Unfold by Timothy Ellis

Author:Timothy Ellis [Ellis, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty Nine

Trip sent me an icon a bit further away from the table.

I appeared in the snow, and sank ankle deep into it. I was far enough away that they’d take too long to get to me if they tried, but not too far I had to shout to talk to them. Several of them saw me, and their shouting match stopped, with all of them turning to look at what the first ones were.

“You wanted to talk to me about surrender?” I asked them. “Here I am.”

“Where are we?” asked the top civilian, in a voice which suggested she was seriously pissed off.

“My POW planet. The first one anyway. There’s a second one which is a bit more hospitable than this one, but you need an invitation to go there. There’s usually ships in orbit here, and they can send down a shuttle for you, but they may not. There’s a building over the way there, and living there now is another Ralnor high council, and a council of humans. Neither can get a shuttle to come down for them, apparently. I’m not exactly surprised though.”

“What right do you have to kidnap people?”

“Come now. You planned an elaborate trap to kill me, for the third time, and expected me to just walk into it?” Expressions suggested that was exactly what they’d thought. “We saw through the last two and punished the corporations, but never got a chance to deal with you. And we know you gave the orders. This time, surrendering was so unexpected, we actually looked at it really hard looking for the trap, and found all of it quite easily.”

“How?” asked the four star admiral.

“You’re not our equal in tech, and haven’t been since well before the corporate coups. Our only disadvantage was lack of numbers, and that’s being rectified. Your fleets just got slaughtered, by the way. Your troops are being as well. We played your game, let you spring your trap in the docking bay, and then just wiped your corporation military out.”

“What were those things?”

They’d been watching the docking bay then.

“Old tech. Combat robots, under the control of an AI. There was no point in risking myself when I didn’t need to. As for you, if we’d let the Ralnor troops storm your chamber, you’d all be dead. My general brought you here instead of shooting you, because this is what we do with high councils that earn it.”

“How long do we stay here now?” asked a civilian, getting nasty looks from several of the others.

“The rest of your natural lives. Unless you can convince someone to send you a shuttle, and take you to the other planet. There you’ll find no-one listens to new high councils who arrive, and if you try to lead, they’ll probably shoot you. My suggestion is, learn to like the cold.”

“What can we do to be taken home?” asked the civilian leader.

“Nothing. We’ll make sure you don’t starve, but after I leave, no-one’s even going to check on you.

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