X
Through the course of human history conquerors have returned to their homes in triumph to be garlanded and feted for their great achievements. The sight of Elfi's tiny Bullet, leading the Robin which was towing the gigantic Riaz warship was beamed into every holo tank across the Twelve Worlds and viewed by billions. Not one of them did not know about the brave Princess Simla and her unstoppable android, Shap, who had walked across space and taken an alien warship all by themselves. Of course, the tale became embroidered. They had crossed under heavy fire. The numbers Shap had killed climbed to thousands. Simla had taken a weapon from the fallen and blazed her way to the bridge. Accordingly, millions of little girls were being named Simla, their parents not knowing that it was merely the name of an Indian hill town where the Great Father and Simla's mother had spent their honeymoon.
For Simla herself, it was unreal. She was used to accolades, knowing they were undeserved and only given because of her position, but now the enormity of what she had done slowly began dawning on her. What if the ship had opened fire on them? What if there had been thousands of troops aboard? What if? What if? And word came from Jaip that a holo movie of her insane escapade was already in production. Simla smiled when told that Doona Peelaw, who was about half her size, was to play her, and Elfi flew into a rage when informed that aging character actress Miys Tobol was to take her part because scientists were expected to be old and frumpy. Duke Torzil of Serdan appeared proudly on the holo news and told with a strange dignity of how his arm had been broken by Shap.
The Riaz ship and its occupants were, of course, the subjects of intense speculation. Elfi complained that there just wasn't enough computing power on Pendor to do the in-depth investigation she needed, but after the Pendoran military had swept the vast ship and pronounced it clean the news media moved in and audiences thrilled at the sight of alien technologies and purple-blooded corpses. These were swiftly gathered up and shipped to laboratories for post-mortem investigation and information about these strange creatures began seeping out. They did indeed have anatomical similarities to Earth's insects and reptiles, though originating from a very different gene pool. Their brain capacity was not much greater than the average human, though their strength, in proportion to their size, was considerable. No human being could envisage tackling one of these creatures in hand-to-hand combat and hope to survive.
But with her limited facilities, and champing at the bit to get the ship back to Old Earth, Elfi managed to access the ship's computer and downloaded huge amounts of information on Riaz culture and technology. They were indeed a species dominated by females; they had never encountered another intelligent species; primitive species they had met had been enslaved; they regarded humans as merely another of these and their technology as feeble and unimportant; the ship had carried only a small crew and not an invasion force because the raid had been designed only to cripple human defensive capability. A full scale invasion was planned. All human inhabited planets would be invaded and the occupants enslaved. Resistance would be crushed mercilessly. Humans who could provide some service to the Riaz would be allowed to live. All others would be starved to death. All resources would be channelled back to the Riaz homeworld. Eventually, according to Riaz thinking, humanity would disappear and Riaz colonies would be established on the Twelve Worlds.
It was an appalling indictment of their intentions and stiffened human resolve, already raised by Simla's daring exploit. One thing became abundantly clear, humans could not be expected to face the Riaz in combat and expected to triumph. Only creatures such as Shap could, and now the Riaz were aware of him, as his assault had seemingly been transmitted back to Riaz as it happened. There would be no more spacewalks across to a Riaz warship and a relatively easy victory.
"We need more Snaps," Simla insisted, "he's the key."
"I'm trying," Elfi answered, "but after what they've experienced I don't think the Riaz are going to be too keen about facing an army of his kind in battle. They'll probably want to stand off our planets and bombard them from space. For that we need ships."
Elfi took the machine's killing hands and stroked them. "But their military culture is based on hand-to-hand combat. Their honour depends on it, that's why they've got those huge ships, to transport armies."
"Yeah, but they're not stupid, if they want the Twelve Worlds they know the only way they can take them is by attacking from space. I think their tradition will give way to reality."
"Maybe, but troop carriers don't carry the weaponry for that kind of assault."
"Exactly. We've bought ourselves some time, that's all. While we're working out a way to build thousands of Shaps, they're probably concentrating on battleships. So we need to build planetary defences as well as more Shaps."
"Any word on getting back to Old Earth?"
"I've figured out their propulsion, but I'm still struggling with their navigation systems. They have a totally different view of the universe. They still work from the assumption that their homeworld is the centre of everything."
"But that should be easy to translate."
"Oh yes, but it still takes a lot of number crunching. .Another few days should see it done. Your ego crying out for another triumph when we reach Old Earth?"
"Hardly, I'm actually very embarrassed by the whole thing. Shap did all the work, I was just a passenger."
"Little sister, the fact that you went on that mission is why you're getting hero status, not because you killed hundreds of Riaz with your bare hands. Most people aren't that crazy."
"God, don't I know it. I can't believe it myself. I must have had a rush of blood to the head. And you didn't stop me!"
"I couldn't, you had Shap to back you up."
Simla stared wistfully up at the sky through the laboratory window. "When we head off to Old Earth I'll have to leave Yaf again."
Elfi came up and slipped an arm around her friend's waist. "You're not having much fun with him just now, so why worry?"
"Because you won't mend Shap! If he was fixed I'd be all over Yaf like a rash. As it is I break out in a cold sweat just giving him a kiss, and I don't mean a full-blown one, just a peck."
"I have been working on it, honey. The problem lies with the strength of programming your father insisted I put into Shap's head. The Great Father wanted you protected at all costs and have Shap there as a chaperone in case anybody made advances on your precious hide, but Shap's somehow managed to get them all mixed up."
"It's not good enough. What happens if you can't fix Shap? Am I destined to die an old maid?"
"I shall dedicate every man I have to you, you can love by proxy."
"I don't want to love by proxy, I want to be loved by a man. Yaf preferably."
Elfi left her friend's romantic problems and returned to work. She managed to crack her navigation problem and they were ready to return home by the next day. A muster crew was assembled from the Robin's and Simla found herself once more having to say farewell to the man she loved.
"This is getting to be habit," Yaf said, "and a bad one at that."
"Oh, Yaf," Simla said, pulling him into a tighter embrace.
"Oh, Yaf," he mimicked.
She punched his shoulder, "Swine. When will I see you again?"
"I'll be aboard the first warship to Old Earth from Pendor."
"You're no soldier."
"As First Minister I'm automatically Commander In Chief of our armed forces, so I've given myself a service commission for the duration."
"Oh yeah, General Alrick, I can see you already in your smart uniform. You'll probably end up awarding yourself a chest-full of medals."
"Lieutenant Alrick, actually. But that's only because they wouldn't let me join the ranks."
"Oh, Yaf," she repeated.
This time he didn't mock her but planted a chaste kiss on her forehead. "On your way. Tell Old Earth that Pendor stands with them."
"And that proudly, sirrah," she replied, curtseying prettily.
Yaf bowed in reply and gave her his smartest salute.
A single tear slipped down Simla's face as she turned and entered the shuttle.