Interlude-Plan

"You are.” The Warlock said.

Lorel had been ready for the words from the very first moment they ran into her. His squad had been cut down to just four people before encountering the Adept. Now they were cut down to three. Whatever Nai Cal-Yan-Ti’s individual mission had been, he didn’t pry. But he’d been elated to have someone higher ranked than him nearby.

I’m not ready for this.

Lorel felt the words along the whole of his spine from the depths of his lung. But he couldn’t say so out loud. Field promotions always made command structure messy, but Afarth had deputized Lorel as second for the Korbanok mission. Afarth had died. Nemuleki and Tasser hadn’t seen it happen. They were the only two others left from their squad.

He wanted to shout in anger and worry, but he was trained better than that. He knew what to do. It just made him sick to do it.

He allowed himself to complain a tiny bit to Nai, who wasn’t from his squad. “I was really hoping you might take this mess out of my hands.”

The Adept gave a snort. Lorel couldn’t have blamed her, even if she weren’t injured. He would have reacted similarly in her shoes.

He planted his feet for a moment to take stock of the situation. What could they realistically hope for? It was the wrong section of the planet to hope for a rescue. They would have to escape on their own. What Vorak forces would stand in their way? This colony wasn’t the most crucial to the Vorak occupation, but it was near enough to another colony that boasted a spaceport. The Vorak presence could not be called light.

And finally, what in reks was he supposed to do about this ‘Kaylib’?

Nemuleki knew more about First Contact than Lorel did, and she’d dropped out of the very school they were hiding out in. None of them were prepared for the task. Any mistake they made could have terrible permanent impact. Worlds had collided. Terms like ‘possible ecocide’ cropped up in the back of his brain. This creature’s presence was… it was… it was just impossible!

Forget what he was supposed to do. What could he do?

There were so many unanswered questions that Lorel wasn’t remotely prepared to answer. He held his breath subtly, trying to keep himself from panicking over the problem.

One step at a time .

It was the only way to learn more. It was the only way he could begin to cut the problem into small enough pieces. How did oks devour behemoths back home?

The same way all bugs ate—one bite at a time.

Of course, some bites of information were more expected than others. Next came one of the others.

“Well this is a surprise.” Viranam said, leaning back from her microscope. “It’s an Adept.”

Every head in the room turned toward the Casti. Nai was the first to speak, suddenly at full attention.

“You’re sure?”

Viranam moved aside to let Nai inspect the blood slide.

“Tell me those aren’t textbook meta-microbes.”

Nai peered through the microscope for an uncomfortable amount of time before withdrawing.

“She’s right.” Nai said in dismay, “See for yourself commander.”

Lorel checked next. His vision filled red as he looked through the lenses and saw countless tiny ringed shapes cast in harsh light that made them appear pink instead of red. A few of them were even more devoid of color and seemed to be a different makeup than the countless discs that made up most of the Kaylib’s blood. But those pale round cells were not what Viranam was talking about.

She was talking about the black shards floating ominously in the creature’s blood. There weren’t many of them. Lorel adjusted the zoom a few times to look at the different sizes of them, but they were sharp geometric shapes that clearly had not grown out of any living tissue.

They quivered ever so slightly under the light.

“I see it, but I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at.”

“They’re present in every Adept’s blood.” Nai said. “We produce them automatically.”

“They supplement the Adept’s immune system.” Viranam added, “This has me feeling better about the lack of proper quarantine.”

Tasser and Nemuleki both took a look through the microscope at the blood sample, and Kaylib was beginning to catch on that they were exceedingly interested in its blood. Lorel’s mind raced. Not only was this a new kind of alien; it was Adept .

The Casti homeworld would go ballistic when they learned.

“Does it know?” Lorel asked the room.

No one could answer him. He turned to Nai. She’d encountered it on the station first, even driven it into his squad’s hiding place.

“Did it show any signs of being Adept before?”

“No.” she said, shaking her head. “It tried to shoot me, and then immediately ran. It didn’t do anything else but run until we all ended up in the same section.”

“Professor, is there any chance this is a false positive?” Lorel asked, turning back to Viranam.

