As for Jupiter, we’re going to have to do some serious rebuilding. I’ve heard that new frames and hulls are already being approved, and some of the projects that have been sitting dormant are being reactivated. We’ve been given a breather; we better not waste it.
Finally, I’m wondering about the aliens. Why did they come here? How long ago? Are there more hiding somewhere in the depths of the solar system, waiting to be stumbled upon? What’s going to happen with the one that got away? Will they come back? What will they do then? By their very nature, they may be unknowable. One thing’s for sure: with their immense lead in technology, we aren’t ready for them if, or when, they return.
Any kind of organized resistance to an outside attack would have to assume the solar system was unified, or at least not at war with itself. As it is, they could fly back in and support one of us against the others. Saturn or Venus would certainly take alien help to win the war…and I’m not certain we wouldn’t as well. So we’re going to have to win this, or at least get everyone to stop fighting before they come back, or it’ll be a lot worse.
While something like this should encourage everyone in the solar system to end the war and work together, it’s looking like the opposite is going to happen. Everyone will be desperate to win before the alien presence returns. Honestly, I’d even make peace with Saturn to ally against a foe like this, but that’s not going to happen. It’s a shame, really. The one thing I thought would unite us has turned out to be the thing that set this off.
Still, after all this, we’re going to have to find a way to work together. We’re human, or humanity’s descendants, even the Venusians and Saturnine. We have to remember that we’re human in the face of an external threat unlike anything in our history, or we’re finished. We’ve got to remember that, so there’s a way to make peace after war…with even our worst enemies.
Can I do that? Could I ever work with the sinister Saturnine or the treacherous Venusians, after all they’ve done? Not now, with the war on. Later…I just don’t know. Even knowing we have to for our own survival, I just don’t know.
One thing is for sure, things like the Phobos Incident are going to make that a lot harder. When we fight, we’ll have to be careful not to do things like that ourselves—even while the other side fights ruthlessly. Because, after the fighting, we’ll have to find some way to make peace…somehow.
# # # # #
About the Author
David Hallquist has a long history of customer service positions, including banking, call center service, and sales, all of which have served as a fascinating study of the human species. He lives in Rockville, Maryland, and is still waiting for the flying cars.
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The following is an
Excerpt from Book One of the Chimera Company:
The Fall of Rho-Torkis
___________________
Tim C. Taylor
Now Available from Theogony Books
eBook, Paperback, and (soon) Audio
Excerpt from “The Fall of Rho-Torkis:”
“Relax, Sybutu.”
Osu didn’t fall for the man steepling his fingers behind his desk. When a lieutenant colonel told you to relax, you knew your life had just taken a seriously wrong turn.
“So what if we’re ruffling a few feathers?” said Malix. “We have a job to do, and you’re going to make it happen. You will take five men with you and travel unobserved to a location in the capital where you will deliver a coded phrase to this contact.”
He pushed across a photograph showing a human male dressed in smuggler chic. Even from the static image, the man oozed charm, but he revealed something else too: purple eyes. The man was a mutant.
“His name is Captain Tavistock Fitzwilliam, and he’s a free trader of flexible legitimacy. Let’s call him a smuggler for simplicity’s sake. You deliver the message and then return here without incident, after which no one will speak of this again.”
Osu kept his demeanor blank, but the questions were raging inside him. His officers in the 27th gave the appearance of having waved through the colonel’s bizarre orders, but the squadron sergeant major would not let this drop easily. He’d be lodged in an ambush point close to the colonel’s office where he’d be waiting to pounce on Osu and interrogate him. Vyborg would suspect him of conspiracy in this affront to proper conduct. His sappers as undercover spies? Osu would rather face a crusading army of newts than the sergeant major on the warpath.
“Make sure one of the men you pick is Hines Zy Pel.”
Osu’s mask must have slipped because Malix added, “If there is a problem, I expect you to speak.”
“Is Zy Pel a Special Missions operative, sir?” There. He’d said it.
“You’ll have to ask Colonel Lantosh. Even after they bumped up my rank, I still don’t have clearance to see Zy Pel’s full personnel record. Make of that what you will.”
“But you must have put feelers out…”
Malix gave him a cold stare.
You’re trying to decide whether to hang me from a whipping post or answer my question. Well, it was your decision to have me lead an undercover team, Colonel. Let’s see whether you trust your own judgement.
The colonel seemed to decide on the latter option and softened half a degree. “There was a Hines Zy Pel who died in the Defense of Station 11. Or so the official records tell us. I
