CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The rest of the night passes quickly, and is mostly a blur of debriefing and trying to stay awake. First the mission unit leaders compare notes, then we bring in the rest of the senior officers for an update. After we dismiss them, Cap and I call the Admiral and Kesn to give them our report.
We only lost ten soldiers in total. Simon’s team lost three when a squad was hit from behind while searching a tunnel in the underground bunker. Gimmir’s team lost four to long-range fire while getting across the fields to the farmhouse. Lada, Cap and I each lost one to, as Cap succinctly put it, ‘the law of averages’. I’m not altogether sure how I feel about that yet.
The Black Tongues lost a whole lot more than that. Sixty-four surrendered across all five locations. Another two hundred or so were killed. Those numbers were higher than we were expecting, but not higher than we were able to handle.
The evidence Zaxn found helped us tie the pieces together nicely. The goblin in charge of that storefront kept meticulous records. Every message from ‘the family’, every message between the locations, a nice list of all the assassination targets, and even an inventory of the illegal equipment at that location was all neatly filed and easily referenced. I suppose when you’re an off-world crime lord, you have to make sure your commanders’ record-keeping skills are top-notch.
The Admiral thanks us and asks us to send the evidence to the Palace immediately. I call Simon, who agrees to take a squad with him to deliver the documents. With that completed, Cap and I look at each other across his desk. He looks tired, and I’m sure I look rather wiped-out as well. Leaning back in the chair, I sigh. “Does this mean we can go to our beds now?”
Standing, he stretches his arms. “Aye, girl. Gotta be fresh for His MajesticDamnNessShip and Lord All High DontCallMeThat tomorrow.”
I chuckle, which makes him smile. We walk through the ship together, stopping at the mess hall to grab some fruit and crackers. When we get to my quarters, Cap stops as I open the door.
“Ya did good today, Rylae. Nice job runnin’ that unit.”
I shrug. “LC Rhuviel and Sergeant Bigstick did all the real work. And Zaxn’s fire magic. I just helped write up the plan.”
He punches me in the shoulder. “Dumb elf. Ya got ‘em to follow yer plan. There’s a lot to be said fer that.” Turning, he walks to his quarters without another word.
Huh. Never thought of it that way. I’ll think about it more in the morning. Closing my door, I throw my uniform on the floor and drop into bed.
««»»
Checking my messages in the morning, I see one from the Admiral. He informs me that the meeting today with the King will be a lot more formal than it was before, and I need to bring all of the ship’s senior officers along with all battalion platoon leaders from last night’s mission. He also requests the full name of each of the battalion members lost in the mission, as well as Calgonnel’s. No mention of what they’re for, but I think I have an idea.
I send the names, then grab my communicator and start making calls. I tell Gimmir and Simon to bring the platoon leaders, and to have everyone wear formal attire. I don’t know if I’ve ever actually seen what the battalion considers formal attire off-world, so that’ll be new to me later.
With a couple hours before the meeting, I start catching up on ship details that I’ve missed over the last few days. Thankfully, while docked and busy with missions there hasn’t been a whole lot going on. Engineering’s still behind on maintenance, but still has enough battery to get us home. The food stores are starting to run low, but we won’t starve. Maybe I can requisition some of that casserole from The Burning Hut. I’ll call Rosa later to chat and see what she thinks.
Most of what we’re running low on is equipment with smaller tech batteries, including communicators, caregiver tools, and cleaning tools. Those weren’t really vital to launching the ship, so I had to let that slide. It’s going to take a lot more time to get us back to full when we get back to Terra. I’ll have to run a full tech inventory, including mana levels. Sigh. Full inventories are really boring.
I check through the handful of reports Tanna sent me while she was covering for me, and I don’t see anything spectacular. One quarters fire (you’d be surprised how often that happens, actually), two security lapses while none of the senior officers were around to catch them, and… one ensign reprimanded for impersonating the XO’s squeaky nasal voice. Very funny. I should requisition special ass-grabbing gloves for all of her ensigns.
The timer on my terminal beeps, warning me to get ready for the trip to the Palace. I finish looking through the current report, shut off the terminal and grab my dress uniform, changing quickly. I glance at the belt full of sleep darts, which is still hanging in my wardrobe, but I’ll be leaving the ship unarmed for the first time since we arrived. It’s a nice feeling. I close the wardrobe and head to the staging area.
