The Cresperian Alliance (20 page)

"Sit,” Bennett declared. “It's bad. We need to decide what to do, and we need to decide FAST. You, Mai, as the head of the civilian humans, and you, Gordon, as the head of the Crispy humans, and myself as the military head, have some hard choices to make."

"What the hell is going on, Steve?” Gordon asked, obviously irked at the roundabout answer.

"The Snappers are back,” Bennett declared, blunt. “In force. MASSIVE force."

"Shit,” Mai expostulated.

"...The main ships are verging on monstrous, they're so big,” Bennett briefed them rapidly. “There are some eight of them, and about a couple of dozen of lesser size, plus scads of runabouts, seeming to be in two different configurations. It's an entire fleet, for all intents and purposes. They entered the Cresperian solar system about an hour ago. They'll be here in roughly six more hours. And I don't think we have to guess what they're here for."

"No,” Gordon whispered, paling beneath his tanned skin. “They want the planet."

"Right,” Bennett agreed. “So the question before us is: Do we stay and fight, or do we run for help?"

"We've got good weaponry,” Mai declared, feeling feisty now that her anger was up, “and plenty of shielding. Not to mention everyone's stockpiled plenty of food and water. I say we wait the sons of bitches out."

"I hope you're right, Mai,” Bennett said, “but we had no idea they had ships this big."

"How big?” Mai pressed.

"Think about ten to fifteen of the
Galactic
,” was Bennett's answer. “Each. At the very least. If nothing else, they have millions of troops up there. Intelligent army ants. And that's assuming they don't have any weaponry stronger than what we've already seen."

"They'd have used it if they had,” Mai scoffed.

"Hopefully,” Bennett said. “Gordon, you're being quiet."

"Mm? Oh, sorry,” he said, coming back to the discussion. “I was trying to get a sense of the Cresperian opinion."

"Ah. And?"

"Unease,” was all Gordon said.

"That's... rare,” Mai murmured, feeling foreboding wash through her. Over the time they'd been mates, she had learned to sense some of what her husband was feeling, and now she picked up the anxiety radiating from him. “Why?"

"It is as Steve says,” Gordon declared. “These are huge ships, and if nothing else, contain many soldiers. And my people are, most emphatically, NOT soldiers."

"And it's way the hell too late to teach them,” Bennett noted with a sigh. “Shit. I should have thought ahead. I should have planned for this."

"It's not your fault, Steve,” Mai offered. “Who knew the bastards were so stubborn?"

"Back to our choice, Mai, Steve,” Gordon redirected the discussion. “If we are going to leave, the best time to do so would be before they have arrived, and to make our departure on the side opposite the planet from their fleet—assuming they do not have additional forces besieging the system. If we are going to stay and fight, then we must get ready, and quickly."

"Seriously, Gordon, what do you think the chances are of staving them off, if it comes to a planetary invasion?” Bennett considered. “We have all of the soldiers and trained personnel in this base, plus the entire population of Cresperia. That's gotta outnumber the Snappers, even with those big starships."

"It would,” Gordon agreed, “but as I said, my people are not fighters. I fear it might come to a slaughter, and not by the Cresperians."

"Even with our help?"

"Even with our help."

"So should we run?” Mai wondered. “If we run, then the Crispies can surrender and maybe it won't come to a bloodbath. Then we can bring back reinforcements from Earth and whup their asses."

"But once they become entrenched on the planet, it will be a lot harder to do that, Mai,” Bennett noted.

"How many other choices do we have, Steve?” Gordon asked realistically. “We do not have sufficient vessels to evacuate my entire planet."

Bennett bowed his head for a few moments in thought. Then he looked up. “How long will it take you two to get the civvies ready to evacuate?"

Inside two hours, Mai and Gordon had their people—including those Cresperians who were preparing to metamorphose to human—ready to go, clustered in Mai's lab. But before they could depart, the alert klaxon went off.

"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ALL MILITARY PERSONNEL TO BATTLE STATIONS! ACTIVATING SHIELD! ATTACK IMMINENT ON NORTH CONTINENT OF CRESPERIA! ALL NON-DUTY PERSONNEL ACTIVATE VIDEO IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ATTACK IMMINENT!"

