The Imperialists: The Complete Trilogy Read online

  She had briefly contemplated becoming a Phantom, one of the most feared assassins in the universe, but that meant endless missions to outer space. Although she was adventurous at heart, she didn’t want to be subjected to countless missions to places where not only the climate, atmosphere and vegetation were different, but also the gravitational pull. She had heard of humans developing strange conditions where the position of certain organs would change after having been exposed to high gravity for prolonged periods. No, she wanted her feet planted firmly on the ground on Earth.

  “Why the hell did I become a doctor?” she muttered to herself as the cold water ran down her hair and her back. Her education in alien life forms as an undergraduate biologist and her fascination in ‘creepy things’, as her mother used to say, ensured she got a job treating patients with exotic conditions from exposure to certain ‘creepy things’.

  Doctors like her were basically owned by the government. Many of the best were forced to work for the military in their outer space expeditions. Now, it seemed, it was her turn. The director of the hospital had received a ‘request’ from the military to provide a medical team of five. All five would receive twice what they currently earned. If they chose to make a career of the military, they only had to work until they were sixty years old to guarantee themselves a generous pension, a full two decades less than other occupations.

  But it was well known that the life expectancy of military doctors was much shorter than that. Humans, or any life form, were not designed for space travel. There existed only perhaps ten planets that were similar enough to Earth that would not give humans any kind of sickness on the long run. Six of these were colonized by the Chinese while the Atlantic Alliance held three; fat chance of being stationed on any of those.

  And then there was the combat. Most intelligent aliens posed little threat to the mighty Renden armies. The biggest threat came from other Rendens. Although outer space empires had largely been consolidated and the threat of an all-out war was unlikely, the vast empires were difficult to control and small regional wars based on anything from resources to personal vendettas were known to be more frequent than reported. Rendens, the only intelligent being that actively hates and kills itself.

  She stepped out of the shower and dried herself. The opponent who had downed her just entered the changing room talking with her friends. Her wide grin told Heera that she had been talking about the sparring match. But as soon as the younger woman saw Heera, she stopped grinning and acknowledged her with a nod of her head. Her eyes, however, couldn’t conceal her smug joy. Heera put on a fake smile and nodded back.

  After fully dressing she got in the elevator that took her five hundred feet underground to where she had left her personal transport unit. The oblong shaped vehicle soon arrived after she sent a signal using her brain wave magnifier on her right ear to the Web-Com network. Despite her disciplined, even cold appearance, Heera loved homeliness and warmth and the interior of the PTU reflected this. The walls were covered with beige velvet and the seat had been replaced by one resembling a comfortable armchair. Pictures of her family were on the wall and the light was adjusted to resemble evening sunlight as close as possible. Upon entering, the faint scent of coffee arose. The door closed and the PTU glided along the vast network of subterranean tunnels so smoothly that she didn’t even feel it.

  In forty two minutes, she was six hundred kilometres away at her apartment. One of the advantages of being a doctor was the government commissioned apartments. Hers was on the one hundred and thirty first floor of a two hundred story complex. On the elevator, she looked at the reflection of her face on the elevator mirror. A tear was hanging stubbornly to the corner of her eye. She blinked to let it fall before wiping it with her finger.

  On her entering, the apartment suddenly came to life with the opaque windows turning transparent and her two corgis running to greet her. In one month she would have to part with lazy Limbo and lively Cracker. The unknowing dogs continued to wag their tail stumps and beg for love.

  Love. Was that the emotion she had felt toward him? Was it just passion and lust? Heera had met him six years ago when she was still a young aspiring doctor. She had taken a ski holiday to Colorado, a neutral state. There she met the young cadet, tall, strong and free spirited. He was a year from being sent on a mission to outer space so she knew it couldn’t last. What originally was a week’s holiday became one month and then two. At the end, he had asked her to come with him to London, the capital of the Atlantic Alliance.

  But she knew how they treated Asians there and she would have to convert to the One God movement. Despite his charming naivety, she knew that he would be indoctrinated to view women as mere vessels for birth, a producer of soldiers. But who cares? He was probably dead anyway or sick or nuts. But if he wasn’t… he was out there with the stars.

  She started to stretch out her muscles strained from the rigorous exercise. Sunlight flooded into her apartment from the setting sun in the west. She couldn’t afford to let the news affect her as a person or a doctor. In the final position of meditation, she sat cross legged with her back straight and tried to block the fear from her mind. After five minutes, she exhaled slowly and opened her eyes to find Limbo panting in front of her. She tussled his head affectionately. How many times will I do this?

  She needed to talk to her parents and break the news. She dreaded this although they probably expected it. Next week, she would start to get rid of her earthly possessions and move in with her parents and younger siblings back in Busan on the tip of the Korean peninsula.

  Chapter 3: A Threat

  ‘The duty of the priest is the most divine. All intelligent beings exhibit strong resistance to outside ideas and new paradigms, even if they contain new truths. But examples have shown that coercion is a very effective way of imposing acceptance. Often, the initial generation may never fully abandon their old ways, but within three or four generations, true believers and followers of the Pure Way are born. Thus, the duty of the missionary priest is one that spans generations and requires patience and assistance.’ - Saint Thomas Dardat, Sixteenth Pope of the One God Church, , year 2676.

