Steven Campbell - Hard Luck Hank - Basketful of Crap

“No,” Delovoa said. “Inanimate objects are shipped all the time through Portals. I think those guys are from their home world. They don’t wear clothes there. They don’t need them.”

“The planet Thereze is blockaded by all the empires,” Garm argued. “You’re saying someone set up a Portal on their home world and are marching Therezians through?”

Delovoa shrugged.

“There’s only a thousand off-world Therezians in the whole galaxy. Everyone knows what an incredible fluke it is to have Wallow here—and everyone knows where the other 999 currently are. It’s not as if they can hide.”

“I saw them come through right after each other,” I said.

“Which again makes it sound like they were going through one Portal located at one place.”

“Such as on Thereze,” Garm finished.

We all pondered this.

“They don’t have genitalia,” Delovoa mentioned.

“Why does that matter?” I asked.

“Matters to them. How do they make babies?”

“What do we do?” Garm asked.

“There’s five new Therezians here and maybe more on the way,” Delovoa started. “To say something is going on is an understatement. I talked about breaking galactic treaties before, but if the corporation has really taken inhabitants from Thereze, this station will be attacked and destroyed by any number of empires. Why would the corporation risk intergalactic condemnation bringing them here?”

“Can you contact the corporation, Hank?” Garm asked nonsensically.

“What? They tried to slaughter me and everyone I knew. We’re not exactly on good terms.”

“No offense, but I don’t think they tried to kill you or they would have. I think they wanted to use you—which they did. Repeatedly,” she said. “Maybe you can get an idea what they’re up to.”

“If they really want to get rid of all potential resistance, that would include me.”

Garm kept trying to plead her case.

“You said you walked past a bunch of soldiers and their vehicles on the way to the Portal and they did nothing. If there was any area they were going to protect, it would be that.”

“I think I’m going to tell the General,” I said.

“Why?” Garm demanded. “You just heard what Delovoa said. You’ll force him to attack us.”

“Do you think we’re going to stop five Therezians, two Gandrine, and a corporation with more tanks and soldiers than we can count? The three of us? And before you answer, I would like to point out that Delovoa has never been in a fight.”

“Not that I’ve won,” Delovoa amended.

“If anyone has a chance of doing anything it’s the Navy. They got warships out there.”

“Exactly, and they’re going to direct their guns at us,” Garm said.

“I don’t believe that. The Navy still wants to use the telescopes. This base is valuable to them. They got a disintegrator here someplace and they probably want to know what the corporation is doing even more than we do. If I learned anything from my gang days it’s you take your friends as you can get them. The General and I have a history of working together,” I said.

Upon reflection:

“Sort of.”

“Did you see the new Therezians?” Ioshiyn asked.

“No, I totally missed five seventy-five foot giants tripping over buildings,” I said.

“I thought there were eight of them.”

“Great.”

“So your boots are done,” he said, handing them to me.

They didn’t look like much. Kind of dark brown and almost floppy. They came up to my ankles. Normally I got boots as stiff and thick as possible so my weight wouldn’t tear them apart. These were almost like socks. They didn’t have as much grip as boots but Ioshiyn said I could put some glue on the soles and periodically scrape it off and reapply.

“Will these protect me if one of those Therezians steps on my foot?”

“No, it’s just hair. It will protect against punctures but that’s about it. Besides, what good will it do you to have your feet shielded if the rest of you is mashed?”

“They’ll have something to bury at least.”

The Gandrine still weren’t back at my apartment. I suppose they were pulling more Therezians out of the ether.

“Therezians?” the General asked, in his approximation of shock, which was very similar to his approximation of sadness or levity, and very much similar to his usual state of anger.

“Yup. Sorry I couldn’t wait for your secure tele to arrive, but I thought this was pretty important. I don’t know how many there are now, but I think at last count there were eight. Not including Wallow. And they’re big.”

“All Therezians are big.”

“Yeah, but I think a few of these could step over Wallow without bending their knees.”

“Where did they come from?”

“First off, I have to say that all the corporations are really just one corporation. It’s the same group controlling all of them. They were only fake fighting with each other to thin out Belvaille’s population. As for the Therezians, the corporation is bringing them with their own Portal. Someone,” I said, wanting to protect Delovoa, “suggested they were coming from Thereze.”

“That’s impossible. That planet is under constant surveillance. No ships are allowed to land or take off.”

“Well, you did a fantastic job of that.”

“What do they plan on using them for?”

I did my best exasperated shrug, but realized he probably couldn’t see me on the tele.

“They’re stepping all over buildings right now.”

“Why are you telling me this?” the General asked suspiciously.

“The way I figure it, if you want to keep this station, you better get here and shut down that Portal. If any more Therezians come through you’re not going to be able to do anything no matter how many warships you got.”

“And what is Belvaille to us?”

I cleared my throat and went over the sheet Garm had prepared for me.

“In accordance with Article 7 as an Independent Protectorate of the Colmarian Confederation, we invoke the Common Defense Framework which provides for the security and intervation in case of attack or occupation.”

“Intervention,” he corrected.

“Whatever.”

“That could take weeks or even months to secure a response,” he said.

“If there’s fifty Therezians here by that time, what’s your response going to be? Sympathy?”

The General seemed to chew this over.

“A landing party will arrive within a week to appraise the situation. Keep me informed of any major updates.”

Never thought I’d be happy to hear the Navy was bringing troops.

The next morning, when I stepped into my living room I saw six soldiers standing there, rifles in their hands.

They were corporate. Opaque helmets and green body armor.

I froze, waiting for them to make the first move.

They didn’t.

“Hello?” I asked.

Tense moments passed.

“Can I help you?”

Still no answer.

“How is it everyone has the key to my apartment?” I asked rhetorically.

Curiosity and stupidity fought for possession of my brain and they both won. I walked warily to the nearest soldier. When he didn’t respond, I began unfastening his helmet.

I took the helmet off and its face was exactly the same as the one that had been in Delovoa’s basement. Just less dead.

However its eyes were staring straight into mine.

It was an intense look.

I took a step to the side and the eyeballs followed me. When I took another step so that the eyes could no longer follow, it turned its head slightly.

It was probably the creepiest thing I had ever seen.