Jesse's Starship 3: Joshua's Walls (19 page)

The conference room was silent and Prissy waited a moment and said, “If we discover later that the initial hours after a Queen’s death is the time to attack, and we don’t find that out here, how many will have to die before we make that discovery?”

Josh looked at Alex on the monitor and said, “Sir, you told me to do what I thought needed doing and you wouldn’t second guess my actions. If you lack confidence in me, then you should replace me now.”

Alex stared at Josh and saw his anger. “The drop is still on. What are you intending to do?”

Josh nodded at Alex and turned to Mike, “Sir, you should understand that the lives of my command are the most important thing in my life. However, we are here to prevent the loss of more lives by doing what should be done. It may surprise you, but I do not make rash decisions.”

Mike stared at Josh and nodded, “I apologize for my intrusion.”

“You were doing it out of concern for my safety. You do not need to apologize.” Josh sat down and looked at the Argon sitting at the table, “I have asked Latna to come and make the drop with us.”

Hetzel said, “We’ve tried to use his species in the past to hear the thoughts of the Weg but they were overwhelmed by them.”

Josh nodded, “I’m hoping the death of the Queen will change that and I think it’s worth the effort to see. If nothing else we’ll know if the level of communication between the Weg remains the same.”

Rumel looked at Josh, “So what’s the plan?”

“We’ll drop using our carriers and take two of the Mobile Blasters down with us. “I’ll have the Carriers fire seismic rods into the ground around our landing location and if we detect the Weg digging toward our location, I’ll sound the recall. Other than that, we’ll form up and fight off any Flyers that move in to attack us. I really don’t know what to expect and that’s why we need to do this.”

“Why are you waiting until tomorrow?”

Josh looked at Rumel, “I have twenty thousand Warriors that just used up more than ninety percent of their munitions. They have to rearm and recharge their blasters. That is going to take some time and after the adrenaline rush of combat, they need some time to rest.”

“Why not send another unit?”

Josh smiled, “These warriors have just fought together and learned how to work together. That is something that you can only acquire in combat. I honestly don’t think sending in green warriors is the right thing to do, although I did consider it.”

The Leaders of the Alliance, Gracken, and Sparta saw that Josh had thought it through and was not making a bad decision. Alex looked at the attendees on his display and said, “We should allow General Adams time to prepare. We’ll meet again after the drop to see what he discovers.”

The monitors went dark except for Prissy. She looked at Josh and said, “I knew you had a good reason.”

Josh smiled, “Thank you for your faith.”

Prissy’s monitor went dark and Josh looked at Rumel, “Who told them?”

Latna sighed, “I contacted Hetzel and asked why I was being dropped on a Weg Planet.”

Josh smiled, “Don’t worry, you’ll be sent out of there at the first sign of trouble. I’ll not allow you to be harmed.”

Latna shook his small head, “You should know that my species is not known for bravery. Being telepathic tends to make one skittish.”

Josh turned to Rumel, “I apologize; I thought you made the call.”

Rumel laughed out loud, “And possibly miss all the fun!?!”

Josh laughed out loud, “You’re right. I should have known it wouldn’t be you. I’m sure Tindel will look forward to playing with you.”

“You should know that he speaks highly of your warriors.”

“It appears our two divisions have come together and trust each other. That’s something that’s hard to make happen.”

Rumel smiled, “Not when good warriors come together. Let’s get down to the landing bay and make sure everything is going according to plan.”

Josh smiled and walked out of the conference room toward the tubes.

• • •

The carriers formed up above the planet and Josh watched thirty attack fighters launch from the landing bay. Rumel had insisted that launching seismic rods from the carriers as they dropped to the surface was totally inadequate to defend them. Josh worried the fighters might be flying into a dangerous situation but they disappeared and fifteen minutes later moved back into orbit and began landing in the huge bay. Josh looked at the landing site and did not see any evidence of the Weg’s presence. The new sensors did not have any movement underground around the site and he said over his main frequency, “Landing area is clear, drop in four, three, two, one…”

• • •

Bart and Kim sat on the special carrier built for the two Mobile Blasters and Kim said, “It doesn’t appear I’ll need this mouthpiece for this drop.”

