The Wild Ba’Neesh Chapter Twenty-Eight ©2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

Arjan felt the alert on his external through first vibrations, followed by two small jolts. He excused himself from the important battle planning round table with great reluctance. Only a top alert could penetrate to his level at this point and he was inside the only top situation Tule Soc was currently involved in. He entered the small hallway of the craft and deployed his device’s privacy perimeter. He was enclosed in a transparent but visible barrier of impenetrable sound proofing. “What?” He snapped impatiently using the audio feature to activate the full alert. It was the Tech Ops Supervisor riding in the lower area of this craft.

“Sir. I am receiving a peculiar report out of Fels.” The Tech Sup said, “I felt it should be your eyes only until you advise me how to proceed.”

“Run the report.”

Arjan automatically noted the time. They would reach attack range in under an hour. He didn’t have time for issues at Fels, that was Eric’s job. A junior technician he didn’t recognize appeared in a holo originating in Fels small communications center. He said something about an unauthorized encrypted message streaming through Fels uplink. “What message?” Arjan’s irritation ramped up. Didn’t these fools know where he was at this exact second?

“Sir,” The tech stammered, “It’s under Head of Security Eric Felsen’s override coding, fully encrypted and its data heavy.”

“Contact Eric Felsen then. Why are you bothering me?”

“We’ve tried, Sir.” The tech was shaking hard now. “It’s the recipient of the content that forced us to contact you when we were unable to reach Eric Felsen after numerous tries.”

“What destination?” Arjan was already planning two demotions before the hour was ended. “The outgoing, what is the destination recipient that so alarmed you today?”

“It is streaming to the Directorate in Montana, Sir.” Nothing could have shocked Arjan more thoroughly.

“What do you mean?” Arjan bellowed in his soundproof bubble. “Is the Directorate in communication with Tule Soc? Why have I not received this interaction?”

“The stream is outgoing only, Sir.”

Arjan pulled up the data fed to him from the ship’s Tech Sup through the link to Fels. What his system told him was that a data stream was using the Fels uplink, exactly as the junior had said. He backtracked the stream. The origination source of the activity registered simply as Fels, not tracing like it should down to the specific device, room and even geographical location of the person sending it. Just Fels. He frowned, toggling Eric through all of his emergency contact lines. Nothing. He wasn’t even getting a locator ping back.

He stared at the encryption coding flowing with the data stream. Whatever was being sent was massive. He stilled. Eric not answering. Eric in that graveyard moving at the same time the Soek moved. Eric a Soek? It was impossible. No Soek could ever reach a position of authority inside Tule Soc, they were all mules.

He sent a privacy coded alert toward Minister Callen in the war room. He didn’t yet have the overrides that would accompany his new position. They had thought to have a few days to implement the rapid and unexpected withdrawal of Eric Felsen. Betrayal? A long data stream of encrypted material streaming to the Directorate without Arjan’s knowledge could only be betrayal at the highest levels. He told Minister Callen who told the other Ministers on the flight and within seconds Arjan’s override coding shifted along with an order to wipe Eric. If his signal was within Fels, he was close enough for the facility technician to field the signal.

“Molcom identified and eliminated. No locator confirmation. Direct signal bounce back.” The Tech Sup read off his own monitoring holo.

Arjan was running the scenario, what could a high-level Soek want to send to the Directorate? Clearly he was attacking Fels. “Give me the ground situation at Fels Research Lab. Identify operatives on station now.”

The image of the front desk security officer swam into view. He looking up at the holo pickup confusion clear on his face. “Sir?” He asked.

“I want the operative in charge.” Arjan clarified. “Not the front desk sergeant in charge of the front door.” His tone was icy.

The junior communication ops guy at Fels came back into view. “He is the only operative we have located inside the facility at this time, Sir.”

“What do you mean?” Arjan snapped back, his stomach was turning to acid. “Who is in charge of security at Fels?”

“Eric Felsen, Sir. He logged through three hours before deployment of the transporters, Sir. He has not left the facility but we are unable to find him. Heat tracers within the facility show only the single live person, the front door guard.”

Arjan swallowed hard. “Do everything you can to block that stream, now! And, pull up personnel files to order in the next available security operatives to guard the labs.”

