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As they sat down that evening at the long dining room table, every jaw was set and every eye was determined. Each team had conferred, and, using their own specialties and skills, they had come up with a plan that surprised Jenny. It used an ingenious combination of high tech and no tech in a way Jenny would have never considered.
Megan, the quiet, shy woman, who had interned at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, home of the largest indoor swamp in the world, had come up with an idea to use the local wildlife against the interlopers. Brendan, who had hunted crocs in Australia, had teamed up with Megan and between them and Bob, they had concocted a somewhat bizarre plan that would more than just distract the Groga and soften them up for the Troopers, who would be there to keep the enemy from escaping and mop up when it was done.
Their plan for stage one would require a platoon of small drones, which, as it turns out, a number of the Guardians flew as a hobby. They had discovered a couple score of drones in the MDPs. So, it was totally doable, and this part of the plan wouldn't expose any of the Alliance troops to danger or expose the use of "dastardly alien tech".
Jenny noticed that Megan seemed a lot more at ease with the other Guardians than she had at their first meeting.
Bob reported his part of the plan next. He couldn't resist employing some alien tech that had been discovered in the first MDP. It was amazing how quickly he fell back into his military training. He stood, his hands in his pockets, rocking excitedly on the balls of his feet, "Sometimes if you want to do big things, you have to think small. We found some flying nanobots that have some unique programming. It will make the overall plan work more effectively and it will minimize casualties, at least on our side."
As he continued to reveal the unique way he would be employing these little flying bots, Jenny realized that Bob had a mean streak she had never noticed before now. She made a mental note to never make him angry.
By the time they had each laid out their individual facets of the plan, Jenny and Lova had to remind them that they needed at least some of the Groga to survive the attack. "We won't be able to get any intelligence out of them if they're all dead." Lova commented wryly.
Tarafau stood up behind Jenny, his hand on her shoulder. "Gariel tells me that it's time for Tidbit to put in an appearance at headquarters to encourage a blind Groga to tell us his darkest secrets. Jenny, her Guards and I will go to Alliance Headquarters to interview the man that Tidbit attacked. I expect the results will be interesting." The satisfied look on his face said much more than his words.
"The Troopers assigned to the first stage of the operation will be here in the morning and Burt's team is going to the staging site to get set up for the attack. We've hired a number of different transports to get us there, hopefully without attracting any notice. There will be no uniforms. And the non-humanoid forces will be transported in closed vehicles. The idea is to filter in as quietly as possible," Gariel said. "Burt and his team have put together a solid plan that's tactically sound. Assuming the plan is successful, no one outside of that swamp will be any the wiser."
"Does anyone have any questions?" Jenny asked. "While they are setting up the operation, the rest of us will set up a situation room. I'm assuming that the surveillance recordings can be made available here?" she asked, turning to Lova. Lova nodded.
"Good. The other teams will continue to work on their tasks. We especially need to finish the inventory of the MDPs. Tarafau and I will return as soon as we finish with the interrogation, hopefully with more information about where we stand," she paused, remembering the other point she needed to emphasize. "Please remember, that some of those Groga need to survive your attack. We need as much information as we can gather, if we're going to stop this."
They adjourned, each of the members of Burt's team bustling off to prepare. Jenny stood and Tarafau and her guards followed her and Lova into the dining room. Arvid had prepared a nice buffet complete with salad bar and desserts. They each grabbed a plate and, at Jenny's request, retired to the office Jenny had used before. "This should work just fine for a situation room," Jenny said to Lova. "Is there a floating screen here?" referring to the screen that had hung above the dining room table earlier.
"This office is fully equipped," said Lova. "I'll make arrangements to move some of the furniture and install an appropriate table and chairs. We'll have it all ready when you and Tarafau return."
Lova saw them off to the gate. Xao Ting had given them some special herbal tinctures that he claimed would produce agitation without reducing mental clarity. Jenny pocketed the vial.
When they stepped through, there was a contingent of Guards waiting for them. This was unusual. Generally, the gate was protected by the scanner and the Guards waited at the bottom of the pleasant walk down the hill.
