Hootzek got out of bed. He quickly got dressed and prepared for the
day’s labor. According to the Righteous Judgment’s artificial daily
cycle, it was about four o’clock in the morning. As was usual for them, both Hootzek and his
two colleagues had been sent to bed early enough that this was not a problem.
They
set about doing their daily work. They
were slaves, and their first job was to prepare things in the morning for when
the conduits and other slaves woke up.
They were to have the table set and the kitchen ready for the chefs, medications
laid out for certain individuals who needed them, armor and weapons ready for
soldiers, particularly the Shadow Squad, and arrange that several other things
were as they needed to be for the morning.
Their
entire lives had consisted of work like this, ever since they were old enough
to work. Slavery is all they had ever
known. Hootzek’s species had received a
two-hundred-fifty-six year sentence a while back for a few illicit conquests. Its sentence was not due to expire until
after Hootzek would likely be dead.
He
was treated reasonably, so far as slaves go.
His life was rather barren of pleasure, but conduit slavery was not
usually a fate worse than death. It was
deliberately less luxurious then freedom, but not so bad that he couldn’t bare
it.
After
finishing his morning work, he went to take his first meal break. His food was of a much lesser quality than
the conduit crew received, but was not inedible. After this he would go on to serve other
functions on the ship until going to bed at eight pm.
*****
Nax
woke up at the sound of the alarm. He
got down from his bunk. He began putting
on his armor and preparing for the briefing.
As he did, he noticed that one of the morning slaves had not polished
his armor properly. He knew which slave
had been charged with that task and intended to beat him later. Generally, slaves enjoyed the same rights as
children in regards to physical punishment.
It was not to be severe enough to leave any mark nor done
unprovoked. Nax, unlike most other
conduits, did not really care about these laws.
Nax had gotten good at hiding marks on many different species and had
always managed to avoid any trouble for his actions.
*****
Meanwhile,
on Domination, Molly was welcoming
the Commander back onboard after a night buried under a sandy desert.
“Good
morning, sir,” she said.
“Good
morning,” said the Commander. He turned
in the direction of one of the slaves on the ship. “You.
Get me some water now, plenty of ice.”
The slave nodded and
ran to get the beverage.
“How
did you get yourself under there?” Molly asked.
“That
one in the green armor, the one who tossed a solid diamond wall aside like it
was a small bottle of wine, and who cloaks the Shadow Squad’s drop ship without
seeming to have any equipment. He sealed
me inside the ship, shifted the sand so much that it made a hole large enough
to contain the ship, and buried me in the desert.”
“I
see…” Molly said, “Do we have any more clues as to how he does any of this?”
“No,
we do not.”
The
slave returned with the water. The
Commander looked at it. “Not enough
ice,” he said. “Go back and try again.”
“Yes,
master,”
“Get
me a drink while you are at it!” Molly shouted as the slave walked off. She turned back to the Commander. “Do we have
any plans for our future engagements with him?”
“No,”
the Commander said, “I don’t know what exactly the true limits of his power
are.”
Molly
nodded. The two went back inside.
*****
Mat
entered the briefing room, where the usual AI construct was waiting to explain
their mission.
“Hello,
Shadow Squad,” the construct said. “Today, you will not be taking on your primary
function as assassins, but your secondary function as Special Forces. You have been tasked with the destruction of
a major trading city.”
Mat’s unnerved reaction
would have been visible had anyone been looking for it, but he was able to keep
from interrupting the briefing.
“The city is a major
hub of trade for the humans both within their empire and between them and their
allies. Its destruction will do
significant damage to the Monarchy’s economy.
Because of its age the city is still largely powered by a single nuclear
fusion reactor at its center. If this
fusion reactor were destroyed in the right way, the result would be disastrous
for anyone in the area. Your job will be
to make your way to the center of the city and plant an explosive device near
the reactor. The main door to the
reactor is very heavily guarded, and as consequence it will not be the entry
point you use. Instead, the bomb will be
delivered to the reactor via a small shaft which leads to the chamber housing
the reactor. Because of the shaft’s
size, it will not be navigated by you, but by an assistant. He is a member of a slave race, the ursonians. He will be capable of navigating the shaft. Once you have gotten him to the entrance to
the shaft, you will return here via wormhole.
He will navigate the shaft and place the explosive, and then activate
its countdown before also returning here via wormhole. Is your assignment clear?”
“Yes,” Aaron said.
“Very well then,” the briefer
said, “you will meet him in the main room on your way to your drop ship.”
