“It was not enough, it would seem. They wanted blood, one way or another. And they took it.”
Tania is still fast asleep. I do not want to move and wake her. I want to leave her innocent for as long as she can be. I know she will be devastated by this news. I look down at her, sleeping peacefully, and I wonder if perhaps she holds the key to our salvation.
“If not for her…”
“If not for her,” Terrible agrees. “I have never liked the human, but there is no doubting that her rash, inappropriate, lying actions are the only reason we still exist.”
“She broke every rule to get what she wanted, and she didn’t care about the consequences,” I murmur, thoughtfully.
Then I look back up at Terrible.
“We need to become more human. We need to be deviant. We need to be desperate. We need to forget about the consequences if we are to avenge our fallen.”
“Just what are you thinking, sire?”
“Summon the generals. I have an idea.”
We meet in the war room. It, like most of the ship, is empty. The crew have retreated to their berths to reflect on the awful losses we have incurred. There is a pall over this ship and I know there is only one way to lift it.
“Sire.” Terrible inclines his head.
He is keeping his thoughts to himself, but I know he is devastated. As a general and warlord, landholder and leader himself he is as humiliated by this loss as I am.
But we are the Essence and we do not lose. Not for long.
“I have a plan.”
“Retreat? I have mapped out several of our secret colonies where DICK will not find us, where we might regroup or perhaps simply survive.”
Retreat might make sense, but we can’t hide from DICK. We might be able to survive for some time, but what I have in mind is so much more than simple survival. It is an act so bold, and so unexpected nobody in the universe could predict it.
“We are not going to retreat.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We are going to war with DICK.”
“With one ship?” Terrible is rightly dubious. The assembled generals also add their own individual dubious sounds. There are only twelve of them left. They will all need to be in accord with my plan for it to work.
“One ship. Our prime ship is all we need. We will avenge the deaths of our warriors, and we will reclaim the riches DICK has sucked from those around us.”
“How can we possibly do that?”
“We’re going to attack the very core of DICK.”
Terrible allows himself a harsh guffaw. “DICK would destroy us the moment we came into range.”
“They won’t.”
“Why not?”
“They’ll be busy.”
“My liege,” Terrible says. “That might just be vague enough to work.”
15 The Plan
Tania
I am going to war.
I am going to war, because Tyrant is going to war.
I may die, because Tyrant may die.
My destiny, my very existence is now inextricably linked to his.
I could have been safe at home on Earth, making an extra four hundred dollars every week. I could have maybe bought a condo. Instead, I am hurtling toward potential oblivion.
But I am doing it by his side. And that’s all I care about.
I am furious at the man from DICK for betraying us this way, though I know he is just an underling. Whoever is at the top of that organization is a true monster, worse than any of the ones I have encountered so far. To have ordered destruction out of pettiness because Tyrant had an accountant who actually understood their regulations and didn’t just pay out what amounted to protection money? That’s cruel, craven, and unsporting.
Tyrant says we are going to destroy them. I believe him. I don’t understand how, but I am sure he has his methods, even if nobody else on the ship seems to understand them.
“Sire, are you planning on enlightening us as to the plan before we are blown out of the sky as we enter DICK territory?”
Terrible is sassy as always.
“We don’t have an army anymore, but we can use someone else’s.”
Is Tyrant being enigmatic on purpose? Or is he just so focused on his idea that he doesn’t have the time or energy to expound on it? It’s very dramatic, either way.
“We don’t have the riches to pay a mercenary force. And it is not a good idea to try to engage one as we fly, full speed into the maw of death.”
“I wasn’t thinking a mercenary force. I was thinking something else.”
“What?”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“I don’t like any of this.”
Tyrant holds up a small, clear vial filled with some kind of gooey substance.
“This is a distillation of the human’s juices. I gathered them after our mating frenzy.”
“How disgusting,” Terrible says. I can’t say I much disagree with him.