Rebel Fleet (28 page)

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One would think that after a great victory honor and swift promotion would follow, but the Rebel Fleet operated by its own obscure rules.

When we returned to
Killer
, we landed and stepped out onto the hangar deck proudly. A dozen fellow pilots came out to eye us in alarm.

Some of them had overheard my conversations with Shaw. Word had spread quickly that we were the source of the voodoo show they’d all seen out there. They didn’t know what to make of it.

The first group to approach me was the Terrapinians. I hadn’t spoken to this particular crew of assholes since we’d fought to a grim finish in the arena.

Reflexively, we all put our hands on our weapons. They came toward us unarmed, but we didn’t trust them at all.

“What do you want?” Samson demanded.

The leader’s big head turned to regard him, but he made no response. He looked back to me, as if I was the only one worthy of note. Perhaps, in their culture, being questioned by a subordinate was an insult.

“I would speak to you, Blake,” he said slowly. The voice was deep and it carried.

“Talk,” I said. “I don’t have much time. I’m going up to the command deck again soon.”

“I know this. I see the truth of what others have told us—you are not like the weak here who toil and die in this steel box.”

“Uh… okay,” I said, pretty sure he was complimenting me. “You fought well out there.”

“I’m glad you noticed. I wish to offer my fealty, as you no doubt expected.”

I blinked and frowned. “What? Why?”

“Because you have repeatedly bested me. You challenged me immediately, and you have always won. There is no longer a need for rivalry between us.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Last time we made a deal, you backstabbed us. Why should I trust you now?”

His black shiny eyes stared at me. “You don’t understand. I’m not offering you a partnership. My people don’t accept such things. We know only lords and vassals. I wish to be your vassal.”

“Huh…” I said, uncertain as to how to take his offer. “Well… okay. You’re my vassal. But I’m only one step above you in rank. What if we rise further? What if you outrank me someday?”

“I find that unlikely,” he said. “But if it does happen, I would be dishonored, as you are my lord. This military—”

He made a sweeping gesture that seemed to encompass the entire Rebel organization. “This is strange to us. Meaningless. We do not cooperate that way. We are lords, or we are vassals. No one we’ve met until now has been worthy, in our opinion, to rule us.”

“So…” I said, beginning to catch on, “if I gave you an order, and Captain Ursahn told you to do something else, which order would you follow?”

“Yours, of course.”

I nodded, seeing possibilities. “All right,” I said. “I accept your oath. I hereby order you to follow the orders coming from the Rebels for now.”

“It will be as you command.”

The Terrapinians retreated then, and my crew stared after them, shaking their heads.

“Real freaks,” Samson said. “At least we’ll no longer have to post a watch every night.”

“At least we’ve got that going for us,” Gwen agreed with a hint of sarcasm.

Captain Ursahn summoned me soon afterward, and I took the lift up to the command deck. Stepping onto those plush floors like I owned the place, I walked toward her office.

But I was waylaid long before I got there.

Fleet regulars stepped out and surrounded me. I noticed they all looked similar to Captain Ursahn. They had to be from the same planet. They were tall with corded necks and dark lips that twitched as if they were perpetually about to snarl.

These regulars grabbed my arms and held them. Only then did the captain appear herself.

“What’s this bullshit?” I demanded.

“I’m sorry about this, Blake,” she said. “You’ve scared people, that’s all. What you did today was impossible.”

That’s when Admiral Fex finally showed his snout. I sneered at him.

“I’m a hero, haven’t you heard?” I demanded. “You’re supposed to give me a medal or something!”

“Maybe,” he said, looking at me like I was a bug that could talk. “Or maybe you’re the worst danger we’ve yet to encounter. The Rebel council will decide.”

He made a gesture to the Fleet regulars, and they produced stunners.

Before I could object, they applied them repeatedly to my skull. The stunners hit me with sonic waves of such intensity, it was like being beaten over the head with soft mallets.

It took them three shots, to my credit, before I crumpled to the deck at their traitorous feet.

* * *

It was hours—or possibly days—before I woke up again. I found myself stripped and hung in a suspension system of gray straps.

There were needles buried in my arms, my neck and my back. Some of these were connected to wires, others to tubes. I didn’t like either kind.

I struggled wearily, trying to wake up.

“What the hell…?” I mumbled.

“He’s coming around,” said a voice.

The owner of the voice turned out to be a guy in a fur suit. He was an ape of some kind—a real hairball. He looked like a gorilla, but his hair was silver rather than black. He was also rather small. No more than five feet tall.

Moving around me, he poked and prodded me with his instruments.

“Careful,” I told him. “Or I’ll make you rip your own dick off.”

This statement startled the ape for a second. He galloped away a few paces, moving sideways almost like a crab. Then he straightened and cleared his throat.

“Very funny,” he said. “We know you can only control Imperial computer systems.”

“Why’d you run, then?” I asked.

He came closer and peered up at me. “You really
are
a primate,” he said. “The worst of our kind. The ones that most resemble the Imperials themselves. That’s your problem. It will
always
be your biggest problem.”

I frowned, trying to grasp what he was saying. Was he trying to help? Or was this a threat? I wasn’t sure, but I got the idea humans weren’t favored for good reasons. We just looked too much like the hated Imperials. Worse, I’d now demonstrated tech that the Rebels didn’t understand.

Still fuzzy, I was trying to wrap my brain around what I should do next. I didn’t come up with anything immediately, other than to try to get more information out of my caretaker.

“Hey! Hey, ape! Come back here.”

