Taming a Planet (Trapped in Time Book 2) (20 page)

“He kept me close to him for the last year. I listened in to most of the conversations he had.”

“Did you hear any conversation where he discussed bringing a blonde slave to torture?”

Ophelia nodded, “The Admiral commanding the follow up fleet told him that he was bringing a slave that is the sister of a warrior that killed several of their troops and escaped into the forest with the Commandant’s brother.”

Andy stared at her and Harvey said, “The one she escaped with was their leader’s brother?”

“Yes he was. It seems that he had grown quite attached to her. The Commandant scared the crap out of the Admiral.”

Andy interrupted, “How?”

“The slave they’re bringing is the property of the Commandant’s wife and if she is wrongly harmed in any way, she is going to demand damages from the Commandant. Under their system, the price could be quite high.”

Harvey’s eyes narrowed, “Then how are they going to torture her if they can’t harm her?”

“Ask him.”

Andy looked at the Commandant, “Explain what’s going on with the slave?”

“She’ll probably die anyway.”

“Why?”

“They’re going to string her up on a wooden square and issue orders over megaphones for the sister and the Commandant’s brother to turn themselves in or they’ll slowly kill her. If the sister and brother turn themselves in, they’ll have to refrain from harming the slave they’re bringing and take her back to the Commandant’s wife. I suspect after a year that the probability is small that they’re still alive, so they’ll torture her.”

Harvey looked at Andy, “Why are you asking about that slave?”

“It’s Harmony’s sister. The last thing Harmony said to me before she died was to try and save her.”

Harvey, Mark, and Maxius stared at Andy and after a moment Harvey said, “If they intend to do this when they land on the beach, there is not much you can do to prevent it.”

Andy stared at the three and said, “If I have to go to that beach by myself, I will. I am going to fulfill Harmony’s last request.”

Mark shook his head, “Andy, they are coming in more than fifty ships…”

“Fifty six ships, Mark, and they will be arriving in about four weeks.”

“That means they’ll have ten thousand warriors on shore.”

“Even so.”

Harvey stared at Andy and shook his head, “You can’t take their ships on during the day and that’s when they’ll torture the sister. Their cannons would pulverize any warriors we have there.”

Andy’s lips formed a small smile, “You just don’t see the big picture do you?”

The three looked at each other and Maxius said, “I’m not sure what you’re saying.”

“The only place that fleet is going to send all those warriors ashore is when they’re going to torture Melody. That activity involves their leader’s brother and every one of them on every ship knows it.” Andy paused and looked at them. No one responded and he said, “Every warrior on every ship will be on the stern deck watching the torture taking place on the beach and taking bets on whether or not the Commandant’s brother turns himself in. They’ll also be betting on how long the torture takes before she dies. Every one of the Land troops will be on shore to make sure the torture is not interrupted and they will be going into the jungle to see if the brother and escaped slave are close by. We will have our fliers over their ships with their blasters and when our diversion happens, they will sweep the ship’s decks with their beams and land on the stern.”

“What diversion?”

Andy looked at Harvey, “We are going to the burned community where Harmony escaped and start herding predators toward that beach. Once Melody is on shore, I will go to the frame she’s hanging on and raise my arms. At that moment, we will use our whistles to start the dinosaurs stampeding toward the beach. During the confusion, I will take her away. It will also be at that moment that the fliers will take the ships.”

“What if some of the warriors still on board the ships aren’t on deck?”

Andy looked at Mark, “Would you miss seeing the event?” Mark stared at Andy and after a moment shook his head. “If any of them are below deck, I suspect their number will be small and they will be there because they have no joy in watching her die. Those should not resist you taking the ship.”

“What about the warriors on shore?”

“Tamara is going to follow the dinosaurs in close to the beach and yell at them that she’ll never surrender to them. Fats will yell that he won’t either.”

“Why will you do that?”

“I hope they will see that Melody is no longer on the wooden frame and I’m hoping that no one among them will be able to recognize that it’s not the ones they’ve come to capture. I expect them to go into the forest chasing them. Their leaders will know that losing the slave will lead to their execution. They’ll demand the warriors go after the ones yelling at them. Tamara and Fats will run screaming away from the beach for everyone to run that the demons are coming.”

