The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix

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  The Dogie’s engines were running hot, sending an occasional tremor through the hull of the ship as its massive drive - twin turbines - pulsed at redline revolutions. After receiving the latest report from the engine room, Captain UuzuloftChumay addressed his fears to Field Marshal Trisha, who was standing on the bridge beside him.

  Leaning back and clasping her hands behind her, as she casually looked down at the deck, Trisha calmly replied, “Captain Uuzuloft, I understand your concerns. That is why I sent my engineering officer along with a technician to assist your crew chief in this hour of haste. Major Tiffany is a capable engineer, familiar with the stulic drive system of this vessel. I have my full confidence in her abilities to judge the limits of the machine. I have placed the safety of ship and crew in her hands.”

  Captain Uuzuloft slowly shook his head as he repeated his concerns. “Lady Trisha, this is a converted collier, refitted to a deep space freighter from before the Three Hundred Years War, which had already served as a troop transport during the wars before that. This ship has been under the Navy’s commission for close to three millennia, receiving multiple upgrades and refits over the course of time, the stulic drive being its latest. May I inform you, it is a drive system designed for modern ships with stronger hulls and frames.”

  He tapped the deck with his boot. “Indeed! This old tub was consigned to the scrap yard before the Great War, so unfit for service to even be re-commissioned for that conflict! Your Admiral Sujin, when Commissioner of Salvage, resurrected the old girl, refitted her to haul animals, and then renamed her ‘Dogie’. He pulled the stulic drive system from the brigantine, Widget, it being refitted to that of an imperial class warship, thus receiving larger drives. Those oversized stulic engines were not designed for a small transport like the Dogie, her hull being quite inadequate. I fear overstressing the ship if we continue to run them full out.”

  Trisha nodded her sympathies. “Captain, I do appreciate your concerns. I will send for my design officer, Major Garlock, to confer with Major Tiffany. He is well versed in the studies of ship design and construction.”

  Captain Uuzuloft was still not assuaged, arguing for a more prudent speed. Trisha was becoming impatient with his gentle protest, and needed to remind herself that the military of the Children’s Empire was much different from those of the 2nd Realm. Here, especially among officers, it was considered normal to debate the matter until the issue was forced. It was the customary way among Lowenah’s loyal children, and Trisha dare not interfere with it if she wished for their lasting support.

  Reaching out and taking the captain by the arm, Trisha suggested the two retire to the navigator’s table near the rear of the bridge. After excusing those officers at the table, they sat.

  “My friend,” Trisha calmly began. “I have need for great haste, and this cattle barge, as you call it, will serve my needs quite well. Trust me, my lieutenants chose this machine for our journey because they believed it to be the most seaworthy of the ships available to me. I trust them. If they believe we are safe at these speeds, then I feel it is so.”

  Captain Uuzuloft began to counter-argue the case. Trisha lifted a finger to hush him and smiled, asking, “My dear captain, will you permit me a personal word, friend to friend?” Surprised, the captain nodded.

  “Thank you.” The field marshal looked down at her hands, playing with her fingers. “A little child I am when compared to the great leaders and wise men among your kind, as you, yourself are. I do not claim to know a thing, other than what your mother, my God, gave to me. As I sat in her presence not that long ago, she bestowed upon me the rank of field marshal, giving me a ring and many councilors, along with hidden wisdom that, she said, would come to me in my times of need. Although I would not trust myself alone with such weighty matters, I trust Lowenah and I trust to the words she told me.”

  “Captain, this ship, the Dogie, was over a thousand years old at the time of my birthing. I am sure you are a great deal older, and your aged wisdom warns you to be cautious about the integrity of this ship. You are to be commended for that, the care you have for it and the safety of the crew in your charge.”

  She looked up into Captain Uuzuloft’s face. “But there comes a time when needed risk must become the master over safety alone. The days of pondering the future and choosing the safe course are now past us. A new and frightening future pants ever forward at a maddening pace, and we must face it head-on if we are to survive the approaching hour. The enemy is already gathering the crows. We, our people, have slept too long. The time is past for wishful thinking. Are there dangers to be faced? Many... Will people die because hasty decisions are made? Yes! Nonetheless, we must not falter in our determination. We need to become risk takers, if the risks are within reason.”

  The captain nervously agreed.

  Trisha acknowledged him. “The risks we are taking this night are acceptable. I trust my people, your crew, you and this ship. Trust, my friend, may be the only solace we have in coming days. My assignment is to get our people through those cold, ruthless times and beyond. This I must do at all cost to myself, and those who follow behind my banner.”

  Her voice became harsh and foreboding. “I have not come from the other side of death to watch this world also dissolve into forgotten memories before my eyes. I will do whatever it takes, sacrifice all, heedless of the cost, to accomplish my purpose, the purpose your mother placed me under oath to accomplish. If it means death to us all, then so be it, for through that death shall all life be renewed.”

