Chapter 7

Callie accepted the date, but then turned to her family. "Y'all need to wake up an' smell the coffee!", she scolded. "This here is a different world than y'all are used to. I'm nineteen, pa. I was an adult on Earth, and I'm danged sure one here, too. I'll make my own decisions about my life, thank you very much."

She then softened her tone, and added "You might not understand this. Heck, I ain't real sure I do, but I belong here. I can't explain it, but I know it's true. I'm stayin', if they'll have me. I love y'all, but that's the way it is.

Her father started to say something, but his wife stopped him with just a glance. "You know your own mind, child", she said. "You always have, and I'm not gonna pretend it's any different now. I can see your set on this, and there ain't a damned thing that anyone can say or do, to change it. You'd best be planning on visiting now and again though, do you understand?"

Evidently, Mrs Driscoll ruled the roost, because Fred quit complaining. I had a feeling he would start up again, before long. I had asked Allen to visit, and Callie's sisters were hanging all over him.

Allen was the head of our medical research department, and the chief reason the regeneration process had advanced so far. Each immigrant was given the option of regressing their age. Most took us up on it. The Driscoll family was no exception, especially Great-grandpa Gabe. He jumped at the chance, and the older folks were right behind him.

The process was far from instant, and would delay the move to their farm by at least six months. The thought of making that move in a twenty something year old body, made the wait worthwhile.

We discussed the mandatory military service requirement, as well. Gabe was a little sad about that. He was the only one of them that had experienced war first-hand, and knew what it was like.

"I know some folks need killin'", he said, "but that don't make me like doin' it any better. Bein' good at it makes me sick, when I think back on it."

I tried to draw him out a bit more, and he finally admitted being a SeAL in the second gulf war. I asked him if he would prefer a training post, but he declined.

"No sir!", he grumbled. "If there's fightin' to do, you need the most experienced people on the line. Less of our folks get killed, that way. I just hope there ain't no war. If'n there is, I'll do my part."

They were worried about the farm, and what they would do about it if they were all in the military. We explained how they could stagger their enlistments, so that wouldn't happen. As for duties and assignments, we had our own form of the Asvab. Unlike the one on Earth, personalities were taken into account along with capabilities.

We could train people for any task, but a person's mental capabilities were different than their emotional tendencies. Those, we couldn't (and wouldn't) change. A person's mind was their own. We could help them deal with the aftermath, but we refused to consider messing with their thoughts beforehand.

"What about me?", wondered Callie. "Does this mean that i won't get to see y'all much for a while?"

"You're a special case", Dina assured her. "Matt doesn't let us get too far away from him, if he can help it. Some of us aren't supposed to go wandering around too far from home, but he doesn't let that stop him. I guess it's good to be the king, or President in his case. After you take the test, you'll be assigned to his ship. I don't know what you'll be doing, but whatever it is, you'll be doing it there."

After we ate, we talked well into the evening. It got so late that we invited them all to spend the night at the palace. It was kind of funny, in a way. I could tell that Billy, Abbie, and Francie, were stalling. Abbie and Francie were Callie's sisters, and obviously weren't ready to let go of Allen just yet. Billie was still sandwiched between the two Forthan ladies, and didn't look too anxious to leave their company, either.

Finally, the older folks were shown to their rooms, and the younger ones went in the directions I had anticipated. That left us alone with Callie.

I expected her to spend the night in a room of her own, really. I mean, it seemed like her folks were pretty old-fashioned. Like her siblings, she wasn't. Another nefarious plan quickly surfaced. This one, I hadn't even anticipated.

We walked to the private wing, and my mates deposited Callie and I at the master suite. They wished us a good night, and left us alone. I looked to Callie, to see what she thought about this, and got a big shit-eating grin for a response.

"I ain't no shrinking violet, Matt", she said huskily. "I may be a farm girl from Nebraska, but I know what I want. Right now, that's you."

I found out that the only thing she didn't know about was oral sex, the receiving end, anyway. The other side of the equation she had down pretty damned good! I think she might have slept two hours, but not me. I was worried.

