Bright Horizons (17 page)

Kyle
had always wondered what happened in the minutes before the Iltia’cor commander
picked up the surgical blade, and now he was speechless as he realized he was
going to hear the cause of all of this death and destruction.

“He
was sure that the human circulatory system would seal itself when ruptured.”

Kyle’s
legs went out from under him. “So… so he thought she would be fine?” he said as
he sat on the floor. He head was spinning with this implication. “So Alex
killed him when he…”

“No.
Don’t be ridiculous. Even though he thought she would live, it was still a
violent assault. I’m sure he would have let her bleed to death and laughed
while doing so. No General, Alex Ramirez did the whole galaxy a favor by
killing that over-pompous cretin. I am certainly glad we don’t have to deal
with him.”

Kyle
slowly rose, a confused look on his face.

“You
didn’t know? The Hedali didn’t tell you?” A’nacal sighed heavily. “They always
leave out details they think are irrelevant, but what is irrelevant to a Hedali
is usually the most important matter. Kiltao Bregan was heir to the Iltia
throne. They don’t actually have a throne, mind you, but that would be the
easiest way to explain it using Earth idioms.”

Kyle
sat back down heavily.

“Don’t
feel responsible, General. None of the Higher Council places blame for this
conflict on any Earthman. Blame is place directly on Kiltao Bregan.”

Kyle
shook his head a little as questions started piling up in his head.

“Did
you send us the engines?” Kyle asked.

“No,
nor did any other member of the Higher Council. As to who did send them, that
is a secret that only they have a right to reveal.”

“Why
did you decide to talk to me at this time?”

“Because
of your brilliant use of tactics at Helku. I don’t have a military mind,
General, but that was amazing! I have watched the transmissions of it multiple
times. You Earthmen sure know how to put on a show.”

“You
wanted to speak to me because of our tactics?”

“Not
precisely. I needed to speak with you because of the results of your tactics.
Once the Iltia’cor lost the gravity well generator, they became crazed with
fear. They started pulling back into their system and are frantically trying to
assign blame on each other. You are on the verge of victory and they know it.
Their only hope is that you will decide to abide by a reaty that you have never
heard of before today.”

Kyle
nodded as he understood.

“So
General, do the Iltia’cor have any hope?”

“No,”
said Kyle. “They have no hope.”

“I
didn’t think so. But I felt that the Earthmen needed to know all of the facts
before you made your assault. I didn’t want ignorance to be an excuse if you
felt guilty later. If you destroy the Iltia’cor military, you will do so
knowing that this is not acceptable to the civilized races. Are you still
willing to do this?”

“We
will sign the Treaty after the Iltia’cor surrender, and not a moment before,”
said Kyle.

A’nacal
smiled and his image disappeared.

Chapter 18

18 August
2044

Kyle looked
around at his room once again. A long history of writing lists never broke him
of the habit of making a visual inspection of his room before he left for a
trip.

“Everything
is in the car, Dad,” Sara said from the doorway.

He
turned and smiled at his daughter. “Thanks sweetie, I’ll only be gone for about
twelve days this time. Make sure you don’t burn the house down.”

Since
the Iltia’cor invasion, Sara had moved home from college and taken up residence
in her old room. While Kyle was certainly glad that she wanted to spend more
time at home, he was fully aware that he was, in fact, not around near as much
as he should be as a father.

“The
surrender should be soon, then a few days of treaty negotiations, then I will
take some time off. Think about what you want to do when I get back,” he said
as he hugged her

“Italy?”
She asked. “Or better, Sicily. We could go to Palermo and the ruins at
Syracuse.”

“That
sounds incredible! What a great trip. I was thinking Disney World, but I guess
you aren’t quite at that age anymore,” Kyle said as his driver, Sergeant
Kinsey, started up the car outside.

“Disney
World! I didn’t think about that. Now I have a tough choice”

Kyle
laughed as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “You go ahead and think about
it and set it up. I’ll go wherever you want. I have to go now, sweetie.”

“Ok
Dad, be safe and come back soon,” she said with the same measured practice she
had used since she was old enough to send him off into harm’s way.

Kyle
looked back at his house as he stepped into the car. It was about two years
from being paid off. He shook his head at the thought.

“Kinsey,
I’m about to head to a battle 117 light-years away, onboard a ship that costs
close to a trillion dollars to construct, right?”

“Yes,
sir.”

“So
why am I focused on when I will have my mortgage burning ceremony?”

“Sounds
like you have your priorities in the right place, sir.”

Kyle
smiled at that answer. It sounded to him like advice he frequently gave and
rarely took.