“What happens then?”

“The Destroyers will go into the jungle after them and our warriors will be waiting for them.”

Maxius shook his head, “Andy, there will be ten thousand of them.”

Andy looked at Mark, “How many warriors does the Community currently have?”

Mark stared at Andy and then looked at Harvey and Maxius. He sighed and said, “Twenty four thousand.”

“How many are flight trained, Mark?”

Mark looked at Andy and shook his head, “Half of them.”

Harvey looked at Andy and shook his head, “Andy we lost more than a hundred warriors in the last fight; that’s one archer for every one of them we killed.”

“Yes, but I learned from the experience and I will not place our forces in that jeopardy again. We will take our bows this time and we’ll have the ambush better prepared. If we have to, we’ll kill as many as safety allows and then fly away. However, I really think we can take them all out.”

• • •

Annelise looked at Paul sitting next to her and shook her head, “This one is dangerous individual.”

“He is their leader and they’ll argue…but they will do what he wants.”

“Are you sure?”

“They just need to be sure he’s not insane from the loss of his mate. Once they see that, they’ll follow him into the gates of hell.”

“How do you know this?”

Paul looked back at Andy and said, “He saved my life. I’d be right there with them.”

“What are we going to be doing while they’re fighting?”

“We’re going to sail north and find a safe place to anchor the ships we capture. Our ship is too exposed to storms where it is now.”

Annelise nodded and turned back to the meeting. She glanced at Derek next to her and he nodded, “Paul’s right. They will go where he leads them.”

Annelise shook her head and knew Derek was going with them to fight the Destroyers. She fought hard to hide her fear.

• • •

Harvey, Maxius, and Mark looked at each other and could see each other’s doubt. Finally, Harvey looked at Andy, “Do you really think we can do this without huge loss of life? Are you acting foolishly just to save Harmony’s sister?”

Andy tilted his head and shook it, “I must confess that I developed this plan around saving her. But once I started thinking about it, it began to make good sense. Even if the slave wasn’t her sister and was the brother’s wife or child instead, this is the best opportunity to take out the entire fleet along with one of their major ground forces. They won’t send all their warriors ashore normally. It would be next to impossible to take all of their ships without losing huge numbers of fliers if their full complement of warriors were still on board. This is the only place where they will all be sent ashore leaving the ships defended by just fifty warriors. We can do this!”

Maxius saw Andy look at him, “And we’ll not endure high losses taking on the warriors on shore?”

“There is some preparation to be done, but I think we can do it with small losses.”

Harvey looked at the attendees and then stood, “You are our leader for a reason, Andy. Just give me another good reason to do this?”

Andy smiled, “We are going to need their ships to start transporting every human we can find to our Community.”

Harvey stared at Andy and started chuckling. Mark looked at him, “What’s so funny?”

Harvey shook his head, “He sees the big picture. I forgot about that issue. He’s right; we need those ships to move the humans living along the southern shore here.” Harvey looked at Andy, “You have your approval to fight this war. You need to start moving.”

Andy nodded and said, “I want provisions for the ones going. They will be gone for at least six weeks and I want the first three thousand ready to go in six hours. Have them meet with me inside the main walls.” Andy turned to Dottie and John, “You will be bringing the other archers as soon as they are provisioned. You’re going to have to choose five hundred and sixty of our best fliers to take the ships. Once everyone is in place, the two of you along with Gerrod will organize the fliers for their attack.

Mark said, “What will I be doing?”

“You and Maxius will command the two groups of warriors we’ll be using to take on the ground forces.”

“Then we need to go with the first group.”

Andy nodded, “Of course. And if you think my plan won’t work, we’ll look at doing something else.”

Maxius smiled, “Fair enough.”

Harvey stood up, “You need to get moving!”