“Sir?” The craft’s Tech Sup interrupted.

“What now?” Arjan said harshly.

“Sir, the super cavitator has changed directions and is accelerating.”

“What? What super cavitator?” Arjan asked, fighting to maintain his slipping semblance of control.

“Following your orders to note any underwater activity in the vicinity of Citadel, we picked up faint drone trace about forty minutes ago and properly reported that trace to your second, Sir.”

“My second?” Arjan asked. “Who the hell is my second on this trip? I want all available data on that super cavitator on my external, yesterday!”

His device added a third holo to the now crammed space inside his privacy bubble. He could imagine how chaotic he must look from the outside where three Ministers now stood watching him. There wasn’t time to clean up how things looked. It was chaos.

He messaged Minister Callen, “Fels may be under attack. The big sub has left Citadel.”

A new face swam into view, that of Heinreich Ulff, standing stiff and uncertain before a holo pickup. Behind him was a transport full of men. “Sir?”

“Ulff?” Arjan was aghast, the man was a known screw off of the worst sort. He was supposed to be in charge of Fels this exact instant. “What are you doing here?” His eyes paused over the data stream running under the man’s image. Ulff was on one of the four added transports out of Fels. Eric had messaged he was pulling in all vacationers and off duty people to help in the mission. Four transports worth? Had Eric emptied Fels?

“I was advanced to Second in Command by Head of Security Eric Felsen.” Ulff said nervously, “I was unaware of this until the alert about the super cavitator reached me, Sir. I felt it best to deploy additional drones as you were listed as in conference and not to be disturbed.”

Arjan forced himself not to explode verbally. It was a black joke of some kind, a parting gift from Eric Felsen, now brain wiped for it. He couldn’t rip Eric because he’d already effectively killed Eric. He swore under his breath.

“Eighteen minutes to battle stations, Sir. In conference persons are requesting your immediate return.” The Tech Sup looked miserable, being the conduit for what was essentially a near public reprimand of Arjan’s first real command. Eighteen minutes.

“Give me projected arrival time of the super cavitator to the North Sea. Update me on the current location of the thirty-something loaded aircraft out of Montana. What the hell is going on in Fels? I want the location of Eric Felsen, now!”

Minister Callen was now standing just outside of Arjan’s bubble, gesturing.

Arjan removed the bubble and the holos spread out to form a loose circle around him.

“What’s going on Arjan?” Minister Callen’s tone was harsh. “We are less that twelve minutes from target range. Your presence and ours is essential in the conference room. We should not leave our allies alone on the brink of the attack. It looks bad.”

“It appears the Directorate may be using our attack as an opportunity to counter-attack Fels. Eric is down but he may have been down prior to us shutting down his molcom. The facility appears to be empty of security personnel. I am reaching out to our other facilities now.”

Minister Callen lifted his hand. “We culled all of our facilities for top personnel for this mission. All are running emergency staffing. Didn’t Eric tell you?”

Arjan tried to remember the briefing. Eric had mentioned security at all of the facilities, how understaffed they were, why they could use him while Arjan was away.

“The super cavitator will reach the North Sea in just under forty minutes, Sir.” The Tech Sup’s voice interrupted, now in the open where the Ministers could hear as well. “The aircraft leaving Montana altered course about sixty minutes ago. It is overflying the former nation/state of France, as we speak, Sir. Trajectory conforms to illegal penetration of national airspace in three minutes.”

Three minutes?

“Eleven minutes to target battle station, Sir.”

Arjan wanted to throw up. “We have to divert back to Tule Soc.” He said to the Ministers.

“After we deliver their death blow, Arjan.” Minister Callen said, “At this point, you are chasing them into Fels. If they can split our attention, we must split theirs. Continue with the attack on Citadel.”

“Permission to send Heinreich Ulff and the additional men with him back toward Fels now, Sir.” Arjan tasted the bile in his mouth, Ulff wasn’t his idea of a top operative. He was argumentative, bordering on disloyal and liked to mouth off to authority. Arjan could guess the man would perceive this move as a demotion coupled with a hostile reaction.

“Do we need them here?” Minister Callen asked.

“No Sir. Apparently Eric Felsen sent them with our fleet, unbeknownst to us, Sir.”

