Chapter 09

Seaside Citadel

Ten weeks after the Tigers enter Barley and take it a group of twenty men are gathered in the planning room of The Seaside Citadel sitting on the edge of the plateau that overlooks the fifteen miles wide and five mile deep low coastal plain that provides the bulk of the usable ports on this coast of the continent where Grassy Meadows is located. The men have a major problem and they’re here to discuss it.

The one in charge stands and says, “Just to make sure we all know where we are I’ll recap the situation. I’m sure we all know it, but I want it fresh in our minds before we get started on planning.” He looks around the other men’s faces while they nod their agreement. “When we joined this group we were given authority to establish control over half this continent. It looked good on the map, but we find about ten percent of our area is mountains with nothing usable in them and we can’t get into them. Another twenty percent is to the north. The wide fens between here and there are proving hard to get through and use up five percent. John, how many have we lost building the raised road across the fens?”

Another doesn’t even look up when he replies, “So far we’ve lost about twenty thousand locals and eighty-seven of our imported men in building the road. Those scavengers down in the fens are deadly. They see our camps as their version of meals on wheels. At the start we only lost a few men when they wandered away from the work area. Now we’re losing groups of twenty to thirty men. The scavengers are migrating to our work areas and the roadway because they find it easier to get fed by eating our people. The original plan had been to build a raised road about six feet above the fens and we now know those animals can jump higher than that. So the road is now set at fifteen above the fen surface and about twenty feet wide. It has to be that wide so it’ll be stable at that height. We also have to put a lot of wide baked clay pipes in to allow the water etcetera to pass through under the road or the road washes away in the next rain. We’re about a tenth of the way across the fens. Then we’ll know what things are like in our land to the north. I can’t give you any response on how long or how many people this will take to get done.” The others groan. The road is way behind schedule and it’s taking up a lot of resources they need for other projects.

The leader takes over again. “Of the remaining sixty-five percent most of it is to the west of here. At present we control fifteen percent of our designated territory. The bulk of our land takes in a large portion of what’s currently called King Sid’s domain. We expected to have some trouble with Sid Jones, the Hero who lays claim to that area, but we’ve not even started to butt heads with him. His land starts at the river beside Bridgetown. We’d just started to get our troops over the river and into that area when we slowed down to consolidate and set up the traps for the Heroes, as asked. That blew up in our faces. Not only did the Heroes save the Damsels, but we lost over a thousand of our better trained local troops along with three of our senior imports in the army who were in command of the traps. King Sid has set troops to stop us at the river, and that makes getting into his area very difficult.” He stops to take a sip of his drink. “Now a new Hero has entered the fray and he’s targeted us directly. All we can find out is his name’s Al and his family has a long record of providing great Heroes. Our spies report he’s said we’re going to be destroyed here and at home, and he’s named us as the Aryan Brotherhood. Since he’s been active we’ve also run into a lot of trouble back on Earth. A lot of it’s official so we don’t know if it’s him or he has organised some pull back there. All we know is we’re being hit on both planets. Another action related to his appearance is the loss of several of our spies on Crossroads and the loss of many links into their systems. Some people credit the adjustments to the AI computer since it had a major change in how it worked at the same time this Al appeared. Others credit Al with the improved security. We don’t know, for sure. The big issue, now, is this Hero Al and his local forces. He’s got himself a trained militia and they’re either huge or very effective. For several months they attacked small patrols and harassed other forces. We had some losses, but nothing big. His latest visit has made a major change in their tactics and their aims. We know he arrived on planet to conduct a rescue down near Two Sheaf. Spies through there tell how there’s major changes down that way while uniformed forces passing through get attacked and wiped out. It’s estimated a uniformed force would need to be a thousand men or more to get through Two Sheaf. For several weeks no changes. Then he’s busy up around Corn. The new fort at the junction of the Southern Road and the Bridgetown Road is destroyed and all in it are killed. The force at Bridgetown is destroyed. The force we sent to Summer Ford is believed destroyed as we’ve heard nothing from it since it left Marley.” He stops for another drink.

He looks over the group of Brotherhood leaders and continues, “We have lost about seven thousand men since Al arrived on planet this trip. His last trip cost us around a thousand. He’s eliminated all our troops west of Marley, and whenever anyone sticks their nose east of Marley he cuts it off for them. Hell, the last five spies who left the town turned up dead in the town square the next morning. In short, we can’t expand west until we can do so in a way that we can deal with this Al and his Tigers. It would seem we’d need a force of about twenty thousand to do that.” That gets a lot of attention. Right now raising that many soldiers for one offensive campaign will mean they’ll have to strip the other areas bare of troops. That could lead to control issues. “Al seems to be taking a break in pushing us out. I suspect he’s out recruiting troops for garrison duty before he moves again. We also have some other major losses. General Maxwell Haley is reported dead. His body hasn’t turned up back at the portal but he was in the fort the day it was attacked. I think he’s been killed, but only after his ring was removed. Just like what happened with the Bond brothers. That’s four rings we’ve lost and we don’t have an unlimited supply of them. That area also had four of the imported special operations people working with our people. They were along to be observers and to report back if things went bad so we’d get some idea of how they’re killing our troops. The men have missed their last two reporting cycles and are believed to be dead. If they were alive they’d have reported back by now. That, more than anything else I’ve said, frightens me. This Hero’s troops can kill Earth trained special operations troops, and one of them had on chain-mail he’d bought.” He takes another drink, glad they can get good scotch through the portal.

