Earth Gate (Wine of the Gods Book 17) Read online

  Hard to get more belligerent than landing inside the palace perimeter with armed soldiers. But Janic doesn't want any blurring of sound and speech, which is going to be hard enough, the noise that thing makes.

  The ambassador climbed awkwardly out of the copter and walked, half stooped, out of the rotor area. Fiftyish, gray haired, olive skinned. Tough guy expression, well laced with contempt.

  He eyed Janic, then approached, marines closing in to flank him.

  "Welcome to Karista." Janic raised his voice to carry over the background roar. "I am Colonel Janic of the King's Own."

  "I am Julius Fitzgerald, the designated representative of the President of Earth and the United Earth Council."

  "Please do come in. The king is . . . by now . . . expecting you."

  Janic waved the ambassador toward the door and walked beside him. Xen preceded them and Easterly fell in beside Janic.

  The throne room was lofty and spacious. Empty.

  Xen walked halfway in, then turned to open the side doors.

  One of the marines hustled up to give the reception committee in the conference room a quick look over. He nodded his acceptance of the situation and the ambassador walked in.

  The room ran the length of the throne room, and had been known to seat a hundred people with plenty of elbow room. Today it had a single long table and chairs.

  King Leano, today dressed in a dark grey suit without embellishment, sat in the middle of the long side, facing the door. Rufi to his right, the Council President to his left. Two old gods, half a dozen other governmental figures, half a dozen of his senior officers.

  "Ambassador Fitzgerald, I am King Leano Negue. I welcome the opportunity to speak openly and directly with Earth. Please be seated." He gestured at the chair across the table from himself.

  Fitzgerald preferred to try to loom. He leaned his fists on the table and stared into the king's eyes. "The first thing you must learn is humility. You are a subject people, and you will accede to all of our conditions, if you expect to survive."

  A roomful of angry stares. No movement, they'd all been told to underreact and give not the faintest excuse for an outbreak of hostilities.

  Xen kept his attention on the marines. Much too much eager anticipation. They are deliberately picking a fight, and expect to impress the Natives with the effects of gunfire.

  "We are not a subject world. We have allowed your gate, so that you could retrieve your marooned personnel. I recommend you take them and go. Send a friendly embassy to establish trading relations if you so desire."

  "You don't seem to understand that your desires no longer matter."

  Oh, this is not good. I really did hope there'd be some sort of fig leaf offered. Foolish dream.

  "You do not seem to realize that first you have to conquer a nation before you can loot it." King Leano sighed. "Are you here to deliver a formal Declaration of War?"

  "We want your gate technology. We are prepared to negotiate for it, but we will have it, one way or another."

  A professional diplomat, backing off from absolutes. No. Not a diplomat. A despot, used to beating the natives into submission. But he'd sidestepped the matter of war. They want it handed to them on a platter.

  :: With a doily. :: A flash of thought from his father. A faint snort from Romeau. The old gods must be picking up a lot of the thoughts in the room.

  "That sounds like a threat." The king steepled his fingers and rested his elbows on the polished mahogany table. "As usual, you Earthers are acting like a cross between a spoilt two year old and a tyrant. When we see that you are prepared to treat all people as equals—I believe there is something about that in your constitution—we will consider giving you advanced tech. Until such a time it would be irresponsible of us to give you rabid slavers greater access to the dimensions. Please don't change the wording when repeating that to your superiors." He looked to the side. "Ah, thank you. Here it is in writing, translated to Merican." He signed the paper and passed it to the fuming Ambassador.

  "We can destroy entire cities in minutes. You will give us that tech."

  "That is exactly why we must not, ever." The King looked at his advisors. "Anything you would like to add, gentlemen?"

  "Not in front of the Ambassador." Rufi's voice was close to a growl.

  "Do you not understand me? We will kill millions of people."

