First Contact

Chapter 508

Before she had fallen ten feet the 'sorceress' had wrapped one arm around Nakteti, pulling her close, one hand twisting in the air and whispers of power making energy crackle around the two of them.

The sociopolice had cleared around the skyscraper, a cordon that cleared the entire street. The blockades a half block back had riot police at it but no crowd. There were three riot control vehicles in the street and two grav-lifters in the air. Nakteti could see at least a hundred sociopolice, as well as a couple dozen reporters all jockeying for position to film her dropping from the skyscraper.

She knew they were claiming she was committing suicide.

Sociopolice were firing upwards, neural rifle bolts shrieking by. A few hit an invisible shield and shattered into sparks.

Falling fast, Nakteti activated her datalink, feeling the tingling across one of her back molars as she used the high encryption channel. "Crooked Raster, do you read?" she asked.

"Here, Captain," the Digital Sentience asked.

"Seize control of the Emergency Broadcast System. I own it," Nakteti said. She was almost at the surface.

The children of Lady Keena hit first. Down on one knee, one fist pressed against the ground, the other holding their blades so they were ready to be brought into position. The flare around them was different than the landing Nakteti knew she would make. The circle around them was red, snarling with reddish electricity. Pavement cracked and shattered, lightning tendrils snaked around them.

Nakteti wasn't positive, but she was pretty sure Magnus Khoonkeenadee altered his drop so he landed next to a group of fifteen riot police that had been shooting at him with neural rifles. The explosion around them threw them away from him like bowling pins. One cartwheeled into a wall and slid down slowly.

"NO KILLING!" she shouted again.

She landed. Well, the sorceress Surscee landed, holding Nakteti close. The flare flipped over a riot control vehicle, tumbling it into a group of sociopolice.

"People die in battle, Lady Nakteti," Surscee said, standing up, letting go of Nakteti, who bobbled for a second as she caught her balance.

"I have control. Awaiting instructions," the Digital Sentience Crooked Raster said in Nakteti's ear. "Lady Nakteti, you should really know, there's no way to hide in a society that has datalinks."

Heavy neural bolts, the kind of that could kill, slammed into the ground around her, shattering on the shield Serscee was holding up.

Nakteti watched as one of Lady Keena's sons, she thought it was Xango, put his foot against the side of an armored ground limo, reached down, and ripped the tire, rim, and hub clean off. He slung it up into the air, the tire leaving behind a glowing nimbus trail.

For a second she wondered just what a tire was going to do against an armored riot control grav-lifter.

The tire hit and there was a bright flash and a loud detonation. The grav-lifter fell to the ground, wreathed in flame and billowing smoke.

"I think it's too late for that," Nakteti said as she watched one of the daughters, Mour-Emi, ripped up a lamp post, ignoring the heavy neural bolts shattering into showers of sparks when they hit her skin. The brown skinned Terran turned, cocked her arm back, and threw the lamp post.

Nakteti could almost hear the sneer front the pilot as he saw a simple aluminum post coming at the front of the grav-striker even as he kept firing the front guns with no effect.

The post punched through the forward shield, shattering the macroplast, impaling the pilot, a bright flash and another loud KA-RACK sounding out. The grav-lifter dropped and slid sideways a moment before the copilot got it under control.

"Twisted Java, do you read?" Nakteti asked, letting the sorceress Surscee rush her over to the twisted wreckage of one of the riot control vehicles. Magnus had caved in the entire side with one punch that had hit with a loud flash and detonation like an anti-tank mine going off.

"I'm here," the Digital Sentience said.

"Take control of the nanite manufacturing systems," she ordered.

"Roger and Wilco, Lady Nakteti," the DS said, sounding excited.

A riot control transport came in hard, slamming into the ground hard enough that two of the riot police inside were knocked cold. The starboard engine was on fire from where Jarakin had thrown the door to an armored grav-limo into it and destroyed the housing.

Before the riot police inside could deploy two of Lady Keena's sons had grabbed the door and torn it completely free of the frame, tossing it to the side, their handprints sunk deeply into the endosteel armor.

"NO KILLING!" Nakteti tried again.