“ None .” Both Viranam and Nai responded simultaneously.

“Any construct an Adept produces decays over time, and in the case of the microbes the Adept automatically produces more to replace the decayed constructs. The only way to observe meta-microbes in a blood sample like this is to catch a glimpse before they decay back to nothing. The constructs we observed in its blood couldn’t be more than a few minutes old. They came from the Kaylib.” The professor explained further. Nai’s reticence to explain didn’t escape Lorel’s notice. She looked like there was handful of ash on her tongue. Lorel suspected she was asking the same questions in her own mind that he was.

Could this be a mistake? What were the implications of the Vorak’s interest in a new Adept species?

“There’s one way to know for sure.” Nemuleki said. “Get it to materialize something.”

“If it doesn’t know what Adepts are, it might not know it’s capable.” Lorel said.

“Example.” Tasser said. “The best way to get it to act is by example.”

Lorel didn’t like to ask it of her, but Nai was the only one of them capable of giving that example.

“I know you’re trying to take it easy Warlock, but if you could materialize something, anything , we might learn if it knows what it’s capable of.”

Nai didn’t look happy. But Lorel gave her a look that reminded her who she’d let take command. “…Alright.”

“No need for much.” Tasser said, “Just—”

“I know.” Nai said. She took a few deep breaths before plucking her fingers in front of her. The space between her fingers crackled softly and tiny ribbons sparked away from her fingers. As quickly as the phenomenon began it ended, and Nai was left pinching a thin slip of transparent crystal.

Kaylib moved to the back of the partition. To the tactical part of Lorel’s mind, it looked like the alien was retreating—putting as much distance between itself and Nai as it feasibly could. It did not like her.

Lorel was certain she didn’t like it. It had apparently tried to kill her after all.

Nai held up the tiny crystal, flecked with vibrant red threads. Lorel and the rest all put their eyes on Kaylib expectantly. It didn’t receive the message until Tasser tried to clarify.

Tasser pointed both at Nai and it at the same time, trying to especially point out the bundle of matter Nai’s mind had brought forth into reality.

“You now.” Tasser prompted, gesturing to Kaylib.

Ever hesitant, Kaylib slowly cupped its hand and stared at the space above it for a moment. There was a tiny flash, almost imperceptible to the eye, and a fleck of, almost colorless, pale green metal fell into Kaylib’s awaiting palm.

It carefully pinched the fleck and held it for the Casti and Nai to inspect.

It was Adept all right.

Lorel almost went into panic mode again. But… it didn’t really change anything. It made the alien’s presence more significant, sure. But it had already been overwhelmingly, unapproachably, significant. This was just meant it would take that many more bites to devour this particular behemoth.

One bite at a time.

·····

An hour later Kaylib was outside the partition with a polycarbonate mask covering its mouth and nostrils. Tasser’s work getting a mold had paid off, and the mask fit snugly. It had no problems breathing with the assistance of the accumulator filter in the mask. So far, at least.

“If it’s ready to move, we should be too.” Lorel said.

He was eager to be underway. Viranam had been an exceptional local contact. Even though they’d only been here for a little under a day she’d proved herself invaluable. He hoped the Vorak didn’t discover her involvement. Hopefully nobody in the occupation would ever find out their team had stayed here, but that was… optimistic.

Tasser checked with Kaylib, and it gave a hand gesture with its thumb.

“It’s ready.” Tasser said.

“Then everyone load up and we’ll go over the plan.”

Lorel had already retrieved his weapon and gear, so he was left to watch Nai, Nemuleki, and Tasser retrieve the things they were taking with them. Kaylib was travelling light—just the one pack it wore. So it was the only other person staying that stayed still in the greenhouse.

Lorel caught its attention and the two of them found themselves staring at each other for an odd moment. He was disquieted to find that Kaylib looked less strange with the air mask on its face. It forced all Lorel’s attention to the alien’s eyes. It didn’t make facial expressions the same way Casti did, but Lorel found himself imagining learning its expressions based on the way its face pulled and creased at its eyes.

Kaylib merely blinked at him.

