The Starward Exiles Entry 16: The Outer Planets (Serial Novel)

When we returned to the ship, the meltar was waiting for us inside the hull. We exchanged goodbyes with Hapha and Nella, and we left the mining planet. All of us sat in the cockpit as Heath and Mark began discussing the plan. Like before, Heath took the pilot seat while Jill acted as his co-pilot. Cynthia and I sat together in the back, while Mark and Helen were in the middle row.

“So, you’re going to start shipping meltar to the outer planets,” Heath said. “And you’re going to disguise the missing freight as a slave revolt.”

“We’re going to be explaining a lot of missing freight as slave revolts,” Mark said.

“Mark?” Cynthia asked, sounding even more timid and unsure than usual.

Mark turned and looked back at Cynthia, and, even though he’d only just met her, he seemed to instantly detect that her tone was out of character. A worried frown appeared on his face, but he only said, “Yes.”

“We’re using them,” Cynthia said softly. “I think you believe what you told them, but can’t you see?” They don’t stand a chance.”

“We’re not going to leave them alone,” Mark said. “Shandor is the most valuable mining planet in the Milky Way. We can’t afford to lose it. They just need to hold the Nordics off long enough for us to join the battle.”

“But you just said you plan to arm other planets. You can’t defend them all, so some of them are sacrificial pawns. You’re okay with that?” Helen asked.

“This is war,” Jill said, her eyes fixed in front of her.

“That doesn’t mean we have to become monsters,” Cynthia said firmly.

“Yes. It does,” Jill argued.

“Cynthia,” Mark began.

He took a moment to gauge my reaction as well, but I tried to keep a neutral expression. For my part, I wasn’t sure if one had to become a monster to participate in a war, but I’d seen enough battle to feel great pity for those who’d taken a dark road. I don’t mean the Nordics. Monstrosity seemed to be part of their culture. I was thinking of the men who’d encountered the Nordics’ brutality on Earth and had broken. They’d become despondent and, over time, had brutalized any Nordics they could lay their hands on. And the whole while, I’d thought, “But for the grace of God, there go I.” I meant that both for the violent men and the Nordics who were at their mercy. It was no secret to us on Earth that if we were captured by the alien race, brutality, death, and possible slavery were our fates.

I find it strange that the violence I saw back then did not push me further away from God. I’ve had much more trouble dealing with the life of Heath and his crew. Perhaps it’s because, even if we’d died on Earth, we would’ve died men. But Heath and his crew had been reduced to animals. I imagine Cynthia believed war would return them to a similar state, so she was challenging Mark’s strategy. The Nordics specialized in dehumanization, and the crew was still suffering from their masters’ treatment, even after all this time. Yes. Perhaps that was the issue. Then again, I might be just old and tired.

Mark paused for a moment, as if he were choosing his words very carefully. Then he spoke. “How familiar are you with the Pacific Campaign?”

“I’ve never heard of it,” Cynthia said.

“It’s World War 2,” Helen put in. “One of the old wars on Earth.”

“The planets are like the islands in the Pacific,” Mark said. “Our nations are like the competing fleets. Much of that war was choosing where to put resources. We are in the same boat. The generals have to guess where the Nordics are going to place their pieces, and I must place our pieces to meet them. We are not sacrificing anybody. We are betting that they won’t strike one planet in favor of another. But I will freely admit that we could always be wrong. We’ll do our best to protect everyone, but there are risks.”

“I understand,” Heath said. “You have some special purpose for the meltar, but you also expect a battle over Hapha’s operation. So, you’re going to steal military supplies from several mining planets at once, and you won’t bother to hide your activities when it comes to the meltar because the Nordics are bound to find out about it anyway. Meltar is valuable, which means it’s being watched, so why take measures to hide your activities when they’re bound to be discovered. But you will be more careful with the other mining planets. If the slaves are caught, then the whole thing will be sold as a revolt just like Shandor, but you’d prefer these other operations to remain secret.”

“That’s why you want Nicholas,” Jill said.

I was surprised she used my name, but I said nothing because, honestly, I didn’t mind. It felt like I was finally becoming a part of the crew, but I’m not sure why this mattered to me, since our journey together was nearing its end. Once we reached the outer planets, my mission would begin, and I would no longer have cause to see them.

“Nicholas?” Cynthia asked. She paused, then muttered, “right,” eyeing Mark. “You said you planned to work with him, but you never explained how.”

As she said this, I noticed that she scooted toward me, and I almost winced when she placed her hand on my arm and squeezed. I suppose I would have, normally, but her gaze was fixed on Mark. She seemed suspicious of him, which surprised me. I’d assumed Heath would be. The two men seemed to be ideologically opposed on some level. Helen was a cynic, so I presumed skepticism would be her default. Jill was practical, so I figured she’d remain silent for a time before she signaled her emotions one way or the other. But since Cynthia was so warm to him at the warehouse, I thought she’d do for Mark what she’d done for me: take him in and do her best to make him feel welcome. Instead, she was clutching me like she meant to keep me from a predator.

