Joshi IV
After finishing her last Slammer, Joshi decides to order a plate of spiced chicken wings, and messily digs into her meal as we continue our interview.
Q: When did the possibility of a coup first get discussed?
A: I think it was only three days or so after our capture that Vyacheslav... the Russian pilot... began chatting with Zhou and Cai, the two Chinese soldiers. One of the women from Mumbai'i knew Chinese, and would occasionally fill the rest of us in. The three of them were debating whether or not it'd be possible to fight their way to a digit ship and try to get off the Flishithy.
There was no way that actually could have worked; even if they did manage to get to a digit ship, there was no way to pilot it, let alone keep from getting blasted out of orbit by the Flishithy or any wary ground forces.
Thankfully, they seemed to figure that out themselves. By day five of our captivity, they'd told the rest of us humans about their ideas.
Q: Not the Race?
A: The Race males did their own thing. They usually huddled in their own little clump across the bathroom-pond from us, talking to each other in hushed tones. Sometimes I'd try to listen in, but I never managed to hear anything juicy.
Occasionally, Chris would try to strike up a conversation with them, if only because he really couldn't talk to the others aside from me. Most of them would shut up and shy away when he walked over, but this big Rabotev would actually chat with him for a bit. When I asked him what they talked about, he'd tell me it was usually stuff about Earth cultures, and leave it at that.
Q: Did the fithp have the humans and Race males do tasks together?
A: Yes, actually. They started having us work the garden together, or clean out the vents. Cai ended up getting put in isolation for a day after he punched some Hallessi hard enough to disloacate his stalk, after the Hallessi allegedly cracked a joke about spit-roasted Sichuan cuisine, but the rest managed to at least tolerate each other.
Admittedly, the Race males were actually less trouble to be around than a lot of the people. I think it helped that I knew the language, and they didn't kick up a ruckus with the fithp. Plus, their small size made cleaning the vents a lot easier.
Q: Did you ever talk with the males you worked with?
A: One or two of them offered their condolences about my home, but stayed quiet. I never worked with Straha, which in retrospect was probably for the best. A few others who'd been in China asked me about Indian culture, or whatever questions they had about my species.
Q: What kind of questions?
A: One asked me how they'd managed to fill up all those jugs of milk at the markets he'd raided.
She laughs.
He thought that breast milk and cow milk were the same thing, and just got confused when I clarified things for him. I later saw him peeping at Li feeding her kid, with a look of curiosity and horror on his face.
Others asked me about why people wore clothes instead of paint, or about my religion. Some were dismissive when I spoke about Hinduism, but others were interested. On my side, I'd ask them about Emperor-worship, or about why there were no women with them.
Overall, however, things were still tense between us and the Race aboard. We stayed apart from each other while we slept, and occasionally a few would start shouting matches with each other.
Chris and I stayed out of it; were uncomfortable with both sides. A lot were still grieving their homes, and did weird things because of it. Random sex wasn't uncommon.
She pops a wing in her mouth, and spits out a pair of bones.
Chris and I started sleeping together after a few days. Part of it was because there wasn't much else to do, and part of it was because it made me forget about what'd happened to my home. It was clumsy, it was awkward, but we both figured this could be the last chance for two virgins.
Then, about a week or two after I arrived, the damndest thing happened.
Q: What was it?
A: It was during the "off-shift", when all of us had gotten back from the tasks we'd be assigned. I was sitting in the shade of a bush-thing with Chris, and all of a sudden we heard a huge argument amongst the Race males. I heard exclamations of "damnation" or "savages" or "bad idea". Then, the seeming leader shut everyone up, and the big Rabotev that Chris befriended came over and sat with us.
He introduced himself to me as Wallafess, and told me that he and the others had overheard our plans to try and wreak havoc in the ship, or even try and take it over.
He told me that the Race males had been discussing the same thing, and wanted to know if the humans were willing to team up.
-/-\-
Wallafess VI
After our meal, Wallafess orders a bowl of chilled peanut butter, with graham crackers on top. He chews the first spoonful for a moment, then motions that I can resume the interview.
Q: What made you and the other males decide to ask the human prisoners for cooperation in planning the coup?