She knew that even without those wicked blades, the Terrans were extremely lethal. They would and could pull her people's arms and legs off like they were pulling taffy.

The two men bent down, grabbed the lower lip, and flipped the vehicle onto its side, the frame warping and twisting with the scream of stressed metal as bolts and struts sheered apart from the conflicting force.

"Initiate the mandatory viewing signal on the EBS," Nakteti ordered.

"Yes, Lady Nakteti," Crooked Raster said.

"Keep me shielded, make sure everyone can hear me," Nakteti told the sorceress.

"Trivial," the Terran said, her body gleaming with sweat. She'd opened the front of her bodice, exposing a lot of smooth brown skin, and Nakteti could see the heat shimmering off of her.

Nakteti climbed up on top of the vehicle.

The journalists that hadn't fled turned their attention to get good angles as Nakteti looked around slowly, cooly, her expression remote and distant. The Emergency Broadcast System went live, showing her standing atop the vehicle.

Every Tnvaru across the planet had moved to their Tri-Vee, some stumbling and rubbing their eyes and the mandatory viewing tone had sounded and their Tri-Vee's had turned on. They all saw her, standing on top of the vehicle, two riot control vehicles burning behind her, dozens of siciopolice fighting with singular Terrans who were throwing them around like rag dolls.

"STOP!" she held up one hand.

Her voice echoed from every speaker, was heard on every implant, and was broadcast over every Tri-Vee that existed in the system.

One sociopolice stared at the Terran fist that was a bare millimeter from the front of his visor. The visor was cracked and starred, the HUD out, a single blow of that fist having shattered the macroplast. He knew, without a doubt, that if that second punch had landed it would have blown straight through the compromised macroplast and crushed his skull inside his helmet.

The human was smiling. The sociopoliceman knew that the human had been enjoying himself.

The sociopoliceman was also very aware that he had wet himself.

"Is this what we are?" Nakteti asked. "Are we mindless cattle that cannot survive without the Lanaktallan Overseers and their proxies? Are we so weak and pathetic that we cannot determine our own fates? Are we so feeble and weak willed that we must have a ruling class over us making all of our decisions for us?" she asked, turning slowly. She pointed at where Magnus was standing, having ripped open the side of a riot control vehicle with his bare hands as if the endosteel armor was nothing more than tissue paper.

"Are we so pathetic that we must rely upon others to save us from ourselves?" Nakteti asked. She faced the reporters. "As soon as you were free of the Lanaktallan Overseers you immediately allowed the same people who ruled in your 'best interest' to rule over you again," she said. She pointed at the unconscious sociopolice littering the street. "And when offered freedom you knelt down and offered your neck to the very system that had oppressed you since before the Terrans had mastered fire."

She pointed at Jarakin, who had set down the Tnvaru sociopoliceman he had almost knocked the head clean off of. He patted the sociopoliceman on the head and smiled wider at the cameras that moved to him.

"Is bloody revolution what we want?" Nakteti asked. "Brother against brother, matron against sister, child against friend?" Nakteti shook her head and pointed at where four Tnvaru teenage girls had managed to pull the helmet off of a sociopoliceman, wrap a cable around his neck, and were trying to lynch him on a light pole. "Is this what the Precursor War has taught us? Are they the future of the Tnvaru people? Is he?"

The girls dropped the cord and the sociopoliceman frantically pulled it off from around his neck, gasping, his whiskers shaking.

"Make no mistake, bloody revolution is effective," Nakteti said.

She pointed at Magnus, who's leather vest was scorched by plasma hit. He had blood spattered across his leather clothing.

"Just ask the Terrans, who will always raise their voice with the cry of 'We will not yield!' to even their own kin," Nakteti said.

"Got control of the nanoforges and creation engines," Twisted Java said.

"Run me off something I'll survive to the Board of Planetary Directors riding in," Nakteti subvocalized even as she turned and pointed at the cameras.

"The Confederacy says: One being, one vote. A sentiment none of you understand," Nakteti said. She lowered her hand, staring at the camera. "In a few hours, you will see why it is so important," she paused again, then spoke. "You will understand. I misjudged, but I will not do so again."