Gordon snatched the remote, and activated the video.

An intermediate sized Snapper vessel—a battleship, Gordon and Major Bennett had begun terming it—had shot forward, ahead of the rest of the incoming fleet, and was approaching Cresperia from the north. The large northern continent was indeed its apparent target.

Suddenly, well before it was in range of Cresperian defensive beams, a green ray lanced out from the battleship, down toward the Cresperian surface. A cloud of ejecta could be seen exploding from the site, and suddenly Gordon and his fellow Cresperians, whether in human form or not, dropped to their knees. The room filled with high pitched wails and keening.

"GORDON!” Mai screamed, crouching beside him. “What's wrong?!"

"They... they killed them, Cherry,” Gordon panted, raising his head to look into her dark, anxious eyes. “Past the shielding, past everything. An entire city of my people... was just obliterated."

Within seconds, the battleship itself disappeared from the video screen—or at least, most of it did. What little was left of the vessel from the orbiting disintegrator cannon's attack vented atmosphere, fluids, shards of debris, and what appeared to be dead bodies.

"Thank God we talked Steve into outfitting the orbital cannons with active camo,” Mai murmured vindictively. “I swear the stuff works even better in space."

"Yes, but Cherry, they have the reach on us,” Gordon pointed out. “That Snapper ship was nowhere close to being in range of the ground based defenses. Yet it punched through our shielding like paper."

"How can that be?!” Mai exclaimed. “You guys have the best shit going."

"Evidently not,” Gene Preconder observed. “A city wiped out obviously just got trumped in the matter of offensive and defensive weaponry. Sorry,” he added to the Crispies present.

"No offense taken,” Zztklknith shrugged. “Truth is truth. But the fact that our disintegrator got through their shielding as easily as their energy weapon did ours, is some source of... perhaps comfort is not the right word...” He sighed.

Just then, Major Bennett burst into the room.

"What the hell happened?” Mai demanded. “That was a damned hot knife through butter. And all our guys went down with the pain,” she swept a hand at the Crispies in the room.

Bennett shook his head. “We're not sure. Our current theory is that the previous assault was made with whatever ship was nearby, not necessarily a top of the line. When that failed, they brought in the big guns."

"Shit,” Margie Preconder, Gene's wife, spat. “Blast the Snappers to hell."

"I wish we could. How close are you to being ready to evacuate?” he demanded.

"We were headed to the tubes when the call to battle stations came through,” JFK, the human physician, informed him.

"Good. We're just crossing the terminator into night. If you head to the spaceports near the western coast of South Dtnir, you'll be damn near opposite the direction of the Snapper fleet. The Cresperians are preparing some smaller ships for you. They have just as much range, but a better chance of slipping out of the solar system unseen."

"What about you?” Gordon asked.

Bennett grew grim. “I'm sending a couple of units with you guys, to function as weapons officers and pilots if you should need ‘em,” he told them. “The rest of us are staying here."

"But... Steve...” Mai tried to protest.

"I know, Mai. It's... been good knowing you.” Bennett stuck out his hand, but Mai flung her arms around the Marine officer.

"Don't, Steve,” she whispered. “Don't do it. Please. Go to ground instead. Lead an underground resistance movement. A thorn in their side. Don't go kamikaze on us."

He nodded. “We'll do what we can, Cherry. We're not suicidal. We're just soldiers."

"No,” Gordon contradicted. “More than soldiers. Friends—and family."

Bennett nodded, swallowing hard. “Now go. My men will meet you at the spaceport; they're already gone. And Godspeed."

Every member of the group hugged the major on the way out.

Rather than create surface roadways or airways that obstructed the view, the Crispies constructed their transportation facilities, like their cities, underground. The Earth outpost personnel had taken to calling them “the tubes,” and one station was directly underneath their compound. The refugees gathered their hastily compiled belongings and research—what could be brought—and headed for the station. Having considerable sense among them, they divided into small groups and each group took a different car, on a different route, to the spaceport.

Mai and Gordon clambered into a car. Four of Gordon's “cousins” joined them. Eugene and Margie Preconder took another car, along with several more Crispies. Four Crispies piled into a third car, along with JFK and his nurse. And so it went, each car zipping off in a different direction.