But he didn’t. A delegation of primates arrived instead. Among them was Admiral Fex. The others looked like they were politicians, scientists, or what-have-you.

“It doesn’t
look
dangerous,” said one of the political types. He wore a suit of shimmering light. It took me a second to realize it was a projection of some kind. Underneath, he was hairy and built with lumpy muscles.

“You’re the leader of this bunch?” I asked him.

“Not exactly,” he said. “I’m an interstellar liaison. I coordinate the requirements of our many allied worlds.”

“Hmm…” I said. “A bureaucrat? What’s your title?”

“I’m Secretary Thoth,” he said, as if this should explain everything.

In a way, it did. The Rebels had never seemed to me to be overly organized. They were an alliance of necessity. They reminded me of the UN back home, or maybe NATO. Worse than that, even.

“Well, why am I hanging in straps with a rubber hose up my ass?” I demanded.

A few of the delegates twisted their necks and peered, no doubt trying to catch a glimpse of this imaginary hose. I let them look.

“We must apologize,” the Secretary said, “but you’ve put us in an awkward position.”

“How so?”

“Your…
experiment
… should not have been allowed. It may even have doomed more of our planets.”

Frowning, I looked from one to the next. “Cut me down from here, sirs,” I said. “Let me show you how to do what I did today.”

“That was four days ago, actually,” said one of them.

“Whatever. We destroyed three cruisers with a single carrier. I can do more than that. Let me show you how.”

“It’s not that simple,” the Secretary said. “We don’t want an escalation.”

“An escalation?” I asked incredulously. “What are you talking about? The Imperials are destroying whole worlds out there!”

“Yes. But they weren’t angry then, just having a little fun. If we were to hurt them badly, however, they might take this to the next level.”

“What do you mean?”

Secretary Thoth came near. He seemed to have more balls than most of them.

“You have to understand our position. I’ve recently researched your world. You have historical precedents. You have nuclear weapons, yes?”

“Of course we do.”

“But do you use them in every conflict? Do your leaders drop one, for example, when a city riots?”

“No, that would be absurd.”

“Exactly! A clear overreaction. Now, what if a hunter stalks and kills game animals—but one of the animals gets lucky and kills the hunter. Would you blow up the entire forest?”

“No…” I said, almost laughing.

But a part of me was beginning to understand what he was saying.

“You mean…” I said, “that we have to be careful, because the Imperials have more power than they were displaying against us right now?”

“Exactly. The ships they’ve sent to invade our space are only training vessels. We don’t want to face their actual warships.”

I nodded slowly.

“What’s our strategy then?” I asked. “How do we go about defeating the Imperials?”

The scientist ape who’d been prodding me earlier turned toward Admiral Fex who I now noticed was at the rear of the pack. “You’re right. He’s a smart one. Dangerous…”

Admiral Fex nodded nervously. I had the feeling he’d also stepped in this without meaning to.

“We’ve determined that you’re operating your technical miracle purely out of your sym,” the Secretary said. “That’s very impressive. Doctor Shug, here, is to be credited.”

He waved forward the ape I’d met first. The short guy with the fur coat and the lousy bedside manner.

“Doctor Shug,” the Secretary continued, “is the being who invented your sym. You’ve done more with it than we’d ever thought possible.”

“That’s right,” Shug said, “the syms were designed to quickly build up a coherent force from an incoherent mass of recruits. They sped up the selection process, facilitated translation and training—many things.”

“Right,” I said, “but by giving us a universal interface that can work with networks, you created a hacking platform that we humans were able to use to our advantage.”

“Exactly,” Secretary Thoth said, bobbing his head happily. “I’m very glad we had this talk. Your understanding of the situation wasn’t entirely necessary, but it will make the rest of this unfortunate process so much easier. Thank you.”

“It will stand up in court, if challenged,” announced another skinny fellow in the back. “As the state’s attorney, I’d now be willing to argue the execution was done appropriately. It’s a sad case, but unavoidable.”

My expression went from a baffled frown to one of alarm. “Execution?” I asked.

“Yes,” Secretary Thoth said, turning back to me. “Isn’t it obvious that’s why we’re here? We’re a Rebel Tribunal, Blake. A duly appointed group of representatives. Your case was tried over the preceding days, and your public defender was most eloquent—where is she, by the way?”

He looked around the group, but no one raised their hand.

“Well, no matter,” he said. “She failed to convince the body at large you were innocent by reason of ignorance. Execution was the verdict, but legally we had to inform you. You’ve now been formally and publicly sentenced, with all the appropriate officials present. The bylaws have thus been satisfied, and we can proceed.”

“The bylaws…?” I echoed, stunned. “You people are insane! I saved your hairy asses! I can save more of you if you’ll let me out of these straps. I’ll lead your ragtag fleet to victory, if you just—”

“The prisoner is becoming agitated,” Secretary Thoth said smoothly. “Shug?”

The short ape trundled forward, giving me a reluctant shake of the head. He tapped at a bulb at the end of a needle stuck in my neck. The bulb shivered and pumped.

I felt woozy. They were drugging me. In immediate reaction, I went limp and drooled on the floor.

“You gave him too much!” Secretary Thoth admonished.

“Strange…” Doctor Shug said. “Well, I am new to his biology. Perhaps the stress cortisones in his system reacted with the—”

“Who cares? Did you kill him?”

“No...” Shug said, consulting his instruments.

“Good… We’ll do it right then, in public, tomorrow. Record everything in case the Imperial Hunting Council demands an accounting. Admiral Fex, you’re lucky you’re not the one hanging up there by your balls.”