She jumped down. "Kill the video, make sure none of the propaganda stations can transmit, run the documentary, all channels, jam the Board."

"In process," Crooked said.

Twisted laughed. "I was hoping it would come to this. I'm printing up a civilian class armored dropship, I'll be piloting. Can I run over a few cops?"

"Sadist," Nakteti teased. She climbed down and looked at Lady Serscee. "Can you hold out until a transport gets here?"

Lady Serscee nodded, smiling. Nakteti could feel the heat radiating off of her even a pace away. "With ease. Although, it would be more effective if you would allow my brothers and sisters to draw steel and teach them the answer to the riddle of steel."

Nakteti shook her head. "No. Your own works state that killing a person is a poor way to change their mind."

"They also mention that leaving an enemy alive today ensures and attack upon oneself tomorrow," Lady Serscee countered.

"As long as there is a tomorrow," Nakteti said.

------------------

Namtotun, Planetary Director for Life of New Tnvaru looked at the gray skinned Terran standing in front of the desk. The biped was in a black suit that was immaculate. His hair was perfectly parted, almost mathematically. His eyes were all black, dead and emotionless, glittering in the light. His lips were thin, bloodless looking, covering a mouth full of interlocked serrated pointed teeth. Behind him were two 'assistants', a male and a female, both with visors covering their eyes, their heads shaved bald, wires and fiberoptic cable attached to their heads and connected to the heavy cybernetic spine. The two assistants held file folders and dataslates at the lawyer stared at Namtotun.

"Aren't you going to do anything?" Namtotun asked, gripping the edge of the desk with all four hands as he came to his feet, his whiskers trembling with rage.

"No," the lawyer said.

"She's committing an illegal assault upon the government," Namtotun snarled. "Isn't the Confederate military going to do anything?"

"No. This is a local planetary governance issue, not a violation of Confederate legal statutes," the lawyer said, his voice empty and emotionless.

"Her bodyguards, which she has illegally, killed law enforcement officers!" Namtotun said. "The Executors and Overseers would have..."

"The Confederacy is not the Unified Council, what they would or would not do has no bearing upon the legal disposition of the actions that are currently ongoing," the lawyer stated. "This is a commonly accepted procedural progression of many post-holocaust resettlement and governmental re-establishment activities. As such, the final disposition of your people and government as well as your legal procedures is entirely up to your planet."

"STOP HER!" Namtotun yelled.

The lawyer just stared. "No. Nothing that has occurred is illegal under Confederate species and cultural establishment regulations and legislation."

"It's illegal because I say it is illegal," Namtotun tried.

"Your words carry no weight. Nor do your desires matter as far as the Confederacy of Aligned Systems legal system is concerned. For the Confederacy to be concerned one of the Twelve Rights must be violated or a civilian populace measure with at least sixty-eight percent of the vote being support must be filed with the correct agencies," the lawyer said. "As it stands, this refugee camp pro-tem government on privately owned property has no standing as far as the Confederate Legal System is concerned."

"I am the elected head of state of this government," Namtotun stated.

Drifting in from outside the sound of graviton engines screaming faintly could be heard.

The lawyer looked up slightly, the lights on his datalink blinking from green to amber. The telltales on the datalink on the bald head of the female Terran assistant all went red and amber.

"This government is a temporary refugee settlement representation to the privately owned system representative," the lawyer stated. "As stated before, no laws modifying Confederate Statutes nor any agreements with any entities of the Confederate Government or any bonded and licensed governments, corporations, or entities may be engaged in nor negotiated by the pro-tem government of the displaced Tnvaru People without a full public vote to put into place a leader put forward and approved by the Tnvaru People under an observed election process that must consist of at least one dozen candidates in the initial runoff," the lawyer stated, his voice cold and dead. Blackish blood leaked from between his teeth and down his chin as he spoke. "At the current time the current self-proclaimed leadership only exists as a method of accounting for the Tnvaru people and their initial desires and understandings."

There was a slight pause and the Terran lawyer gave a large smile that exposed too many teeth.

"The owner of the stellar system approaches," the lawyer said. "Eviction notices stand ready for their signature should they desire it."