It wasn't Callie that caused this. As I contemplated the situation while watching my beautiful new mate sleep, I couldn't help but think something big was on the horizon. It seemed like whenever I acquired new mates, at least after leaving Earth, things got lively. What would it be this time?

Billy must have been impressive, judging by the way his two Forthan companions were hanging all over him at breakfast. His sisters weren't letting Allen out of their sights, either.

Talk around the table got back to the military service, and I saw some faces fall. Billy perked back up, when I explained that we were starting a base on Forthan. I didn't mention that it was going to be a staging area for an invasion force.

Francie and Abbie positively glowed, when Allen casually mentioned that he could use a couple more assistants. His department was classified as military, for an important reason. They did more than age regression. Regeneration took many forms. One of these was the ability to treat battle wounds. We didn't have any veterans who were missing limbs, and Allen was the reason.

Our conversation was interrupted by the chiming of my communicator, and I cringed. Only the most important messages arrived this way. I excused myself, and found a quiet corner to see what was going on.

It must have been the expression on my face. I soon had a crowd of very concerned people around me. I couldn't speak, and just passed the unit to the person next to me. The message read:

From: Commander Flanders

To: President Sussmann

Halim report- They have conquered the entire universe, and enslaved the inhabitants. Anyone with the slightest inclination to resist is put in the processing centers. Any initiative at all is rewarded this way. Inhabitants are forced to breed, and anyone past the age to reproduce is also sent to the centers.

Slaves are not cared for very well. Most are malnourished, and beaten. This isn't the case at the processing centers. There, they are very well fed, and not allowed to work at all. They are being fattened up. They are food. Some races are even considered delicacies to the Halim.

We have not yet located the Halim home world. Request instructions on whether we should continue the mission, or report home.

It sickened me beyond belief. What these things were doing made the Holocaust on Earth look tame by comparison. I was ready to commit genocide myself. Looking around me at the faces of those who had read the message, I could see I wasn't alone.

Fred was the first to voice his opinion. "President Sussmann", he growled, I don't want to defer that there enlistment no more. Sign me the fuck up!"

Gabe was just as determined. "Matt", he said, "I don't know nothin' about these here Halim. Don't even know what they are. I can't say I rightly care, neither. All I know is that it sounds like they need killin'. I'm with Fred, where do I enlist?"

Everyone was unanimous in this, though the older ladies seemed at a loss as to how to proceed.

Allen reminded the men that regression was the first step, followed by training. They could be of little help, before those steps were completed. They demanded to be allowed to begin that very day. Billy was to report for training, and all but the younger ladies were convinced to begin the farm operations.

I replied to the message, and had the scouts report home. We would leave drones to monitor what we could. I wanted to sit in on the debriefing of these people, to get a feeling of just how bad things really were.

After the message was sent, I excused myself. I had work to do. It looked like I'd have to earn my keep, again. The first order of business was to meet with our fleet commander and shipyard heads. I wanted the status on numbers and types of refitted ships on hand, as well as what could be completed in short order. Secondly, I needed to know how many bodies we had to man them.

Beth could help with staffing. When it came to reaction time, her androids made us look damn near comatose. She was even working on a ground-based warrior version that she had high hopes for.

I sincerely wanted to attack immediately, but even I knew that this would be extremely stupid. The Halim would outnumber us greatly. If we went in unprepared, and without an adequate plan, we would lose.

I had also learned from my mistakes, and left the planning up to the general staff. I had but one demand. My ship would be on the front lines, and I would be the captain.

For once, my mates didn't object to my being in the line of fire. As long as they were with me, anyway. Even Callie was adamant in this. She was going. Period.

"I don't care if I end up moppin' floors, or swabbin' decks. Whatever the hell you call it, I'll do it. I'm gonna be there, though."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that", Beth confided. "I have a feeling you'll be working with me. You said you were good with computers, right?"

"I was back home", she agreed. I don't know about here, though. These are a damn sight more complicated than what I'm used to seein'."

"I wouldn't worry about that", Beth replied. It's still all ones and zeros. You'll pick it up quick enough. We'll know pretty fast, if you can. Your training starts today."