A: Well, for the first week or so, we tried to see if we could do it on our own. However, after a while, some of us began to realize we were going to need the humans' help. Without them, we didn't have the numbers, and as much as we didn't want to admit it, we also didn't have the muscle to pull off half the stunts we needed to to. The three human soldiers in the group probably had more muscle packed on them then half the Race males in the party.
Didn't keep us from arguing about it. A bunch of us said that the humans would betray us the first change they got, just to get revenge on us, while others said that the humans would probably bungle the operation up.
Ultimately, however, Straha rallied the pro-teamwork side, and the decision was made. They sent me over to talk with a human I'd befriended, an American doctor named Chris. In turn, Chris and the Indiyan girl that he'd started screwing went and talked to the rest of the humans.
I liked Chris. I remember how'd we spend hours talking with each other during our time aboard, discussing all sorts of things. He was my first glimpse into American culture; he even had the Preamble of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence tattooed on his back. In return, he constantly asked me questions about what it was like on Home, and what kind of literature and movies we had.
I guess we were chosen to be the 'emissaries' of each others' side, because of how well we got along. It definitely worked. There were a few scuffled, a few shouting matches, but the two sides managed to get along pretty well.
Q: How did you actually plan the coup?
A: A lot of that came from Straha, since he was allowed to work alongside the elephants on that rock. He told us about how their scheduling worked, which was important, and he also offered a lot more insight into the elephants' way of thinking. He stressed that we had to act obedient, if we wanted to avoid suspicion, and that if we managed to convince them, then they'd be utterly blindsided when we finally struck.
Even then, I was wary of that addled prick. I'd already lost a lot of respect when I found out he was a ginger taster, then it only got worse as he began to work more and more on that rock in the ship. It was like the sheer amount of spice he was lapping up and all that outside-context alien knowledge had begun to combine and fry his brain, making him act very un-Racelike. I mean, there'd be rumors beforehand about him practically devouring human documents back in Shànghâi, but we'd all dismissed it.
Anyway, back to the question. Vyacheslav began counting the number of 'steps to go from place to place, and Zhou began making a rough map of the ship from that, as well as his own observations. Me and a few other males started trying to figure out the vents, and the parts where the walls were farthest apart. It'd be important, later. Others just tried to figure out good hiding spots, to keep Li and her not-hatchling safe.
Q: An average fithp male is four hundred kilograms. How were you planning on fighting them?
A: Well, we were hoping to avoid fighting them whenever possible, but we came up with some plans. That was why we were measuring the distance between walls; we'd all seen the fithp moving around in microgravity. They're huge, and those trunks don't lend themselves well to proper adjustment of position; compared to us or humans, they're incredibly awkward and clumsy in zero g. If we could basically shove them into the middle of a room, to the point where their trunks couldn't grab anything, then they'd be unable to do anything.
If we did that to a warrior, then perhaps we could get his gun, and if we got his gun, then maybe we could stand a chance in a fighting retreat through the halls and vents.
At the same time, we started collecting sticks around the garden, and started sharpening them with whatever we could use. Zhōu and Suresh, who some engineer from Mumbai'i, even ended up sneaking a bunch of supplies in a place I don't want to mention. They did little chemistry experiments behind the cloth they used for privacy in the shit-pond, and actually managed to make some primitive form of gunpowder.
We had two Hallessi in the group; I think their names were Pfalawap and Ttak. They acted as lookouts; those big ears can hear well, and at frequencies higher than us; if one saw a guard or Breaker coming over, he'd alert the other with some whistle none of us could hear, and then his buddy would tell us to hide what we were doing. We had a little hole that we shoved the bags of gunpowder in, and we'd hide the sharp sticks amongst the rest of the bramble.
We almost got caught a few times, but they never realized what we were doing. We cleaned the vents, we gardened, we acted like obedient not-elephants, and we planned to take over their ship.
It was during those weeks that we heard about some argument going on between some of the elephants. I had no idea what they were talking about, really, and I didn't care. But I guess Straha did, because one day he told us that we'd need to act soon. He said something about how the ship was preparing to leave lunar orbit, and we'd have a window where we'd be in microgravity, which was the best time to act.
Q: How long a window?