The
Shadow Squad left and went into the hallway.
“This
assignment is unusual for us,” Mat said. “This job seems fit for an invasion army
rather than a squad of assassins.”
“Our
current tactics are not exterminating the humans fast enough,” Aaron said. “The humans are more powerful than any of our
previous enemies. If we are to eliminate
them, we need to do more to kill as many of them as possible as fast as
possible.”
They reached the main
room. They saw the slave there. He was long and short, like a snake or
crocodile. He had scaly skin and was
sandy in color. His eyes were bright
green, the color of lime as opposed to the hazel of green-eyed humans. He turned and noticed the conduits. He approached and bowed, as was customary.
“You
may stand,” Aaron said.
The
slave stood. This only rendered him
marginally higher due to his anatomy.
The Shadow Squad walked out and the slave followed them.
*****
The
Photon Squad lowered themselves in their drop ship and approached the city of
Drakelcon. They landed on a pad near the
fusion reactor at the center of the city.
They emerged from their drop ship.
They were greeted by a military-looking type. He was a higher-up going by his insignia.
“Come
with me,” he said.
The
squad followed.
*****
The
Shadow Squad landed near the outskirts of the city. They exited, along with the slave.
“Alright,”
Aaron said, “the Photon Squad is in the facility from which one would usually
enter the reactor core, which is exactly where we are not entering. However, we need to make them think that
we’re taking the route they expect us to take.
Hence, Nax, Dany, Gar, and I will go to the usual entrance, whilst Kron,
Mat, and the slave will head toward the actual reactor core. Kron, keep your focus on ensuring that the
humans have no reason to believe that we are attempting to access that vent.”
“Yes,
sir,” the Shadow Squad said in unison.
“Yes,
superior,” the slave said.
*****
Tim
paced across the facility. Along his
patrol, there was a window. Well, not
really. It was actually a view screen
showing a distant part of the city.
There were people running about their business. Many civilians had been evacuated, but the
importance of this city made stalling trade for a full day impractical, so
there were still hundreds of thousands of people walking about it, most of whom
were non-combatants. There was a group
of workers on their meal break. The
restaurant was attended primarily by slaves.
It occurred to Tim that the conduits, who professed their moral
superiority on the basis that the humans were taking these slaves, were
themselves going to kill them. The slave
races had not been sentenced by the conduits to extinction and conduits were
not under orders to kill them on sight, but conduit attacks often had slave
casualties. Conduit records listed these
as collateral damage. Humans were not
listed as such, as their deaths were the goal of such invasions.
Humans
were often accused of being amoral slavers.
It was right to call them slavers, but not entirely right to call them
amoral. Generally, the same legislations
applied to slaves which applied to animals.
Slaves could not generally be killed except for food, beaten except for
punishment, or forced to participate in gladiator sports. Many slaves were actually house servants or
personal companions, some more like pets than sources of cheap labor. When slaves were used for industry, they were
generally directing and managing machines rather than laboring manually
themselves, or else working counters, which a human might do.
Truth
be told, it was sometimes better to be a human slave than a conduit one. The conduits deliberately ensured that their
slave’s lives were dull and average, occupied by work and little else. What happiness they got was through idle
conversation with each other. A conduit
could legally communicate with a slave, but would not typically do so. On the other hand, a conduit slave had many
more rights than a human one. A human
slave could, in theory, be killed and eaten, though differing biochemistries,
which meant that a large number of alien biospheres were completely inedible
and the fact that they were usually more useful in other functions, ensured
that this was a rare occurrence. It was
also easier to get away with abusing a human slave, as they were expected to be
within the home and there would be no inspections. On the other hand, a human
slave could more easily voice complaint, and such a complaint would be
considered by the courts to be sufficient to warrant investigation into the
slave’s treatment
Tim
focused in more on the civilians. It was
his duty to protect them. He couldn’t
allow himself to fail. “I need to
succeed,” he thought, “for their sake.”
*****
As
Kron was busy cloaking himself and the others, Mat and the slave walked quickly
toward their destination.
“What
is your name?” Mat asked the slave.
The
slave looked surprised. “You… you’re
talking to me?”
“Yes.
I am.”
“Why?”
“I
was requesting information.”
“Why
would you care about my name?”
“I
don’t like referring to slaves as ‘slave’ all the time.”
“Alright
then… Gohi. My name is Gohi.”
“Nice
to meet you, Gohi.”
Mat
was not surprised by Gohi’s shocked look.