He looks around the room again and says, “In short, at the moment we’re trapped in this small section of the land promised. We’ve control issues and major recruitment issues due to the large losses with our expansion west and north. We can’t expand south until after we get west, and can’t expand east. We’re short on trained troops and we’re having to use half-trained troops while losing specialists. Now let’s brainstorm to see if we can come up with a plan to get us out of this pickle we’re in.” The discussion starts in earnest, and it goes on for many days.

Crossroads

I shut the lid and we’re off to Crossroads. Very anti-climactic again. I love it because I don’t want to risk the eight Damsels if I don’t have to. A moment later the eleven of us are at Crossroads and I’m being hustled into the medical chamber. When I get out Nina Programmer is put in while Merry and I get reacquainted. The rest of the Damsels, Kira, and Timms take their turns in the chamber while I spend time with Nina. We make love while I provide her reward for the risks she took on Chaos. The first week on Crossroads with a Damsel is always the same: making love, restoratives, meals, and making love with very little sleep. After a week they seem to settle down a bit and I get time for a regular sleep as well as a little time to do other things, but not much.

On the twenty-sixth day after our return I get an odd feeling about Nina. It strengthens on the next day and is very strong on the day after. I get up and go to the table to think on this odd feeling. I’m sitting there drinking a cup of hot chocolate when Nina walks in and says, “I’m with child.” Merry and Kira scream with delight. It’s at that point I realise the odd feeling I had was my recognising the just conceived child. It must be something to do with the translator implant causing a change. It’s also at that point I realise I’ve not seen the other Damsels or Timms since I arrived, and I wonder where they are.

Nina gives me a hug and a kiss then leaves to go home. A moment later Janice Civil Planner walks in a door, races over, and drags me off to the bedroom. Here we go again, and I’ve another six to deal with too!

The next four weeks are very much a repeat of the twenty-eight days with Nina, as are the following six months with the other Damsels. By the end of eight months of this I’m feeling a bit jaded. I fulfil my duties to the ladies and they all leave very happy with our time together. During the last month I suspect Mac slipped some sleeping tablets into Mary’s food because we get to spend a bit more time together to talk about a few things of mutual interest.

Rings

One discussion is on the rings I’ve taken from the Brotherhood. Mac opens the talk with, “Al, I’ve studied the rings and I find they’re very different to the ones we have for the Heroes. They’re older technology with a built-in radio transmitter. Both transmit several signals, most are the same and are needed to work the portal they’re linked with, while they also have a unique signal as well. I suspect that’s to identify the specific ring. The confusing part is they’re a technology from a time much earlier than the Hero portals. Searching on the frequencies they use I can locate the portal on Earth and the one on Chaos, but only when they’re in use. I’m getting closer to localising them but I can only detect them while in use during a transfer, which is a very short period of time. I have found twenty rings on Chaos, on the east coast of your base’s continent. One on Earth near Washington, D.C. Two in the bank system I think are the ones in your lock box. The good news is I’ve investigated the technology related to these and they only work with paired portals. Destroy a portal at either end and they cease working. Damage the ring and they cease working. Also, they are not compatible with the system the Heroes use. But, anyone with one of each can use both systems.”

We discuss these points for a few minutes then I ask, “Any idea why they made only twenty-five rings for each portal set?”

“Not really, but I’ve a suspicion. They’re using a specific section of radio frequencies, much of it on the mutual signals. The technology used has to have a minimum gap between signals or they interfere with each other. By the time they have twenty-five unique signals they’re almost into the next band group. So it’s likely they have twenty-five rings per band set and have a number of band sets with their own paired portals.”

Damn, that sounds right, and it’s not nice. But it does put a limit on the number of rings per portal pair. I ask, “Any idea of how many pairs they may have?”

“Yes. To stay within the technology they show, and what will work with the portals, they can’t have more than ten portal pairs, each with a maximum of twenty-five rings.”

“So we need to find the ten portal pairs and destroy them, or we find and destroy the twenty-five rings to make their system useless.”

“Wrong, Al. If you destroy the rings someone can make new rings to work on those frequencies. However, if the sapphire is removed the ring still transmits the radio signal through the other crystal but it won’t activate the portal. Which is why I’ve removed the sapphires from the two rings I have and suggest you do the same. Since we don’t know who is behind this we can’t assume they don’t have the technology to make more rings, and we need to ensure they can’t use the system again.”

“The frightening thing is this system they’re using exists and you had no idea it existed. What else don’t you know about the system?”

“Believe me, Al, the whole administration is digging hard to find out why we don’t have these records and why they were set up. Which brings us to the other matters: the Kukulka and the databases.”

Kukulka

“We can find no record of the Kukulka ever being on the planet. We did find one of a record of them visiting Earth a few thousand of your years ago. So your idea about the cause of those legends is probably right. We’ve sent a request to the Kukulka Central Government to see if they can find anything in their records about a colony out here. But no one’s got any expectations of an answer any time soon.”

“Mac, have you found all their sites on Chaos yet?”

“Yes. There are three in the mountains and two are near the coast.”

“Right. Bring up the map of that area. Draw a circle around the three sites that equates to the distance they can fly. See if they intersect at any point.” We’re sitting at the computers while talking, so the middle screen is soon showing that picture. The circles don’t touch, but they almost do. “Enlarge the circles by fifteen percent and shade the intersections of two circles in orange and of three in red.” The image changes and it shows a few orange spots with a red spot right in the middle of the mountains that’s equidistant from the three settlements. I smile, because it does look like a deliberate spreading of the people. “Can you give the red area a very detailed scan for any metal objects?”

“Yes. Why?”

“When I was in the Valley of the Kukulka I saw some metal objects but I didn’t see a forge or anything similar. It could have been in a cave and out of my sight, but the objects looked to be more like alloys than steel or iron or copper. I’m wondering if they’re a long lasting alloy that’s been handed down over generations.”