Once all the Coalition soldiers were ready to leave, Lorel rolled out the map of the borough he’d pulled from the wall of a classroom.

“We’re here. Kalin’s University,” He said, pointing to the university complex on the map. It sat on one of the borough’s tributaries that fed into the larger river just a kilometer north of them. The river ran west toward the gulf.

Lorel grimaced at the next part. No one would like hearing this.

“We are not going to be able to leave by water.”

“What?” Nemuleki said, shocked. “Surface forces didn’t respond to the pods falling from the skies?”

Tasser frowned too. “They knew friendlies were expected to land on the surface. What changed?"

“It was never our squad’s plan to come to the surface. Friendly water craft picked up everyone they thought they were supposed to and withdrew from the gulf more than ten hours ago. The Rak Void Fleets are apparently hopping mad about Korbanok. Command told me a thousand troops have landed on the surface, in addition to the forces already present.”

“I take it we’re not going to try and fight them all?” Nai said.

“No Warlock, we’re going to be doing the sensible thing and running away.” Lorel said.

“They’re combing the whole colony, every Rak in this hemisphere is going to be on the lookout. How are we planning on getting by them unnoticed?” Nemuleki asked.

“In all likelihood, we’re not going to be able to avoid detection long. It’s a small miracle we haven’t been found already. I’m sure the Rak have found the first truck we used. So I’m not really concerned with avoiding detection completely, we just need to stay off the radar long enough to get somewhere they can’t follow.”

“Where is that? Their troops are occupying two thirds of the planet: we’d have to get to Coalition friendly territory...” Nemuleki trailed off.

“That’s the plan.” Tasser concluded, “We’re going to be heading for Coalition territory on the planet. We’re not getting off this rock any time soon, are we?”

Lorel gave a negative click with his tongue. “We’re not.”

He continued, “Our best bet is here, Sassik province.” Lorel pulled out another map and laid it over the first. Sassik province was East of them by more than a thousand kilometers. But it was also home to one of the few strongholds the Coalition still controlled on the planet’s surface.

“Demon’s Pit.” Lorel said, pointing to the opposite coast of the continent they stood on.

It was the largest power plant in the star system, that currently doubled as a stronghold for the Coalition military forces on the planet. It had two fusion reactors that supplied most of the hemisphere with power. The occupying Vorak might control the planet’s crops and industry, but Casti still controlled the planet’s power supply.

“There’s not an airfield nearby.” Tasser noted without looking at the first map again. “You want to take an overland route.”

Lorel nodded. “If we can evade any initial pursuers and make it to this tunnel,” Lorel tapped a line that represented where a road cut through the mountain range that divided the continent. “Nai, if you can muster yourself and collapse the tunnel behind us, then any pursuing forces will be forced to go far south. We’ll buy ourselves a day before they can even figure out our precise route once we’re on the other side of the tunnel.”

It didn’t matter if the Vorak realized where they were going. If they could bring down the tunnel behind them, then no Vorak would be able to pursue them in time. They just had to get there.

“Why can’t they take this pass here?” Nai asked, pointing to the only other nearby line that went East through the mountains.

“It’s winter.” Tasser said, “And that road doesn’t go through any tunnels. It’s probably buried in ice.”

Nai hadn’t grown up with much snow. It wasn’t her fault. For all that he didn’t know much about the Warlock, he did know she was Farnata. She must have practically grown up on a starship.

“… I can do it.” Nai said, putting some steel in her voice. “I can destroy the tunnel.”

“Do we have a vehicle?” Nemuleki asked, sliding the maps around on the table so the more local borough was displayed.

“We’re going to steal a campus utility truck. They have a vehicle garage about three-hundred meters southwest of the bioscience labs. Here.” Lorel pointed to yet another map, this one of the Kalin’s campus.

“Are we waiting for nightfall?” Nemuleki asked.

Lorel clicked his tongue. “No. I want to be able to blend in to local traffic. We’ll stand out more if we’re driving at night. I think there’s actually a greater chance of being detected sooner if we try this after dark.”