  "Are you bragging? You are a completely corrupt sociopath. We will consider this to have been a declaration of war. Your so called 'Fascian' Embassy has forty-eight hours to get out of my city, and thirty days to be out of my country. Three hours from now your planes and helicopters will be destroyed on sight. Get out."

  The ambassador straightened. "You'll regret this." He turned and walked out, followed by his marine guards.

  Xen stepped to the door and watched first physically, then mentally as they boarded their helicopter and departed.

  "What immediate steps do you wish to take?" King Leano left the question of who he had been addressing open.

  "Can we block their gate?" Rufi looked at the Auld Wulf.

  "Quicksilver has been studying it, as it opens and closes. She is prepared to experiment with it as soon as we tell her to. If we cannot block it, we can certainly disrupt it considerably. Of immediate concern, I see from your reports that they have brought in a number of missiles, and they have launched satellites that are no doubt giving them plenty of information about us. I would like to destroy their missiles and launchers, and bring down the satellites."

  "Not that you need it, but you have my permission to proceed." The King told the god.

  The God of War shook his head. "A soldier must fight for a people, under the authority of those people, or he is just another bandit. What you command me to do, I will attempt."

  "Hmm. In that case, destroy the missiles and launchers, and the satellites."

  "Sire." The Auld Wulf bowed his head and disappeared.

  The king looked over at the younger cohort. "Xen, it occurs to me that we should inform the Earthers in Fascia that we have received their declaration of war and will begin hostilities immediately. Will you carry and read, such? I'd like to beat the ambassador back there."

  "I would be honored."

  "Good. I think some simple wording will do."

  Colonel Janic raised a cautionary finger. "Perhaps a bit of misdirection would be in order? At the time, I thought that 'Department of Interdimensional Security and Cooperation' you tried to flim-flam the Oner with was ridiculous. But now I'm not sure. Redirecting their hostility away from us and toward some fictional dimensionally able organization might help."

  The king's eyes narrowed. "Indeed. Even if the only effect is to tie up some of their resources investigating this 'Disco' it would be worth a try. We can always declare war in our own name later." He eyed the others around the table, his gaze stopping at Rufi.

  The old general scratched his cheek. "They disbelieve in magic and trust technology. Perhaps we should think in terms of convincing them that Disco has tech more advanced than theirs. And very definitely indicate that they aren't based here, but rather somewhere else." He drummed his fingers. "I think that might slow them down and make them a bit more cautious. But in the end, we are going to have to fight them."

  ***

  General Soeder was discussing the radio message from the Ambassador when the light appeared in the Amma's throne room.

  First a burning point of white, that expanded into a bubble, the color deepening through yellow to orange, opacity giving way to translucence and thinning down to nothing. Leaving a man standing alone in the center of the room.

  If it was a man.

  His proportions were odd, the legs short, the arms long, the ears pointed.

  He held his left arm crooked in front of him, his forearm covered by a bulky bracer encompassing a screen and controls. His right hand was tapping at the bracer as the bubble disappeared altogether.

  The guards overreacted and both lasers and convent
ional guns fired. The lasers stopped cold, the bullets bounced off as if the bubble was still there, and made of invisible steel. The odd person dropped his arms and gazed about the room, apparently oblivious to the bullets bouncing off his force field.

  The general winced as a ricochet hit the wall two feet away. "Hold your fire."

  The guards stopped firing, and the general paced forward.

  The stranger was dressed in a dark gray . . . costume. Straight slacks, some sort of smooth dull black shoe or boot, showing no seam. The dark jacket was short waisted, with pockets nearly everywhere.

  The stranger mimicked reaching into a bag. His hand disappeared as he reached into absolutely nothing. And reappeared as it emerged with what looked like a roll of paper. A fancy scroll.

  He unrolled it.

  "I am Xeno Time of the Department of Interdimensional Security and Cooperation. Having recently been informed of cross-dimensional hostilities in this branch of the Multiverse, I have been assigned to act as Ambassador External to attempt to peacefully resolve the conflict between the multi-dimension membrane known generally as 'Earth' and the multi-dimensional membrane hereafter referred to as 'Comet Fall' in which we are currently located. Do you have any questions, at this point?" He looked around and finished with a steady stare at General Soeder.

