| Chapter 5 | Epilogue |
Chapter 6
Time: CY9866 – AD 4943 early NovemberLocation: Arzawa - Ura-Tarhunta Island
As Megaera parked her vehicle near the embassy building she fervently hoped that the wind wouldn't change direction. With the defeat of the Boyington armoured battalions and the capture of their troopship the Freeholders had ceased their opposition to unification and had accepted the proposals brought by the K-MAC negotiation team. The majority of the negotiation team was going to stay on Arzawa to finish doting the I's and crossing the T's but Childers would be returning to Tizona with the K-MAC forces and Megaera had been volunteered to go to the Than embassy on Ura-Tarhunta to pick him up.
Megaera suspected that Sera had something to do with the assignment. Ever since she had unburdened herself to the AI it seemed that Sera had been trying to push Megaera and Childers together. That was one of the troubles with AI's thought Megaera, they tended to get too much like your parents. However, no matter whose idea it was it was getting her away from Anzapahhadu and the clean up details.
While the trip may have gotten her away from the clean up details it hadn't had anything else to recommend it. The short hopper she had been assigned to must have stopped at every island and every K-MAC or Hegemonist military site in the hemisphere. The trip had taken over a day and a half and the closest thing to sanitary facilities she had had to access to had been the sinks in the hopper ports' waiting areas. Her utility uniform was sticking to her body as if it was trying to become a second skin and her nose had shut itself down in self defense after she had put her hands behind her head and had gotten a whiff of her own armpits.
As Megaera approached the embassy building's main entrance the Than standing guard duty brought his/her/its gauss rifle into an order arms salute Its antennae twitched as she saluted back. Megaera supposed it could be a form of response to her salute or it could have been a response to the fact that the wind had changed direction. With the exception of the head the Than really wasn't insect like. It was bipedal with two arms ending in three fingered hands and had a head where a head should be. It was covered in scales ranging in size from large ones about as big as Megaera's hand on its chest and abdominal area to smaller ones not much bigger than her thumbnail on its hand. From what little Meg knew of the Than home world San-Ska-Re was a desert planet infamous for its sandstorms. She suspected that the scales were some sort of adaption to the dry climate and the storms. It was the antennae and especially the eyes that made people think of insects when they saw a Than. The being before her had two large compound eyes on the side of its head and three simple eyes clustered in a triangle in the middle of its forehead. From the Than's green carapace Megaera knew if for a member of the warrior caste. He or maybe she, or even it, Megaera had no idea how one determined the sex of a Than or even if they had sexes, was naked save for a harness to which several pieces of equipment were attached, one of which Megaera recognized as a vocoder.
The sentry studied the identification card that Megaera provided it, then passed the card through some sort of device attached to the door. The device beeped twice and the Than returned her ID card back to her. "The Minister is waiting for you in the conference room," said the Than. The vocoder rendering the Than's clicks into a toneless and emotionless version of Common. "The room's temperature and humidity have been adjusted to be more comfortable to your species."
"Minister?" asked Megaera. "Do you mean Reverend? I'm here to pick up the Reverend Tenacity of Purpose Childers"
"There is no Reverend Tenacity of Purpose Childers here," answered the Than. "Only His Excellency Stanford Childers, the planet Broughton's Minister of External Affairs. He is the one you are to return to your force headquarters."
"I see," said Megaera deciding that the best way to get things straightened out would be to have a face to face talk with whoever she was picking up, "In that case will you please send for an escort to lead me to the conference room."
A few minutes later an amber carapaced Than approached. "You may follow Sun Peering Over Clouds" said the guard. "Sun Peering Over Clouds understands your language but does not have the capability of speaking it."
The worker Than led Megaera through a series of hallways that reminded Megaera more of tunnels than hallways. The temperature was warm even by Arzawa standards, the air was so dry it irritated Megaera's nose, while the lighting was so dim Megaera wondered how the Than found their way through the embassy.
After a number of twists and turns that left Megaera totally confused as to where she was in relationship to the entrance they arrived at their destination. Megaera's guide opened a door, indicated with a gesture of its hand that she should proceed, then closed it after she stepped through.
The air was blissfully cool and humid. The room was dominated by a table big enough for a dozen individuals to sit at but at present there was only one person at the table, Childers. The priest was staring intently at what Megaera supposed was a mural on the far wall. To Megaera's eyes it was nothing but a meaningless collection of blobs of color.
"Meditating, Sky Pilot, or just sleeping with your eyes open," she asked as she walked into the room
"Neither," answered Childers. He waved his hand at the mural "I'm trying to appreciate the mural. It's supposed to be sunset over the cliffs of Tethys"
"If you ask me," said Megaera, "it looks like someone left a three year old alone in the room with a couple of cans of paint."
"That's because you don't have eyes like the Than that see from infrared through ultraviolet as well as polarized light. If you did I'm sure you would be able to appreciate the painting in all it's glory."
"What's it look like to you then?" asked Megaera.
"Like someone left a three year old alone in the room with a couple of cans of paint," admitted Childers.
"There was some confusion with the sentry at the entrance way," said Megaera. "He called you the Broughton Minister of External Affairs. Why didn't you tell me you were a government representative?"
"Would you have treated me any differently if I had said I was?" asked Childers. "Besides I didn't tell you because I'm not. Not any more at least. I retired when I took up the medallion."
"But the sentry at the entrance said that you were," argued Meg.