The sound of neural pistols and rifles firing came from outside.

Namtotun heard faintly the yell of "NO KILLING!"

Something hit the doors hard enough to shake them.

"Stop her! This is illegal," Namtotun shrieked.

"The current legal property owner is engaged in legitimate defense of their personal property and the guests residing therein. There is no legal recourse to prevent her from using lethal force to defend her property or guests," the lawyer said.

The doors blew open, a Terran male having kicked the doors open with one boot that Namtotun could swear had brass nails holding the carved sole.

Nakteti was walking in front of a Terran female who had heat shimmers coming off of her. Nakteti was wearing a leather vest, the engraved shoulder plates lit up with burning light, a long blade held in her four hands and she gripped the blade tightly.

Nakteti moved up to the desk as Namtotun stared at her, moving around the lawyer and his assistants carefully.

The Terrans gave them a wide berth.

Behind them several reporters were clustered in the hallway, looking through their camera lenses as the flycams swooped around and jostled for the best shot.

"I believe you are attempting to steal my property," Nakteti said slowly. She rested her fists on the table, still gripping the sword. "I am not the young woman you met years ago any longer," she stated coldly.

Namtotun sneered.

"You will address me as..." he started.

"Silence," Nakteti snapped.

Snarls of purple lightning arced up and down the naked blade, between her hands, dancing across her knuckles.

"I am Nakteti the Traveller, and you would be wise to heed my commands," she said in a terrible soft voice. "I have learned the lessons the Precursor taught our people, I have seen with my own eyes the burning corpse of Tnvaru Prime, and I have tread the path of sorrow to emerge here."

Namtotun tried to speak but found his jaw welded shut. A glance showed the large brown skinned Terran female staring at him, moving her fingers, and whispering silently.

A pair of guards in light powered riot armor burst into the hallway. The large human male in front of them grabbed them and slammed them together several times, the crash punctuating Nakteti's words.

"I envisioned paradise and you turned it into a garbage dump," Nakteti said. She leaned forward. "The Terrans say that some prefer to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven," Nakteti said. She smiled, a slow thing, showing lots of teeth.

A very Terran smile.

"You have created Hell within my paradise," Nakteti said.

The Terran male dropped the two unconscious sociopolice and dusted off his hands.

"Please don't kill me," Namtotun managed to whisper.

"Even the Devil has his purpose, Namtotun," Nakteti smiled. "What sights I have to show you."

----------------------

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

Wait, they didn't even file the proper paperwork to be acknowledged as a temporary government?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

We checked.

They didn't file anything.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

If they had been a government they would have run into problems already.

Private property ownership is a big deal. Removing that without a majority vote to agree to allow restrictions upon those agreeing to abide by said restrictions is a major no-no.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

The only thing that kept Confederate Peacekeepers from landing is the fact that the government wasn't official and Nakteti really needs to pay attention to her StellarNet mail.

That, and there's a war on.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS

Um, do we run that risk?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

You're a 'crisis settlement' and working with Confederate Government Services. They won't make the stupid mistakes the 'Planetary Director for Life' was making.

OK, there's a little bit of confusion.

Most of us members have good solid histories. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years of culture, society, legal and cultural precedent.

We've never encountered entire species who had their culture as wiped out as the Lanaktallan did to all of you.

We're trying to figure out what your species need psychologically to be comfortable, and we might not be able to do that for several generation, since all of you spent your existence drugged up with the Lanaktallan suppressing agents.

There's serious discussion about the fact we might have to act as if you are the survivors of a cultural and social apocalypse.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

We almost had a civil war.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

We get that. We almost did. P'Thok blew a hole through our culture and Matron Mi'Luki drove an ice cream truck through it.

We still haven't recovered or really settled down from that.

Hell, it's not uncommon even now for a female to chow down on some male's head.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

Isn't that illegal?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

What? Eating a male's head during mating?

That's complicated, but short answer is: No.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Guess he should have brought better ice cream.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Bingo.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

What if what Nakteti does doesn't work and people start killing each other?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Then you ask for Confederate assistance or you just settle it yourselves.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

But that just tells everyone that might makes right!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Doesn't it?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---