Waiting to attack really chapped my ass, but we had to. The plan seemed sound enough, as plans go. We needed more people than we had, so the staff suggested stashing caches of weapons on the first three worlds we would liberate. These weapons would be within a short distance of any large group of slaves. The priority went to the processing centers, as these were in the most danger during an attack.

Sending untrained people to fight was distasteful in the extreme, but we had no choice. On the other hand, if I was them, and was left out of the fight, I'd be pissed. I just hoped we wouldn't lose too many of them. It would suck to see the very people we were trying to save get murdered because of our actions. Then again, they were going to die anyway. In my opinion, it was better to die in battle, than to end up as sausage. I hoped they felt the same way.

Thousands would die, as we prepared. I knew this had to be, but I got angrier and more impatient each day. Finally, it was gently suggested that I find something else to do. I was getting on the general staff's nerves, and making their job even harder.

For the first time in ages, I went hunting. This time, it wasn't animals. I went hunting Halim. Those of my wives that could, went with me. It didn't help. Our universe wasn't exactly a 'target rich environment'. Lately, the Halim forays through the wormhole had stopped.

Their ships were attacked whenever we saw them, but that wasn't the main reason it was hard to find any. Our end of the wormhole was plugged pretty well. If a Halim ship exited, it didn't last very long.

I couldn't go hunting on their side, either. As far as we knew, they had no idea we had stumbled onto their little secret. If they started losing ships where they thought they were safe, it could ruin the whole plan.

It was Jackie and Faith, who finally got be back to a somewhat stable frame of mind. They were sometimes gentle about it, and sometimes not. In the end, it was one simple fact that finally got through to me. I was doing more harm, than good. I needed to get my shit together.

They also managed to get to the root of the problem. My grandfather was a survivor of Ebensee. He didn't speak of it much, but before he died, he told me the entire story of his time in the concentration camp. He told me of being forced to dig tunnels for the Germans in long shifts, and of the food they had. A small amount of bread, and hot water with potato peels. He told me of the sadistic commandant, and the guards who could be worse. He told me of losing his entire family, and most of the people he met while there.

I was young at the time, perhaps too young to grasp the enormity of the horror he related. He confessed that he just had to finally tell someone about it. He was dying, and those who came after him needed to know.

One thing stuck with me above all others. His ending to the conversations always was "This must never happen again, Matthias. Never again. You must stop evil, before it gains too much power. You must promise me this."

I had no idea how grandpa thought someone like me could do what he seemed to be suggesting, but he was my grandpa, and I loved him. I would've walked barefoot over hot coals for that man. Grandpa Sussmann told me this when I was ten years old, and two lifetimes ago. He died just before my eleventh birthday, and I still missed him. If I was to have any chance to justify his faith in me, I had to pull myself together. So I did.

We returned to Vanir, and I immersed myself in the plans. This time, the help was appreciated. There wasn't a person on the planning staff who wasn't a student of history. Those members without an Earth frame of reference were filled in on our reason for the main objectives. The first thing we would do, was to liberate the processing centers. They just looked too much like the concentration camps of old.

Breeding centers would be next, with joint operations to take out the Halim command and control centers. I was included in the planning sessions for the ground operations, but wouldn't be directly involved in their execution. My mission was to take out the space based defenses on one of the planets, and prevent enemy reinforcements from landing.

The only break from training and planning, was for weddings. Beth joined our family, but there were others to celebrate. Billy really had a thing for Forthan women. He married five of them at once. Francie and Abbie joined Allen's family, as well.

Callie had proven to be quite capable of grasping new concepts, and was working with Beth by then. Billy surprised a few folks. Even Dina, Dora, and Angel said he was one of the best natural fighter pilots they had ever seen. Coming from them, that was high praise indeed.

Weapons weren't the only development we were working on, though I suppose the non-destructive device that impressed me most could be considered a weapon. It was called a signal disrupter, but could best be described as an absorber. The plan included heavy use of these. They would be spread around the targets, and prevent any warning from being spread by the Halim.

We knew the frequency spectrum they used, and the disrupters were tuned to it. The enemy wouldn't know their signal was being prevented from leaving the area. If they were calling for backup, they were in for some disappointment. The greatest benefit was the prevention of an advance warning of our arrival. The larger surprise we provided, the better the chances of saving the slaves.