Ralling was the idiot offspring of some rich politician. He was Teflon-coated, and crap simply didn't stick to him. However, even if Tryte didn't respect the president, he was glad he'd won, and didn't really care how. As was their law, the loser of the election was their vice-president. Trailings was a highly intelligent man with the people's best interests at heart, and he scared the living shit out of Tryte.
See, Tryte wanted the war. It proved they needed a strong military, and gave him job security. More importantly, he wanted to finally stomp the Barions' asses. In the past they had usually lost wars, just like the last one. But the Barions had gotten soft, and being fat and well fed they weren't in a fighting mood.
Trailings had wanted to make trade agreements with the Barions. It was what he had promised in his campaign, and was the main reason he had won the popular vote so easily. Trying to gain his constituents' approval, Ralling had agreed to work on trade agreements as well. Of course, at the first sign of Barion rejection, and at the general's not-so-gentle urging, he had threatened the Barions with military retaliation, something which the general knew would cause Zarco to go on the attack. When they declared war on Barious, it was way too late for any kind of agreement.
No matter what any of the reports said, and whether he was dead or alive, Tryte knew one thing for a fact. There was no way that Zarco would ever willingly make peace with them. Tryte knew what losing Zarco's wife had done to him. He knew, because he was the one who made and executed the plans to capture, torture, and mentally mutilate the Barion queen. And it was he who had given her to Eric Rider, who had then turned her into Drewcila Qwah.
Now that same Drewcila Qwah had shot his battle cruiser out of the sky, and it looked like there was a very good chance that he was going to wind up going toe-to-toe with her militarily. A deeper man might say that he was reaping what he had sown. General Tryte just wished he had killed the bitch when he'd had the chance.
When he entered the president's office, the other generals and the vice-president were already there.
"Glad you could make it, General," Ralling said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Sorry I'm late," Tryte said, although he couldn't really see how the hell he could be late since he had come as soon as he'd been summoned. It was always a good idea to kiss a little political ass. The president waved him into a seat, and he sat down.
"What the hell happened?" the president demanded.
All the generals and the vice-president started talking at once.
"One at a time!" Ralling screamed."You," he pointed at Tryte."What went wrong? We were supposed to be bombing Hepron Station last night, and instead they're bombing our capital. The capitol building has taken extensive damage. My wife and I barely escaped with our lives. Six skyscrapers were hit. They're saying an estimated twenty thousand people are dead. The whole country's screaming."
Trailings didn't give Tryte a chance to answer, which just proved to Tryte what a rude bastard he actually was."I told you. I told all of you that it was wrong to attack the Barions. They have slaughtered us out right in the last three wars. That has left our country in financial and military ruin . . ."
"With all due respect," Tryte bit out."The Barions are in a very vulnerable position. They have scrapped out most of their military equipment . . ."
"So you've said. Meanwhile they are stomping us, and our people are going hungry and getting killed, for what? We aren't going to force them to do anything. We need the trade agreements."
"When we totally annihilate them, we will have their trade agreements," Tryte said, his face getting red.
"What are we going to annihilate them with?" Trailings demanded."The only attacks we have successfully deployed are a few minor border skirmishes and a lot of idle threats."
"There is nothing idle about our threats." Tryte could now feel his heart racing in his chest."We are militarily superior. While we have continued to build our war machine, they have been tearing theirs apart."
"I see no proof of that," Trailings said.
"Well I do," the president said with conviction. The stupid bastard knew nothing about the military, and had no doubt been going to ream Tryte out good 'til he saw that Trailings was attacking him. Since Ralling hated Trailings, Tryte suddenly found himself in the pleasant position of being—at least temporarily—the golden haired boy."What should our next move be, Tryte?"
"You're actually asking this moron?" Trailings said in disbelief."So far he's managed to get one of our battle cruisers destroyed and our capital bombed."
"Everyone has a bad day," Ralling said.
Trailings threw up his hands and left the room, which suited Tryte just fine.
