Christopher Nuttall - A Learning Experience

“Mines detonated,” Mongo said. “Steve, I think we got them.”

Steve nodded. Only two Horde warships were left, both heavily damaged. One of them seemed to have enough motive power to start crawling towards the planet, the other seemed to be completely stranded. Given that it was leaking atmosphere from a dozen hull breaches, it was quite possible that the crew was already dead.

Because they don’t bother with spacesuits or even light protective gear , he thought, shaking his head at the sheer unfairness of the universe. How had a bunch of primitives barely entering their Iron Age been allowed to obtain interstellar starships? But then, they’d never understood the ships they operated or how to actually produce more technology to replace what they’d bought, begged or stolen from the Galactics.

“Start deploying combat teams,” he ordered. “I want those ships secured as quickly as possible.”

“Aye, sir,” Mongo said.

Steve nodded, then looked over at Kevin. “Contact Edward,” he added. By now, the soldiers who should have gone to Ying would have assembled at their training base. “I want him to send five companies of space-trained soldiers to serve as reinforcements, just in case.”

“Understood,” Kevin said. “Sir… what about the homeships?”

“I would have expected them to run,” Steve commented. But all five homeships were still there, sitting in interplanetary space and waiting. “But we can secure them too.”

He looked down at his display as his subordinates got to work, silently counting the cost. Shadow Warrior hadn’t taken any major damage, but two of her shield generators were gone and three more probably needed urgent replacement. Enterprise had been badly damaged; looking at the reports, it was a minor miracle that the Hordesmen hadn’t managed to finish the job before they were defeated. Only Captain Perry had escaped almost completely. Steve wondered if the starship led a charmed life… or if the Hordesmen had wanted to recapture her rather than simply blow her out of space.

The other ships hadn’t done any better. Five q-ships had been destroyed, three more were completely beyond easy repair. And the older ships they’d turned into the ghost squadron had been destroyed, of course. But they’d taken more than their fair share of enemy spacers with them. All things considered, Steve told himself, they’d been very lucky.

But it wasn’t true for the civilians on Earth, he reminded himself, sharply. Eleven cities wiped out by long-range missiles, several coastlines pounded by tidal waves caused by the final missile. The death toll would be in the millions and rising fast as people died through lack of health care and other provisions. Handling such a global catastrophe would push even the most competent government to the limit.

“Deploy as many of the shuttles, surveillance gear and fabricators as can be spared to assist with the rescue operations,” Steve ordered. Mariko would kill him if he didn’t try to help — and besides, he certainly wanted to help. “Clear it with the local governments, then spread our assistance as far as possible.”

“There’ll be bitching if we don’t put New York first,” Kevin commented. He sounded calmer now, but there was still an undercurrent of rage in his voice. “Lots of us have emotional connections to the city.”

“But we have a global responsibility,” Steve said.

“Picking up a message from the boarding parties,” Mongo said, suddenly. “They need someone who can talk to the Horde women in their own tongue.”

Steve frowned. “Call Heinlein,” he said, finally. “Tell them to send our alien friend.”

Cn!lss had never really expected to set eyes on a woman of his kind, not after he’d effectively joined the human race. Even if he’d stayed with the Horde, it was unlikely that he would ever have been able to breed. The stupidest warrior was still strong enough to take any woman from him, no matter what he said or did. And besides, the women themselves were reluctant to breed with someone who wasn’t considered a hero.

But he held up his claws in greeting as the teleport dropped him onto the homeship bridge, where the bodies of the male crew lay where they’d fallen. Instead of running, the honour-bound idiots had killed themselves. In their place, a handful of women stood there, waiting for him. Their eyes never left his body as soon as he appeared. It was no expression of lust, he knew, but caution. They wanted to know what would happen to themselves and their children.

“The humans have agreed to take us all in and build a better way,” he said, once he’d introduced himself as the senior surviving Hordesman. Those who had been broken down by human psychologists had abandoned their former ranks, those who hadn’t had been isolated from their fellows and left to work their own way towards salvation. “You are more than welcome to join us.”

He took a breath, then went on. “Imagine an end to our wanderings,” he said. His words tumbled over one another as he struggled to get them out before they could do something stupid. “Imagine, instead, that we develop a world of our own. The humans are prepared to ally with us and work towards the future. This is not the end, but a beginning.”

There were other changes coming, he knew, if the women agreed to join the other outcasts in building a new world. The warrior culture would be eradicated. Instead, the Horde would start using its brains and become true members of galactic society. Some of the humans even talked about a grand alliance between different races, with all of them standing as equals before the universe. Long history said it was a pipe dream, but Cn!lss had hope. And besides, if the women joined as equals, the new society would be far more stable than anything else the Hordes had ever built.

He watched the women talk in low voices. They were in an odd position, according to the human sociologists who had attempted to understand the Hordes, both chattel and independent agents at the same time. Looking in from the outside, the women didn’t have much choice about who fathered their children, but they had absolute authority over their own affairs. There were no human-style families, save for the greatest of warriors. And even they lasted only a few years before breaking up.

The women had nowhere else to go. He hoped they understood that, because they would never be allowed to leave. And even if they did leave, where would they go? The other Hordes would only return them to their familiar status, without giving them any room to grow.

“We will join you,” the leader said, finally. “As long as our children are safe, we will join you.”

“Welcome,” Cn!lss said. He clacked his claws in the Pattern of Greeting Between Equals, then bowed his head. Few Hordesmen would offer such honour to their fellow warriors, let alone mere females. “And your children will be safe from both internal and external threats.”

New York, USA

“Dear God,” Steve said. “What a fucking mess.”

New York was gone. The alien warhead might have left little or no radioactivity behind, but it had utterly flattened Manhattan. Piles of rubble that had once been mighty skyscrapers lay everywhere, while — in the distance — he could see damaged towers that had been struck by the dissipating blast. Millions of people had died in the first few seconds, caught in the open by the fireball, while others had died as the shockwave toppled buildings and crushed them below the rubble.

The President nodded in agreement. “But it could easily have been worse,” he said. “Your people served well.”