“Keep it in your mouth anyway.”

“Why?”

“It stops you from yelling at me.”

“Why you old…whoooooooaaaa!”

Bart said, “You know you’re supposed to empty your lungs on a drop. I’ll bet you blame me for that as well.”

• • •

The two hundred and two carriers arrived on the ground and the force field was up and spinning in less than a minute. Bart and Kim dug the tracks in and quickly moved their giant vehicles to cover two lines of warriors each. They activated the barrels and watched their panels for Weg moving in on their location.

Josh activated his mobile panel and stared at the feed coming in from Fleet high in orbit and saw nothing moving their way. He shook his head and looked at Latna, “Can you hear anything?”

Latna gripped the sides of a helmet he had over his head and slowly raised it a few inches. He immediately pulled it back down. “I listened briefly before we dropped and there was extensive thought communication taking place. It has gone up tremendously since we landed.”

“How does it compare to the normal volume?”

“I’ve listened briefly to the thoughts of the Weg on an infested planet years ago and the current level is nowhere near what it was then.”

Josh knew the Argon would be writhing on the sand without the thought-blocking helmet. He knew that the Weg knew he was here. The thought level went up after the drop. He looked at his panel and there was no movement above the surface. He tripped the seismic switch and saw no activity taking place under the ground around his positions. He looked at the tactical and saw that there were no Weg passageways under him and he wondered what was going on. He looked at Latna and said, “I want you to quickly raise your helmet and send out a thought telling the Weg we’re here waiting on them to come.”

Latna took a deep breath and quickly lifted the helmet. Josh heard at high volume in his mind, “We’re here. Come and see us.” Latna quickly pulled the helmet down and said, “Boy that caused the thought level to rise!”

Josh nodded and watched his panel. Where were the Weg? Rumel walked over and Josh shrugged, “How many Weg did your computers say survived the last drop?”

“More than a half a billion flyers. We didn’t get a good number of those underground.”

Josh looked at his warriors standing in ranks with their weapons raised and made a decision, “All warriors will lower their weapons and take a knee. We’ll announce battle positions at the first sign of trouble.” Rumel walked away to join the forces at the southern line as the twenty thousand nervous warriors went down to one knee. Josh saw that every one of them kept a hand on their heavy sliver rifles.

• • •

Two hours passed with nothing happening and then his fleet frequency activated, “We have a large single Weg Flyer leaving the ground and moving your way.”

Josh looked at his monitor, “What direction is he coming from?”

“He’s coming out of the East.”

Josh moved the feed closer to the surface and saw the Weg flying slowly toward his line. He detached the cable linking him to his panel and began walking toward the Eastern Line. He looked at Latna, “Come with me.” The small Argon shook his head, pulled his helmet down as he stood, and followed Josh.

• • •

Josh and Latna walked through the warriors and stood in front of them. The warriors immediately stood and raised their rifles. After ten minutes, Josh raised the amplification on his visor and saw the single Weg flying toward him. He brought the view in closer and saw that this Weg was different from the millions he had seen in combat. This one’s torso was bright orange with a green lower body. Its wing tips were also orange. It flew in and landed four hundred yards from the line of warriors and folded its wings. It lowered its body to the ground and sat there unmoving. Josh pulled his sliver handgun and said, “Come with me.”

A Gracken Unit Commander said, “I’d advise against you going out there.”

Josh looked over his shoulder, “The ground is clear. I can kill it if necessary. Hold your fire until it displays aggressive behavior. Josh and Latna walked out of the line as Rumel ran up with Tindel, “What’s going on?”

The Commander looked at Rumel, “I don’t know, Division Commander.”

Rumel took a step forward and Tindel put his hand on his shoulder, “We need to stay here.”

Rumel looked at him, “Why?”

Tindel nodded at the Weg, “After all the years we’ve been fighting them, I think our presence won’t help.” Rumel stared at him and then stepped back into the line. They watched Josh and the small being with him move closer to the huge Weg.