  Captain Uuzuloft glumly nodded. “Thank you, commander. I will assist you in every way I can. Your servant...”

  Trisha stood, the captain also rising. “Captain, I knew I could trust you in this. Please keep a weather eye out for our safety and alert me to anything you feel is of importance. There is no need to take unnecessary risks today, or any other day for that matter. Thank you.”

  (Author’s Note: The Dogie managed to survive the upcoming King’s War, serving faithfully in fulfilling its yeomanly duties transporting animals, supplies, and even troops to the various theaters of the conflict, Captain UuzuloftChumay remaining the ship’s commander until it was once again decommissioned shortly after the end of hostilities. Languishing in the Obeb Navy Depot, nicknamed the ‘Sea of Derelicts’, because of the tens of thousands of old warships, fighters, and transports delivered there when the Children’s naval arm was officially disbanded just before the beginning of the Fourth Age, the Dogie waited its ignominious fate like that of so many other ships.

  In time, some of the abandoned ships were revived to new life when, shortly after the beginning days of the Fourth Age, the offspring of those valiant men and women from the earlier ages stretched out for the skies in pursuit of their own destinies. Refitted again as a collier and renamed the ‘Montauk’, the Dogie transported fuel rods to and from the ancient Pudict Refinery, deep in the CastenRill Star System, for the remainder of its serviceable life. Abandoned after the Pudict Refinery closed down, the Dogie slowly became a crumbling ruin.

  Tales regarding the history of the King’s War ignited a passion in the hearts of future generations who had grown up in an age of peace and longed, through rhyme and verse, to relive in spirit what their forbears had experienced in flesh. At long last, the Dogie was delivered to the Naval War Museum at Tilgath on Pilneser, where the ship was restored to its former condition when it transported the field marshal and her contingent on her return voyage to EdenEsonbar.

  The Dogie remains at Tilgath on Pilneser down to this day, a fitting symbol of the courage, valor, and sacrifice of so many Merchant Mariners who traversed star systems in these lightly armed craft which were, at times, more fit for the scrap yard, while often traveling alone on cold, empty seas to deliver to the armies of the Children’s Empire the needed supplies that assured them final victory. Ref: The periodical “Ottawa”, Issue Ninety-Two, Warriors With
out Swords - UuzuloftChumay)

  Zadar arrived at that moment, interrupting further discussion. He saluted Captain Uuzuloft and then addressed the field marshal. “Commander, the wardroom has been readied. Your lieutenants are gathering there as I speak.”

  Trisha thanked Zadar for the information, and then parted Captain Uuzuloft’s company, encouraging him to contact her immediately if he felt it necessary. When out of sight of the Dogie’s crew, Zadar grabbed Trisha’s arm, pulled her close, planted a huge kiss on her lips, and, standing back to observe the woman’s shocked surprise, challenged, “I’ll race you to see who gets there first.”

  Trisha scowled angrily, but her twinkling eyes betrayed her jollity in the moment. Frowning, she replied with mock condescension, “Lieutenant! I had anticipated more from my personal adjunct.”

  She reached up and began playing with the buttons on Zadar’s uniform while staring into his eyes, cooing, “And I expect you to live up to my anticipation later this evening...” Pulling Zadar close, the she gave him an impassioned kiss, and then quickly pushing him away, hurried off down the corridor.

  The wardroom was crowded and stuffy, the area having only recently been cleaned and swept. Dust hung heavy upon the air, the filtration system designed only for a feed storage room. Along with commanders, staff officers and the several adjuncts who flitted in and out of the wardroom, there were often nearly two dozen souls crowded into what had been a store room for bedding only hours before.

  Using straw bales for chairs and table supports, there was room for about a dozen people to sit - that is, if two would share a bale. This was not the intended location for the meeting, but as General Tolmetes informed the two new arrivals, “There is such a fuss still going on in the main gallery - the stables that recently housed the KaminosKtisis now being converted to a wardroom - what with the electricians, carpenters, and whoever, still busy trying to put the place together, we felt it prudent to arrange our first meeting here considering the time. A little close, true, but still roomier than an Egyptian slave galley.”

  Trisha was pleased, anxious to begin. This was the first official staff meeting to discuss preparations for the upcoming war. War? Oh yes, Trisha was certain of it now, especially since her diplomatic introduction and Asotos’ verbal trouncing earlier. The woman was feeling heady over her first confrontation with the enemy, her salvo fired across his bow a warning of her future intentions. No quarter, no parley! She was arrived, the savior of this world, and would administer that authority with power absolute! This war council was a good place for the new field marshal to begin the demonstration of that authority.

  (Author’s Note: Lessons are often hard taught and as this former commander of the Children’s Army has confessed to me, ‘The last person to know she has reached for a bridge too far is the one extending her arm.’ As history rightly testifies, Lowenah had chosen well the child to lead her people in the coming conflagration, but this child still needed to be taught humility. As Trisha later acknowledged, ‘An effective leader must be a humble leader. Humility is often learned at great cost.’)