“Do we have any special plans to cover that much ground in broad daylight?” Tasser asked, “We’ll be highly visible. If there’s any Rak near the campus we could have company fast.”

“It’s impossible to account for everything.” Lorel said simply.

“What about it?” Nai asked. She didn’t point to Kaylib. She made no motion with her head or hand to indicate the alien, but it was impossible to misunderstand what she was talking about.

Lorel gave Kaylib a glance. The alien’s presence was impossible to account for too. Lorel had to stifle a chuckle when he saw how intently it was studying the maps on the table. The way it acted, it seemed to pay better attention to briefings than most soldiers.

How much do you understand?

“It either keeps up, or it doesn’t.” Lorel said simply.

“We shouldn’t let the Vorak take it.” Tasser said. “The intelligence it represents—”

“We aren’t letting the Rak have anything. But our knowledge of it is more important than the creature’s escape itself. If I have to decide between any of you and it escaping? I won’t hesitate to leave it behind. I’m not risking any of our safety over its. I lost three soldiers on the station, and I lost another because this thing slowed us down. I won’t lose another.”

“Yes commander.” Tasser said.

·····

It took thirty seconds for everything to go wrong.

A particularly dark feeling came over Lorel when he felt lucky that it had taken that long. The first few steps out from under their blacked-out greenhouse were tense and ultimately uneventful.

Nemuleki and Lorel were at the front, while Tasser pushed the lab cart the professor had used for the equipment. Nai followed behind, waiting for Tasser to signal her that no one would see.

A Farnata wasn’t the most unbelievable sight in a colony like this. Lorel vaguely recalled that there were all of four Farnata students still attending the university. But given the events of Korbanok, it was best to try to keep Nai out of sight.

Of course, it was better to keep Kaylib out of sight.

As uncommon as Farnata were around this star, Lorel was confident Kaylib’s appearance would catch more attention. It had taken longer than he would have liked, but Tasser had convinced Kaylib to keep quiet and out of sight. So far, it had. It could barely curl up to fit in the bottom of the cart Tasser was pushing. If you looked closely, you’d realize that the sheet thrown over the cart bulged out a bit at the sides—Kaylib’s torso was just barely too wide.

But from a distance it would not stand out. Odd perhaps, but no one would find it suspicious without coming closer.

Almost no one.

Lorel rounded a corner to see a huddle of Vorak in Red Sails uniforms moving toward the Lab building entrance. One of them even glanced Lorel’s direction. Without looking at the Vorak, he subtly held his hand at his hip and motioned to Nemuleki to stop. She halted just in time not to be seen. But Lorel was already around the corner.

It was a perfectly awkward disaster no one could predict or help falling into. He couldn’t change course without drawing attention from the Vorak, and if Nemuleki emerged she would be engaged on sight.

He forced himself to keep walking calmly. He wasn’t visibly armed. He wasn’t wearing any visible Coalition-wear either. As long as everyone just stayed behind him, it would just look like one lone Casti walking across a Casti university campus. Nothing unusual.

Another one of the Vorak at the door turned to watch him.

Just keep going. Don’t give them a reason to attract attention.

A third Vorak turned, putting its nose into the air a tad. It took a half a step toward the corner where Nemuleki and Tasser were.

Lorel broke into a run.

It was an instinctive decision, and not even one to get away. It was all he could think of to warn them. He couldn’t say anything, or make any motions to warn them what awaited around the corner. Nemuleki and Tasser would see him running and they would see the Vorak before the Vorak saw them.

But disaster struck, because the Vorak didn’t see him start running. At the perfectly wrong moment, they’d turned their gaze to the corner he’d come around.

Like they’d caught a scent, the soldiers scattered and too many of them went toward the corner he’d emerged from, where his squad was. He cursed under his breath. But when he looked, his squad was—gone.

Tasser and Nemuleki were nowhere behind him. They’d disappeared and left the cart behind.

Where had they gone? Lorel’s mind weighed a dozen options in the span of only a few seconds.

They had to have moved, sensed something went wrong and changed directions. Too many seconds went by before he caught a glimpse of them between the rows of greenhouses running perpendicular to his own route. They were even in a better position to run toward the vehicle depot.