Drew woke up with a slight throbbing in her head, which meant she was more or less back to normal. She shook Arcadia till she woke up and then put a finger over her mouth. She got up and motioned for Arcadia to follow her a little out of camp. When they were a sufficient distance away, Drew stopped. At which point Arcadia proceeded to wrap herself around her.
"Honey, I've got puke breath, Drew protested.
"I don't care, Drew . . . it's been so long, and I've missed you so much."
Drew kissed her gently on the mouth, then pushed her away."I promise you that as soon as we get to Hepron Station I'll make it up to you. Right now I need to fill you in on what's going on, and then you can tell Dylan . . ." Drew relayed the news cast to Arcadia.
"But you didn't kill him . . ."
"You think my sister's going to believe me?"
"But I was there! I know you didn't do it."
"And you think she'd believe you any sooner than she'd believe me?"
"I suppose not." She saw the way Drewcila was looking at her, and mistook an attack of gas for accusation."I swear to you, Drew, that I didn't . . ."
"I know that. Jurak would have had a fit if you did. I also know he didn't do it, because . . . well, he just wouldn't."
"Then who?"
"I imagine the evil Atario. Power hungry and stupid . . . He killed Zarco and blamed it on me, which really pisses me off, because I wanted to kill Zarco and blame it on him. It's just so unfair."
"So that's why all the police and military are after us. They think you killed the king."
"And so will Stasha. Like I said, she won't believe you, and she certainly isn't going to believe me. She might believe Jurak, I don't know. At any rate, I don't want her to find out Zarco's dead just yet. She's bitching enough now when she thinks all I did was screw and shoot him. Besides . . . the dumb ass actually loved the bastard."
"So did you . . . once," Arcadia reminded.
Drew smiled and looked back towards the camp and her sister."See . . . I just don't believe that for a minute. I don't think a person could change that much. They might have removed my memories, but they didn't remove
me
, and I just never felt
anything
for him but contempt."
"And Van Gar?"
"What about him?"
"Do you love him?"
Drew smiled and ran her hand down the side of Arcadia's face."Are you jealous?"
"You know that I am."
"Well, do yourself a favor and STOP IT! Don't you start that sentimental bullshit, too, I just can't take it right now. Van Gar left because he couldn't live on my terms. Why does everyone have to get so damned serious? Doesn't anyone just want to have fun anymore?" Drew laughed then and popped Arcadia on the back."Hell, girl! Isn't life throwing enough crap at us right now?"
Arcadia nodded, although she wouldn't look at her.
Drew took Arcadia's claw in her hand."Come on, let's get this show on the road. The sooner we get to Hepron the better."
"They will be waiting there for us?"
"Most probably. However, I'm hoping that by then Jurak and Margot will have gotten to the news media. If so, I'm expecting a rather uneventful arrival."
"And we'll be together?" Arcadia asked carefully.
"Of course we will," Drew answered enthusiastically.
Dartan woke early, which turned out to be a total waste of time because there was still no sign of the queen. Overnight, news had broken that they'd bombed the capital of Lockhede, and that there was a huge demonstration outside the castle. It was reported that several nobles had committed suicide rather than face the wrath of the population outside the castle walls should they fall.
Of course he wasn't reporting on any of that; in fact, all the things that were news-worthy he wasn't being allowed to report on at all. Hepron Station was run by Salvagers, most of whom were alien. Everyone here was an employee of Qwah-Co, and as such all highly loyal to the queen. No one was going to allow him to report that the queen was still missing or where she was heading. Any of that might give away where she was. And although it seemed that the military, which had arrived in force sometime during the night, was currently awaiting orders—not from the reigning regent, Atario, but from their queen—no one was willing to take any chances.
Vehicles, both land and air, were being prepared, and it was obvious that a reconnaissance mission was being launched. However, no one was telling him anything. He sighed. He had been sure he'd been handed the assignment of his life, and now the news seemed to be happening everywhere but here. It just wasn't fair.