  With Tolmetes in the lead, Trisha made her way to the front of the room. Addressing those in attendance, she issued her first official order as commander of the Children’s Army by dismissing the junior officers and staff assistances except for Zadar and BenettiShupgoe, her personal valet and secretary, assigned to Trisha’s staff at Lowenah’s request shortly before the Prisoner Exchange. The woman later became one of the Council of Eighty.

  (Author’s Note: Benetti’s name is rarely found in the annals chronicling the history of the King’s War. It should be understood by the reader that, except for Trisha’s romantic interludes with Zadar, Benetti was constantly in the field marshal’s company, often boarding in the same stateroom if an adjacent office was unavailable. Later, during the war, after Zadar was reassigned to the Navy as fleet captain, Trisha drew close to the Benetti for consolation and comfort, they eventually sharing with each other their dreams and lovers.

  Benetti’s voluminous, detailed accounts recording the field marshal’s life during the tumultuous times of the King’s War, including their intimate moments together, provides the most comprehensive compilation of information for any of the children delivered up from the Lower Realms before or during that war. Although never officially published, Benetti’s written works, including her personal diaries, are publicly available for the reader’s perusal in the Hall of Records at Palace City on EdenEsonbar.

  I have borrowed liberally from her written accounts and lengthy interviews she has permitted me, to obtain insight into the heart and mind of the former field marshal during this time, helping to flesh out my account of the war. Few were the secrets between these two women, and there was no secret from Trisha revealed to her that Benetti failed to record with quill and parchment.

  By war’s end, these two women had become inseparable. Where was the one, you would find the other. This relationship has lasted well into the Forth Age, Trisha and Benetti sharing countless, less dangerous adventures together. To this day, they are close companions, celebrating with exuberance when chance greets the crossing of their paths.

  The novel, My Inner Voice, is a thinly disguised fictional biography about Trisha’s coming of age in the arms of this woman. Artfully crafted and brutally honest, the reader is taken on a rollercoaster ride of emotional intrigue, from guilt forged by a tormented past to the ecstasy of unrestrained passion through immortal visions. Misty, Trisha’s alter-ego in the story, is totally unabashed about her inner struggles adjusting to the freedoms offered in this strange and often erotic universe into which she has been thrust.

  Trisha’s own ‘inner voice’, so often mentioned in her memoirs, was none other than this confidant who taught her how to trust and love. By her own volition, she admits that it was Benetti who helped her gradually fall in love with the children from the Realms Above, helping her to see their world with sympathetic understanding.

  Benetti was also successful in softening Trisha’s orders and directives given to the army, making them more palatable to accept. Indeed! Trisha feels that without Benetti’s assistance, she doubts she could have successfully united Lowenah’s children under her command. Though the woman is rarely mentioned in these Chronicles, it is hoped that the reader will recall Benetti’s loving influence as the inner voice guiding Trisha during those troublesome days. Always she hides in the shadows of the accounts written herein.)

  After presenting a brief overview of the military’s current command structure, the supporting role of the army and its primary strategies, Field Marshal Trisha requested General HoiO to come forward and discuss the current situation of the Children’s Empire and its possible implications. He went into some detail for the benefit of those less familiar with the First Realm universe. Although sorely tried by several polite intrusions and, at times, lengthy observations by the new commander, HoiO dutifully presented his information. The gist of it was thus:

  With renewed war all but assured, it was imperative that the Children’s Empire be prepared to make the initial strike if permitted by their new king, Mihai, or at least lash out quickly if the enemy should hit them first. This meant that preparation for an offensive operation must start immediately, all the while making ready for the implementation of defensive measures to protect the Empire. The logistics required to remove military personnel, supplies and equipment, needed manufacturing facilities, and possibly a large civilian population, were monumental in themselves, but this all needed to be accomplished with great stealth, and without weakening other critical defenses.

  There were one hundred twenty-seven known jump portals, fifty-one located within the boundaries of the Empire. Of them, sixteen were vital for security of the Empire, four critically so: the Hindly Page, Kalahnit Straits, Teleohodos and Eden’s Gate.

  The Hindly Page, located east-southeast, Q-north of EdenEsonbar, had seen some of the most vicious fightin
g over the ages because of its proximity to Stargaton and the Outer Corridor, one of the main channels leading to and from the Frontier. Whoever controlled that jump portal could bypass the dangers of sending their navies down the Corridor, Bloody Valley, avoiding the Trizentine, Nebulan Cloud Bank, and all the dangers associated with that channel.