“You do not seem to have anything under control, Arjan.” Minister Callen said, “I must say, we expected better of you.”

Arjan stiffened.

“Five minutes to target range.”

Arjan yanked in his holo displays and strode back through the conference room door, to be met by a wall of uncertain military men staring at the four of them with barely restrained hostility.

“My pardon, Sirs.” Arjan did his best to sound polished. “A last minute matter needed to be dealt with. We are three minutes to go?”

He took his seat and ignored the beeping of his external. Three minutes, then Citadel would be fighting to stay alive. He used his fingers to tell his external, and the tech people watching it, to find Eric Felsen. That was the heart of this mess, the exact physical location of his former boss. What had Eric done to him?

It took only minutes for the large sub to reattach itself to the Citadel dock, the mess left by its last hasty exit had yet to be cleaned up and repaired completely. Crews strung makeshift decking to the top of the sub. The dock itself was a mass of people. More than two-hundred adult Ba’Neesh crowded next to a hundred and fifty Order Sec operatives, grads, seniors and even a few juniors and the cluster that travelled with Mael.

Brad tapped on the hatch. Elias went up the steps himself to palm it into override and manually open it. He stuck his head out and looked around, shocked to see the number of people waiting to get aboard. Mael headed the mob. “Elias, we need to load fast. Get Rojer near the down ladders and tell him to use his damn voice to move everyone in quickly.”

“Mick?” Elias looked down to see Mick looking up. “Is She going to let everyone on?”

Mick shrugged. He wasn’t the boss of anything Kiena. “Let’s head back aft and let Rojer and the OrderSec guys direct traffic. I don’t think they will gas us with all of these people aboard, do you?”

Elias relayed Mick’s words and discovered the first in were Mael and his group. That included Brad, Xasper, Moira and Anya and Perisee and Lemista. Apparently Mael wasn’t trusting Perisee and Lemista out of his sight at the moment.

“We’re going to come with you Mick.” Mael called out. “Kiena, not your true name, don’t go getting ideas of taking me, I’m not yours.”

Anya snorted, “Like that would stop her trying.”

“Why do you think I’m surrounding myself in Citadel Ba’Neesh?” Mael answered, already following Elias and Mick. He nodded to Rojer, “Rojer.” He said.

“Mael.” Rojer answered, his stunner in hand.

Mick hadn’t expected Mael to push his way into their secondary command space but by the steady flow of people clamoring down the main stairs it looked like Kiena was giving them a pass. He was hungry and feeling much better. He was glad he was wearing actual clothing he could thank Elias for that one.

The central corridor space filled quickly and Elias spun the hatch. Clearly there were unspoken rules at work. Mick rummaged in the pile left by Raiko for some food.

Jeffrey, who had been outside gathering more medical supplies, thudded on the door and Elias let him in, to seal it behind him. “That’s going to get tiresome rather quickly.” Jeffrey said to Elias’ nod of agreement.

Mick was trying hard not to stare at Mael Strom with his distorted face and turtle helmet. There was something wrong with his feet too, although they were hidden in odd-looking shoes. The Ba’Neesh close to Mael gave him a pointed look. He had the instant impression she was strong with the Vrill and connected directly to Mael in some way. He wondered at the relationship between her and Mael. No one had yet told him anything about relationships. He had a feeling what he was seeing was unusual. He wanted to stare at her in particular. Anya, Mael called her. She had two prominent twisting horns that appeared to have sparkly bits flowing up and down them. Visible Vrill?

Moira stomped on all fours down the entire corridor, exploring. To Mick, she looked the most alien of the Ba’Neesh. She had a huge rack of antlers and he could tell she preferred to walk on fours, like an animal, where Anya clearly stayed mostly upright. The other two, Perisee and Lemista he remembered from the graveyard. They were deep into an argument and both were sporting what looked like fresh wounds. He wondered about the bags each of the Ba’Neesh were carrying. He couldn’t imagine them carrying luggage.

Jeffrey approached the two. They immediately snuffled and snorted. A rather rude sound, to Mick’s ears. Jeffrey ignored that and reached over to touch a still-bloody wound on Perisee’s shoulder. “Why hasn’t Lemista tended this properly?” He scolded aloud.