"The Than have a hard time understanding how humans can switch professions. A Than is born into a caste and remains in that caste all its life. It might progress upwards in rank in the caste but will never leave the caste. For me to have stated that I was once a soldier, than a member of the government, and am now a priest of the Way would make as much sense to most Than as that mural does to us."
"I hear that we'll be shipping out soon," said Megaera. "Now that you and the rest of the negotiating team got the sides to come to a compromise. Rumor has it that the Than will be taking the Boyington troops back to their home-world, at the Boyingtons' expense. It must have made the negotiations interesting when the Boyingtons attacked. How did the Hegemonists and the Than react when they heard about the Freeholders double dealing?"
Childers stopped looking at the painting and turned his attention squarely on Megaera. "I think the Freeholders were as surprised as anyone else when we received the news. If they were acting the acting profession has been deprived of some truly great actors."
"Then why do you think the Boyingtons attacked?" asked Megaera.
"I don't know," said Childers "The Freeholders were coming around to our position. They had some objections, but we were making headway on them when the attack went down. But consider this. If the attack had succeeded the Freeholders would undoubtedly have pulled out of the talks, the negotiations would have collapsed, and the Than would most likely be reluctant to incorporate any other human populated planet into their Hegemony any time soon. And another thing. A year ago the Boyingtons were just another minor merc organization using obsolescent Home Guard leftovers from the war. Yet the tanks and APC's they were using were top quality almost equal to High Guard equipment. Stuff only the richest of the old Commonwealth planets Home Guards could have fielded. Who paid for that equipment? Certainly not the Boyingtons. For that matter where did the Freeholders get the money to hire the Boyingtons in the first place?
"So you're suggesting there's another player in the game?" asked Meg. "One who wants to keep the Than from incorporating additional worlds into their Hegemony and has the funds to bankroll outfits like the Boyingtons? Who do you think it is?"
"I have my suspicions," said Childers. "When we get back home I'll be talking with your government about them."
"Home?" asked Megaera.
"Yes," said Childers. "I've been assigned permanent duty on Tizona. So I guess I should start thinking of it as home. Now why don't we see about getting back to your unit. The Than are gracious hosts but you don't want to know what they consider as proper human cuisine."
At Childers' instance they stopped off at the portion of the embassy the negotiating team had been using as living quarters so she could take a shower and change into a clean uniform before they caught their flight back to Anzapahhadu and Megaera's battalion. Fortunately the trip back was going to be shorter than the trip to the capital. There was a scheduled non stop flight leaving the capital for the Hegemonist naval installation that shared defensive duties with the K-MAC forces and there would be seats available for her and Childers
"I hear your battalion kicked some serious ass when the Boyingtons attacked," said Childers as they settled into their seats.
"That it sounds like you're expressing approval," said Megaera as she put a mock scowl on her face and assumed an equally mock scolding tone of voice. "I thought priests weren't supposed to approve of fighting."
Childers put up his hands in feigned shock . "I wasn't approving," he said "just stating a fact" Then he lowered his voice into a confidential whisper. "But if I was in a position to approve I think I would. I read some reports. It sounds like your company got hit pretty hard. For what it's worth I'm glad you came through ok."
"Thanks, It was pretty touch and go there for a while but in the end like you said we kicked their ass. We collected some serious booty as well. A lot of it should be salvageable. It'll be a big help making up for our losses on Alusdra." Megaera put her hand over her face to cover a yawn that if it had been any wider would have dislocated her jaw.
"I'd say you had a rough trip over from Anzapahhadu," said Childers
"You have no idea," agreed Megaera.
Childers gave an exaggerated sniff and wrinkle of his nose. "Oh I think I do. Why do you think I insisted you take a shower and change your uniform before we left the embassy? Why don't you take a nap. I suspect you could use one. " Megaera opened her mouth to object but Childers cut her off, his voice assuming the tone of one giving an order. "Stand down Major," he said "You're relieved. I have the watch. "
Megaera stifled another yawn. "Maybe you're right she conceded. I'll need to be awake to get us back to the base. Wake me up 30 minutes before we land." With that she reclined her seat back as far as it could go and shut her eyes. She was asleep within minutes and for the first time since she returned to Tizona her sleep was deep and restful.
When they arrived at the Hegemonist naval base there was transportation in the form of a hover car and a junior enlisted driver waiting for them. Megaera wasn't fond of hover craft. To her mind they combined the worst aspects of both anti grav vehicles and ground vehicles with none of their advantages, but as the alternative was to contact her command and try to convince them to send someone to pick her and Childers up and then wait for the transportation to arrive she swallowed her objections and climbed into the vehicle. The ride went smoothly until the vehicle approached the outer limits of the K-MAC defensive perimeter
As part of their defensive posture the K-MAC forces had laid anti vehicle mines around their base. The mines were designed to detect and destroy both ground and low hovering vehicles and were remotely controlled, designed to be activated and shut down by a command from battalion HQ The Boyington assault had expected mines and part of their bombardment had been designed to neutralize the mine field many of the mines had been destroyed and others damaged. After the hostilities had ceased the shut down command had been sent but the mines had not yet been removed. As the the hover car traversed the mine field it passed over one of the damaged mines. The mine had received the shut down command but the deactivation routine hadn't activated. When the hovercraft passed over the mine it detonated. The detonation tore through the bottom of the vehicle actually flipping it over so it crashed upside down.
When the rescue party arrived they found Childers cradling Megaera in his arms. "She told me she'll be waiting for me to show her I can cook," he said as they removed her lifeless body from his arms.
| Chapter 5 | Epilogue |