A: I think about a human hour, maybe two. It was hard to keep track of time in that ship. It's like that feeling when you don't have a clock, plus the fact that night and day didn't really matter anymore.
So, we waited in that garden for a sign that it was about to happen.
And, eventually, it did. The shit-pond started freezing, and we realized we were feeling lighter.
Q: Why did the pond freeze?
A: A big glob of water would've been problematic in microgravity. I was just glad I wasn't near it, unlike poor Ppanat.
He shudders, then eats another spoonful of peanut-butter.
That was when Tashayamp and a guard came floating in to tell us that we were leaving lunar orbit, and that was when we started the coup.
Me and the other troopmales went for the guard, and just went savage on the poor guy. I saw Ttak biting the fi's trunk to make him let go of the gun, and I think I might've sunk my claws into his eye.
Doesn't really matter. What matters is that we got the gun, and managed to get him away from the walls. Tashayamp was also pushed away by the humans, but they didn't hurt her. She might've been trying to forcibly integrate us into her society, but she was actually fairly nice.
Vyacheslav and Cài got the gun, since the thing was too big for anyone else to really use. Everyone else just grabbed their sticks, while our two anarchists in the making grabbed our gunpowder bombs.
Q: What happened next?
A: We stole Tashayamp's key, and split into groups. Chris and I went into the hall with Vyacheslav and Cài to kinda serve as backup, since I was probably the best fighter after them and Chris was beefy enough to possibly use the gun in case on of them got pulped. Zhōu and Suresh went with a few others to find the common area, and a bunch of the women and troopmales shimmied into the vents.
We were planning on having them light fires in the vents, but you know what they say: no plan survives first contact with the enemy. I guess the stuff they grabbed didn't burn, or maybe they lost the tools they were planning on using. All I know is that we didn't get the fire we wanted.
Q: Did you get in a shootout with any guards?
A: Yeah, actually. It wasn't until we were nearly halfway to the bridge, actually; everyone was getting into a good spot for when the acceleration came, or changing shifts. I think the guy we shot at was late.
It looked painful when Vyacheslav and Cài shot the guard. Those old rifles were like anti-material guns on ginger. A loud crack, a dead guard painting the halls with his brains, and two humans tumbling back with bruised shoulders.
We took the dead guard's gun, and decided that we should probably brace against the walls after that.
There were more after that; I guess they heard their buddy getting blasted. I managed to hit two, I think. Maybe more. Vyacheslav got pulped. But, we managed to kill the guards, and continued towards the bridge. We started throwing small cherry bomb-like things down the halls, too; we had to keep others off our trail, and make them think they were in more dire straits then they actually were.
Our fucking luck that the door to the bridge was locked shut. That was when we knew that the others had been found, but we had no clue if we were succeeding or not. For all we knew, we could have been the last mutineers.
So, we got the heaviest, rammiest thing we could find, and started smashing it into the door. It was an awkward thing. We had to push it with our feet, and pull ourselves along the rungs in the walls in order to build up enough momentum. After a few minutes, Chris and Cài took over completely, and just had me stand guard with the gun.
Q: Did it do anything?
A: No.
He takes another spoonful of peanut butter.
Those doors were designed to withstand anti-material weapons; all we did was scuff the paint and make a shallow scratch. Didn't stop us from doing it over and over, though.
Then, after probably twenty minutes, the door opened all on its own, and guess who came out?
Q: Straha?
Wallafess dips a cracker in the peanut butter and offers it to me as a prize.
A: I managed to piece it together, eventually. I didn't know what happened, at the time. And who knows; maybe my version of the story isn't the fully true one, either. We'll never really know, I guess.
Basically, Straha got himself captured deliberately, and was brought to the bridge to be interrogated by the Herdmaster as to why we were waging mutiny. Apparently, we were interrupting a "very delicate" operation.
Q: Leaving lunar orbit?
A: No. Turns out, the Herdmaster was debating with the other higher-ups about whether or not they should offer a conditional surrender to Earth. I guess they'd realized how much trouble it was going to be after the humans glassed their own cities just to kick them out. I don't know what the surrender would've entailed; someone told me that they were going to leave Earth alone in exchange for being left alone while they colonized the asteroid belt, but I don't know if that's actually what would've happened.
