been shortened.
“So,” Nathalie said, changing the subject, “why do you need our help with this Tanaka, and what are you proposing?”
Harrison seemed to swell as he drew in a breath and straightened up to fix Hendricks with a resolute stare.
“The cycle needs to be broken. My ancestors have tried to unite our people and find the source of The Swarm, but Tanaka will not combine forces. He thinks we are beneath him. They are warlords, and I fear that our peace cannot last. We have to be decisive, and with your help”—he gestured toward their weapons—“we can finally turn the tide.”
Our group exchanged looks until Hendricks took the lead, primarily, I thought, to ward off the words which would come from Amir’s mouth.
“We need to talk about this,” he said, to close off the conversation, “will you come back in a few days to discuss it?”
Harrison and Tori exchanged a look before he answered.
“The moon will soon be dropping, and we have many things to do,” he said ominously. “We will return when the new moon rises in just over a week, but please,” he said intently, “do not risk contact with The Swarm.”
I’m certain it wasn’t just me who felt a sinking feeling of cold as we walked back to the ring of pods, which didn’t look anywhere near tall enough for my liking.
Chapter 25
BREAKING THE NEWS
Assembling the survivors from space to fill them in on the newly learned facts, the duty seemed to fall to Hendricks, as Amir’s confidence and flair for public speaking seemed to have abandoned him. Mindful not to lay it out as brutally as Jones did, he waited patiently until the group, which now neared almost seventy-five, gathered near the center of their enclave and forced him to climb up on one of the three pods there to be seen by everyone.
He started with the expected revelation that we were not alone on the planet, but then hushed the excited buzz of the crowd by warning them that things here weren’t as we expected.
“We have landed in the middle of some feudal or tribal power struggle,” he said, “because it has been so long since the others came out of cryo we are now in possession of the dominant technology, and we are going to have to find a way of making peace or choosing a side …” He was forced to stop speaking as the noise rising from the crowd drowned out his voice. He held up both hands and called out for quiet, waiting as the rumble lowered.
“That’s not all,” he went on, a dark look on his face, “in our absence, another species has emerged on the planet; we don’t know what, nor do we understand anything about it without scientific study, but nobody is to leave the compound during darkness. Now, we all have tasks, please can we all return to them.”
He lowered himself and jumped lightly down and walked back toward the cluster of people who had been outside the walls. Unbidden, they huddled in around him, all but the most astute of them ignorant of the power shift that had just subtly taken place. It had started when Harrison spoke to Hendricks as he was the leader of the soldiers, and his inability to comprehend that they would answer to, or follow, a man like Amir who was clearly no warrior was beyond his acceptance.
Shooting a surreptitious glance around to see if they were being overheard, he asked the group for their suggestions. Some were in favor of closing up the compound tight and letting the conflict outside draw its own conclusion, others were in support of joining the fight.
“On my third tour of Afghanistan,” Willard Stevens said in quiet thought, “our unit was approached by a local fighter who asked for our help. He said he needed the American soldiers to help him fight a war lord who fought against our ‘occupation.’ This guy had grade-A intel and led us in easily. We took the base out without any losses, then reported back to HQ only to find out that we’d just taken out a friendly group. The guy who came to us was Taliban, and we got played.”
“Your point?” Magda asked him, her soft voice removing any harshness in her words.
“My point?” Stevens said with a wan smile. “Is that the story we’ve just been fed sounds bad; like, bad enough that our consciences are telling us to take this other guy out. How many sides