Inherited War 3: Retaliation (45 page)

“You,” Cole pointed to a Nixa, “what is it.” The young Nixa looked terrified at being singled out by the human commander. “Come on, if you know something spit it out.”

“Well, um, this time of year the winds shift and blow from the north to south. In fact, I believe they shifted two days ago and will steadily blow south for the next few months,” he said and then shrunk back to his station. Cole heard grumbles about useless lower enlisted and their unruly mouths. Cole thought hard on it. Something tickled his mind. Something he should know but couldn’t think of it. Why would you move men and equipment from the south to the north because of wind?

What does the wind do? It moves and takes everything with it that it can. So what would the wind move that would be bad for the Roche? Then it hit him.

“Can this shield stand up to direct nuclear hits?” he asked the room. “I mean, a lot of them, probably big ones too.” Cole saw the look that grew on everyone’s faces. Horror. Nukes in space were one thing, their damage could be minimized and ships shields were designed to handle the extra radiation and heat. These aliens were smart enough to not use nukes on the ground because they tended to ruin a lot of real estate and pollute the local areas. There were plenty of other weapons in the galaxy that did a better job with less mess than a nuke. But nukes were still one of the more powerful weapons in the galaxy.

“Not for long, no. This shield was designed for protecting against heat and smaller scale explosive attacks. The pressure and heat created by nukes will eventually be too much.” They all turned to watch the screen. There was nothing they could do now but wait. They watched as the Roche finished their retreat to the north and then they saw it. A big blob on the radar. It detonated mere inches above the absolute center of the shield. It turned night into day, and fire and pressure assaulted the shield along with massive amounts of radiation. Hundreds of kilotons were detonated atop their shield. Another was on the way.

“We can no longer expect to defend the upper city. Give the fall back signal. I want everyone and everything down below, ASAP,” Cole ordered on his command net. Inwardly he sighed. The situation just became unwinnable in his mind, but not unfightable, never that.

In less than twenty-four hours, they had fully retreated into the underground. All supplies and personnel where safely below the city. Cole had added the shield strength monitor on his HUD so he could keep an eye on it at all times. The strength was dropping steadily, but they still had two or three more days before it failed completely and he needed to be somewhere else.

He was walking down to the medical facilities to finally pay a visit to Jeth. The big Worlder had been sedated and kept in isolation since Cole had arrived. Cole had considered the words of the Worlder general and decided that Jeth needed to be up sooner rather than later. None of them may survive this, and he deserved a chance to fight just as much as anyone. Plus Cole had a plan to maybe help him out. Sky was waiting for him outside of Jeth’s door.

“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?” she asked as he drew near.

“Right thing, yes. Smart thing, no. No one comes in until I say so.” Cole placed his hand on the door and glanced at Sky. “Don’t worry, he won’t hurt me.” He pushed the door open and walked in the room.

It was a large room designed to handle four occupants, but it could barely handle Jeth’s size. He had an IV attached to his arm and the tubing ran into the wall. He was being fed a mixture of high dose sedatives and nutrients to keep him alive. Cole walked up, slid the needle out of his arm, and let it drop to the floor. Jeth was on three gurneys pushed side by side and had massive woven steel bands securing him to the beds. There were four bands on each leg and three on each arm. One on his head and two more around his massive chest. Cole doubted it would stop him if he really wanted up, so he unhooked all of the straps and let them hang to the side.

Cole waited patiently for the big alien to wake up. There was nowhere to sit, so he stood by the Worlder’s side. Jeth was big and his metabolism was fast. He was stirring almost immediately. Cole needed Jeth’s head as clear as possible if he was going to pull this off. It was something he had never tried before, but had done to him a fair number of times.

Jeth began to thrash around and moan. Cole couldn’t wait any more. He reached forward and placed his hands on either side of the Worlder’s head. The contact probably wasn’t necessary but it helped him concentrate. Very suddenly he felt himself, much like he did when he bonded to a ship, slip out of his body.

Cole looked around. He didn’t recognize where he was. He was standing in the middle of a large bare patch of dirt. It was, in fact, a giant circle of dirt surrounded by mirror-still water. There was a pattern of melted gold laid out under his feet. The symbols looked familiar but he couldn’t place them. His mind was slightly fuzzy and he was having trouble focusing. It had to be the Worlders natural ability to block invading minds. Split had done it on a massive scale on the Esii homeworld. Jeth’s wasn’t quite refined enough to keep him out, but it did keep him off balance.

“Why are you keeping me alive?” The voice came from behind Cole. He didn’t have to turn to see who it was.

“I can’t lose you too, Jeth,” Cole replied, turning to face his friend.

“Do you know what it’s like to suffer the loss I have suffered?” he asked. Jeth seemed more talkative in his head than in real life.

“No,” Cole began, but was interrupted.

“No, no one could ever know how I feel right now. No one who is not a Worlder who has lost their bond. You see, we don’t just bond our minds and spirits, but the flesh is bonded too. When we come to this place, our souls are laid bare to one another. What he knew, I knew. What he had experienced, I had experienced. We were unable to hide anything from each other. We are uniquely gifted in the galaxy but also burdened, or cursed. Bond mates who live a full life will often die within moments of each other. The passing is peaceful and the pair are ready for it. When one of us dies in battle, of sickness, murder, or accident, the other feels it and continues to feel it. My physical body burns, every nerve is on fire. Pain like nothing I have experienced courses through my body and the mere fact that I love you like a brother is all that’s keeping me from smashing you flat in this room.”

“So you are giving up then?” The question caught him off guard.

“What?” he said numbly.

“You’re giving up then? Should I just have you put down or would you like to go berserk and take some people with you?”

“I am beaten. I have no choice but to give up, and that may be the best course of action. Kill me before I kill others,” Jeth replied.

