December Read online

The two of them made their way down the December’s corridors to the docking area. The Yulasa, General Toka’s ship and the flagship of the Kolean fleet, had been connected to the December since they’d set up operations in Earth’s solar system.

  Just as when the December had been docked at Neptune Station, a sturdy tube connected both ships, making it easy for a person to walk from one ship to the other. It was through the tube that Ted and Alana traveled.

  They walked in silence through the halls towards what Ted assumed to be a briefing room of some sort. This was his first time on a large Kolean cruiser, so he observed every bulkhead, the color of the floors and ceilings, the shapes of the doors, and the Koleans he saw walking around. He had to duck in several places because the ceilings were a lot lower.

  Finally, they came to a door near what Ted thought was the front of the ship.

  “Go in, we’re late,” Alana told him matter-of-factly, as she opened the door with a code. Inside, the room was somber. General Toka stood at the head of a wide table, Hoguh on his left. There were four other people in the room, two men and two women, whom Ted had not seen before but assumed were all high-ranking military officers.

  “What’s the current situation?” Alana asked as she got as comfortable as possible on the cheap mat that circled the table. Feeling as though he didn’t belong there, Ted took his place next to her.

  General Toka raised his eyes, regarding her for a moment, before speaking. “Touchy. Now that everyone’s here, I suppose we’ll begin. As some of you know, the Drevi army now knows we’re here. They encountered an emergency team that went to Earth with the purpose of rescuing Ted Anderson and Juiya Kama, who were engaged by a Drevi military patrol. Upon receiving reports of Koleans on Earth, the Drevi military went on high alert and began mobilizing. When they did, they sent scouting ships out beyond the asteroid belt. There have already been reports of skirmishes between the scout ships and our own vessels. We have destroyed or captured a few of them, but several more have managed to hide among the asteroids and escape. I have put the fleet on high alert.”

  He turned icy eyes on Ted, as if trying to decide whether or not he blamed the human for this blunder. “Would you care to explain yourself, Ted?”

  “I’m sorry,” Ted began in English, not trusting himself to communicate in Kolean anymore. Alana translated his words sharply. “I mistakenly thought Officer Kama and I had been given permission to leave when in reality no such orders were given. We went to a woman by the name of Jodi Hart and spoke with her in an attempt to learn more about the resistance, but the Drevi apparently were able to detect me somehow and followed us. We ran, they pursued, and a firefight broke out.”

  “That means you’re more of a high-profile target than we initially thought,” one of the women said.

  “I also think we should speed up our analysis of the intelligence we’ve been gathering about the Drevi’s fleet, their capabilities, and any weaknesses we might be able to exploit,” said the man sitting next to her. “They’ve closed most of the holes we were able to crawl through last time, but my team has already noticed some ways in which they may be vulnerable to an attack.”

  “We should get Vandoraa up here, in any case,” Hoguh said, turning to General Toka. “He’s an officer in the army and is bound to know some things we don’t. I’ll make him talk.”

  Hoguh’s words made Ted shiver and his instincts kicked in. Something was telling him it would be bad news if Hoguh got ahold of Vandoraa. “I want Vandoraa to come with us when we go meet Kenneth,” he blurted out, surprising himself and everyone else in the room.

  “Why, Ted?” Alana sighed, as if she were entirely exasperated with his random declarations. And unlike most of those statements, this one really had no logic behind it.

  “I suppose we can discuss it later,” Hoguh said, a fierce gleam in his eye.

  “You went down there to gather information on the resistance.” Toka steered the subject in another direction, looking at Alana and Ted. “Did you obtain any new leads on how we might contact them?”

  “We have a place to start looking,” Alana said, trying to inject good news into the conversation, but not having the knowledge to explain it herself. “Ted, tell them.”

  “I have an idea,” Ted said, beginning his explanation. Fortunately, he was pretty sure this idea was a good one. “Since the resistance leader is the Kenneth Wood I know, I think I can get his attention with a simple message. He’ll know what it means and that it’s me and Jodi trying to contact him. He’ll come.”

  “I assume this message will mean nothing to any Drevi who might receive it?” General Toka asked.

  “Not unless they’re familiar with old Earth literature,” Ted said. “You see, Kenneth was a literature major in college. He loved nothing more than dissecting old books and using them to find meaning in his own life. There’s one book in particular that he’s always been obsessed with, Also Sparch Zarathustra in its native German, or Thus Spoke Zarathustra in English. The book advocates the idea of an Übermensch, or ‘Superman,’ who will rise above society and live by his or her own code.”

  “And you think Kenneth fancies himself this... Supur... Supa... Übermensch?” Alana asked. It amused Ted that the German word seemed easier to pronounce for a Kolean than the English translation.

  “He always was full of himself,” Ted muttered. “In other words, I think if I can send a message to him using a passage from the book, he’ll know it’s me and Jodi and will agree to meet with us.”

  “And there’s no way the Drevi could figure it out, since I doubt many of them have even heard of this book,” Alana said, clearly warming up to the idea.

  “Exactly.”

  General Toka nodded, seeming to buy into the plan as well. “How would you go about submitting the passage?”

  “I need to talk more about it with Trell, but it seems we can send the message out over normal communications frequencies. A lot of receiving stations will pick it up, but nobody will really know what it means, least of all the Drevi. They’ll think it’s suspicious, and dissect it as best they can, but won’t come up with anything.”

  “Do you think there’s a risk of a human collaborator explaining the meaning behind the passage? It’s possible there are spies in the resistance already,” one of the male Kolean officers Ted didn’t know spoke up.

  “It’s possible, but Kenneth’s so paranoid and cautious I bet only people he’s very close to know much about his true plans. Everyone else just does as they’re told. He probably tells them it’s for security’s sake, and he’s right. The less they know, the safer they actually are.”

  All the Koleans around the table nodded, and Ted would have believed it if someone told him much of the Kolean military were former resistance fighters. After all, they had driven the Drevi off their home world. It would have taken a lot of drive, guts, and people loyal to the cause to accomplish that. They would be familiar with resistance tactics.

  “By all means, talk to Trell and figure out the specifics. Run it by me before you actually act,” General Toka said, clearly indicating that he wanted just about everything Ted did from then on to pass his inspection before it actually happened. “Hoguh, if they need any assistance, give it to them. And get some information out of that Drevi prisoner.”

  “Of course, Toka,” Hoguh said.

  “Dismissed.”