“I have not decided yet. Any more questions?”
An amused look passed over Irriessa’s face for just a moment as he saw his nemesis cower, but not admit it.
“No, Is-kaldai. I will leave now.”
Before he left, however, Irriessa looked up at the projected planet that had the Is-kaldai so enamored. He tried, but could not figure out what Keertra could possibly be so interested in with distant images taken by a probe two years before. But everything that this Kezdai did baffled him no end. As Is-kaldai of the Mirrek clan, Keertra was member of the Kezdai ruling Council, and everything he touched invariably became entwined with obscure ulterior motives and hidden agendas. This would not be so confusing except that Keertra so rarely seemed to benefit from them. Until Keertra volunteered for this mission, Irriessa truly believed that his only purpose was to sow discord throughout their ruling body. But now he was baffled again, for if this mission were successful, the Council and the Kezdai race in general would be as united as they never were before. Keertra’s accomplishment would be honored initially, but would leave him with a crippled military, and he would be forgotten once the real war began. Irriessa’s clan leader, Is-kaldai Riffen, gladly agreed to share the same fate just to see his age-old enemy so declawed.
This was all very confusing to Irriessa. It was he who spoke the loudest in favor of a mission such as this, and then he was shocked to his core at who suddenly answered his call. And then he was shocked again when Keertra, in memory of traditions long since abandoned, insisted that the aging Mor-verridai, their almost powerless relic of an emperor, cast his blessings upon their troops before departing. To the surprise of everyone, Keertra declared that their ignored figurehead of a leader should be given back great power at a time when unity was so needed. All of this pleased Irriessa and a great many other soldiers, though everyone knew that the Council would never comply. The Mor-verridai and his corrupt clan could never be allowed true power ever again. Keertra knew this, and yet he still spoke out, once again sowing discord in the name of harmony.
With a shake of his head, the Ad-akradai somberly left the dark room.
Keertra did not respond as he heard the footsteps turn and walk out the door. Neither did he turn when he heard the more familiar footsteps of his own commander approaching. This distracted aura of superiority was a carefully practiced art for Keertra, but for once it was not on purpose. The Is-kaldai had been sleepless for days, and his mind was now beginning to feel the strain. Concentrating on the image before him was relaxing. It truly was a beautiful planet, and the Kezdai had so few.
“What do you want, Khoriss?” Keertra demanded.
“I overheard your discussion.” Khoriss paused a moment for any reaction. None came. “What do you plan to do with him, if I may ask?”
“Irriessa? He will be useful. He will be very useful, I believe.”
“Irriessa is intelligent, and will be on guard against your plans.”
“He is intelligent, Khoriss. But you make the same mistake that he makes. Intelligence does not preclude gullibility. Have faith, Khoriss.”
Ad-akradai Khoriss sighed and his cobra hood deflated.
“I will try, Is-kaldai.”
* * *
Captain Kaethan Ishida arrived late the next morning at Fort Hilliard. The sky was overcast, but wasn’t raining yet. Most of the storms would pass to the north, the forecasters told, hitting Starveil the hardest. Without the rain, however, the temperature was expected to rise to almost one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It was a Monday, with Delas assuming the common week schedule that humans had worked by for centuries. On Delas, however, each day was almost thirty-one standard hours long, with two hundred sixty-four of these days in a local year.
The drive from his home to the fort followed an extraordinarily beautiful stretch of roadway, running along the white sand shoreline of the Alabaster Coast. The Telville suburb that grew so quickly along this stretch of road was named for the beach, and had done a superb job of keeping the beaches clean for the resort trade that they hoped to inspire. The vibrant green Delassian ferns that lined the roadway held back the sands from blowing over the pavement. Rose bushes, imported from earth, added further color to the dominant white and grays of this region.
His sister Serina, who lived north of Telville, had called him the night before and left a message. After debating with himself for a while on whether to listen to it or not, he finally decided to and found out the plans that Serina had for them all. Aside from the normal shared dinners with her and his father, she also had nebulous plans for some touring of south Deladin. It did not sound fun.
Kaethan left a quick message back with Serina saying that he’d do the best that he could, but that he was very busy at the fort and didn’t know for how many of these excursions he’d be free. His untold plan, for the next few days, was to share a couple dinners with them, but little more.
As Kaethan approached the security gate in his vehicle, one of the guards on duty traded a few jokes with his buddy and then approached him. His gauss rifle was displayed prominently, though there was a smirk on his face.
“What’s up, Jake?” Kaethan asked, knowing something strange was happening.
“Sorry, Kaethan. I can’t let you through.”
“And why not?” Kaethan played along.
“Direct orders from Colonel Neils. You are officially on leave for the next two days.”
“Bullshit, Jake.”
“No, sir. Orders from the top.”
“Just open up the gate, Jake.”
“Don’t make me shoot you, Captain.”
Kaethan knew that was coming. The phrase was Jake’s trademark, possibly said in response to the fact that nobody could imagine Jake ever shooting anyone. Although the same age as Kaethan, the MP’s blond hair and boyish face was as nonthreatening as one could get. Jake was friend with everyone, and constantly playing practical jokes on people.
This time, however, the amused grin that Jake was wearing told Kaethan that this was real. If this was a practical joke, then Jake would be dead serious.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Kaethan demanded.
“All I was told was that if I messed up the colonel’s dance with your sister at your next promotion, I’d be walking bunker duty for the rest of my life.”
“That explains it.” Kaethan nodded.
Jake just smiled.
A conspiracy was obviously at work.
After shaking his head mournfully, Captain Ishida backed away from the gate and turned around. Kaethan knew that his sister was pissed at him for not inviting his father to his promotion celebration last year, and he did feel guilty about that. This, however, was an entirely new, and unexpected, level of deviousness that Serina was showing. Kaethan reluctantly admitted defeat this round, and would play along with Serina’s plans, no matter what disasters awaited. Perhaps some lessons would be learned, perhaps not. All he had to do was suffer a couple days of discomfort around his father, and then things would be back to normal.
* * *
Colonel Ishida arrived at the Telville Oceanographic Institute with help from an onboard computer in his vehicle. The institute was constructed along the rocky coastline northwest of Telville, with only a simple gravel and seashell road running ten miles through dense rainforest and difficult terrain up to its electrified gate. Although the highways connecting the major cities had been completed many years before, the secondary roads outside of the cities were still being worked on.
As Toman approached the gate, he wound down the window, letting the cool conditioned air out in a rush. It would be several days before he got used to the Delassian heat, but at least he was prepared for it with the lightest uniform material that was allowed. Over the next several weeks, there would be a noticeable drop in temperature as the planet entered its nightwinter season, but still the average temperature drop was only twenty degrees. A true winter season would then follow another “late” summer, as Delas’ elliptical orbit would carry it even farther from the sun. Even then, the average temperature dropped only about forty degrees. There was so little tilt of the planet’s axis that all seasons were felt equally planet wide.
“Colonel Ishida?” said a cute female voice.
The small black box rising next to him on a metal pole spoke to him before he had a chance to ring their buzzer. Out of instinct Toman searched for, and found, the camera mounted over the gate.
“That is correct,” he replied to the box.
“We have been expecting you,” said the voice.
With a loud clanking, the metal chain-linked gate began rolling out of his way. After waiting for it to clear the road, the colonel drove forward onto a paved road that led into a parking lot. The gate closed quickly behind him.