  The Kalahnit Straits were named in honor of EhleenohrKalahnit for her successful defense of Avery, thus saving the straits for the Children’s Empire, and a month later leading her army in retaking Mordem. The following year, Ehleenohr was killed in an ill-fated attack during the Second Siege of Memphis. Although the Kalahnit Straits were far to the west and north in the Children’s Empire, they were highly desired prizes for the enemy. A hard run through the Outer Corridor, up and around the Nebulan Cloud Bank, into the broad Kalahnit Straits, and then west across open space, and the enemy would have the Kalahnit Jump Portal in its sights.

  Adding to the straits’ vulnerability was the ease of travel that these spacious channels provided, with few obstacles and little space debris to impede rapid insertion of a large battle fleet into that theater. A fast flotilla of cruisers and dreadnaughts could make the journey from the far eastern range of the Empire to the straits in three weeks. Major engagements between opposing forces for that portal had already added thousands of names to the roster in the Silent Tombs. It was an unquestioned given that the enemy would again attempt its capture in this upcoming war and that many more names would be added to that roster.

  And the value of the Kalahnit Straits Jump Portal? It connected directly into fourteen of the jump portals located within the Empire. Should the enemy capture it, the amount of ships needed to protect against invasion through one of those exposed portals would render the Navy to little more than a blockading force, making any offensive actions nearly impossible.

  The Teleohodos, ‘Journey’s End’, was closest of all known jump portals to EdenEsonbar, the home planet, and gateway to numerous jump portals in the galaxy, but to none in the Middle Realms. No one seriously feared it was under any real threat of attack. Being only a few days easy travel from Palace City, it was in close proximity to several of the military’s space terminals, making rapid deployment to stage a defense of the portal an easy matter.

  To top this, Lowenah ruled EdenEsonbar, and might not take lightly an attack against what she considered her personal home, something Asotos understood painfully well, the scattered ruins of his battle groups’ torn, shattered hulks drifting haplessly in space a sharp reminder. The Trade Ship Wars, a time early on during the Wars of Rebellion when Asotos attempted to clear his territories of Lowenah’s troublesome little silvery vessels she called her ‘trade ships’, learnt him quickly to leave Lowenah’s ships to themselves as they peacefully plied the skies on Her business.

  Eden’s Gate was the most strategic of all the jump portals for both the Children’s Empire and the League of Brothers. No other portal offered its users greater connectivity to other portals throughout the galaxy, but also to the Middle and Lower Realms. True, it was hazardous to journey into the Lower Realms before first passing into and out from the Middle, but if machines were plated in elemental materials or suits made of such, gold being one of the easiest universal elements to obtain, ships could safely travel directly into the Lower Realms from the Upper.

  There were also two major jump portals in the territories belonging to the League of Brothers that Eden’s Gate emptied directly into. The military advantage to possessing Eden’s Gate and either of the other two was obvious. For those reasons alone, there was always a heavy guard present at those portals, even during peace time, that lesson being hard learned when Legion used the Eden’s Gate Portal to invade the nearby planet of MueoPoros.

  Long had the two opposing camps struggled for control over Eden’s Gate, the Children’s Empire succeeding in its final taking during the Three Hundred Years War. The main reasons for the First and Second Sieges of Memphis were to wrestle MueoPoros away from the League of Brothers, thus reducing the threat on this very important portal, and to provide bases for the Navy to operate out of for the protection of Eden’s Gate, it being the only habitable planet in all the surrounding star systems.

  Both attempts at taking MueoPoros ended in bloody failure for the Children’s Empire, the armistice ending the Great War bringing a temporary halt to the thousands of years of bloodletting to secure mastery over that portal. It was a tenuous peace with no assurance Asotos might not renege on the accord, thus requiring a large standing military force remain guarding the great portal. Sadly, little attempt was made during that peace to secure a base within close proximity to Eden’s Gate, an inconvenience at best, a disaster should Asotos choose to strike in force unexpectedly.

  Now though, with war again looming on the horizon, all eyes would be focusing upon Eden’s Gate, its very force of presence demanding that blood be shed anew if the Children’s Empire was to survive. The loss of Eden’s Gate would open the Empire up to full-scale invasion, one that might likely lead to its eventual demise. For, even if the EdenEsonbar star system should be saved, secure, little hope would remain for its more distant territories.

  There was little fear that Asotos would send an invasion force out through a portal to capture it. The dimensional laws of nature and energy did not follow set rules within the channels between jump portals. Time and space follow their own laws there. Ships navigating the portals traveled in a cosmic fog, so to speak, with no available outside communication, even with other ships traveling along with them. It had taken well into the Second Age before the mechanics of space travel had advanced far enough to permit flight by instrument though these portals, thus no longer requiring the prescient powers of the wisest of Ancients.

  Down to this time, none really understood the mathematics controlling the portal passages. Like little children twisting the dials of a speaking machine to hear their own voices, the captains and navigators played with the energy signals within the universal harmonics to find their way along the sightless, timeless passages. And when reaching destination’s end, a portal would cast out crew and ship into a vortex of bent and twisted laws in which little other than life support and gravitational machinery operated with any real consistency.