The
ride to Dulles was pleasant for Kyle. James Kinsey was an excellent driver,
both attentive to the road and to his passenger.

Kyle
pulled out his tablet and scanned the morning’s reports as he chatted with
Kinsey. He was happy that everything was going well and that no new problems
had popped up overnight.

The
majority of sleds were already hauling some supply scooters into position around
the Iltia system in preparation for the attack. The planners had decided on
four simultaneous points of entry into the system. Three cruisers and five
scooters would be brought in at each point and attempt to hold the drop point
as the sleds went back to bring in reinforcements.  In all, forty cruisers and
two hundred scooters would make up the Earth invasion fleet.

If
reports were correct, the Iltia’cor would have around sixty cruisers to hold
their system, but eighty of the Earth’s scooters were essentially just giant
railguns that had proved devastating to the Iltia’cor in each engagement. Kyle
hoped that the Iltia’cor wouldn’t devise a counter to Earth’s big punch. If
they did, Kyle was still convinced that the fact that the mosar based weapons of
the Iltia’cor were useless against Earth’s ships would be enough to tip the
balance of the fight.

“We’re
here, sir,” Kinsey said as he pulled the car onto a service ramp. A group of
armed guards kept a wary watch on their vehicle as an officer approached.

“I.D.,”
the officer stated as Kinsey rolled down the window. Kyle handed Kinsey his
I.D. card and waited as the officer checked the names on his list.

“Thank
you, sir.”

Kyle
nodded to him and reattached the card to the front of his uniform. The concrete
pillars blocking the way forward lowered into the pavement and the guards
cleared off the ramp as Kinsey pulled forward into the dark tunnel.

Kyle’s
eyes were just adjusting to the dark when another ramp took the car back
towards the surface and daylight.

“I
will never get used to seeing that,” said Kinsey as the small spacecraft came
into view. The Hedali had given Earth four atmospheric transport vessels as
part of their thanks for Earth liberating their home planet. One vessel had
been assigned to Admiral Rider’s office, now headed by General Kitch, and she
had made it available for Kyle to use so that he could spend a few extra days
at home.

Kitch
and Chancellor Thomas were already on the Enterprise around Jupiter making last
minute preparations for the surrender of the Iltia’cor and the signing of the
Treaty of the Stars. Kyle would be joining them in around twelve hours and by
the end of the week this war would be over.

Retirement
was never something that Kyle longed for or thought much about, but the idea of
spending some real time with Sara and not worrying that he would leave her
alone was becoming more and more attractive to him as the years bore down on
him. Kitch saw that and ordered him to take a few days off and spend some time
with his daughter. She couldn’t really order him, not yet anyway, but she had
strongly suggested.

Kyle
smiled as he thought about the possibility that Kitch could soon be giving him
orders officially. Her handling of Rider’s duties had impressed everyone as the
Earth Council hesitated and wavered on who to promote to Supreme Commander of
Earth Forces. For a while it was a choice between Kyle and someone who wasn’t
the Butcher of Hyderabad. But in the last few weeks it had become more and more
a choice between Kyle and General Diane Kitch. The Chancellor had requested
they both be present for the surrender and the Treaty signing, and he had
demanded that the Council decide whose name should be on the documents before
they left Jupiter.

Kinsey
was already unloading Kyle’s luggage from the trunk as Kyle finally put away
his tablet and stepped out of the car.

“Sir?”
Kinsey asked as he held up Kyle’s marine saber.

“Part
of my dress uniform,” Kyle said as he smiled back at the young marine.
“Chancellor Thomas wanted us in our full regalia, so the saber comes.”

Kinsey
laughed and shut the trunk of the car. Kyle helped him move all of his luggage
onto the small Hedali vessel and then shook his hand as he said goodbye.

“General
Martin, glad to meet you sir, I’m Commander Andrews and this is Lieutenant
Leonard.”

Kyle
looked over and saw the two naval officers walking towards the space ship.

“Nice
to meet you, Commander. Lieutenant,” Kyle said as he shook both men’s hands.

“Do
you have everything stowed, sir?”

“Yes
Commander, I’m ready to go whenever you are.”

“Great,
let’s get on board and get going to Jupiter,” said Andrews, as they climbed the
few steps into the craft.

Inside,
the small transport vehicle was more spacious than the size outside would
indicate. It stood a mere twenty-three feet from nose to tail and just over
twelve feet wide. At just under ten feet in height, it looked like it would be
cramped, but Kyle didn’t feel like he was going to hit his head as he stood
upright.