  The high priest had arrived on Janpu with an escort of hundreds of bodyguards, bishops, monks and assistants. Nearly seventy bodyguards; this reflected the danger that those in priesthood were facing. Religious figures from all the major empires were always targets of assassination. The soldiers guarding the priests were clearly wary of any threat as seventy pairs of eyes surveyed the surroundings. Terry watched them and thought about whether he would make a good bodyguard. He observed how they moved. No. Theirs was a different set of skills. Their instinct was to take fire with their bodies while his was to take cover. They would not last long on the battle ground.

  The Church’s arrival on Janpu meant the marines’ job was over. Now would come the long, arduous process of converting the locals. Hundreds of guard towers were sent to the ground from orbit while armed satellites floated in the air. Robotic drones, good for security but inefficient in battle, roamed the streets. Invasion was easy. Winning minds and conversion wasn’t.

  Terry longed to be back on Earth. It had been five years since he had inhaled the fresh air of Earth, walked the streets of London and had a good meal. Food was always a concern on these outer space missions since local vegetation was rarely suitable for human digestion. Often it was because of bacteria and sometimes it was simply because the protein or fibre was just not suited for human consumption. When space exploration had just begun ignorant explorers brought back vegetation or animals which caused vast pandemics. Now anyone or anything re-entering Earth needed to go through vigorous quarantine. Intelligent aliens were also strictly forbidden from setting foot on the Renden home planet.

  Though all marines were entitled to some leave time, it usually meant relaxing on a close-by, Earth-like planet. The time and energy required to take marines back to Earth just to relax didn’t make sense. Terry knew th
at what he was doing was divine and came before everything else. But he could not help longing to see his parents, his siblings. He often questioned if God’s will was supreme and he was God’s servant, why had God given him this wistful longing? Why couldn’t he make him the emotionless, cold minion that he wanted to be? But whenever these thoughts entered his head, he quickly bit the inside of his mouth until it bled to have his blasphemous thoughts forgiven. It was his own weakness that caused these thoughts and emotions to enter his mind.

  Tureog, the captain of the impressive Ewani Company, seemed to read his thoughts. “I have heard and read about your planet. Although I know I will never be able to, I would like to see it one day. A planet with that much water seems unusual to me. I have seen images of how green it is in some areas. Your vegetation looks delicious to us Ewani.” The two of them were sitting side by side on the steps of another administrative building.

  Terry simply nodded. He didn’t like talking of home.

  “I will one day return to Onut, my home. It is harsher and more dangerous than most planets but it is where I feel at peace.” continued the Ewani.

  “God has given you hardship on your planet so you could become the great warriors you are to do his will” answered Terry. This was a textbook answer and he knew it.

  “Yes, God’s will. I suppose it is.”

  This response dismayed Terry.

  “Captain” he said with a stern expression. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have sensed doubt in your faith.”

  Tureog merely laughed. At least Terry thought it was a laugh.

  “Lieutenant, I have not seen my children in ten years. Ten years of killing for God and I have yet to be granted the happiness of seeing my grown children. You would understand if I seemed slightly frustrated, would you not?”

  Terry understood all too well deep inside but he dared not let that show. He decided to change the subject.

  “Your combat was impressive on the tower. I can but envy your combat skills.”

  The Ewani answered. “Yet your ancestors were able to bring mine to their knees two hundred years ago. You will concur with my view that combat is much more about physical ability? You yourself have an impressive array of trophies.” He said while pointing his antenna at the various coin-sized decorations on Terry’s shoulder armour.

  “Onut was one of the most difficult planets to invade according to the veteran archives. Your people put up a hell of a fight.”

  “And now we are fighting for the same goal, irony at its best.”

  “Ironic but the correct path for the Ewani. Your services are most appreciated by the Pope and by our brothers-in-arms.” When did I become such an awful conversation partner?

  This time it was Tureog who changed the subject. “On the uprising on Mata Khinlu, I saw you lead your platoon against that terrorist insurgency. You have good judgement and fast reflexes.”

  “Pity I lost a quarter of my men against those cowards. And they were heretics as well, guilty of burning piles of the Pure Bible.”

  Terry enjoyed talking of combat. He would have liked to continue on the subject but a junior enlisted marine came running toward them.

  “Captain, Lieutenant! All officers are to report to Colonel Davis at the main government building. We’re in a state of alert, sir.”

  Terry wondered why this hadn’t been communicated through the Web-Com network but he soon found out that it was not working. The high priest’s entourage seemed to have been informed since the welcome reception. The bodyguards were all packing everything in and the high-priest was ushered back on his ship. Terry put his amplifiers on to full power and ran to the government building so fast that even the Ewani captain was falling behind. Scenes of Janpeks being lined up and houses being searched became blurred.

