Rebel's Revenge Chapter 11

Chapter 11



This was undoubtedly the greatest day of her life. Having just graduated from the academy and assigned as a young Ensign to one of the finest squadrons in the entire frontier air cavalry, her first raid had been an unqualified success. Although Captain Kaileea had been in operational command of her squadron during the capture, the command belonged to her, Aileea, and she would receive the credit in the dispatches back to the capitol. Her first command was off to a great start. She was humming with happiness as she casually inspected the mounts of her squadron with a sharp eye to detail.

"Aileea," she heard her name called from outside the rookery. "Aileea, Commander Betaas wants to see you," her friend said, entering the massive double doors to the squadron rookery, "and she said to snap to, she's in a hurry."

"What does the Old Owl have her feathers ruffled up about now, Janeea?" Aileea questioned, turning the inspection over to her Senior Sergeant, her happy mood suddenly dissipating. Commander Betaas was perhaps the best Wing Commander in the Air Cavalry, but she'd stepped on a lot of toes to get to her position of command and she'd broken a lot of young ensigns along the way.

"She got another pouch of dispatches from the capitol early this morning," Janeea stated, looking at a smudge on her blue tunic, "and she's been on the war bird ever sense. Sometimes I think being an adjutant to her is worse than being a squadron commander."

Aileea and Janeea had been good friends since the early days of the academy when they both had entered as novices. Aileea had chosen to wear the yellow tunic of the Cavalry and Janeea, who had a terrible fear of heights, had chosen the blue tunic of the Infantry upon graduation. Unfortunately, Janeea's first assignment had been as a paper pusher to the meanest commander in the Empire's Air Navy.

As the two friends walked across the muddy compound and into the headquarters building, another squadron landed with but a single captive to show for the hard two week's patrol they had been sent out on. Their commander will surely get her butt chewed, Aileea thought, looking down into the snarling face of Commander Betaas who was engrossed in a pile of dispatches.

The commander looked up suddenly, bringing them to quick attention.

"Ensign Aileea reporting Mam," she stated, throwing a professional academy salute to the commander. Commander Betaas dismissed Janeea and told Aileea to take a seat across from her cluttered desk. She took a few minutes to rifle through the mountain of papers, then held one up and pointed to it.

"How long have you been in this Wing Ensign?" she asked, throwing the paper on the desk in front of Aileea.

"A month less a day, Mam," Aileea replied, suddenly becoming nervous, "today I returned from my first combat mission."

"A month less a day and I have already received three dispatches from your mother, the Councilor, asking about your health. I do not have enough damn time in the day to answer dispatches to ever Councilor in the damn empire about how their damn precious little daughters are doing. Please write to your mother and tell her to keep her damn letters to a minimum, Ensign Aileea?"

"Yes Mam!"

"That was a fine patrol you led Ensign. In fact, I think the twenty six captives you brought in is the highest ever captured by a single patrol, at least during my twenty five years with the cavalry, plus, they're some of the finest specimens we've gotten in a long time. It will reflect well on your record. You are dismissed."

"Thank you Mam," Aileea stated, saluting then turning and leaving the room. Her mood had just perked up again, although she knew she'd have to write to her mother and beg her not to write Commander Betaas so often. She knew the Commander had to answer each and every dispatch from a member of the Council regardless of how busy she was trying to run the base camp and the entire Wing. She had a smile on her face as she passed Janeea's desk and threw her a wink as the Commander bellowed for Janeea to report to her office.

"Get me the damn commander of that last squadron to report in," she heard, as she left the headquarters building. She watched as the single captive, a short squat man with an extremely harry body, who crouched as he walked, was escorted by the military guards into the compound prison. She almost felt sorry for the exhausted Squadron Leader who was making her way towards the headquarters building. It was getting harder and harder to find suitable men without going beyond the limits set by the Wing Commanders. She knew she had been very lucky to find and capture the ones she had. In fact, they were down to their last day and a half of the two week patrol before one of her scouts had spotted them at the very fringes of her patrol area. Well, sometimes all it took was luck. She made a mental note to give a three day pass to Caileea, the forward scout who had actually found the great catch.

"Aileea," she heard her name called out once again. Turning she spotted another friend, Ensign Taileea, waving at her from the pens on the other side of the compound. "Come take a look," Taileea yelled, "your captives are being released into the training pens."

A small crowd of officers and a few civilians had gathered near the pens which were made of stout iron wood and completely enclosed even overhead. It was actually one large bird cage, about a hundred foot circle, the kind used to tame and train the occasional wild mounts they caught in the mountains. A prime directive had been handed down by the Council that all captives were to be thoroughly cleaned, well fed, and exercised on a daily basis before being trained for work in the capitol. Word was spread around that a few untrained and rogue captives had gotten loose last summer and killed several important patricians before being caught and garroted by the Air Police. Not only had the incident put fear into the fat laid-back rich patricians, it had been a shameful waste of manpower which was at an all-time premium everywhere in the Empire. Well aware that her Senior Sergeant could handle the stand-down procedures of the squadron and get the girls their pay and bonuses, she headed over to the training pens.