“She wanted aboard over me.” Perisee announced, remembered outrage in her voice. “She gored me.”

“I see you arrived anyway.” Jeffrey replied without overt concern. He applied a smear of something on the wound. “This will taste okay when you two make-up.” He said. “No blood in the sub. Got it?”

“Of course I arrived. I’m Perisee!” Perisee announced.

“I was ahead of you anyway.” Lemista needled.

They looked on the brink of more goring. Mick gaped at them. “Are they always like this?” He whispered to Elias. Both of them were standing against the wall fairly distant from the two griping Ba’Neesh.

“You mean wounded?” Elias asked. Mick noted that the other Citadel boys were mostly ignoring the Ba’Neesh. Morty, like Mick, was gaping and looked near panic.

“They like blood. Managing them inside a sub is ludicrous. No wonder Mael has Rojer out there yelling ‘Horns and Antlers, Neesha.’ That’s code for no fighting. Left us with brat one and brat two in here though. Moira should settle them; she is their main voice when they require a single voice. At least for the Citadel Ba’Neesh. She and Xasper there have a history.”

“That guy in the rag robe is Xasper?” Mick stared, each sight more peculiar than the last.

“Master Caster of the entirety of all Soek.” Elias nodded.

To Mick, Xasper looked older than Mael but not as old as Thorne who thankfully wasn’t present at all. Xasper had hawk-like features and strange hair. It was as if the hair on top of the man’s head had parted to leave a distinct rectangle of open skin on top and that skin seemed to roil as if something was alive up there. Mick was too far away for a close look. He suspected Xasper was naked under the ragged robe. The idea made him uncomfortable.

“Why does he look like that?” Mick whispered.

“He’s a caster.” Elias shrugged. “He is sensitive to organics. So is Mael, you know. But at least Ornius makes sure Mael doesn’t look like Xasper. Ornius is a Master of Couturier, that’s fancy for clothing. He made Mael make the cap Anya is wearing, it’s a living sigil too.”

Mael was busy listening to something Brad was saying. He shook his head. “Give me the entire ship.” He said, his tone urgent and irritated. Brad nodded. Mael yelled out, “Horns and antlers, Neesha! Get out of the aisles so the crew can man the ship. No disputes or I’ll put you back off and there will be no fun. I’ll make you swim. Don’t make me come down there.”

Mick looked over at Elias.

“They listen to him; the only Soek they actually do listen to.” Elias explained.

Moira had returned to stalk over to Perisee and Lemista who were eyeing Mael with some concern. “Not you two?” Moira said.

“Wasn’t us. He made us promise earlier.” They sounded defensive.

Jeffrey, who was squatting over his medical containers looked up. “Weren’t you thumped?” He asked Moira.

She stiffened, her chin lifting.

“Right. I brought some of my special Ba’Neesh anti-thump cream. Did you want me to apply it or not?” He stood up with a wide jar, its lid off.

Moira shifted her weight from hoof to hand. While on her fours she was Jeffrey’s chest height. She grunted an affirmative.

“What’s a thumping?” Mick whispered to Elias.

“That’s Ba’Neesh medicine.” Elias answered, he was rather enjoying Mick’s questions. “With something more than a gore they will go to Old One Eye and she will slam their skull with her horn, literally ramming healing Vrill down through the nexus point at the top of the skull. It fixes what was hurt but hurts hard from the thump. She’s notorious for enjoying the bleat of pain she elicits from healing other Ba’Neesh and occasionally Soek. She treats Brad regularly, you know. But, he’s special. She doesn’t thump him.”

“Thump bruises.” Jeffrey had been listening to this explanation while he rubbed the cream into Moira’s head. Her long hair was parted and woven into her antlers. He ignored the mess the cream made of her elaborate hair treatment and rubbed away. She didn’t look happy about it but she didn’t stop him either. “I hear we have a lot of thumpers so I’ll be heading downstairs once we are underway.” He handed out clumps of jerky-like sticks to the Soek, including to Mick and Elias, and lollipops to the Ba’Neesh. “No blood on the sub. Got it?” He said again.

Perisee and Lemista said together, “You aren’t the boss of us, Healer Jeffrey. I spy fresh Soek meat.” They snorted, obviously now in collusion.