While they were interrogating him, Zhōu and Suresh actually managed to make it to the common area, where the elephants kept a bunch of the women and children. No one else made it. Then, they basically threatened to blow themselves up with the gunpowder bombs, which would've killed the women and children. Also, an explosion inside of a spacecraft is probably the last thing you want to happen, aside from a total reactor failure.
Oh, and we were hammering on the door at the same time.
I guess that, between the danger of losing a crapload of women and children, the danger of starting a war in retaliation that would only end in the destruction of the rest of his herd, and the seeming danger of our useless banging against the door, the Herdmaster did the only thing he could do.
Wallafess claps his claws together.
And like that, Straha was suddenly the new Herdmaster.
Q: What happened after that?
A: Well, the fithp guards escorted us back to the garden, but this time Straha was in charge. Zhōu and Suresh stood down, and were allowed to safely meet up with us in the garden. The same went for everyone who'd been in the vents. I remember the feeling of victory I had with Chris and his girlfriend, as we realized that we were the ones in charge, now.
That feeling died pretty quick when Straha ordered Zhōu and Suresh shot.
Q: Why?
A: Well, he couldn't have another mutiny on his hand, could he?
I remember how everything in the garden seemed to stand still after we saw the two get blasted to smithereens. I remember exclaiming something, and I guess that rubbed Straha the wrong way, or maybe he feared that I could be trouble, too, due to my friendship with Chris.
Q: What makes you say that?
A: Because when he had the humans imprisoned again, I was included with them. The rest of the males got to accompany him back to the bridge so they could contact the Conquest Fleet, but I was left under strict guard.
I remember how shitty I was feeling, after that. To unknowingly help my friends lose any chance of getting back home.
He finishes the rest of his peanut butter.
But if I felt bad, then the humans felt even worse. After all, could you imagine getting tricked into seemingly sealing the fate of your entire species?
-/-\-
Atvar IV
Q: The month following the destruction of Mumbai and Chongqing is widely regarded as the least eventful. Was there any reasoning for that on your end?
A: There was a good reason: I had no idea what our next move would be.
He gestures to the hologram of Earth.
We had been dealt a crippling blow during your so-called Operation Yi. Four landing sites destroyed or retaken in a matter of two Tosevite days, killing a good three million males. Our presence in Asia had been halved. We had lost control of the orbitals, which meant that we could not properly make new landings.
There was more than that, however. When you destroyed two of your own cities and incinerated millions of your own people to repel the fithp, I realized the depths of your alien psychology and cultures. We would never win the war. You would fight tooth and claw, use every last bullet and artillery shell to repel us. And if we even managed to start winning conventionally, you would simply pull out your explosive metal bombs and destroy yourselves to destroy us.
I had ruled out the possibility of continuing the war, but now I needed to come up with a better plan. The safety of the Colonization Fleet and Home was paramount, but I'd prefer to also ensure that at least a few of us managed to escape Tosev alive.
Q: Is that why your starships started entering orbit?
A: We only sent out three at first, to see if they would be attacked by the fithp. When no missiles ripped them apart, we began to send more ships into orbit, while leaving the pre-fithp forces on the planet in order to guard the borders while I debated our next step.
Q: What courses of action were you considering?
A: I initially spent two weeks debating with Kirel whether or not to attempt to reestablish the ceasefire with the various Tosevite governments. Ultimately, we decided that after the loss of your cities, you would likely be far less willing to cede land to us, even temporarily. After witnessing the full might of your nuclear arsenal during the battles with the fithp, I was unwilling to press your temper more than needed.
We then began to consider the possibility of offering a conditional surrender to the various governments of Tosev III. We spent another two weeks arguing what the terms would be. Kirel argued that we should try to only make a conditional surrender with the larger powers, but I'd seen firsthand the effectiveness of that during the ceasefire.
Q: What did you ultimately decide on in regards to the terms of surrender?
A: On our side of the conditions, we were to pull our forces out of Tosev III, and help reestablish the governments we had dismantled during our conquest. We would also surrender our explosive metal bomb arsenal, to prove that we had no intent of breaking the bargain.