A few folk are there when I arrive, and the rest of our group files in quickly. The platoon leaders are each wearing black leather armor with insignia and medals attached to straps across the chest. The senior officers are wearing standard dress uniforms, except for Gimmir and Simon who have adorned theirs with insignia and medals similar to the platoon leaders, marking their positions as battalion leaders. Once all nineteen of us arrive, Cap opens the doors and waves us to a folk-mover. We can all easily fit in one, so we climb into the large back compartment and grab some seats on the benches. Cap sits up front with Gimmir, who’s driving.
I decide to take a seat at the end of a bench closest to the front. Sen slides into place beside me. I turn to say something, but her eyes are on Zaxn. He takes a seat at the farther end of the craft with Sergeant Bigstick, the two having an animated discussion about something. Every couple words, the Sergeant smiles and slaps Zaxn on the shoulder. Zaxn’s laughing while talking, and looks more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him before.
Sen turns to me and scowls. “Hey, Pointy Ears. What did you do to my Pincushion? He won’t talk to me since you brought him back, and he’s different now. Almost like he’s happy. This is because of that whole ‘naked thing’ I did to you, isn’t it? I don’t like it. Fix him back.”
Sometimes, the hardest part of my job is to listen to the problems of my crew members without laughing my ass off. Sen is legitimately angry with me for Zaxn’s personality change. I’m not really sure what I can say to defuse her, so I guess I’ll just tell her the facts and let her figure it out from there.
Looking in her eyes, I manage to hold back a smile and tell her in a serious voice, “During the mission last night, Zaxn killed more enemies with walls of fire than my two platoons of soldiers combined, then instructed the platoon leaders on where to dig up the juiciest information stashes. I didn’t do anything to help change him, but I’m also not really in agreement that he’s broken.”
She looks like she’s about to argue with me, then I can see a bit of confusion cross her face instead. She turns back to look at him and doesn’t say anything else to me for the rest of the short trip. I feel a little bad for her – she did lose her goblin ‘bottom’, after all – but I’m happier with the obvious changes in my Chief Science Officer. I need to have a chat with him within the next couple days.
When we arrive at the Palace, we step out of the landcraft to see a full honor guard waiting. There must be a hundred soldiers lined up. Seeing them, the platoon leaders form up in a two-line formation to our right behind Gimmir and Simon, and the senior officers attempt to create something resembling straight lines behind Cap and myself. It’s not pretty, but this isn’t exactly a practiced maneuver for us. Maybe I should create something and drill us on it.
Once we’re organized, the commander of the honor guard shouts a command, and the entire guard drops to one knee, lowering their heads toward us. They hold that for a few seconds, then stand in one motion. I’m absolutely floored by the respect of that gesture.
/> In response, we snap to attention and salute. We didn’t have a command, and I can’t see anyone but Cap out of the corner of my eye, but I doubt a single member of my crew took longer than half a second to decide to do it. A show of respect like the one we just received deserves a reply.
We drop the salute as a guard with additional decorations breaks formation and walks over to Cap. “Captain Gravelhand. Commander Westiel. I am Captain Lusz Sourstrike, commander of the Stenchstone Palace Guard. On behalf of the Guard, I welcome you and your crew to the Stenchstone Palace. His Majesty, King Damnation, is waiting to receive you inside. The Guard will escort you, if you will please follow me.”
Cap and I salute in reply, and Captain Sourstrike turns to his soldiers. With a gesture, they form rank around us, and we begin the walk inside. The path through the Palace winds us down large passages wide enough for six or seven folk shoulder-to-shoulder and the Guard use that space to keep from crowding us while still formed around our group.
Looking around, I realize I wasn’t really paying attention to the building the last time I was here. Something about first sneaking in and then being led out personally by the King might have distracted me a bit. This time it’s difficult not to notice the immense tapestries covering the red clay walls between the passageway openings. From flora to fauna, they depict numerous outdoor scenes and events. Many are simply woven together from artistic colors, and some are obviously representations of stories containing heroic goblins of history.
I notice groups of goblins gathered in the adjoining passageways, separated from us by additional guards. As we pass, some of the goblins raise their hands in salute while others bow their heads. These must be other workers and families in the Palace.