Good!

Lorel couldn’t help but love that Nemuleki had understood why Lorel had started running. No words had been exchanged, but they’d been paying attention to each other.

They’d left the cart behind, just a few inches around the corner and one of the enemy soldiers tore into it. The cart bounced end over end—Kaylib must have reacted just as quickly and followed them.

Lorel reversed his direction to follow the Rak that were now running after his squad.

He’d tried to run north—to draw the enemies’ attention away, it would have allowed the others to evade or execute a surprise attack.

It was his squad moving to the vehicle depot, the Rak chasing them, and Lorel chasing the Rak.

Lorel forced himself to stay calm while simultaneously sprinting parallel to their line of travel.

He heard a few shouts on the far side of one of the greenhouse labs, but he couldn’t quite see what was happening.

Precious seconds went by as he made up ground and came into view of Nemuleki just in time to watch one of the Vorak tear her rifle out of her hands sending is clattering across the concrete.

Tasser had his own rifle out, but his enemy was far too close for him to reliably aim with the unwieldy gun. Instead, he bashed his attacker with the muzzle instead. Not very good for the gun, but circumstances demanded such. Tasser kicked its throat for good measure as it fell toward the ground. Then he immediately backed off several paces for proper firing distance, though he didn’t shoot. The Rak froze on the ground and didn’t move. Tasser might change his mind otherwise.

Nai had materialized a heavy crystalline rod and held it in her uninjured hand. She was restraining herself, trying to save her strength for the job still to come. The two Rak she was fighting were already bleeding badly, though. Even when they both lunged at her, Nai spun away and clapped both their skulls with the club.

Nemuleki was the closest to Lorel though. She dropped to the ground and got her hand on the Vorak’s collar as she did, flipping it over her as she fell backward. They both hit the ground with a heavy thud , but the Rak was quicker to recover. Almost like a fur tube with legs, the Rak flipped over its upper torso and propped itself up with its arms enough to flip its hips upright too. It leapt at Nemuleki and tackled her as she tried to get up. The Rak started to bite and claw at her face.

Lorel brought his pistol out of his jacket, ready to shoot, but he watched in the edge of his vision where Kaylib had kept his distance from the Rak, crouching next to an ornamental stone bed next to a walkway.

It had something in its hand.

Lorel’s eyes widened. Kaylib brought one of its legs off the ground and brought its hands together, like the motion to some tribal prayer. It suddenly slammed its foot down in a powerful motion that carried its whole body forward. Its torso twisted with the motion pushing its arm forward in a blur.

Lorel saw a rock from the stone bed disappear from the alien’s hand.

There was a sharp crack as something shattered into the brick next to Nemuleki’s head. The Rak pinning her reflexively put up an arm, shielding himself from the spray of pebble where the rock shattered.

Lorel saw the confusion on its face. It mirrored his own.

What had just happened?

After a heartbeat, the Vorak turned its head toward Kaylib who was already making the same motion. Kaylib’s body twisted again, its foot coming down while its arm whipped above, around, and forward.

The second time, Lorel’s eyes managed to pick out the stone’s flight from the alien’s hand. The first time, he’d instinctively underestimated how quickly the projectile moved, badly . It flew the distance in the time it took to blink. The stone struck the Vorak’s jaw with a sickening crack and it recoiled off Nemuleki.

The snarling angry Rak brought its head up and spit a gob of navy-violet blood. Its eyes furiously scanning for what had hit it.

It didn’t comprehend until it was too late.

Kaylib had entered the exaggerated twisting motion again and it fired another stone at the Rak’s face. The rock bounced off its skull and it let out another shriek.

It finally understood it was under fire and it dove for cover behind a stone planter.

Tasser was the first to reach Nemuleki, hauling her back to her feet. They didn’t waste any time putting some distance between the Rak and themselves.

The enemy soldier didn’t poke its head out again, but Kaylib still saw fit to hurl another rock at where it crouched for cover. The throw scraped against the rock only a few centimeters away from the corner.