Andy turned and walked out of the cave and everyone else followed him. Ophelia lifted the Commander to his feet and pushed him toward the entrance. The Commander shook his head and Ophelia smiled, “You’re right; your friends are sailing into big time trouble.”

• • •

Andy stood next to the wall outside the Holy Cave four hours later and watched as the first of three thousand fliers came running into the clearing. Andy yelled for them to collect their provisions from the storage facility and to fly north to the tar pits, fill two large pouches with tar and the clear substance floating on top. They were to wait for him there. Four hours later, he launched off the north wall and flew to the tar pits. The last fliers to arrive were filling their pouches and he took two large pouches and began filling them. Six fliers came soaring in and began passing out thin ropes to all the fliers. They looked at it and Andy explained how the ropes were to be used to pull each other while one of them slept. They looked nervous but they quickly learned the process after four days in the air. Dottie and John taught the following groups how to use the ropes and all twelve thousand fliers were airborne and on the way south within three days.

Andy kept flying south and at sunset on the fourth day, he led the fliers down to the cliff. They were all exhausted and fell asleep instantly after eating. Andy was the first to find sleep and he needed it. But the effort was worth it. Four days later they were flying over the large community where Harmony had made her escape. The burned out homes were testament to the destructiveness of a Destroyer invasion. The clearing the community had occupied was huge and wild grass had overgrown the burned houses. It was the dry season and everything looked brown except the jungle that paralleled the beach. Andy led the three thousand archers into the clearing and showed them what he wanted done with their pouches filled with tar. They started working and were joined by the other fliers that began to arrive two days later.

Maxius and Mark looked at what Andy was planning and had to agree that it was worth doing. They moved into the burned out houses and assisted their warriors setting up the pouches on poles. Andy watched their progress and went out to the trees on the edge of the clearing and climbed one of them. He then started yelling directions to the archers setting up the poles. He continued around he clearing and by the end of three days, the pouches were placed where he wanted them. He then moved to the north end of the clearing and had all the trees cut down to form a fifty yard wide corridor a mile long running north. The trees were felled into the jungle and the corridor was filled with stumps.

He then moved to the south and had the same thing done. Maxius and Mark wondered what he was doing. Andy moved back to the north and had all the trees notched between the end of the corridor and the beach. He counted the giant trees and smiled. Now they were ready.

• • •

Melody was escorted out of the Admiral’s cabin to the main deck. She shielded her eyes from the sun and walked from the stern of the ship to the front. Three armed warriors escorted her as she took her daily walk and many warriors on deck wanted an opportunity to become familiar with the beautiful blonde woman. However, all of them had been warned and none of them were going to challenge the Admiral, who was standing on the rear deck watching.

The Admiral watched Melody walk up the deck and looked at the Warrior’s Commander, “The scout ship hasn’t turned up. That’s not normal.”

“Could they still be ahead of us looking for targets? I know the invasion last year was very successful.”

“They know we’re coming. They should have come to meet us by now.”

The Commander shrugged, “What would you do to the Commander if he came back with no targets?”

The Admiral stared at the Commander and tilted his head, “You make a good point. Once this issue with the slave is handled, I’m going to dispatch a ship to go find them. Are your troops ready?”

“They are, Sire.”

“Good.” The Admiral turned back to watching Melody and the Commander left the deck.

• • •

Melody took a deep breath and it smelled wonderful. She had been kept tied up in the cabin for more than six weeks and her arms and legs were aching. She bent down and touched her toes and raised her arms over her head and stretched. She only had an hour each day and she tried to make the best of it. She reached the bow and she leaned on the rail. One of the warriors assigned to her moved next to her to prevent her from jumping overboard…but he didn’t have to worry about that. She was not going to just throw her life away. She loved living too much.

She thought about her twin sister and wondered what possessed her to run. She hadn’t seen or talked to Harmony for years and wondered how much she had changed. She knew Harmony was forced to fight for the Destroyers and killing was not something she would have wanted to do; her heart was too good. Melody stared out at the sea and wondered if she would have been able to go out and kill innocent men and children. She decided that she wasn’t able to answer that question. She guessed she would have to be there to know.