The Last Stand - Brad Ferguson [25]
The ministers and guards gaped at the empty space where Picard and the others had been standing.
“You surely can clear a room, Jemmagar,” Rikkadar said.
“But—but—” the security minister stammered.
“Jemmagar, you screaming idiot,” Kerajem said, suddenly very weary. He rubbed his eyes with thumb and forefinger. “Those people are our only hope. You may have doomed us. I’d fire you, you complete jackass, if there were enough time left to make firing you worthwhile.”
Presider Hek was sitting at the small desk in his working quarters, waiting for the results of the initial probe by the high-speed attack drones. He had finished his lunch, a pretty good one, and shoved the plates and utensils into the reclaimer. Now he was just sitting there, waiting. For once, he was leaving his military people to themselves.
Fleet tacticians were fairly sure that at least one of the probes would get through, and Hek would be content with that. While the object of the exercise was to see what ground defenses the Lethanta might be able to bring to bear to destroy a determined attacking spacecraft, the destruction of their political headquarters would be a strategic bonus.
And he had thousands of drones. Thousands of them.
Hek had waited his entire life for the coming struggle. Every one of his ancestors had lived their lives and died their deaths to bring Hek and the Krann to this point. His people had missed a chance thousands of years before to eradicate the Lethanta from the universe, but Hek would not permit that to happen again.
His ancestors cried out in their deaths for the completion of vengeance. Hek would not fail them.
The door signal rang. “Enter,” Hek called.
It was Graff Starboard Water Line Tester, his military attaché. The look on Graff’s face fairly shouted that the news he had to tell Hek was not good.
“You look troubled, Graff,” Hek said, carefully keeping the disappointment out of his voice. “I take it that things went poorly.”
“Presider, I regret to report that both of our drones were destroyed just short of their target.”
“Both? What happened?”
“The drones became detectable by the enemy upon their entry into the atmosphere of Nem Ma’ak Bratuna, and the Lethanta went to full military alert immediately upon seeing them.”
“We’ll have to have a little talk with the research and development people about that,” Hek said. “We knew that the secret of our present concealment apparatus was probably compromised. I was told the new version of the apparatus would render a concealed craft completely undetectable.”
“Yes, Presider,” Graff said, nodding quickly. “It was an unexpected result, perhaps due to our inability to properly test the new apparatus in an atmosphere—”
“Never mind that now,” the Presider said, waving a hand impatiently. “What about the destruction of the drones? What did the enemy use to do it?”
“As nearly as we can tell, a phased energy weapon of some sort was used to cause the constituent molecules of the drones to dissociate. In other words, they were vaporized.”
“And we didn’t realize they had anything like that,” Hek said.
“No, Presider,” Graft said. “They do not have such weapons at all. The phased energy weapon that was used was not fired by the Lethanta—”
“—but by the alien ship in orbit around their world,” Hek finished for him. “Of course. The aliens have become involved on the side of the Lethanta.” Hek chuckled, a sound that sent a shiver up his attaché’s spine. “We’ll have to delay further action until we can sort this matter out.” He smiled a dangerous smile. “This gets more interesting by the minute, doesn’t it, Graff?”
“Perhaps, Presider, the aliens were operating out of self-interest,” Graff pointed out. “We already know from our monitoring of their communications that alien representatives were to meet with the leaders of the planetary government at about the time the drones were due to arrive. The aliens may have destroyed the drones simply to save themselves.”
The Presider looked at him in that intimidating manner he so often used on his subordinates. Graff stood his