  Indeed! It might take twenty minutes or more for a ship to come back on line with its energy shields and weapons systems fully functional - a great danger for a ship to be in if entering enemy territory. Even a torpedo scow could disable or destroy a giant dreadnaught under such circumstances. The threat existed, then, not from within, but from a conventional assault in open space. Should the enemy capture a major portal such as Eden’s Gate, a door would be opened to allow full-scale invasion forces to rapidly and safely move across vast distances, and to permit those same invading forces with quick reinforcements and supplies.

  There was the dilemma. The portals needing protection were scattered across the universe, requiring that several naval battle groups be deployed in guarding them, not to mention the need for a show of force maintained all along the border. The tenuous peace since the Armistice had only increased the number of ships and garrisons required. Allowing Asotos to retain his holdings on MueoPoros and several star systems along the Children’s eastern frontier, along with the failure to remove the Stasis Pirates from the Trizentine, forced the Empire to remain on constant alert for hostile activities. Indeed, even now continual patrols were necessary just to ensure the safe intercourse of trade with the Empire’s eastern territories.

  Hoio stepped back, his eyes scanning the room while offering a grim smile. Sighing, he concluded, “With the eventual peace at the end of the Great War, few of our people chose to remain in uniform, deciding instead to return home for one last hurrah before the next even bloodier conflagration that they all knew was coming. Many of those from the Army who remained standing the line securing the Empire were transferred to give support to the Marines stationed aboard patrolling ships or garrisoned on som
e lonely outposts. Some from the Army chose to join up with or return to the Navy, especially those from the Army’s flight wings.”

  He shrugged. “Either way, the Army was left a skeleton of itself, its bases abandoned, equipment scattered helter-skelter across star systems, and its officer training academies closed. Nearly fifty years hence, many of the Army’s shops, depots, and factories, like the ShiGohn HowlKine Military Complex at Oros, are little more than ghost towns haunted by the vulture, horned demons, and other such wild things.”

  The tone in Hoio’s voice was not optimistic. “We must raise the dead and put flesh upon the dry bones of our once glorious army, and do it quickly. Swords must be sharpened, shields polished, and helms renewed, and there is not a moment to spare! The samurai must be resurrected in the hearts of the people. Courage and determination must be reborn. Our enemy has not slept. Now we must reawake!”

  After Hoio was seated, Trisha asked her senior staff officer, BarkaiNofech, to sum up the supply and logistics situation. His report was rather lengthy and tedious, but to be expected what with all the dry facts and figures, numbers - or lack thereof - of supplies, personnel, equipment, and so forth. Barkai was an astute officer and understood well how wearisome such a presentation could be, often was. He did his best. When finished, no one could accuse him of not having thoroughly informed them about the current situation while not producing a major issue of ‘death through boredom’. A summation of matters was this:

  There were just not enough Navy transports available to supply the numerous garrisons scattered about the Empire, thus forcing use of independent enterprises, i.e. Wildcatters. Although usually willing to assist the military, the Wildcatters were not considered a dependable form of transport, as were the commercial and military systems. Wildcatters’ loyalties to the needs of the military were little above that of the colonies they supported. Indeed, for many of the distant colonies, Wildcatters were their only transportation links other than larger colonies that might have ships of their own. Depending on Wildcatters meant for unpredictable supplying and reinforcement, especially in high danger and risk areas.

  (Author’s note: The term ‘Wildcatters’ was a broad definition given to privately owned ships that lent themselves to the commercial transport system of the day. Up until the First Megiddo War, there was no Children’s Empire, nor was there any official regulatory transportation system in place. City-states, colonies or private operators provided for the peoples’ needs, which were few. Transportation was much the luck-of-the-draw, so to speak, whatever ship being in port willing to deliver one to his or her destination being available at the time became the only ship of choice.

  If the transportation arrangements were not to the person’s liking, or should a long sojourn be on someone’s mind, then apprenticing out or partnering up were the usual options taken to accomplish one’s purpose. Of course, once the objective of obtaining the adequate vessel was realized, the need of supply and maintenance became a constant issue. To cover such cost, the proud new owner or owners would often offer up the ship to the service of others. Though honest and well meaning, the very nature of the existence lived by these independent seafarers created a carefree atmosphere among these people, giving them a much deserved reputation for being undependable, thus the name they acquired in the universal tongue of today, ‘roustabouts’.

  The official advent of the Wildcatters came into existence after the Commerce Regency, which came into being around the time of the Second Megiddo War. It was during this period that the councils succeeded in gathering the many far flung territories to form a confederacy that came to be called the ‘Children’s Empire’. One of the first agencies set up by the new Children’s Council was the Commerce Regency, its primary assigned task to establish official trade routes and schedules, and to consolidate the colonies many ships into one homogenous unit to accomplish its task.