In exchange, we would receive no harassment from Tosev III, and they would distract the fithp if they attempted to attack us as we flew to Tosev IV and refueled our fusion drives, using the water ice there. On that planet, we would also leave all of our unnecessary equipment, such as landcruisers, troopcarriers, and killercraft. With the empty weight, we would be able to more effectively use our fusion drives.
We would then wait in orbit around Tosev V for the Colonization Fleet, drawing their attention to our location. We would warn them of the situation, and have them unload all unnecessary equipment, as we had done. They would refuel using the water ice on the moon you call Europa, and then both Fleets would race back towards Home to warn the Emperor of the dangers of the Tosev system.
However, before I could officially unveil the plan to the rest of the Shiplords, we received a strange communication from the fithp mothership - the first we had ever received.
The only thing more shocking was the fact that I recognized the voice speaking.
Q: Straha?
Atvar hisses.
A: And so, my plans had been completely offset by his astounding capture of the fithp. I was still disbelieving of it, even as a lone digit-ship approached the Hetto without any weapons, and the Shiplord came aboard with a pair of fithp with him.
Q: What were the reactions from the rest of the Shiplords?
A: Some, like Kirel, were worried that his time aboard the Flishithy could have deleterious effects on his mental health. Others were jubilant that we had managed to capture at least one species, and hailed his return as a triumphant hero. That side only grew stronger when he mentioned all the boons the fithp could bring the Empire.
When I finally gathered all the Shiplords to announce my plan, I should have expected that he would vocally oppose it. I still believed that he was capable of seeing reason at the time.
I still remember the argument that ensued between him and I. He called me a coward. I called him foolhardy. He dared to paint me as a traitor to the Empire by letting the Tosevites keep their planet and possibly threaten us in the future, and so I declared that he would doom the Colonization Fleet if he got his way.
Unfortunately, many of the Shiplords harbored a resentment towards me. They blamed me for all of the losses we had suffered in the war, and some of Straha's faction began to outright deride me as a failure of a Fleetlord. He began to speak of how the fithp had weapons that could win the war, and ensure that the Tosevites would be under our heel before the end of next year.
I decided to try and stem the issue before it grew out of hand, and declared a vote.
Q: A vote?
A: In our laws, it is written that if a Fleetlord's capability is being questioned, a vote can be called in to determine if he should be removed from his position. A supermajority is required, however, and it had never been even debated in previous conquests.
Atvar pours another two fingers of brandy.
The final vote came in at eighty seven percent.
Q: What happened after you were removed from the position?
A: I was made Shiplord of the 67th Emperor Sohreb. Another vote was announced, to determine who would become the next Fleetlord. The two main choices were Kirel and Straha. I voted for Kirel.
I was only one of eighteen who did. Straha won seventy seven percent of the vote.
It took two days of being forced to land in Bangui out while the rest of the Fleet rendezvoused with the Flishithy in lunar orbit, and watching fithp moving about my old ship as Straha prepared his secret big offensive, that I came to the most painful choice of my life.
I first announced my intention to the crew of the Sohreb, and said that any who desired could leave for another landing sight. Only fifteen did.
Q: Why only fifteen?
A: The Shiplords may have desired to continue the war, but most of the troopmales only wanted to return Home. They were disillusioned after months of suffering on this Emperor-forsaken planet, and simply desired a quick end to the war.
Once the dissenters left, I ordered that the Sohreb take off, then charted a landing trajectory for the not-empire of France. At the same time, we spammed any Tosevite channel we could find with a declaration of surrender.
Q: Were you afraid that they wouldn't accept it?
A: Yes. Thankfully, they did. Apparently, they had known about the transition in power via their intelligence organizations about a day after the vote, and were expecting possible defections. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization ordered me to land in a certain spot, and I was escorted by their killercraft all the while.
I remember coming down in a field about a hundred kilometers from Paris, surrounded by enough landcruisers and missile launchers to easily destroy the ship. As I descended the landing ramp to meet with the commanding officer in the region, waving a white flag, I knew that things would never be the same again, for any of us.
-/-\-
You have been reading:
Worldfall, Chapter Nine: A Shifting Balance