immobile, then it grabbed the other as the pain of losing the stinger hit the Cromlin’s body, ripping off the right claw and discarding it.
“You know my name,” the creature said in a tone that could only mean it had a translator. “Let it be the last