After thinking about this for a moment, I realized that her initial question must’ve been prompted by what we’d seen on Hapha’s planet. I’d watched those screaming and moaning masses with a sort of awe. It was as if I were watching humanity itself wake up from a long slumber. Cynthia had seen something different. When Mark had taken Nella by the arm and made sure the crowd saw her standing beside him, wearing her white tunic, I had interpreted the maneuver as Mark reminding the crowd of their humanity. Cynthia had only seen a carrot. Nella was meant to entice the crowd with hopes of something they could never really obtain: freedom and restored dignity. In her mind, though she’d said little to nothing on the planet, Hapha was not Madulluel. Madulluel had let her slaves go. Hapha had kept his men, women, and children in bondage. The two alien leaders were not the same. Hapha and Mark were merely using the slaves as cannon fodder. In her mind, they would take as much meltar as they could, make some grand escape under the cover of battle, and leave the slaves to fend for themselves. They were pawns to be sacrificed, and she was afraid something similar was going to happen to me.

“I have many reasons for working with Nicholas,” Mark said.

“Let me guess one of them,” Jill said. “You couldn’t really sell the tunics we just smuggled as aid. If we’d been caught by some Nordic vessel, the most we could do was make up a story on the fly and hope they didn’t discover the weapons. It’s going to be that way each time we travel to one of your targeted planets, right?”

“That’s right,” Mark said.

Jill continued. “But if phase one of your plan is successful, then phase two is where you start gathering momentum. We’ll no longer be taking weapons to slave colonies; we’ll be smuggling military supplies inside provisions for Nicholas’s mission. You won’t be able to tell the Nordics that it’s a Christian camp, at least not for a while. You’ll have to claim that you’re spreading the message of Nordic superiority, and that lie will buy you time. You’ll continue gathering supplies until the lie is revealed, which I suspect will be whenever you decide to spill the beans yourself through some spy.”

“Right so far,” Mark said.

“So, why do you need Nicholas?” Cynthia asked. “He’s not going to pretend to be another religion.”

“He’s going to be dispersing the supplies,” Jill said. “Some of it will be devoted to his mission work, but some of it will be going toward another purpose.”

“You’re hoarding,” Heath said, but he said this so softly that I don’t believe he was really talking to anyone. “Everything you’re doing is a play for time, but why?” He was silent for a few minutes, but Mark did not answer the question. He seemed content to let Heath work the problem out on his own. Finally, Heath almost gasped as he said, “You’re insane.” He turned to Jill, and she nodded. I think he was silently telling her to take control of the ship because she began pressing buttons on the control panel in front of her, while Heath glared at Mark. “You’re baiting the Nordics into a siege. You’ve got something cooking with that meltar. I bet it’s a secret weapon of some kind. The Nordics won’t know why you’ve taken the meltar, but they will realize you’ve taken it. There will be a battle to maintain control of the planet, and I think you plan to let them have the mines back for a time, not permanently but for a while. You need them to think they’ve secured their supplies because you want them looking for where you’ve taken their stuff. You plan to give them that information at the right moment. In fact, you plan to give them multiple bits of information at the right moment to prompt a panicked response. While the meltar operation continues, you’re going to make the supply routes known to the Nordics. You won’t disclose where the supplies is coming from because you want to protect the slaves but also because you want those planets for future supply lines when the Terras Confederation attempts to retake the outer planets. But you will reveal the route itself, and you’re going to tell them where the supplies are going. Then, when the Nordics discover you’re taking the meltar, you’ll let them look around for a while, and when you judge the time is right, you’ll reveal that the mission is a Christian mission, and that will tell the Nordics everything they need to know. You’re stockpiling weapons on the outer planets. They’ll storm the mission in force, and you’ll be waiting for them.”

Mark nodded. “That’s the gist of it.”

“But the mission!” Cynthia cried. “They’ll be slaughtered!”

“I don’t think so,” Mark said. “Not if all goes well.”

“You’re risking civilians in battle,” Cynthia argued. “I thought you were a Christian!”

“I am,” Mark said. “But even if those Christians are killed in battle, that’s still a better fate than the martyrdom the Nordics have prepared for them.” Mark met Cynthia’s eyes, trying to reassure her with a boyish smile. She continued to glare at him, and finally, Mark added, “This is a very complex strategy. You’ve guessed my part in it, mostly. But this is also a joint plan between the Droguldai, Delvians, and Baavi.” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He didn’t seem to feel guilty, but I got the sense that he was struggling to find a way to better explain the situation. Finally, he said, “If you wish to understand, I have to explain our position more fully.” He looked back and forth between Heath and Cynthia as he spoke. “I’m not sure if you realize it given how distant the battles have been, but the Terras Confederation is almost defeated. Right now, the Confederation has somewhere around ten systems remaining to it, but the Nordic empire surrounds it on three sides. We are almost encircled. Now, neither empire’s fleet is large enough to sufficiently guard their borders, and while the Nordics and their armies do outnumber us considerably, it’s not two to one, and we have some hope since the majority of their systems are not happy about their enslavement. This means if we can begin an invasion of our own, we can expect reinforcements from the planets whose populations have not been completely devolved into greys. So, the further our offensive gets, the larger our army can grow, and it can do so without forcing people into our ranks. That’s the hope anyway. But there is some risk. If the other systems are too depleted, we might not get the help we desire, but that is a future problem.”

