Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit (43 page)

“N
ever. I hereby invoke marshal law and all of its statutes!”

“Y
ou cannot. You have neither the power, nor the authority.”

Some of Ing
ersol’s people drew weapons and brandished them. Adding to the chaos and uncertainty of the situation.

“I have no choice but to act, w
ith High Admiral Klyne recovering from the wounds he suffered at the Battles in the Dyson-23 Sector. I am now, in fact, the acting High Commander of all Spacer Naval and Military forces. I act for the good or our race. For our very survival!”

“T
his is wrong. Unheard of. Illegal! Admiral Thackery and General Walker and several others still outrank you in the chain of command!”

“A
nd where are they? Not here. Therefore, I am in command!”

Other elders stood up with Elder Vaughn.
“General, you are gravely mistaken. You must yield. We are the Clan Elders. You cannot defy our direct authority. That is our law!”

“I
can and will do so. I make the laws now. I act for the security and survival of our race! Tell me, all of you. Will you stand by and let me be silenced? You know I’m right. You know what must be done! Where were these weak old men and old women when the enemy was slaughtering us each day? Where was the Council then? The High Command? They we’re hiding from the truth. They couldn’t stop our foes. They failed us all. They had no answer then, and they have no answers now. I say we have this one window of opportunity to defeat and destroy our foes once and for all. How long will it last? Not long.”

Complete confusion and madness rocked the great circle of deliberation and echoed throughout the crowds.

Some attacked Ingersol’s people and disarmed them. Others took up arms with them, joining their cause. Things looked as if they would turn very ugly with every instant that passed.

“G
eneral. You will yield and be silent!”

“I
will not. Listen to those who failed us all time and time again. They will lead our people to defeat and death. Defy them if you want to live. Defy them and follow me! To do what must be done.”

“G
eneral, you will yield this floor!”

Naero had listened
to enough folly and madness. She used up the last dregs of her Cosmic energy to transport herself into the circle of deliberation, opposite and behind General Ingersol.

53

The glittering central chamber of the arena rose up with towering black paneled walls and viewscreens set up all along its gre
at, oblong length. Rows of nanoseats populated in great concentric rows around the Circle of Deliberation.

Naero tasted dust, sweat, and blood in her mouth.
She kept her togs set to a long dark black, battered coat-cloak and hood that concealed her combat armor and rank, and obscured her white face, which she kept pointed down. She had no microphone, so she used the power of the voice so that all might hear her words.

“T
he general yields the floor. He has yielded it to me. By all our laws, all have the right to speak in the Great Circle.”

Ingersol whirled around in surprise
. He recovered quickly, and laughed.

“I
yield nothing. Who are you? What is this? More tricks and empty theatrics? Why the disguise? Show yourself. Tell us your name. No matter in any case. Begone.”

Naero pulled her hood back,
and showed her face proudly, lifting her head high.

A
nd the long glistening, blue-black hair that was her birthright from her beautiful mother spilled down her back and all around her.

And the crowd strained and struggled to make out who she was
as she turned bravely to face them.

“A
few may know me and my Clan. I stand before the Elders, the Council, and the High Command in great honor and respect for you and our people and our ways, for I have fought and bled for my people. I am a warrior who has earned the right to speak in this hallowed place.”

Ingersol sneered at her.
“Using the old formalities will not change anything, spacechild. Someone take this ignorant girl away. She is not fit to share the circle of deliberation with me. I know her now. The niece of a hated outcast. A reckless youth, barely a Mystic adept, a cowardly failure who slunk away in fear and let our enemies murder her companion–in order that she could take her superior’s place! Remove her. She and her name have no honor here!”

Naero spread her stance and parted her cloak, dr
ew forth the gilded energy cutlass of her rank.

She
he drew her blade forth and held its sizzling, bright blue length high aloft for a single moment.

The assembly beheld her rank, and more and more
, many began to recall and recognize both her and the pose she struck.

One that still burned
bright in the hearts of many fighters.

“I
am Strike Captain and Mystic Adept Naero Amashin Maeris. And I will not stand by while the honor and memory of my Clan, and the laws of our people are soiled and misled by gutless lies and folly!”