  The general snorted. "Department of what?"

  "Interdimensional Security and Cooperation. Disco, for short. Our motto is 'Make Trade not War' and we take it to heart. You lot are trouble makers. It's got to stop."

  Lieutenant Harper eased up beside him, kept her voice low. "He's speaking twenty-first century English, American variant."

  Soeder nodded. Studied the . . . creature. "We don't acknowledge your legitimacy in this matter. Go speak to the World Council, if you want to play at inter-dimensional diplomacy."

  The thing sighed. "If you attack across the dimensions, we will stop you. If you still recall the Geneva Conventions, we follow something close enough for practical purposes." He looked back at his fancy scroll. "I won't bore you with reading the whole thing. You can peruse it later, when you have the time. Basically, you attack this world, we will retaliate on yours."

  Soeder eyed the creature. "I suppose you are what we call 'elves.' We know the general locus of the elf worlds. So I suggest you retract your threats."

  "Oh? So now you are threatening to attack other worlds at random, hoping to make us . . . what? Surrender to brutal murderers? Run and hide under our beds and hope you can't find us?" The thing looked him up and down. "When I say 'we,' I am referring to an organization, not a world. Disco's staff includes a number of species, including some humans. Your civilization is on the brink of being sufficiently advanced technologically to be considered for membership in the Concord. But that will never happen if you continue to attack other worlds, continue to exploit and kill other people."

  "The Natives here have some odd gates." Soeder paced around the limits of the force field, marked by the cessation of scorch marks on the carpets. "Are they yours?"

  "Oh no. Although they are step in the right direction. But they're just as random as yours. And they don't know how to close them. Terribly amusing. Fortunately they had the sense to stop before they found a dinosaur world." He frowned. "We ought to have moved in centuries ago. Stopped both Earth and the Empire of the One when they first attacked another world."

  "You know about the Oners? Why don't you stop them?"

  "We are in the process of doing that."

  "They stole one of our colony worlds."

  "No they didn't. They, and then you, colonized a world without regard to the intelligent species extant. Then you fought each other for it, with 'possession' switching back and forth. Gate anchors and beacons destroyed, rediscovery, reconquest. Ridiculous. A cease fire and then removal of both colonies is in order."

  Soeder hissed through his teeth, then got a better grasp on his temper. "That is our world, and so is this one. And you had better not get in the way."

  The Elf raised his eyebrows. "Your ambassador to the kingdom of the West was a bit pushy. What he said could easily be interpreted as a declaration of war. Perhaps I had better read this, after all." He unrolled the scroll a bit.

  "In accordance with the laws of warfare that were commonly agreed upon when the ancestors of the current population were exiled from Earth approximately fourteen hundred years ago, we will not deliberately target civilians. If you conceal your weapons and forces among civilians, we will still attack them, and the civilian casualties, while regrettable, will be your fault.

  "Uniformed soldiers who surrender will be considered Prisoners of War. We will treat Prisoners of War decently, not torturing, maiming, killing, starving or raping them.

  "Your means of transport, industrial plants, power facilities, government buildings and military depots are all legitimate targets. All military personnel and civilian contractors are legitimate targets. All weapons and weapon systems are legitimate targets.

  "If you wish to withdraw peacefully from this world at any point, a white flag on all battlefields will begin a cease fire under which you will be allowed to do so, and when the process is nearly finished we will return your Prisoners of War in exchange for you returning alive any of our people or military and civilian prisoners you hold, here or on any other world."

  The young man lowered the scroll. "Do you have any comments or questions?"

  "What the bloody fuck do you Disco Elves think you can do against us?" General Soeder strode forward.

  "We're not actually sure. We haven't had a battle with you to give us enough data for us to really think it over and get inventive. I suspect it's going to be fun. For us."