  Few of the private ship owners accepted the Regency’s request to assist in this monumental venture. Indeed, the roustabouts generally refused to acknowledge the Children’s Empire, feeling it was a usurpation of powers granted to the individual by the Maker of Worlds. From that time forward, a loose fellowship grew among that independent lot, they gradually forming unofficial shippers’ guilds of their own. These members received the name we translate into the universal tongue as ‘Wildcatters’.

  It was well into the Three Hundred Years War, after Asotos’ pogroms against anyone not swearing allegiance to the League of Brothers, that the Wildcatters formed a loose alliance with the Children’s Empire, under the provision they be recognized as independent sailors loyal to the cause, but free of the Empire’s regulations. Later, through the negotiating efforts of JehanneEmmainomaiOrlèans, the Wildcatters finally offered their full support to the Children’s Empire, cementing a binding fealty. Thus began the history of what to this day is called the ‘Merchant Marines’.

  KfirNoiz’ book, Ghost Warriors, sheds in-depth historical light on the role of the Wildcatters from their formation up through the final siege of Memphis, and the significant role they played in the winning of the Frontier Wars.

  General Barkai did suggest that the Children’s Empire officially recognize the Wildcatters Shippers’ League as an independent ally, flying both its and the Empire’s colors, to open the Empire’s bases for supply and repair of Wildcatter ships, provide Marine support for the protection of vessels and crews, along with some recommendations concerning protocol, rank and privilege, and diplomatic recognition. Later, as the war continued to progress, many of Barkai’s concepts were implemented.

  Even should the Wildcatters abandon themselves completely to the Children’s cause, Barkai doubted those added numbers would be enough to sway the war into their favor. “I doubt their role will be little more than scouting, skirmishing, and occasional transporting. I think the major role of such madmen is to be that of giving a psychological boost to our tired war-weary people.”

  Despite his current reservations, Barkai would remain a staunch advocate for gaining those people’s allegiance, and would later successfully lobby to have them seated on the Children’s official war councils. Although the upcoming command structure of the Children’s military was decided upon before the Prisoner Exchange, few, other than the ones directly involved in making those changes, realized the extent of them. This included Barkai and most of the members of Trisha’s war council. Other than hinted rumors, which could not be trusted, the general had to base his calculations on the currently understood leadership arrangement, thus placing Trisha as commander en-force, overseeing a band of subordinates who saw themselves nearly as independent as the Wildcatters, as had been the long-standing practice of the Empire. This was especially true of the Navy, it seeing Gabrielle as its supreme commander, with the field marshal having a supporting role.

  Using that understanding as his foundation, Barkai painted a dismal picture for the Army, especially considering what would be expected of it should the new field marshal prove successful in arguing her strategy for fighting the upcoming war. The rumors of official divided command only troubled him the more.

  His spoken fears regarding lack of cooperation, supply and support were blunted when Trisha assured those gathered that would not be the case at all. “The sun rises upon a new day. We have ruling over us a king who, while not leading her army into battle, shall still gather its power and glory from afar. One kingdom, one banner, one battle cry will be heard among the people. One machine will rise from the mist to engage a troublesome foe, one hand… one heart… one voice. Trust me on this. Trust me...”

  Barkai smiled skeptically, hoping that it would be. He pointed out factually that at the present moment he had little positive information to share on how the military would be transported and supplied in a major campaign. “All you have declared may all be well and true. I hope it is so, but as for me, with the information available at this time, I am running blind. So little do we kn
ow - not even an accurate number of those still with us in uniform. The latest official inventory of military supplies, ships, and equipment is twenty years old. Why, we don’t even know, for sure, how many active bases we are currently operating.”

  Trisha raised a hand. “My brother, please trust your fate to this new arrangement. I tell you all for a fact, it has not been over ale and magic weed that decisions were made. And I will also tell you all a secret for your ears only: This arrangement was concocted by none other than the Maker of Worlds, herself. True! I was there. What she is up to, or exactly how it will all work, I do not yet know, but I do trust it all, seeing it has come from her own mouth.”

  The tension in Barkai’s face eased. After thanking the field marshal for such news, he went on at length to reveal what information he did have. In conclusion, the general attempted to lift the spirits of the others by pointing out the upcoming completion of three new carriers, pointing out that Gabrielle, herself, was soon to take command of the Sophia. “Once those new carrier fleets are on line, we will have battle groups equal to anything the League of Brothers can throw at us.” He then quietly sat.

  After another half hour of official conversation and debate, Trisha stood to bring conclusion to the evening’s proceedings. Her dander being still up from the Prisoner Exchange, she suffered her lieutenants with pummeling rants, carrying on as though they were responsible for the current state of affairs and lack of preparedness. Had these officers been of thinner skin or less amenable nature as might be found in the diplomatic corps, the remainder of the meeting might have erupted in riot, but this did not happen. Wisdom abounded about that table, the officers understanding the real reasons for their appointments to serve as the field marshal’s lieutenants.