“Son of a bitch, Jeth! I need you, now as much as I ever have.” Cole walked over to the big Worlder and punched him as hard as he could in the face. Though there was no actual contact and in here he could feel no pain, Jeth rocked back like he had been hit. Cole punching him in real life couldn’t have gotten him to flinch.

“I…I would help, but the pain is too great. I cannot be trusted and frankly, I don’t wish to continue. I can’t describe the agony I am in. You don’t understand.” He hung his head.

“I don’t understand? I think I do, more than you know.” Cole grabbed Jeth’s arm and concentrated for a moment. The bonding circle disappeared and was replaced by a stark room with one occupant. It was Cole, and he was in the torture room on Esii.

“Watch and see if I don’t understand unimaginable pain and loss. See if I give up, see if I fight on.” Jeth made to flinch away, but Cole kept him in the room. And he showed him everything. He let Jeth feel what he had felt. From when they had buried him alive to when they had made him flay his own skin from his body. The hopelessness, the agony, the despair. They had tortured him, mind and body, for days without end it seemed.

“Yes, you do understand,” he whimpered from behind a mask of tears. “They wouldn’t let you die. Let me die.”

“No God damn it. I will not let you die in here. If you want to grab a weapon, fight in the corridors of this soon to be tomb, and give your life defending others, I won’t stop you. But I will not let you die a coward’s death.” Cole got his anger under control slowly and let the world of his captivity disappear. They were back on the bonding circle and they were not alone. Jeth’s head was hanging down and he didn’t see the newcomer. “You are my brother Jeth, and I am bonded to you as much as Thalo was. Our bond was forged in the fires of conflict and hope. Do not disrespect that bond.” Cole lay his hand on his friend’s head and knelt next to him. “He will not be here long. Do not waste your time with him.” Cole faded slowly from Jeth’s peripheral vision. He was confused at what Cole was talking about and looked up.

Jeth gave a heart-wrenching scream of pain and loss, and surged to his feet. He covered the distance between them in two long strides and had Thalo swept up in his arms in a gigantic hug.

“Argg, let go your going to kill me again,” Thalo croaked out from breathless lips.

“How?” Was all Jeth managed to croak out.

“The how is not important, brother. It’s the why that is at the center of things. Sit with me a moment like we did all those years ago.” Thalo sank to the ground and sat with his legs crossed in front of him, his knees touched Jeth’s as he did the same.

“First, stop blaming yourself. It wasn’t your fault I died.”

“Yes it was, I was blind and never should have sent you out,” Jeth countered.

“Please, have you ever known me to do anything I didn’t want to?” Thalo asked. Jeth thought a moment and shook his head no. “So you do not need forgiveness because there is nothing for me to forgive. Look, I risked your life for decades without as much as a peep of complaint from you. We joined the Watchers because I wanted to, not you. If I remember, you didn’t have a violent bone in your body before we shipped out to Pitt. What I’m trying to say is, I would have died years ago if it hadn’t been for you watching out for me. I owed you a thousand times over and I felt that the risk justified going over the wall to find Snow. I died; you lived. Now go help Cole,” Thalo said bluntly.

“No, the pain, that’s what drives us crazy. The constant physical pain cause by your death, it is too much to bear. I cannot do it.”

“To use a colorful Earth colloquialism, bullshit. The nanites in your blood can turn off any pain. The pain is just an excuse. Cole was right, you know.”

“About what?” Jeth asked.

“You, me, him. We’re all bonded by our experiences. May be not the same way as you and me, but close enough,” Thalo answered.

“What will happen if the nanites block the pain? Will it all ways be there waiting?” Jeth asked.

“Frankly, I don’t know. Most of our people go into hermit mode and are seldom seen. I would assume those that don’t die must either learn to live with it or it diminishes with time. I guess any new cells you make wouldn’t be bonded to me, so as your body replaced itself over the course of your life, the pain would eventually fade. Wow, that was well thought out, even for me.” Thalo smiled at Jeth.

“This is what I will miss the most, your enthusiasm always buoyed those around us,” Jeth said.

“I know, I will miss much about you as well, brother, but I will wait for you. Whatever there is in the next life, I will wait for you to share in that adventure, I swear,” Thalo said, choking on his words.

“Is there more? Are there other lives to live out there?” Jeth asked.

“Yes brother, infinite lives for all of eternity. What happens when the universe ceases to exist?” He shrugged his shoulders. “But while it’s here, we keep going on. And that’s what I need to be doing now, going on. I will wait just on the other side, you have my word.” Jeth reached out to grab Thalo, but his hands went through the suddenly dimming form.

“Bye, my brother, I love you,” Thalo said in a whisper just before he truly vanished. Jeth stood and looked around. Thalo had disappeared but his presence was strong all around him. He looked skyward and let loose an earsplitting roar of farewell.

Cole watched Jeth’s body as it slowly calmed down. The thrashing and moaning finally ceased and Jeth lay still and silent. Cole watched as nothing but Jeth’s massive chest moved with the effort of this breathing. Slowly his large eyes flickered open and he slowly sat up. Cole remained still and made no movements or sound. Jeth swiveled his head around to look at Cole.

“Was it real, was he really there?” he asked in his deep baritone.

“I think that was him, yes. It had to be, he could never leave anywhere without getting the last word in,” Cole said with a smile. A laugh rumbled out from the depths of Jeth’s chest.

“No, that he could never do. I think I will be all right. Give me some time to put myself together. You can lock the door if you wish,” Jeth said.

“No, that won’t be necessary. I have food on the way and Sky wants to do a quick check up. After that, take a day or two. Not much more though. Soon these tunnels will be crawling with Roche.” Cole held out his hand to the big alien but Jeth ignored it and wrapped his arms gently around Cole.