There was nothing formally forbidden or punishable about what Mat was
doing, but it was highly unorthodox.
“Thanks,”
Gohi said.
“So
where do you usually work?” Mat asked.
“6924
a,” Gohi said, beginning to get used to the idea of being spoken to in such a
casual way.
“Power
crystal mines?” Mat asked.
“Yes,”
Gohi said, “after some of the taller slaves mine the crystals I drag them
across the desert for several miles. I
make trip after trip for about eleven hours a day before receiving recreation
time.”
“I see. So, what do you usually do during your
recreation time?”
“I
mostly have conversations with the other slaves. Why do you keep asking me these things?”
“Just
making conversation. I only have this
short time with you after all. So then,
what do you usually converse about?”
“Theology,”
Gohi said.
“I
see. Would you like to be more
specific?”
“Well,
we talk a lot about species theology,” the slave said.
“Oh,
I see,” Mat said.
“I’m
not a rebel or anything,” Gohi said.
“I
believe you,” Mat said, “I know that if I were in you condition I would not be
content either.”
“I
know that that’s the point,” Gohi said, “I’m not supposed to be content. I and the rest of my race are being punished
for the sins of our species.”
“I
know,” Mat said, “I’ve always thought that if I were like you, I’d comfort
myself by contemplating the fact that, even though I wasn’t living a very
comfortable life, I’d still be assisting the Holy Dominion of the Conduits in
the good that it does.”
“Perhaps.
I suppose that it does do some good by
freeing the people who have been illicitly
enslaved.”
“And
you help,” Mat said, “you can try to take comfort in that.”
“I
suppose,” Gohi said.
*****
Having
no cloaking, Aaron, Dany, Nax and Gar had to rely on traditional stealth to get
to the facility. They managed to get
rather close to the facility, having had to kill only a few persons along the
way to prevent themselves from being exposed.
As they approached the facility, Dany armed a grenade and threw it, killing
the two guards posted outside and blowing the doors off their hinges and into
the back wall. Quickly, more soldiers
ran out, but the Shadow Squad made quick work of them.
The
Shadows ran inside, searching for the main entrance in the manner they would if
they planned to use it. They were able
to easily dispatch all persons thrown at them until they ran into the Photon
Squad, with the exception of the Commander, who was elsewhere in the base.
The
Photons quickly began firing on the Shadow Squad. The Shadows headed over to cover. Dany pulled out his grenade launcher and
loaded several grenades which were designed to refrain from detonating until he
gave them a specific command. He fired
several, at which point the Photons ran away.
He detonated them quickly enough that Crystal was still in the blast,
burning her back. She continued to run
away as fast as she could. She requested
a wormhole to the surface. One was
granted. The Shadow Squad followed the
other four down the hall, and was able to keep them on the run with their fire.
Suddenly,
a shot fired into Aaron’s stomach, just below his heart. The other three turned around. It was the Commander. Aaron sent in for a wormhole and all four of
them retreated onto the Righteous
Judgment.
*****
Mat,
Kron, and Gohi reached the small shaft from which the reactor could be reached.
“Alright,”
Mat said, “go on in there.”
“I
need to be lifted into there first, superior,” Gohi said. “It is too high.”
“Alright,”
Mat said. He picked Gohi up. He was heavy, but not impossible to lift. Mat put Gohi into the shaft. Mat sat there for a moment contemplating what
was about to happen. The reactor would
explode, killing all of the persons here.
This was all completely in line with everything he had been taught. The human species had been sentenced to
death, and such a judgment was righteous and within the power of the conduits
as the appointed judges of the divine ones, so why did it feel wrong?
By
all accounts, it was not wrong. It was
unfortunate that so many slaves would have to be killed along with the humans,
but that kind of collateral damage was a part of war, and nothing could be done
about it. As for the humans, though,
their deaths were objectively good. They
had been justly sentenced to death and therefore were worthy of it. It was not just right, it was cause to
rejoice, but to Mat, it did not seem like it was either. It seemed as though a grave evil was being
committed. Mat had felt this
before. He felt it often. Not on every mission, but on a certain type
of mission. Any time he was killing a
person who seemed innocent. Mat knew
none of them were innocent, but some felt more innocent than others. He had little problem with taking out someone
who had been responsible for millions of conduits dying, or been on the front
lines of numerous conquests, but most humans fit neither of those descriptions. Mat had taken the job as an assassin in the
hope that he would be able to avoid killing more people than he had to.