As Mai and Gordon approached their first hub, the city of Xxtrflm, they found themselves caught in a traffic jam of sorts, as citizens of that city sought to flee into the countryside, considering it safer than the concentration of the city. The car came to a complete stop at the first commuting station, unable to move forward due to the snarl of traffic in the city proper.

"Come on!” Gordon exclaimed, opening the car and shepherding everyone out with their small bags. “We can't wait this out. From what I saw we're still in range of the Snapper weapon. I know this city like the back of my hand, as Cherry would say! We've got to get through it on foot, then try to find a car on the other side! Let's go! Stick together!"

Chaining hands together, the six beings, led by Gordon, threaded their way through panicked crowds of Cresperians, all headed outbound. Before they could get ten feet from their abandoned car, it was crammed with fleeing Crispies, all headed back the way Gordon and his group had come.

Past the tube station the crowd thinned a bit, and Gordon picked up the pace to a run. The others followed hard on his heels; Mai stayed right beside him. “One hundred zrts ahead, then take a left,” he instructed. “I'm taking us the back way. It should be less crowded. Got it?"

A chorus of “Yes!” came to his ears, and he increased speed.

They made the corner, and the coast was clear. “Next right,” he said. “Then a dog leg, and another right."

The six family members—because, in Gordon's mind, they were, despite radically different appearances—made the maze of underground streets smoothly, dodging the odd fleeing Cresperian. A quake shook the city, and Mai nearly fell. Gordon grabbed her before she could hit pavement, hauling her against his side as he continued to run, tears flowing down his cheeks. When she'd gotten her balance, he eased her feet to the ground and she resumed running. He released her.

"What the hell was that?!” she exclaimed, matching his pace again.

It was one of Gordon's cousins that answered, his tone very subdued. “I cannot be for certain, but I would guess that the adjacent city, some kimozrts away, was just attacked."

"Judging from what I felt, I think you're right, Krnlith,” Gordon agreed, dragging the back of one hand across his eyes in an effort to erase the signs of his emotion. “I'm taking us to an older station, one that, hopefully, most people will have forgotten. Otherwise, we will simply run into another log jam of people.” He turned to Mai. “Can you go any faster, love?"

"A little,” Mai declared staunchly, and soon they were covering city blocks in mere moments, dodging around abandoned possessions and vehicles, as well as the occasional lost pedestrian.

"This way!” Gordon would call, whenever that happened, and the Crispy so addressed would immediately fall in behind. Soon they had a group of a dozen.

But Mai, enhanced though she was, was running out of reserves. Gordon noticed her pace slacking somewhat. “Are you all right, Cherry?"

"Fine,” she panted.

"Not if you are out of breath.” Without slowing, Gordon scooped up his wife, backpack and all, and carried her. “It is only about a malazrt away, sweetheart,” he assured her. “With any luck, most of the others will have forgotten about it and we will find a couple of cars to take us away from the city. Then we will be safer."

Mai nodded in his arms, trying to catch her breath. “You can't carry me that whole way at this pace,” she protested.

"That is what family is for,” Dala, another cousin, noted. “We will take turns until you have recovered."

"Gordon, what about your parents?” Lira wondered.

Gordon remained silent. Mai shook her head.

"He called them,” she informed the cousins, “but they wouldn't come. They've hooked up with Major Bennett and they're going to try to form a resistance movement."

"Oh,” Lira said, subdued.

They handed Mai off twice in the remaining malazrt to the station. As they rounded the corner to the entrance of the tube station, they stopped short. Several hundred Crispies packed the old station, clambering into cars as fast as the cars arrived. Some cars were packed with eight or ten Crispies, despite the fact that they only seated six.

"Shit,” Mai expostulated. “Now what?"

But the crowd had heard the English exclamation, and turned. A jabbering sounded in Cresperian, and several green hands pointed in their direction. Gordon raised his hands and responded in Cresperian.

Suddenly the crowd parted, letting them through. Gordon, Mai, and their cousins were ushered urgently to the next car, which had just arrived. One of the oldest Crispies stepped forward as the six members of the outpost climbed into the car. He placed two of his hands on Gordon's head, the other two on his shoulders, as if conveying a benediction.