Monsters Win Wars: A Novella by Edward Punales

Author:Edward Punales [Punales, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: politics, space opera, aliens, war, revolution
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Back at the base, Emily and Henry had prepared a room to serve as President Sallis cell. It was a ten by ten room, that’d previously been used as a storage closet. Its supplies had been moved to another room, to be replaced by the modest furniture that Emily and Henry had installed. They’d gone out of their way to try and make their prisoner’s quarters hospitable; they’d installed a proper lighting fixture, a small table, and an old cot from the barracks that wasn’t being used. Henry wanted to show that he and the rebels were not uncivilized, and would treat him in a humane way. They wanted to be the better people.

After he’d been secured in his cell, two Saurian guards were posted at the door. The president was only alone for about a half-hour, when Henry came into the room. He was accompanied by Emily. Aric and Rand waited outside. Despite Aric’s suggestion that Rand perform the interrogation, Henry insisted that he do it.

“I don’t think we’ll need an interrogation anyway.” Henry had said. “We have him backed into a corner. I think we can appeal to his sense of reason, and show him that we have the advantage.”

“Alright,” Rand had said. “And when that backfires, you know where I’ll be.”

The president was sitting on his bunk, staring at the floor when Henry walked in. Sallis no longer had the look of terror he’d had on in the truck. He seemed to have gotten acclimated to his situation.

“Nice place you got here.” He said. “Needs a new coat of paint I think.” Henry didn’t say anything, and just sat down on the table next to the bed.

For a few silent moments, they just stared at each other, until Sallis said, “You can’t win.”

Henry let Sallis’ words sit in his mind a moment while he thought up a response. He knew the president was just stalling, trying to buy time. At that moment, military ships were combing the solar system trying to find him, looking under every rock, inspecting every remote corner. It would only be a matter of time before they found the base. Henry needed to work fast if he was to get those security and command codes to reroute the starships searching for him.

“I have a list of codes that you are going to give me.” Henry said.

“We have you outnumbered and outgunned.”

“Not necessarily.”

“You’re talking about your lizard friends?” Sallis said with a knowing smirk. “I’m surprised they contacted you first.”

“You knew about them?” Henry tried not to show the shock on his face.

“Maybe.” Sallis continued to smirk. He gave a small chuckle. Henry remained silent, and the president continued, “We found a few of their probes scattered around the solar system a few years back. They were picking up communication signals; radio, TV, Wi-Fi, things like that. Some of our scientists were able to reverse the signal. We got a couple of jumbled images, and a few recordings of them speaking in that hissing language.

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