Eric Flint - Rats, Bats and Vats

"Colonel, succeed or not, we've occupied their lines," Fitz snapped. "Do you know how often we've managed to do that in this war? Three times. And never across a whole sector."

"We'll never hold it," said Nygen sulkily.

Fitz ground his teeth. This sort of thinking was ingrained. "We're not going to try. When that force field comes up we're going to punch columns hard into their force-field area."

It had sounded convincing back then. Now, waiting in the predawn, he could have used some convincing himself. His bangstick rested against the invisible inviolate barrier. Human gunners had proved that the Magh only raised it about three feet. And on average for less than two minutes.

"Have you got any booze with you?" asked Ariel.

Bobby Van Klomp was no better at waiting. And there'd been nothing from the satellite crowd for over an hour now. He sighed and checked his gear one more time. His own guess was that the wheels would start to come off Fitzy's crazy plans anytime after six. Maybe earlier, but certainly not later than seven-thirty. He'd have his men in the air at six-thirty. Early, but not ridiculous enough for anyone to question. He could keep them out for as long as possible.

That would give Fitzy an extra hour of a small chance…

The only one who waited well was Henry M'Batha. The others had all given up waiting for more fireworks and trickled off to bed, or back to their stations. But Henry refused to believe that it was all over. His relief didn't come in until seven. And then Henry would find reasons to stay a while longer…

Eric Flint

Rats, Bats amp; Vats

Chapter 40:

Maybe not.

ROMANTIC PLACES ARE made thus by the people in them. This was not the windswept gritstone edge above the stark and wild Yorkshire moors of her dreams. But the towering stacks of Maggot-grub cells through which they wandered hand-in-hand made a magical, beautiful place too, thought Ginny. Even the relentless munching noises from the racks had an almost musical charm.

Chip had explored the area. Off on the far side were any number of little open Magh' adobe cells. It took them some time to get there, because they kept stopping to work on this kissing bit. At the last stop Chip had nearly decided that this was a good enough place anyway

…

Ginny looked at Chip. "This looks like the cell I was walled up in."

"Would you like to go somewhere else?" His hands were caressing her breasts, and his fingers were gently coming in to touch her nipples through her blouse, arousing her to the point where she wasn't thinking logically any more. Well, other than about how to get the material out of the way.

"Not if I'm here with you," she said, breathlessly, unfastening his shirt buttons, her fingers clumsy with haste.

And then, from the other side of the wall, someone said something. Both of them stopped, their hands in very compromising positions.

The voice from the other side of the wall spoke again.

Ginny's heart rose, despite wishing desperately that the interruption hadn't happened for another few, precious few, minutes. It wasn't a bat or a rat voice. It certainly wasn't Fluff's. Who else was there except the Professor? Well… it could be someone else, she supposed. "Er. Who's there?"

"Tell him to piss off," Chip whispered in her ear, through clenched teeth.

The reply they got could easily have been an excerpt from the Kama Sutra. Well, an alien version thereof, because whatever language that was, it wasn't human. And human voices didn't hit those sorts of notes. It could have been nearly anything because she didn't understand a word of it. She tried some Korozhet. She'd been amazed at how easy that had been to learn.

There was a silence. Then, in appallingly accented but clear Korozhet, the voice informed her that the Korozhet would get absolutely nothing out of it.

"We are not Korozhet," Ginny said hastily. That was a shocking idea, to be denied at all costs.

The appallingly accented Korozhet speaker asked, "Well, what are you then? Are you Magh'?"

"I understood two words. Korozhet and Magh'," said Chip. "What is it saying?"

"Um. It asked whether we were Magh'," Ginny translated.

"I'd like to know what the hell it is, even if it has the shittiest sense of timing in the entire universe." Chip's tone of voice was pure irritation.

She looked into his eyes, her mouth easing into that tiny almost anxious smile, revealing those slightly skew teeth. Hell, to make her smile he'd forgive anything. Chip sighed. "I suppose it is a Crotchet. Ask if it can get you out of here."

"Not without you." Her long fingers crumpled his shirt. She spouted a string of alien. It talked back.

"It says it is a prisoner too. Live larvae food like us. Its ship was tracking the Magh' slowship routes to offer alliance to whoever the Magh' were attacking this time."

Ginny was glad to have the language mystery cleared up. "So that is why you speak Korozhet. They are our allies. They also came to give us warning. We owe them our lives."

There a long silence. Then whatever was on the other side of the wall replied. "Yes. The Korozhet warned us too. They had some very useful war materials for sale. Very convenient. Very expensive."

"What's it say?" demanded Chip. She translated.

"I'll say!" Chip sounded as if he might almost forgive the alien for being there. Almost. "Ask it whether they got slowshields from them. I'm really suspicious about those, after Doc's comments. I'll bet they sold them soft-cyber stuff and not an FTL drive."

Ginny shook her head violently "I'm sure you're wrong! You just don't like the Korozhet! But I'll ask. I'm certain you're wrong!"

She asked.

The alien made a noise like steel pan being caressed with a castanet. "Apologies. That is just ticklish… I mean… funny. Yes, they sold us kinetic movement shields and tried to sell us `enhancement' cybernetics. Of course we would not buy such a crazy thing. No sentient is going to put alien-built logic-circuits in its head. And no, of course they didn't sell us an FTL drive!"

"So. What did he say?" demanded Chip.

Somewhat reluctantly, she told him.

"You can say that again. Well, at least we're not crazy enough to put soft-cybers into human heads. Ask it whether they managed to beat the Maggots."

Miserably, Ginny asked.

"Once we discovered that the Korozhet were passing all our military information to the Magh', it wasn't that hard," replied the alien voice.

"That's a lie!" shouted Ginny furiously, as soon as she finished translating. "The Korozhet saved our colony! The Magh' would have taken us by surprise and wiped us all out."

The creature on the other side of the wall sounded heated too. "The Korozhet farm wars. The Magh' are their animals."

"You LIE! You LIE!!!"

"We Jampad do not lie."

She turned instinctively to Chip. He held her gently and stroked her head. "What's wrong, Ginny?"

"It says… It says." She found the words impossible to get out. "It says it is a Jampad. They killed my parents." She turned on the wall and pounded it with her fists. "You murdered my parents you. .. monster. I hate you. Come out here and I'll kill you."

The creature on the other side of the wall appeared equally upset, if volume was any way to judge Jampad emotion.

"My ship-and my people only had the one FTL ship built-was destroyed! I saw how the Korozhet destroyed helpless lifepod after lifepod. My clan-kin are dead. My pod was damaged by their fire as I entered the atmosphere. I had no directional controls. I made a forced landing on the top of the Magh' force field. Then, when it opened, I fell through. I made the gesture of submission to the Magh'. I was brought here, for larvae food. I would hope that what you say is true. I would be delighted if my clan-kin had killed your silly kind. It would mean someone else survived. But they are all dead. Do you hear me. Dead. Who told you that the Jampad had killed your kin? Who? The stinking Korozhet told you. They lie. About everything!"