She turned around so that all the crowd could see her for who she was, casting off her cloak and brandishing her blade
again.

“I
am the daughter of Lythe Ivala Maeris and Tarthan Wallace Ramsey. Where are the brave who fought and bled by my side?”

She thrust her blade toward the ceiling
once more and cried aloud.

“
Remember the Omaria!”

Nearly t
he entire assembly of tens of thousands shot to their feet in unison and roared, fists rocketing high.

“
THE OMARIA!”

The thundering cry threatened to shatter the
ceiling above them.

Naero motioned for the throng
to let her speak once more.

Ingersol scowled and clapped his hands slowly.

“A loud, brash young girl, who hides behind the fading glory of her dead parents, and comes here to threaten an unarmed superior with a drawn weapon? For shame. You truly have no honor.”

Naero
faced him and sheathed her cutlass.
“I threaten no one. I hide behind nothing. My deeds are well known to all.”
She punched up holos of the many battles and campaigns she had been in on her wristcomp. The service reports and awards for valor and leadership that she had won during the Annexation War flipped and tiled up all about her.

They filled the very air. One after another
, and spread to the viewscreens and holo displays.

Citations for bravery.

Citations for courage under fire.

Commendations
for valor in great duress.

For gallantry above and beyond the call of duty.

For bravely leading her forces and her people to victory, time-and-time again against all odds.

Naero stumbled slightly from her exertions
, still exhausted.

Blood still dripped from her
many wounds.

Then she asked,
“Can someone please display General Ingersol’s campaign history? The many battles he has fought in?”

Several on the Council responded.
almost instantly.

Ingersol
’s pitiful field record revealed only three minor campaigns.

Three, by stark comparison.

He was never in harm’s way or present at any conflict. Ever.

“S
o, a coward, who has never actually fought in a single battle, attempts to smear me as one? Who attempts to stain my service record, and the memory of my parents with outright lies and unfounded accusations? Is this who you would have lead us?”

Ingersol protested.
“An interesting ploy. My service record is completely honorable. Of course I never saw combat. I am a strategist, and one of the best, as is well-known. I was never a field operative.”

“
A coward’s excuses. While I come from the very front of the war. I still bleed from several wounds, earned in the defense of our peoples. I bear the blood of our foes, whom I slew in direct combat with my own hands.”

Naero shook her head slowly. “
And I am weary, from three days of non-stop fighting without food or sleep. I barely have the strength to remain standing. But my duty drew me here, at all costs. To stand and speak before my brave people.”

“S
o tell us, after all that nonsense,” Ingersol said. “What would you advise us to do in our current situation?”

Someone needed to speak the truth. But she needed to take care.

“Come girl. We’re waiting.”

She pointed at Ingersol and then let her arm flop to her side.

“If we listen to angry, blood-thirsty fools and cowards. If we rush headlong to wipe out the landers and their fleets. What then? We will only be playing into the hands of our new enemies. Alien forces we yet know little or nothing about. In the long run, we will only weaken ourselves in doing so. These new foes want to play humans against each other, in order to defeat both sides. Just as they are attacking both sides this very moment, while we speak.”

Ingersol turned bright red.
“The Corps were going to destroy us! That is a fact! They allied themselves with these aliens and unleashed them on us. Now you want us to help the Corps? How is that even possible? I say death to them all.”

“R
eally? How many of us here really have the stomach for that? Think on that, everyone, very carefully. Is that who my people are? Is that why the Clans formed? To murder others wholesale? To make ourselves the greatest mass-killers in the history of our galaxy?”

Everyone hesitated.

“But very well. Let’s say the clever general is right. Let’s indeed kill them all, just like he proposes. Let’s kill all the landers. Millions. Billions. Trillions…Zillions.”

Naero paused to let that sink in.

“Yes, we are Spacers, but we are also still human. We still look like them. They still look like us. There are zillions of them. There are trillions of us. You’ve all seen what the Ejjai invasion hordes do to everyone on both sides of the border. They don’t care. To them, we’re all just meat. Just food. They serve alien races that are invading everywhere. We don’t know much about these new enemies, their numbers, their tactics. We do know some their tek is superior to ours. The point remains. We may very well need every ally we can get against these threats. Do the raw math. A war between Spacers and the Corps weakens both sides, so that these other aliens from the outside can easily defeat whoever remains.”