Andrews
and Leonard went to the forward part of the vessel and sat in the pilot seats.
Kyle couldn’t call it a cockpit as the entire vessel was completely open,
except for a small sleeping compartment and lavatory. Kyle sat on the
comfortable bench seat across from the entry hatch and stretched his legs out
in front of him.

He
pulled out his tablet and checked for any news. It felt strange getting reports
from several light years away in the space of minutes, but that’s what was
happening. After the liberation of Kirtit, the Hedali had made several gifts to
Earth; access to some drive and weapons technology, four small transport
vessels that had atmospheric and faster than light communications capabilities,
and six faster than light transmission rigs that could be set on a larger
vessel or station.

One
of the transmitters was set up at Space Station Ellison and four others were
set into scooters that traveled to the rendezvous points when an assault was
planned, but were never taken into the systems that would see combat. The sixth
was in New Mexico being carefully studied and reverse engineered.

He
would love to have one on Earth so that they would have near instant
communication with Jupiter, but the delay would be worth it if the guys at
Roswell could figure out how Earth could make the transmitters. If they succeed
in that assignment, then delayed communication would be something the next
generation would never have to consider when they planned trips across the
cosmos.

“Are
we really at that point already?” thought Kyle. This morning he was discussing
with Sara whether to go to Sicily or Disneyworld. In a few years the discussion
would be what planet to visit on a vacation.

Kyle
sighed as he lost his train of thought and looked over to the pilots, barely
hearing their chatter while he had been reading and thinking. He was surprised
to see the dark sky dotted with the bright canopy of stars.

“When
did we leave Earth?” he asked.

“We
are just breaking through the stratosphere, sir. You were pretty deep in your
reading I guess,” Andrews replied.

Kyle
stood and walked over to get a better look out the window. With the advanced
artificial gravity adjusters on the Hedali ship, he never felt the acceleration
of the takeoff.

“Course
is laid in, General, and we will be burning hot as soon as we get clearance.
About three minutes out at this point,” Leonard told him.

Kyle
walked back to his seat and picked up his tablet. He was about to sit down when
he heard Andrews address him.

“General
Martin. Sir? You have an emergency message coming in.”

Kyle
walked back over to the pilots. “Who is it?”

“It’s
Commander Salazar, sir. He says it is vital he speak to you.”

“Put
him on speaker, Commander.”

“Salazar,
I am putting you on speaker with General Martin,” said Andrews as he flipped a
switch and nodded at Kyle.

“General
Martin, can you hear me?”

“I
hear you, Commander, you caught me minutes before we were to leave Earth space
and head to Jupiter.”

“I
am very glad to have caught you then. Sir, I need to let you have some intel, I
knew you would want it as soon as you could.”

Kyle
could tell this was urgent, Salazar’s voice was strained, but also strangely
excited.

“Go
ahead, Commander, it is just myself, Andrews and Leonard here.”

“We
were able to take one of the Otina bases just about an hour ago, sir. We lost
six and have twenty-four wounded.”

Kyle
winced; he hated having to lose any men.

“We
took most of their base fairly well intact, and in fact we were able to start
downloading data into the Berlin’s data system and start analyzing it. One of
the analysts caught something and brought it right to me, sir. It’s about the
crew of the Endeavor. They are alive sir.”

Kyle
felt the ship spin suddenly and he was aware that Andrews was on his feet and
holding his arm.

“Sir,
did you hear me? We believe that the crew of the Endeavor was taken by force
from the shuttle before the Otina destroyed it. They are being held and
experimented on at a base only a few million klicks away from here.”

Kyle’s
voice cracked and wavered as he spoke. “The crew is alive? All of them?”

“Sir,
I know your sister was on board the shuttle, and from the information we have,
she is being held on their base. From what we can put together, yes, she is
alive.”

Kyle
couldn’t believe it. His sister was alive, but apparently being experimented on
by the Otina.

“Salazar,
send your coordinates to Andrews,” Kyle ordered. “Andrews, send a message to
the Enterprise, tell them I have been delayed and to keep to their departure
schedule.”

Kyle
started pacing as Andrews sent the message and waited for the coordinates to be
downloaded.

“Sir,
looks like we will have an almost nine hour trip on full burst, you might want
to go get some sleep if you can,” Leonard suggested after the two pilots
started setting up for the trip.

“Thank
you Lieutenant, I might do just that,” Kyle said as he focused his breathing
and tried to calm himself.

Kyle
went to the back and lay down on the small bunk in the sleeping compartment,
but he couldn’t sleep. He just kept thinking that his sister was alive, and no
matter what happened, he was going to bring her home.