Page 15 of Alien Rescue

Shock and horror gave him a one-two punch to the gut. How was this possible? Jinz Izwe was a metal only found on the Zyrgin home world. Their warships, their weapons, and the uniforms of their warriors were made from it. Even their dwellings on conquered planets were made from it. It was their culture; the might of their empire was built on it. They never allowed it to fall into enemy hands. Never.

“We suspect the Aurelians, but are not sure yet.” The Aurelians were a cultured people that produced luxury items. Zanr had guarded their delegation once, during a tribute ceremony on the Zyrgin home world. They’d been rude and condescending to their guards and the servants they brought along. The only reason they were allowed to act like that was that the Parenadorz’s first breeder came from Aurelia. Now that he had a new breeder, everyone was curious about the fate of that planet. Zanr suspected the special privileges they were allowed were about to dry up.

“The equipment not working and the translators malfunctioning was due to sabotage by the same people,” Zurian said.

Zacar clenched his teeth together. Loyalty and honor was everything to Zyrgins. “We know it is a very small group of Zyrgins who betrayed the empire.” Even a small group of traitors were unacceptable.

“Outside home world, the problem is bigger. We don’t know how many of the conquered planets are involved. According to our latest intel, it looks as if many planets have secretly banded together against us.” When Zyrgins conquered a planet, they stamped out any opposition, but invariably some brave soul started a resistance. Mostly, the Zyrgins stationed on the conquered planets enjoyed the skirmishes. A warrior was not meant to be without battles.

Zurian continued, “The Parenadorz know who the minor players are, but they don’t know enough to name the leaders of the revolt. At this stage, we are pretending ignorance so that we can find the leaders of this insurrection. And the shadow players behind them.”

Zanr rocked back on his heels. He still couldn’t accept that a Zyrgin would betray their empire.

“We think the stowaway is here to make contact with or start a local resistance that will liaise with the other planets.” Zacar turned to attend to some data coming in from a probe.

Zurian continued the brief, “The conspirators seem to want insurgents on all our planets. Several humans escaped with much of the equipment in the basement of Parnell’s building. From what we can gather, about a month before we blew up that building, they started moving equipment out. Those scientists would be the humans our stowaway would be interested in.”

They’d taken the equipment in the basement lab, but now that he thought about it, there had been space for much more. “How did the probes miss the stolen equipment?” The humans shouldn’t be able to hide anything from their tracking equipment.

Zacar looked ready to commit murder. “Several of them malfunctioned.”

Zanr had thought all the technicians on home world, involved with the equipment failure, had been caught. His world was suddenly upside down. The Zyrgin empire was indestructible, its warriors loyal. That was a given.

“Did you get any information from your breeder?” Zurian asked.

“No.” Since he’d found Rose, Zanr had come to realize that he wasn’t nearly as modern a warrior as he’d thought. He didn’t like their interest in her. At all. “She was taken to the lab once when she came out of that hole. She was too weak at the time to notice any details or hear anything. She remembers a dream, and she doesn’t realize that she’d been in the lab.” What did they do to her when they had her in that place with its experimental weapons? “Also, she mentioned at least thirty people coming and going daily from that lab.”

“No other information?”

“No, it is obvious that she was never given any access to vital information.”

“That is unfortunate.” Zacar paced, his fists clenching and unclenching. “The Zyrgin interrogated Parnell. He doesn’t know where the scientists went with the equipment they stole. But he admitted to leaving Rose in the basement whenever she came out of that disgraceful torture,” Zacar told him.

He ground his teeth together, his need to torture and kill Parnell a physical ache. He needed to do it. To avenge Rose.

Zurian snarled. “We sent out probes and even tried DNA scans, and can’t find the weapons or escaped scientists.”

“We suspect the stowaway is helping them to remain hidden.” Zacar snorted. “No, we know he is helping to keep them hidden from our technology.”

“Woumbers,” Zanr gritted out.

“We believe the traitor and the scientists that escaped with the weapons won’t be found in the same place. On other planets, they break into small groups and spread out over the planet. They don’t give each other their locations.”

“How long have they betrayed us, to become this organized?” Zanr asked his leader.

“Almost a century. Initially we wiped them out easily. But they always started again.” Zacar commanded another file to open. “We intercepted this before it cut out.”

Zacar gave another command. An image appeared. It was blurred—a Zyrgin, judging by his accent while discussing deliverance of a product. The conversation abruptly stopped, and a hand became briefly visible. The sound and image disappeared.

They all smiled. “Not a warrior,” Zurian said with satisfaction.

Zanr agreed. The hand that had adjusted the cloth was obviously male, but too small to belong to a warrior. It was a relief that the traitors seemed to be mere citizens. He didn’t count Larz who was forced to act like a citizen as punishment.

“We also intercepted this.”

No image this time. Only a Zyrgin voice. “The unlawful expansion of the Zyrgin empire has to stop. We will detonate a bomb every two weeks until the warriors occupying Earth and other planets go home.”

The clip ended and they shared amused glances. As if any warrior would retreat.

---