  Her tongue filled with righteous indignation, Trisha stormed, “How can I determine our real strength if you do not have accurate numbers? Tell me, please! If you know, is there a current roster showing the exact number of even our officers presently in uniform?”

  No one offered to hazard a guess.

  Exasperated, Trisha coldly stated as if speaking to wayward children. “Your brother will not wait for us to gather the pigeons or assemble the couriers before his coming day of vengeance. He will strike soon! Very soon! Especially since I made him piss his pants at the Prisoner Exchange...”

  She turned and stared up at the ceiling. “You say there are currently about one million soldiers serving in all facets of the military, and many of them are busy growing crops, mending clothes and repairing equipment in order to keep our military machine alive. I bet you don’t have one tenth of that number available for a full knock-down drag-out fight! And…” She angrily stamped the deck. “I’ll bet there aren’t enough derelict tubs as good as this one to transport half that number into battle!”

  Frustrated, Trisha groused, “Asotos will hit us in less than six months, one hundred eighty days! He will carry in his van twenty million battle-tried, front-line warriors, and what will we have to stop him up but a piss in the wind… oh, and a new carrier that will be undermanned!”

  Eyes aflame, she quickly turned about, leaning forward and resting her hands flat on the table, exclaiming, “The hour has passed for pleasantries! At whatever cost and by whatever means, we must tap into the resources available to us if we are to resist Satan’s onslaught!”

  She glared defiant. “Veterans must be recalled to service, new recruits enlisted, every old Navy ship resurrected and private ships commandeered. We also must rebuild our military machine by whatever means possible. The time for lazy sleep is over!”

  Standing back, she began to slowly pace, hands clasped behind her back, speaking indifferently, as if merely thinking aloud. “At the upcoming wars council meeting, I am introducing my recommendations for bringing this people up to speed - no more room for slackers. I will advocate the military be given permission to exercise the clause in the Empire’s constitution that allows us to exercise the powers of eminent domain over all property and possessions of the civilian population that are deemed important to the cause. I will propose that, if necessary, a confiscation protocol be put in place for the procurement of foodstuffs and other necessary supplies, this to include the indenturing of the population for its successful accomplishment. And, if necessary, we will implement a draft to refill the ranks of the military.”

  Trisha looked into the faces of her lieutenants, their own faces expressionless. Shaking a finger high, the field marshal smiled. “A time comes when freedom can only be bought with slavery, a lesson my kind have learned well. Slavery! Yes, slavery to a cause with only the reward that such slavery shall again, one day, return the people to freedom.”

  Observing no reply, Trisha went on about other more mundane matters, she feeling that the others were beginning to grasp, as Asotos had, that this creature from lost worlds was not to be trifled with. Hers was the way - the way of the Romans and Greeks, the way of the Babylonians and Persians, the Egyptians and… and all the great nations that had understood the need to commandeer freedom to protect their empires. Was she not to bring Hell to Heaven? Was slavery not part of this Hell, a desperately needed Hell to save the people from their own laziness?

  And what of those in the room being pummeled? Asleep they were not, but filled with wisdom, as Lowenah knew they would be. Like a mentor quietly releasing the reins to an underling, these people knew that Trisha must push the envelope if she were to grow. Who better to receive the blows than the ones who understood the reasons? For the moment, Trisha must be the brash, arrogant, protagonist, being permitted to openly express her views and desires no matter the depth of her caustic criticisms. Then, when the hour was right, like that patient mentor, guiding hands would share in taking hold the reins again to teach the youngling how to master the powers of the team to do the bidding of her will.

  Although the mind may reason with such logic, it is often not an easy matter for the heart to share the mind’s understanding. Trisha lingered after her lieutenants were dismissed, they intending to continue with business the following day. At length, only she and Zadar were found in the room. Feeling the energy of her assumed successes this night, she sauntered over to the man as he sat studying some recent communiqué. Stepping up behind Zadar, Trisha leaned forward, pressing her breasts against his back. Nuzzling close, she whispered sweet seductions in his ear.

  Zadar did not respond the way Trisha expected. Instead, he politely feigned need to attend to further business and might find the hour late before accomplishing it. Trisha was taken aback, the man never before refusing her advances. Standing up and requesting he face her, she asked, confused, what business was so important that it could not wait a few fleeting hours hence. Looking up into Trisha’s face with red, swollen eyes, Zadar asked if he could speak freely with the commander.

  Trisha blinked, surprised to be addressed in such a formal manner by the man who had shared her bed the very night before, and the night before that. “Why… why certainly. I… I wish you hold no secrets from me at all… Whatever is on your heart.”

