Enemy Forces (Earth at War Book 5) by Rick Partlow

Author:Rick Partlow [Partlow, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2022-05-28T14:00:00+00:00

“You owe me twenty bucks,” Julie reminded me even before the lurch of the hyperspace jump had faded. “No Bugs.”

Olivera twisted around in his seat, cocking an eyebrow at me.

“You made a bet that there’d be Bugs here?”

“Just a friendly wager,” I told him, shrugging uncomfortably. “She made me.”

“I told you to put your money where your mouth is, Clanton,” Julie shot back.

“She’s right about that,” Graciano confirmed, less amused by the whole thing than Julie, probably because he’d been on the Jambo for the battle and experienced the damage and death. “The system is clear and the defensive platforms are responding.”

Helta Prime looked as beautiful and inviting as always, lusher and greener even than Earth. No Sahara desert or Australian Outback to mar the forests with their vast swathe of devastation. The place was close to a paradise, kept that way by the Helta, who were what I would have considered environmentalist tree-huggers a couple years ago. Not that I disapproved, but I had to admit that it was easier to be a greenie-weenie when you’d been gifted fusion reactors before you had the chance to drill for oil.

“Shah,” Olivera said to the Comm officer, “get me the Helta Facilitator for Defense.”

The Helta had not, amazingly enough, even had such a position during the war. They’d instituted it at our urging, but I still thought they didn’t like it, didn’t believe in the need for it even after they’d almost been wiped out by a bunch of Bronze-Age barbarians.

“Lapan-Sul is on the line, sir,” Shah announced after a moment.

That was the Defense Facilitator himself, which I supposed was an honor, since he was the head of the whole department. The image on the screen could have been just about any Helta as far as I could tell. I’d been dealing with them for two years, was one of the first humans to meet them, and they still looked mostly alike to me. I considered it a personal triumph if I could tell the males from the females, and since this image only showed Lapan-Sul from the neck up, I wouldn’t have even been able to determine that much if I hadn’t already met him. His face was the same rounded, vaguely chubby bear-like visage that all the Helta shared, bristling with fur, ears higher on the head than a human’s, though not sticking up over the skull like their ancestors.

“General Olivera,” the Heltan said, the mismatch of his words from the movements of his mouth demonstrating that he was being translated by the computer and hadn’t bothered to learn English. “A pleasure to see you once again!” The Helta idea of a smile was something thin and closed-mouthed, not showing their teeth. “It had been so long since you left on your expedition, we had nearly given up hope of your return. I trust your trip was fruitful. Did you discover the secrets of the Elders?”

Olivera shot me a darkly amused look before turning back to the main screen.

“You might say that, Lapan-Sul.

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