The Captain of the Guard takes his time walking us through the Palace. I assume that’s to let more folk see us as we pass. I find I’m caught up in the spectacle myself, looking at the folk in the passageways and smiling. These are folk who haven’t interacted with off-worlders in many years, but they seem happy to see us instead of fearful and isolationist.
As we walk farther into the Palace, I notice more and more folk in the side passages. I’m starting to wonder exactly what we’re walking into. This is a much larger event than I originally expected it to be. I was expecting a small meeting with the King to go over the evidence and accept condolences for our fallen soldiers. I definitely wasn’t expecting something the whole world was invited to!
I glance at Cap, but he doesn’t seem any different. Small meeting, large meeting, stand-in-front-of-the-world meeting… he’s generally unconcerned by it. I wonder if this kind of thing happens to him often. I knew I wasn’t fully prepared to be a starship captain as soon as ‘tomorrow’, but this mission keeps pointing things out to me that I really hadn’t thought of as prerequisites. Center-of-attention exhibition management is definitely on that list.
As we turn a corner, I see this passageway ends at large doors made from red clay. A contingent of Guard is stationed outside of the door, along with a few other goblins. Coming closer, I immediately recognize the two in the center of the group as Admiral Bax Shockpaw and Ambassador Kesn Dreadthief. The Admiral is dressed in a dark red tunic over tan slacks, with a chest piece woven in a geometric design similar to some of the tapestries we passed. Over his shoulders is a dark blue cape with white embroidery and tassels. Kesn is wearing a tight black dress with short sleeves and a modest neckline. It ends at her knees, showing her green legs ending in black shoes with a small heel.
Standing next to Kesn, Lieutenant Commander Spazkin Darkmuck looks incredibly uncomfortable in a UCST dress uniform which doesn’t appear to fit perfectly. I doubt he’s had to wear it a single time in the last twenty years. Looking at him again, though, I’m not entirely sure that his comfort problem is because of his wardrobe. I remember him saying previously that he didn’t know anyone at the Palace, so I wonder if this is his first time here.
Then I realize that I didn’t actually know he was going to be here, so Kesn or the Admiral would have had to call him with the invitation. I think I now know exactly why he’s uncomfortable! If the mission up to now hadn’t made him uncomfortable yet, being invited to the Palace by the previous King certainly would do it! And he’s part of the center of the entire spectacle, which is quite a bit different for someone who’s normally in a warehouse all day!
Nex Darkraider, Stenchstone Overseer, stands to the far left, wearing a tan business suit over a white shirt with a matching tan necktie. As I’m looking in that direction, he turns to me causing our eyes to meet. He smiles brightly, with a hint of sadness and condolence in his eyes. My heart twists briefly over the shared memory of Calgonnel, and I return the sad smile briefly before looking away in an attempt to hold back the emotions.
I don’t recognize the older goblin woman standing between the Admiral and the Overseer, but she’s beautifully covered in a dress that matches the colors the Admiral is wearing – dark red across the shoulders, arms and upper-chest, and tan with beading down to a flowing skirt that reaches her feet. The red area is embroidered with many designs, and the entire dress was obviously made by hand. On her head rests a red scarf with the six colored moons of Stenchstone embroidered on it, covering her silvery hair.
The Admiral steps forward. “Captain Gravelhand. Commander Westiel. Senior members of the crew and battalion of the UCST Corsari. It is with great honor and appreciation that I welcome you to the garden of His Majesty, King Damnation the fourteenth. His Majesty awaits your company inside. If Captain Sourstrike agrees to transfer you to my care, I will escort you inside.”
The Captain nods, barks a command, and the Guard steps away from us smartly to take up positions along the walls. As he does this, Admiral Shockpaw takes the opportunity to lean forward between Cap and I and whispers to us, “Friends, please do not comment on it. I know you have seen the paintings, but the real thing is quite embarrassing.”
As he steps away, Cap and I share a glance but nothing more. The large doors are opened, and we look into the garden at the center of the Palace. Not that our eyes immediately notice a garden, as our attention is captured by the ten-meter-tall statue in the center.
The first thought I have is how the Overseer told us that it wasn’t in color, and I just barely hold in a chuckle.