  The creature surveyed the room.

  Counting heads or weapons? Gauging expressions?

  "What is your name?"

  "I am Xeno Time. I suppose, if you want to consider me military, I could be addressed as Captain Time. However, being on a diplomatic mission, I think Ambassador Time would be more fitting."

  "Well, Captain, we have received our orders and we are in a state of war with the Kingdom of the West. If you interfere, we can easily add you to the list."

  Soeder walked around poking at the force field. The creature didn't watch him, but rather studied the other people in the room. He focused on the other officers. Then the guards.

  "Are you certain? There was waffle room in the ambassador's message. We can still try to settle matters peacefully."

  "If that Native king had capitulated, and handed over their gate making equipment, it could have been settled peacefully. Now we're going to take what we want."

  "Clearly you have no compunction about killing the local humans. But what of your own people? Will you not consider their well being?"

  "This is the military. We live to fight. You think their bows and arrows can scratch our tanks?" Soeder crossed his arms and stared at the Elf.

  "Why would they use bows and arrows?" He shook his head. "So. Let the hostilities commence."

  The building trembled faintly.

  The Elf looked a bit abstracted for a moment. Nodded. "That appears to have done the trick. If you would like to withdraw through the gate, I will ask for a cease fire."

  The soldier beside the Amma put a hand to his ear bug. "There's been an attack on the missiles and launchers, sir."

  Soeder looked around as a guard stepped up with his phone and showed him a picture of the missile compound. The twisted frames of the launchers were half buried, and all the missiles looked a bit crimped, where they were tumbled about on the ground.

  "General Soeder?" Captain Orobona spoke up. "May I recommend that we consult with Earth before we escalate? They may wish to reconsider their approach."

  The man had gone native while he was isolated here, and wasn't altogether trustworthy.

  "No, Captain I do not. The gate will open . . . soon." Ha, not going to give the Elf any information. "Then we'll pass these 'Rules of War' to them, and no doubt finally get
some decent equipment."

  The Elf hefted the scroll, shrugged and tossed it to the side. "Please do moderate your behavior, here. As the commander of a hostile force on an alien world, you will, personally, be held accountable for what happens here. And yes, I will also be talking to your World Council." He tapped at his bracer. The orangish transparent bubble reappeared, shrank and brightened, disappeared. The scroll was on the floor, the Elf was gone.

  Soeder gestured for his officers. "I need to get down to the Fort. If he reappears, record everything he says while I'm on my way. And watch the Natives, for Christ sake. They must have local help, to tell them about the caves we built the missile site upon."

  "Caves? There aren't any caves around here."

  The general sighed. "Oh yes there are. And they just collapsed them under our missile facility. Go ask the Natives about them. Forcefully."

  One of his own Captains trotted up. "Sir, we've lost all three satellites. The tech say the sats won't talk back to them, which ought to only happen when they are closed down for recalibration."

  "I see that they didn't believe the Ambassador about how many people we can kill how fast. Get the Jupiter out. Their nearest city is in range."

  "Err, no sir it isn't. The Jupiter's big cannon has a range of twelve hundred kilometers. The nearest Western City is Farofo, and it's nearly triple that distance."

  "Nonsense. What about the city about a thousand kilometers due north?"

  "Cadent? Sir, it's the Capital of Verona. Whole different country."

  "Do you really imagine that we're not going to conquer this entire world?"

  "No, but I think fighting with one polity at a time can keep us from bogging down and finding ourselves trapped." The Captain was visibly bothered. "And then there are the Laws of Warfare. Deliberate targeting of a civilian populous in a surprise attack . . . "

  "They declared war."

  "Not Verona."

  "It has the added advantage of not accidentally killing the people who know how to open the gates."

  "The Elf covered some of the primary points of the Geneva Convention. If we attack a peaceful city, deliberately targeting them to terrorize another Polity, we are in violation of the convention."