Chapter 23: Shaking Ground — Part 7

The passage of time for Susan during her pregnancy seemed almost as long as the centuries that had past before. Susan’s desire to have a child had inadvertently started a small baby boom. The local populace, which had been shrinking, was now on the rise, and the appetite for competition grew stronger among the soon to be parents of the tribes. Fights were becoming more frequent in the town squares, and the savage aggression needed to survive on Antans was vented into bloody games, some of which were concluded only when those competing found themselves at death’s door. Joni and Trina, having long recovered from the symbiont, had most of their original memories intact. Susan’s worries about her people shifted to the civil war on Earth, which was growing bloodier by the day.

Small groups of mercenaries and resistors were slaughtering each other, and she wondered if the real reason behind the war was even remembered. The Authority, if it even still existed, had long holed up in underground bunkers, to wait for their land forces to reclaim some semblance of order. They may well have even dropped into the long slumber afforded by cryochambers, each to come out in a cycle, watching and waiting for the world to be one where they might well have an advantage yet again. Devon, always by her side, was light hearted and cheery, trying to keep her mind off of things that might affect her pregnancy. More than ever before, Susan knew she loved her man. Her pregnancy had come many years after Grison’s first strike on Earth, but even with three long years for things to boil down, Earth was a planet wasted with war.

There were those, however, that knew just how much power The Authority still wielded on Earth, toward the end of those dying days. The Banks were still operating, torturing and killing the occupants at an astounding rate. Of those suffering pain on Earth, Staven was not one of them. His only suffering was boredom, as he had secured the facility with such cruel efficiency that no troops had succeeded in getting by his exterior defenses. As the bodies grew, so did the smell of rotting flesh, and the diseases that came with the dead. The perimeter of the base, littered with the bloated and long decayed corpses of those who had sought entrance, by whatever means, for whatever reason, had long ago been made uninhabitable. Staven and his crew waited within a bubble of death for orders that seemed would never come. When communications did finally arrive, they arrived with less than enthusiastic anticipation. General Riley had not called them once during their duty-bound interment.

“General Riley, we’ve held the building for three years now.” Staven said, his voice tired with boredom and only mildly sarcastic. “The initial defenses were wiped out immediately, and the computer was programmed for our needs a mere six hours after that. There’s been no retaliation from the Cynosure, and no local uprisings trying to take the building under their control. I’m glad you’ve contacted me now, I was beginning to grow fat with worry.”

General Riley, an aged feminine image on the screen, transmitted from thousands of miles away, smiled bitterly. A withered creature looking bent with age and emotion, Riley had little patience for the smugness of youth. It took her several minutes to receive the message and respond. It gave her a little time to consider the nature of the individual addressing her. When she did respond, her smile made Staven’s skin crawl. Her pale pink lips dry and uninviting, Riley gave him an unhealthy feeling deep inside his chest. Staven knew that she would have killed him, if he were within striking range.

“My other forces were not so fortunate, Commander Winters, nor, perhaps, as capable as yourself. It took us most of these three years to secure the other points necessary for the success of this mission. The Cynosure still holds seventy five percent of this world under its military authority, after all. Your actions today should eliminate their control completely. Please begin Initiative Delta.” General Riley said, her voice a rasp of consideration.