Mat
had never joined the military voluntarily.
He had been drafted. Drafted
solders were allowed to request a specific assignment, though their request
could be denied. In Mat’s case, it was
not, and he entered the rigorous training gauntlet he would need to be an
assassin.
He
passed with flying colors, and was appointed to the most elite squad in the
dominion. Sadly, that now entailed
this. Being assigned to this sort of job
was not typical, and indeed, this was the first time Mat had been ordered to
bring about destruction on this scale.
Mat
knew there was nothing he could do to avoid participation that would not get
him killed, so he quickly reminded himself of the relevant doctrine. He drilled it into his own head until the
pain of conscience went away for a little while. It would come back, but when it did, Mat would
be required, on pain of death, to suppress it once again. He had to.
He was eventually able to calm himself.
It occurred to him that he probably ought to wormhole out, and he did,
along with Kron.
*****
The
shaft was something of a maze for Gohi as he entered it. It was designed such that one could not
simply throw a grenade in. For one
thing, the first stretch was uphill, and it lasted for a long while. It led to a fork, with one path leading the
same direction, but downhill, and the other one leading up and to the
left. The one to the left was the
correct one. Gohi had studied the plans
thoroughly, and he knew which way to go.
As
he neared the end, he considered the conduit who had spoken to him. It was strange to be subject to a casual
conversation with a conduit. He had once
seen a conduit child berated for trying to talk with him in such a manner. Slaves were in a state of punishment. It was not usual that they should be allowed
the pleasantry of casual conversation with a free person. It was quite deliberate that there was little
in life for them to enjoy. He got the feeling
that this yellow armored conduit was somehow different from others.
Gohi
eventually reached the reactor. The heat
was quite intense, and would have been unbearable for most species. Not him though, he had evolved for intense
deserts. He also had been given a suit
which allowed him to survive the radiation.
Gohi
reached the room with the reactor and planted the bomb. It was designed to go off in about forty
seconds. He saw that he had been
spotted. He didn’t care. He used the wormhole generator he had been
provided with to return to the Righteous
Judgment, and the closed the wormhole behind him.
*****
The
human who had spotted Gohi quickly sounded an evacuation alarm. Instantly, wormholes to evacuation ships opened
in the base. The Photons left and got
onto Domination. After all of the wormholes had been closed,
the reactor exploded. The city was, in
its entirety, destroyed. There were no
survivors therein.
*****
After
dinner on the Righteous Judgment, Mat
went off into the Squad’s bedroom. Kron
followed him there.
“Why
did you talk to the slave?” Kron asked.
“I
wanted to,” Mat said.
“You
realize that that’s abnormal right?” Kron asked.
“Yes,”
Mat said, “I do, but I also know that it does not violate any rule.”
“Well,
no,” Kron said, “and I don’t mean to be accusatory. I’ve just never seen it before.”
“Well
part of it was boredom, but I have always found that conversing with slaves can
be interesting.”
“How
so?”
“They
have a very different perspective on things then I do,” Mat said. “That always
makes a conversation more interesting.”
“I
suppose I can see that,” Kron said.
Kron
left.
*****
The
Commander had been ordered to the comms chamber. The Monarch wanted to have a conversation
with him. The Commander bowed as The
Monarch’s hologram appeared.
“Hello,”
The Monarch said, “You just allowed a major trading city to be blown up along
with over eight-hundred-thousand people, likely causing a major economic crash
as everything we had that depended on that city is now going to go away. In addition you did so on the day after you
were unable to prevent conduits from kidnaping my daughter. You have this one chance to explain why I
shouldn’t disband your squad and re-assign all of you to janitorial duty.”
“The
conduits did not behave as we had anticipated--”
“Did
not behave as you anticipated? Your job
is to prevent the Shadow Squad from carrying out their missions
successfully. This includes being able
to anticipate and counter their strategies.
If you cannot do this successfully, you are not fit to continue this
job.”
“Yes,
sir.”
“Now,
as for the fate of your squad, you will continue to operate as you currently do
until I find someone better to do your job, but your funding shall be halved.”
“But
we need that money to operat--”
“So
do all of the families whose parents will soon no longer have jobs because they
were dependent on the city you just allowed to be destroyed. As of now, you have shown yourselves to be
failures. My order shall stand until
further notice.”
The
Monarch’s hologram vanished. The
Commander continued kneeling there. He
clenched his fist and gritted his teeth for a second, and then stood up and
returned to his quarters.