  Other officers were also turning up when Terry and Tureog arrived. The battalion commander, Colonel Davis, and a few senior officers stood at the front of the large tent erected in front of the Amber Tower. Terry saw that among them was a navy lieutenant commander from the sword under the AA insignia.

  He could sense their tenseness and so could, apparently, Tureog who twitched his antennae. Heat-memory chairs had been inflated so the two hundred or so officers could be seated. Once everyone had found a place, the colonel opened his mouth. “Gentlemen, seventeen minutes ago we lost contact with orbit and all of our satellites on the day side of Janpu. However, one of our satellites on the night side located closest to the day side was able to send us this image.”

  With that, a holograph projector came to life and illustrated what seemed to be a fleet of vessels. The fleet had exited through a wormhole carefully opened behind the small Janpun moon to shield it from view. Hence, the holograph didn’t show exactly how many ships there were in the fleet or what insignia they carried. But one of them was definitely shaped like a tortoise, the standard design of Chinese destroyers.

  “This anonymous fleet appeared through a wormhole created roughly ten megametres from where our navy mothership was located. The timing of its appearance strongly suggests that it is responsible for the malfunction of our communication equipment and our loss of contact with orbital command. If our own fleet and mother ship was destroyed, it was done so in such a way that we could not detect it from the surface” He continued. “Lieutenant-Commander Duvalier from orbital command will explain further.”

  The navy officer who Terry had noticed before stepped forward started speaking. “As you know, surface communication and control of our satellites is done through the mothership. But this is temporary and surface command centres are erected to provide more reliability during or following invasion. One has been already erected on what is currently the night side of Janpu and it is responsible for command and communication on that side. But the current day side has no surface command centre since it temporarily relied on the mothership that was directly above our heads. Our small surface monitors are not powerful enough to monitor what is going on beyond the lower atmosphere.”

  The projected holograph now changed to show Janpu, the anonymous fleet and the satellite that had relayed the image.

  “The satellite was able to send this image since it was in direct line of sight with the fleet. As the fleet approaches, however, the planet itself is an obstacle, blocking its sensors. The fleet is now estimated to be within one megametre, or one thousand kilometres from the surface. Gentlemen, we are looking at a surface attack within the next hour.”

  Chapter 4: Return or Revenge

  ‘During the four hundred years of Renden imperialism, however, no fewer than two hundred and thirty six races of intelligent aliens have become extinct. In no time in history has the known universe been home to so many intelligent beings, and in no time has there been such a rapid and clinical demise, either…’ Author Unknown, , published year 2989

  He was dreaming of his childhood. He remembered clearly how he had hatched from the tough shell that surrounded him. His mind felt the struggle of his three brothers that were all hatching at the same time. During the thirteen months he had spent as a foetus his father had spoken to him, his father whose flesh he was wearing on his bones.

  The guidance and wisdom of countless generations came to him but his immediate father’s voice spoke the strongest. During his foetal period, his father gave him his name; Bin’ja, the wise and just leader. Even before birth he knew that his lineage was one of the oldest and perhaps the only one that still held memories of the Darkness, when his race lived in the earth underground. So even as a hatchling, he arguably already had more knowledge than the elders.

  Perhaps it was for this that he had an unusually strong connection with Mother, like the tough rope made from the fibres of the Great Trees. The spirit that lay in the Great Trees was the Mother of all the Nikruk people. She had guided them out of the Darkness and showed them the sun and the stars. He ‘remembered’ how his ancestor had nibbled on the roots of a Great Tree and accidently drank some of the S
acred Blood. Immediate realization of self had followed, filling him with a wish to know himself and the world around him.

  The moment his father had ingested the Sacred Blood, something similar had happened, not to his father but to Bin’ja. He had started to exist and was conscious of the world, even curious. And he knew already that he was bound for greatness. The first to hatch in his litter, he would be not only the leader of the litter, but perhaps the leader of the entire Nikruk people.

  Now, however, he knew he had a different mission in life. It was to free Mother and his people from the accursed Rendens. The Rendens arrived when he was in his infancy, thirty Earth years ago. Being well equipped from the nurturing received as a foetus, he was fully aware of what they were doing but he was powerless to stop them. Of the hundreds of Great Trees that represented Mother around the world, Rendens destroyed more than half. The Nikruk fought bravely and fiercely but this, it turned out, was the reason behind their enslavement.

  Much impressed by their fighting ability, the Nikruk were designated as a martial race. But the will of Mother and all the previous fathers was too great for them to be shaped into soldiers. So the Rendens committed sacrilege. They again destroyed all but twenty of the Great Trees, reducing Mother’s voice to a slight whisper. Around these they built fortifications and started monopolizing Mother’s sap, the Sacred Blood of life and death.

  They then polluted and falsified Mother’s blood so that the voice of the fathers would no longer be heard and martial ability and obedience would be augmented. Mother’s warmth was blocked by periodically injecting some kind of chemical compound into the necks of the Nikruk. They had become an enslaved, soulless fighting force for the Rendens. Their culture and heritage had all been destroyed. He remembered how he had cried when he felt another Great Tree being burned, how he had felt the pain.