Arcadia continued to play with her wrist com."Well, it's obvious that communications are back up."
"But?" Drew drawled, standing close to the fire to warm her freezing ass.
"I haven't been able to get an open channel to Hepron Station yet."
"Keep trying."
"Drewcila, we had a plan. A plan to go to civilization and seek help. I think that was a good plan," Dylan said.
Arcadia laughed and looked at Drew."Little Dylan's afraid to stay in the big dark woods another night."
"Bite me, Arcadia," Dylan snapped."I don't care what any of you say, something big was breathing on my neck last night, and something with way too many legs to be anything but creepy was crawling on my face when I woke up this morning. If God had meant for us to live in the woods, he would have given us shells like turtles so that we could carry our home with us."
"And no doubt your shell would contain all the modern conveniences of a space station," Arcadia teased.
"A little piece of heaven for him and his blow-up doll," Drew laughed.
"Fuck you, Qwah!" Dylan said angrily."I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm cold. I don't think either of you pathetic bitches are particularly funny this morning. I surely-to-fuck never had to resort to screwing some blow-up plastic piece of shit."
"I'm guessing Stasha wouldn't screw you," Drewcila said.
"Most certainly not!" Stasha said, her head snapping up from where she'd been sitting staring at the fire."Unlike you, I don't bed everything with legs."
"Neither do I . . . That thing that crawled across Dylan's face? I don't care what that lying bastard says, I didn't fuck it," Drew said with a laugh.
"She's never screwed me either," Dylan said with a pout.
"I told you . . . you're too normal," Drew said.
"I'm not having any luck getting a link with Hepron Station," Arcadia sighed.
"May I?" Facto asked holding out his hand. Arcadia handed him the communicator.
"Why not give it to my sister? Maybe she could have sex with it," Stasha said.
"All right, but you have to set it on vibrate mode, and I don't know how good an antenna I'm going to make." If Drew was at all upset by Stasha's obvious jabs it wasn't showing.
"I vote we start walking," Dylan said.
"I say we stay put and let our people find us," Drew said.
"And I think it's more likely that the army guys will find us," Dylan insisted.
"Quiet, I think I've reached Hepron Station," Facto reported.
Dartan heard the commotion, and he and his camera men moved towards it. A hovercraft landed on the pad just outside the door, and armed Qwah-Co soldiers climbed out and took up position, followed by the queen and her retinue, and the word that jumped immediately to Dartan's thoughts was 'competent.'
It was evident in their movements and in those of their queen's. These were people who understood who they were and knew exactly what they were doing.
"Can we please start filming now?" Dartan asked the angry looking gray alien who had spent the better part of the night before and this morning telling them what and when they could and could not shoot.
"Knock yourselves out."
"Jesop . . . bring us on live now," Dartan ordered into his head set. And then the words just flowed as they had never flowed for him before."I'm here at a secret location where the queen and her retinue have just arrived." They were digging their way through the crowd as he spoke."In the face of tragedy and treachery, our queen stands tall. All our hopes, all our fears rest on her shoulders and hers alone, and looking at her now surrounded by those she trusts most, I personally have no doubt that we as a nation shall surely triumph over any adversity. She saved us before, and she shall save us again." The queen suddenly stumbled, and was quickly caught by a man he recognized immediately as Chancellor Facto."I don't know if you can see her clearly, she just stumbled, and Chancellor Facto caught her. Her color is very bad, and she appears to be very weak, which would seem to confirm the reports that she has been poisoned. She was supposed to have met us here last night, and she is just now arriving with a reconnaissance team that was sent out earlier to locate and retrieve her. The gods alone know what horrors she has endured through the night, and yet despite her obvious physical weakness and her crushing loss, she's here. And I have to believe that she will be able to sew our troubled nation back together. We are almost through the crowd now." He forced his way past the last few bipedal obstacles in his way, and found himself face to face with the queen, who looked at him and smiled.