"What a haul," Taileea remarked as she strode up to the bars. "What a lucky one you are to have the best catch in years." Her tone indicated a hint of jealousy as well as excitement. "Think they might give you one for your reward?"

"No possible way," Aileea casually returned. No way would they give her a prime male worth more than she'd make in two year's pay as an Ensign. Even her mother, the Councilor, had only one male and he wasn't exactly in his prime.

She watched as the captives were marched in a single line into the dining area of the cage. This was her first real look at the captives for she had not seen them all during the excitement of the capture and the haste to return the patrol to headquarters.

Eleven of the captives she could identify as being among the prized giants of the Sea People. They were tall well-built men and would command superior prices in the markets of the capitol. She even knew a lot of their language having learned it from her mother's male, Irdnar, a onetime member of this tall race.

Three of the captives were of a race she had never before seen. They were short but superbly built, each had soft fur on their bodies, except for their faces, and each had a long three foot tail. They looked as if they were descendants from cats, an animal most of her people hated.

The six wearing dark black uniforms of some type were all prime specimens, resembling the Sea People, but she could tell from their posture of obedience and bearing they were professional warriors from some unknown nation. They would bear close watching.

The three boys would bring a good price, it was seldom young males were captured, and the Tyberian would be an attention getter in the markets, especially among the Navy Admirals. They knew of the Tyberians but considered them much too powerful to conquer at this stage of the Empire's development.

The giant red bearded man in a strange many colored subdued uniform would fetch a great price as would the other two boys and older one clad in the same odd uniform. The one standing on the end, a tall and very handsome male, appeared to be the leader of the entire group. He stood as if he were in full control of the situation and looked at the warriors as if they were beneath his notice. His eyes were a startling steel gray color, his shoulders broad, waste slim, and his bearing was regal and dominating. All of them, except the cat men, were of a uniform tan coloring, the color most prized in the markets. Combined, they would bring a fortune to the coffers of the Empire, enough for a young Ensign to retire in immoral luxury for the rest of her days.

"Look at that one," Taileea remarked, pointing at Monday among the prisoners. "I'd give a month’s pay to ride him."

"It'd take a lot more woman than you to control that one," Aileea remarked, throwing a time worn pun at her friend. "You'd better stick to our Allach males; they're about all you can handle."

"Screw you," Taileea returned, "I'll bet you're still a virgin."

Both remarks had been made in good friendship and were common insults among the male starved Allach women. The male Allach had for centuries been slowly dying out. For some reason unknown to the scientists and doctors, a disease had struck the Allach over three centuries ago but it only affected the male population. The odds in the empire today were at least two hundred females to one male, and those remaining males were puny and sickly most of the time. One famous doctor had stated that when the Allach were transported to this world, the chromosomes of the male Allach were somehow affected, causing this disastrous condition. Whatever caused it, unless the warriors could replace the dwindling male gene pool, the Allach race faced a serious threat. Over the past hundred years, captive males from the unknown lands had been used to rebuild the population. Unfortunately, although the females were born normal, all except for a few of the males born from a union with the barbarians continued to turn out weak and sickly.

"There was a report from one of our long range scouts of a new settlement of people in a northern valley," Aileea remarked, "do you think maybe the men dressed in black and the ones in those odd uniforms come from there?"

"Who knows," replied Taileea, "they refuse to let us go that far in our patrolling because it's too close to the Tyberians. But, perhaps if we learn these men are from that area, new hunting grounds will be opened to us."

"I wonder what it's like," Aileea said, "being a captive and not knowing what's in store for you." Her remark was more a statement than a question. She couldn't keep herself from looking into the steel gray eyes of the tall domineering male. He looked as if he could see right through her short tunic and he appeared to like what he saw. She begin to feel a hot flash throughout her entire body as she thought of being with him. She pulled her gaze to the excited warriors who were admiring the great catch to rid herself of the tingling sensation, an almost perceptible blush crossing her beautiful features.

She watched as the Military Police in their green tunics ordered the captives to sit down on one long stone bench arranged in a semi-circle. She noticed one of the captives in black whisper to the tall handsome one. He nodded his head and the remaining captives took a seat on the hot stone as if to his command. He's definitely the one in charge, Aileea thought to herself, continuing to watch as support personnel brought forth large baskets filled with meat and bread and cheeses. It will be interesting to watch this group go through the training phase.

"Congratulations Ensign Aileea," remarked an older captain who had pushed her way in between Aileea and her friend Taileea. "You have made a fine catch." She looked steadily into Aileea's eyes, a shadow of jealousy and something else covered her face. Aileea had not liked Captain Hodeea from the first moment they'd met upon her arrival at her new posting. Something about the way the woman looked at her wasn't quite right but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. She's also heard strange half told stories of the unusual things this Captain, who was third in the chain of command of the garrison, had done at her last posting.

No. She didn't like this Captain at all and it had nothing whatever to do with the fact the Captain was in intelligence and administration.