The creature’s accuracy was unbelievable. Could it be some kind of Adept power? It didn’t seem like it. The alien was simply picking up rocks and throwing them.

Lorel saw Nemuleki, Kaylib, and Tasser move toward the vehicle depot, just beyond the next building. Nai would make it too. She was running away from the pair of Vorak that had waylaid her. Lorel could see them lying motionless in the gravel. She’d defeated them both down one hand and without any powerful Adept tricks.

They would make it to the vehicle depot. Satisfied, Lorel doubled back toward the bioscience lab building for a moment. He wanted to ensure there were no pursuers.

Now he needed to worry about himself—something caught his jaw and knocked him to the ground.

One Vorak had attacked Nemuleki and Kaylib. One attacked Tasser. Nai handled two more… That made four. But Lorel had miscounted. He’d seen five at the lab building entrance.

Lorel whipped his pistol up toward the Rak and almost fired a round into it. But the moment he could have pulled the trigger, he hesitated.

A gunshot would be loud. This group of soldiers was likely alone. They had found a group of enemies, but most of that group had slipped away. If Lorel fired a shot, calls might go out. Colony citizens weren’t fond of the occupation, but they still called local authorities if guns went off. His realization was painful and simple.

Lorel would not be escaping with his team.

It would barely delay them to rescue him. Even just one of them could lay down covering fire and he could escape these Rak. It wouldn’t take more than a minute. But that was one more minute that would put his team the tiniest distance ahead of their pursuers, the tiniest bit ahead of roadblocks or search parties.

A strange feeling settled on Lorel. Pride in his soldiers. It would hurt them, Nemuleki especially, but they would leave him behind. They would know what he wanted them to do.

His resolved hardened and he adjusted his grip on the gun. Instead of firing it, he swung it at the Rak’s head. It was a much faster animal though, and the mass of fur and fangs ducked under Lorel’s clumsy blow and tore into his shoulder. The Rak leapt up and twisted its grip on Lorel’s torso, spinning him around and toppling him to the ground.

Lorel’s face was pressed into the gravel. Out the corner of his eye, the car rolled steadily away from campus, two plain looking Casti visible in the seats. Two alien Adepts surely ducking down to avoid being seen.

“Where’s your friends?” The Rak shouted in his ear, “WHERE?”

Lorel fought to keep any relief off his face. This soldier had made a mistake too. The Vorak caught him in the perfect moment. It had seemed like he’d been travelling toward the river the campus was next to— away from the vehicle garage.

This soldier hadn’t seen where they’d gone. It could only see the aftermath of the fight.

They scanned the vista toward the campus, the lab buildings, the greenhouses.

Lorel decided to take a risk.

“Behind me!” he cried, putting a fearful pitch to his voice. “The tram station.”

The tram was right next to the vehicle garage, if they happened to focus on his squad’s vehicle… It was a risk, but Lorel was trusting their animosity, their aggression, their mistrust . The soldier pinning Lorel down gave only half a glance toward the tram entrance. The Rak’s eyes narrowed at Lorel.

That’s right. It was too quick. If it isn’t the tram, then…

The soldier snapped his head back the way Lorel had seemed to be going.

The soldier waved down a different group of Vorak that emerged from the main lab building. “Fan out! Check the greenhouses and toward the canal!” He pointed in the direction of the greenhouses, with the canal on the far side of them: the opposite direction of the vehicle depot.

The Rak’s claws dug into the back of Lorel’s neck as he was hauled onto his feet. “Weak deception.” He said. “It was a mistake to imagine you would be able to escape us by water .”

Lorel tried to spit blood in the Rak’s face, but the soldier twisted Lorel’s face away.

The car with two Casti soldiers in it was visible rolling down the small campus road before it let out onto the wider colony streets. Lorel watched it disappear around a corner. They weren’t free yet. But it would take the Vorak time to figure out a vehicle was missing. Lorel could only trust his soldiers. Trust Tasser and Nemuleki. Hope that the Warlock lived up to her legend… and that the alien with them wouldn’t ruin them.

But for now, he’d succeeded as commander. He might have been caught, but they’d escaped.