“W
hat are you saying?” Ingersol fumed. “That we should ally ourselves with the Corps now? You cannot be serious. Ally ourselves with the very enemies who were committed to wiping us out?”

“N
o. Never with the Gigacorps. With the landers–the people. The Corps are Tyrants we know all too well. They have never given their people a choice in all of this either. And right now, its the people who are paying the real price. A very high price.”

Naero motioned to the terrible atrocities playing across
some of the screens.

“M
y brave people, My Clans who I would give my life for. Who love peace and liberty. Look at these horrors our enemies have unleashed. Can any of you tell me that any civilian population–ours or theirs–deserves this kind of Cosmicide? You cannot with honor and good conscience be saying that. And this wretch wants us to let it go on? No–in fact–he wants to speed it up, and aid it, and direct it, and multiply it? How could we allow that? What would we become if we did? How could we hold our heads up? How could we face our elders? Ourselves. Our children?”

Ingersol
screamed, but his voice sounding shrill.

“I
t is a clear question of survival!”

Naero turned her back on him
. Ignoring him. She held her hands out to her people, imploring them.

“W
hen this is all said and done and these threats are no more. We can sort all this out with the Corps tyrants. Just like we did with Triax. Joshua Tech and the Alliance has proven that things can be different. Landers can live in peace with us and be our allies and our trade partners, for the advancement and the good of all. But they can’t be anything if we murder them. Or stand by and allow them to be murdered by foes who plan to do the same thing to us. Do we have the right to allow that to happen?”

“You fools! Don
’t listen to her. Every one of us will perish!”

Naero ignored him and asked:

“Who are we? What kind of a people do we intend to be? Liberators, or conquerors? Warriors, or murderers? Do we keep our honor and fulfill our destiny as a people, or do we fall, and corrupt ourselves like others have? Do you want to drown in the blood of innocents? Can you in good conscience stand by while others murder them, until the real foe comes for us? Can you kill zillions and still call yourselves Spacers? What honor is in that?”

Ingersol shrieked.
“This is folly. This is madness. The landers can’t be trusted! They call us spacks. They hate us. They want to kill us. How can we make them our allies?”

“S
o your answer is murder them all? All right. Then lets do it, I say. And after we drowned ourselves in oceans of innocent blood, what have we then become? Who are we? What are we? What do we stand for then, after we have given up everything we hold sacred and true?”

The assembly grew deathly silent. Naero
’s powerful words thundered softly and rippled among the throng.

Ingersol strove to win them back.

“Don’t listen to her. She’s a fool trying to trick you with words, with useless compassion that will destroy us all!”

“M
y good and noble people. My Clans–whom I love with all my heart. I ask you this. Can we do these things? Not once, but multiplied a trillion times–an infinite number of times: Can any of you stand a frightened little lander boy before you. Unarmed. Scared. Helpless. Shaking. Can you shoot him in the face, blow his head off, and take his life? Steal it away like a murdering thief? Is that who and what you wish to become?”

Up in the crowds, many faces grew pale and shook their heads.

Naero went on.
“What about an old woman, who has lived a good life and done no one harm? Can you cut her throat and be stained all over with her blood? Look on as she gasps and bleeds out before you? Gut a terrified little girl and spill her steaming guts at your feet while she screams? Blow up a young married pair of lovers? Set their newborn babe on fire and watch it twitch and die?”

The throng looked
stricken to their cores, and shaken by her relentless inquiry. Many more now shaking their heads. Many weeping, covering their mouths in horror.

“Can you r
epeat such terrible crimes, over and over, zillions of times, until you are completely soiled and sickened by them? Can we really do such things and not be utterly destroyed ourselves? The landers are like us. They are people like any sentients. And they deserve a right to live and be free, the same as we.”

No one said anything.

“You and I know these things to be wholly wrong and irrevocably unjust. In order to do such things, we would cease to be who and what we are. We will not just become filth–like the enemies we despise...