Elias groaned. The two of them trotted over to confront Elias and Mick.

“You are mating ready?” Lemista said first. Clearly she was speaking to Mick as she shoved Elias out of the way.

“How would he know? He is only a stupid Soek.” Perisee replied, inhaling sharply and then making a snuffling sound.

Mick noted that none of the other Soek were interrupting these two, they were watching carefully and quietly.

“What are they doing, Elias?” Mick asked, growing concerned as Perisee was overtly sniffing at his chest, where his bone hid beneath his shirt.

“Ba’Neesh do what they want.” Elias answered obliquely.

“Great.” Mick backed up as far from them as he could. They simply followed him, getting ever closer.

“I want to taste him.” Perisee said, obviously upping her game.

“Don’t be a coward.” Elias whispered to Mick.

It wasn’t the first time Mick had heard that advice. Ba’Neesh didn’t like cowards.

He stopped backing up. “No.” He said.

Perisee instantly lunged forward, her soft nose touching his. “You tell a Ba’Neesh, no?” She asked.

He couldn’t see past her. He noticed she smelled good, sort of sweet and earthy. But, her horns were right there and he was certain he had seen traces of blood on their tips. They were now rippling with energy, like Anya’s. Why was no one helping him?

“She asks a question, stupid Soek Mick.” Lemista was leaning in so close he could smell their mingled breath together. He remembered that Elias called these two the twins, not because they looked similar, because they didn’t, but because they were together. Relationships. He was confused. What were they asking him? Mating? He couldn’t even imagine what a Ba’Neesh mating might look like.

“I heard her.” He managed to say.

This launched a flurry of action which left him dumped on his back on the floor with four Ba’Neesh actively sniffing his crotch through his pants. He yelled out, shoving his hands over his pants between their snuffling curious noses.

His chest burned. He felt them lunge back as a blue apparition crawled out of his chest. He could feel Kiena, it was like he had a hole in his chest. He wailed aloud.

“I say no, Ba’Neesh.” Kiena said, her head swinging from one Ba’Neesh to the next. “I say no.”

Perisee clapped. “Oh, I want to burst out of a stupid Soek’s chest. Show me, show me.”

Kiena vanished. Mick took the opportunity to scramble away and make it back to his feet. The rules, what were the fucking rules here? He stared at them wide-eyed. Perisee advanced on him. “Show us how to burst out of a Soek’s chest.” She demanded.

“How the hell would I know?” Mick said, clutching at his chest feeling for the hole Kiena had crawled out of. It took everything he had not to back away from her. He found only the dangling hot bone. He pulled it out of hiding and blew on it trying to cool it down. He would have a burn mark on his chest, for sure.

“A Beloved finger bone.” Moira stepped forward. She was nearly as curious about the bursting out of the chest trick as the younger Ba’Neesh.

“She made me carve it.” Mick said defensively when Moira took the bone into her fingers, tugging slightly.

The other three Ba’Neesh and now Mael crowded forward, each taking the bone in turn before passing it along. “Clearly the bone is a portal.” Mael said.

Moira turned on Xasper, “Make Albert burst out of your chest, Xasper. You have his bone.”

“Tell me how and I will.” Xasper said sarcastically.

“How.” Anya interrupted. “Of course Soek too stupid to know how. She knows that means we know too. First we need to pair a Soek with a bone. What do we remember?”

This launched another excited round of Neesh honks, whistles and chirps. Mick realized none of them were now interested in him. Their attention was like a pointy on and off switch, currently off. He slipped away, as far away as he could manage, massaging his chest where there was a bubble of skin. He edged over to Jeffrey. “Could you put something on this burn?” He asked. Mael, Xasper, Brad, Elias and Neo all watched, staring at the exposed burn as Jeffrey rubbed something cooling into it.

“You’re getting glyphs.” Mael said, his fingers tracing tiny lines on Mick’s skin. This brought the Ba’Neesh rushing back over to look and to touch the bone again while whispering to each other in Neesh.

Mick stood there stiffly, staring at his chest. He’d seen marks like that, lines really, on his legs when he was dressing. He figured it was from the peel. What were glyphs?