• • •

Josh arrived twenty yards from the Weg and it stood up on its four legs and spread its wings slightly. It stared at Josh and he knew it must be trying to communicate. He looked at Latna, “See if you can understand it.”

Latna raised his helmet slightly and immediately pulled it back down. Josh saw him take a deep breath and then heard in is mind as Latna raised his helmet, “EVERYONE SHUT UP!!!” Josh and the Weg shook their head and Latna gingerly lifted his helmet. He blew out a breath and thought, “I can’t hear you with all of you thinking.”

The Weg stared at the Argon and Josh heard in his mind, “I have asked everyone to listen in silence.”

Josh did a double take and looked at Latna. He smiled, “You can hear what he thinks in my mind and he can hear what you think.”

Josh looked at the Weg, “Why haven’t you attacked us?”

“From my point of view, you are the attackers.”

Josh paused a moment and said, “We’re here to retake the planet you invaded.”

The Weg stared at him and Latna raised his helmet. Josh heard, “Everyone will remain silent!” Latna looked around and lowered his helmet to his side. “There is no one on this planet but us.”

“That’s because you killed most of the inhabitants and all life on the surface. The original inhabitants we managed to move to another planet want their world back.”

“None of us here know anything about who was here prior to our hatching. However, this is the only home we’ve ever known.”

Josh stared at the Weg and could hear its thoughts clearly. It honestly didn’t know about the Queen stealing the planet from its inhabitants. “I believe you don’t know about taking the planet from its rightful owners but I am here to give it back to them.”

The Weg actually shrugged which was amazing to Josh. The raising of its shoulders couldn’t have been anything else. “Tell them to come and take it.”

“We won’t do that until the danger you represent is removed.”

“Danger?”

“Yes. I can’t allow you to attack them.”

“We’re not going to attack them. Are you?”

Josh tilted his head, “You’re not making sense. You have attacked any one that set foot on this planet with massive numbers. According to my best estimate, there are still more than a billion of you underground.”

The Weg shrugged again, “Closer to two billion is a more accurate number. However, we won’t be attacking anyone. That’s why I flew here. We didn’t want you to get bored waiting on us to show up.”

Josh shook his head, “I don’t understand. Help me to see what you’re saying.”

The Weg looked over his shoulder in the direction of the distant crater, “I think you realize that you killed our Mother.” Josh nodded. “All of us are hatched with specific duties and functions inside of us. All of us have the primary function of defending our Mother. Everything else is secondary. Can you understand that?”

“I think so.”

“When you managed to kill her, along with all the Royal Eggs she had stored away, all of us lost our direction. How can we defend something that’s dead?”

“I would think you’d want to take revenge on the ones that killed her.”

Josh swore he heard a laugh in the Weg’s mind before it said, “We’re not built that way. We receive our instructions and we follow them. If there’s no one giving us instructions…”

Josh said, “You do what?”

“Stand around and look at each other. Our entire reason for living is gone.”

Josh stared at the Weg and thought, “Surely there is one of you that is a leader and can direct your actions?”

The Weg looked up and said, “Actually, I’m the eldest leader alive and I was hatched to follow instructions, not give them. Every leader that sent us directives died with our Mother. That explosion pretty much killed every one of us that implemented Mother’s instructions.”

Josh stared at the Weg and had to ask, “I’ve always wondered how your species could fly into certain death knowing you were going to die?”

“You obviously think free will exists.”

“What?”

“You sound like you believe in free will; you know, being able to make a decision that is independent of outside forces.”

“I believe that I can choose to step to my left or right and the decision is my own to make.”

“I can argue that it’s not but I don’t want to take the time to do it. If our Mother tells us to do something, we do it. We have no freedom to do anything else.”

“But you know you’re going to die.”

“I actually don’t know anything except what I’ve been told to do. Anything else is not something that enters my mind.”

“What about now? You have no one to tell you what to do. You’re free to make your own decisions.”

“That might be true if we could make decisions.”

“So what will you do?”