“I knew we were losing,” Jill said. “But if things are as bad as you say, then Terras would be out of its mind to reject the Droguldai’s help.”

“They are,” Mark said. “But that is one aspect of this problem I’ll get to shortly. The first thing you need to understand is that since our armies are outnumbered, even if we took the Droguldai’s numbers into consideration, the only way we can defeat the Nordics is in detail, meaning we have to break the Nordics’ fleets up into small enough chunks to beat them one at a time. But we can’t do that if we don’t have some idea where the bulk of the Nordics are.”

“Don’t you have spies for that?” Helen asked.

“Yes. But the battle lines are so spread out, it’s almost impossible to get all the information in one place so each side can track the other side’s locations. Hypothetically, the Nordics could be amassing their fleet in one place to make a mad dash toward Earth, hoping that by taking out the Terras’ capital, the whole confederation would crumble. If this were happening, we would have no way of knowing it. I’m not saying that’s actually on the table; I’m merely stating that’s how scattered and disorganized the information is. Our only hope right now is that the Nordics are facing a similar problem.”

“So, you’re wanting to tick off the Nordics enough to gather their troops so they can crush one location.”

“We also want to signal an invasion,” Mark said. “It’s generally accepted that the outer planets are the most loosely guarded. We want them thinking we’re confident enough to punch a hole in their empire, which I suppose we are since we’re doing it, but the risk is that Earth will be more vulnerable than we’d like. We need the Nordics to react to our invasion rather than planning a counter-invasion and seeing who reaches whose capital first.”

“So, you’re betting that they hate Christianity enough to react to a religious invasion on the outer planets, which would presumably bleed into their empire,” Heath said.

“I don’t think they hate Christianity that much,” Cynthia said.

“They hate it,” Mark said. “But what should scare them is the fact that the Droguldai are actively pushing it. We’re not just leaking that the missions are Christians; we’re leaking that the Christians are backed by the Droguldai. The Droguldai are just as powerful as Earth. They could spread the religion fast if the Terras Confederation provides them enough cover to break into the empire. And if the Nordics can’t sell the idea that they are gods, then the other systems have that much more reason to resist them.”

“Which would also signal that the Droguldai are no longer acting as a neutral party. That too would cause the Nordics to concentrate around the outer planets since that’s where the bulk of the Droguldai’s terraformed trading posts are located,” Jill said.

“Mary’s home,” I muttered.

“That’s right,” Mark said. He went on. “Since the Droguldai’s trading posts are positioned around the outer planets, securing them and the mining planets just inside the Nordic Territory would give us a proper supply line for a long-term invasion, and they should reason that Nicholas’s mission is the hub of that operation. That’s what should cause them to amass at least a portion of their fleet for an attack on the mission, and eventually the majority of their fleet should be focused on the outer planets. Having them clustered in one place will allow us to bait different portions of their fleet to locations of our choosing, and, if God wills it, we will be able to destroy the Nordic army one piece at a time.”

“I’m confused,” Helen said. “If you’ve already got a plan to disguise the smuggling of supplies as slave revolts, why are you putting your eggs in one basket?” Why don’t you just go ahead and disperse the supplies?”

“Because they have to predict where the Nordics are going to go,” Heath said. “That requires telling them where they’re at and making sure they don’t decide to attack some other mission out of spite. All the metlar and all the supplies have to be in one place in order to guarantee that the Nordics show up. Even if they suspect a trap, there won’t be any choice.”

“But that also means you have to win that one battle or everything falls apart,” Jill said. “That’s a huge gambit.”

“Which is why they’ve got some way to use the meltar,” Heath said. “And that’s also why the Droguldai will be there. Earth has refused their help, so they need to make a dramatic entrance once they declare open war against the Nordics. This battle is their declaration. It’s not just about turning me into a war hero. It’s about demonstrating the Droguldai’s loyalty to the Confederation.”

“Right,” Mark said. He looked at me. “There may be one other thing I ask of you depending on how things go, but I’ll wait to speak of it because it may not be required.” He then looked at Cynthia. “Does that help explain matters?”

Cynthia was silent for a time, then she said, “I don’t like it. I understand that you’re going to do your best to protect them, but you’re still using those people as bait, and I don’t see how you’re going to be able to protect anyone once the Nordics arrive.”

Mark smiled. “That’s much easier to explain.”

As if on cue, Heath said, “We’re here.”

We all looked out the window and saw yet another planet with an orange hue.

May God grant you peace.

Hieromonk Nicholas Petrov