  Zadar spoke hesitantly, his voice cracking at times. “I… I love you so much, much more, or at least differently, than I have any other woman. Yet my ardor for you is not as great for you as my passion for my own kind.”

  He stood, tenderly squeezing Trisha’s upper arms. “You see the world as it is now, you being born into it at this very late date. I have seen this world only through its grieving times, its misery and tribulation, witnessing not the early days of innocent bliss. Yet to imply that my kind are listless and uncaring is to say that I, too, am such. To believe that slavery will win over hearts that have known only freedom is to believe one can gather up the salty oceans and drink fresh water.”

  “My love, you see a world of carefree children wishing only for days of bliss. I see rivers of blood and bodies torn asunder trying to preserve what little sanity might remain in this sordid world. I have he
ld the ruined and shattered bodies of my companions and lovers as the life drained from their faces, consoled the dying as they begged for one last drink of water. More battles have I seen, been witness to, shared in, than years you have lived.”

  Zadar turned away to hide his tears. “My people are not shiftless... They are torn, battered, beaten, used up... For these many thousands of years, they have returned to the Kriggerman’s haunts to again face the demons of darkness. The dead wish for nothing. The living wish to feel nothing, jealous over the peaceful state of their dead kindred. This Hell that burns so deep, to the consuming of our hearts, is what my kind dream of escaping. Romancing the past helps them forget the present, allowing them to feel something other than despair.”

  “Hope...hope in an eventual release from a Hell that is far greater than any your kind has suffered - is the reason my kind fight and die...hope that should enough blood be spilt in ignoble combat, the Kriggerman’s lust for the slaughter will eventually be satisfied, and my kind will again be allowed a return to some kind of sanity. Our hope is that your kind will help us achieve our release from the Kriggerman’s iron grip, that your kind will deliver us salvation.”

  Zadar’s voice faltered, his shoulders slumping. “But what good is salvation if it is only an exchange of one kind of servitude for another? The Kriggerman wears many disguises.”

  Trisha was stunned silent. She knew not what to say or do in response to Zadar’s revelations. The woman did not, could not, comprehend the meaning of her lover’s words. She could not fathom the anguish in his heart at seeing the savior of his kind revealing the utter contempt she had for them. She could not see that it was not his love for her, but his trust in his Mother that kept him from rebuking her and taking his leave.

  Before Trisha could make reply, Zadar turned and took her hands, the tears on his cheeks reflecting the room’s light. He bowed his head, apologizing. “Forgive me, please, for my brashness. You are our chief magistrate in war, a gift from Mother to be revered and supported. Wisdom she has given to you that I do not have, nor do I claim to understand. I am, always will be your loyal servant, and I do love you. Always will...”

  He hesitated, and then made request. “Please allow me a little time to sort out in my mind these current feelings I am experiencing. Tomorrow, yes tomorrow, will be much different, but tonight I need time to think.”

  Trisha frowned, dismayed, but acquiesced, deeply troubled and still very confused over the issue. Zadar thanked her and, taking his leave, quietly exited the room.

  About this same time, the first officer was briefing Captain Uuzuloft concerning a strange anomaly that had been plaguing the Dogie’s scanning equipment throughout the day. “We noticed it about eighteen hundred hours, when we first engaged the hyper systems. It has continued to fade in and out of our scopes ever since. At times we can find a signature, but it’s of no known engine design that we have record… that is, if it’s really an engine at all. The signal is too weak and garbled for us to obtain a true lock on it.”

  Frowning, the officer added, “It has been on a constant track with us since we picked up the signal, changes course and speed as we do. It might be a ship shadowing us, but it doesn’t seem likely.”

  Captain Uuzuloft leaned forward, tapping the navigation screen after a white, glowing dot flared bright and quickly faded away. He did not feel comfortable about the matter. “This tracking equipment is in need of servicing, been neglected far too long. It might be a glitch in the machinery. Still…” He stood back, thinking, while playing with his beard. “Could be our own ship’s echo, space debris, or something else related to our speed.”

  Hesitating a moment, considering whether the field marshal need be bothered with this, Uuzuloft sighed. “Keep a close eye on this and let me know if it behaves in any way hostile or threatening. If you conclude it is a vessel of any kind, contact me immediately. Also, please keep a detailed log regarding this, charting, times, intensity of its signature. Even if it is just an anomaly, the information might prove useful in the future.”

  At that, Captain Uuzuloft took his leave, surrendering the bridge to his first officer. The Dogie continued along its course toward EdenEsonbar and whatever the future fates had chosen for it. The anomaly continued to haunt the ship’s detection systems far past Pilneser, finally disappearing completely after the Teleohodos Jump Portal. Except for on duty crew, the remainder those aboard quietly slept, that is except for a perplexed field marshal who lay awake, listening to the heartthrob of the Dogie’s engines while sadly pondering why her lover had rejected her arms this night.