When Jenny questioned them about it, they simply replied that security was being stepped up at all gateways and she would be getting instructions when she got to the Council room.
When Jenny and Tarafau walked into the Council room, all three Councilors were there, in addition to a couple of Guards.
"These two will be escorting you to the interrogation section. It is a highly secure area and this is standard procedure. Before you leave, do you have any questions?" Ingot said, getting right to the point.
"The Guards that escorted us from the Gate, said there would be instructions on the new security procedures?" Jenny countered.
"When you and Tarafau are finished with the interrogation. We thought it would be good for you to be in attendance as well as Tidbit. You may have some insights we may miss. We'll be viewing the interview from here."
As he said this, a new transparent screen popped into view directly in front of the dais.
Jenny and Tarafau followed the Guards down the elevator to the Guard Station without speaking. The two Guards looked so somber and official, Jenny admitted to herself that she felt somewhat intimidated, even though she knew they would not harm her.
When they filed through the security scanner, another official greeted them respectfully. "The subject will be shielded, but he will be able to hear you and to", looking at Tarafau, "smell you."
Jenny thought she detected a slight smile on his lips that came and vanished before she was sure. "I've brought an herbal tincture, created by Xao Ting, one of the Earth Guardians. He seemed to think it would help increase the effectiveness of the interrogation. He said to put a drop on each wrist of the prisoner and wait about 2 minutes for the effects to set in. That is when Tidbit should make himself known."
The guard nodded and accepted the little vial from Jenny. They followed him into a room that wasn't much different from the small rooms in the infirmary, except that, instead of a bed, there was a large, heavy metal chair with a big burly man, restrained by what appeared to be leather straps on his arms, feet and his neck and fastened to the chair.
He scowled at the sound of footsteps but said nothing.
Jenny was shocked at the all too apparent damage to his face, neck and arms. Tarafau hadn't exaggerated when he had said he had "shredded" him. His eyelids were tatters and the eyeballs that showed between strips of skin were no longer white, but dark red, as if filled with blood. His entire nose was scabbed over and his lips were as ragged as a torn cloth. Jenny wondered how he would be able to speak until she realized that this interrogation would probably be conducted entirely with mindspeech.
The guard turned his hands over to add the drops of tincture on his wrists. Jenny was not surprised to see the amount of damage to his hands and wrists, most likely inflicted as he had tried to pry Tidbit from his face.
The guard sent to the group, "We have a few questions."
The man spat in his direction through ragged lips.
The satisfied smile on that ravaged face changed to pure terror when Tidbit, now transformed, let out that eerie "mrrrreeeeowww!" The man looked fearfully around, although unable to see, and struggled in his bonds. "Get that THING away from me!" The thought was a piercing shout that hurt Jenny's mental ears.
"We have some questions," the Guard began again. The man shook his head frantically, his body arched in the chair. The Guard simply stood there, saying nothing while the man struggled.
Tidbit growled deep in this throat and then stropped the man's ankles. As the cat touched him, Jenny thought the man was going to strangle himself trying to get away. Tidbit hissed and spit.
The guard continued to stand there quietly, and Jenny suddenly remembered something from her mom's favorite cop show. "Good cop, bad cop," she thought with a grin.
"Please, Mr. Guard, can't you take the cat away? The man is terrified!" she sent with a note of sympathy thrown in for good measure. "Please! I can't stand to watch this."
The guard replied sternly, "I can do nothing if the man chooses not to talk. The cat has a right to be here to witness the interrogation as much as you do." He nodded with understanding at Jenny, encouraging her to continue.
"But if he talks can you take the cat away?" she pled with the guard. "If he answers your questions?"
"This sort don't answer questions, Miss," he replied gruffly. "I guess I'll just have to turn him over to the cat. Come with me. You won't want to watch this..."
"NO!!!" the man wailed in their minds. "Please, don't leave me alone with him!"
"I can do nothing if you won't cooperate."
The man was becoming more and more agitated as Tarafau "mrrrrreeeowed" once more, his cat voice starting low and rising to the screech of an animal about to attack.
"I'll talk! Please! I'll talk!"
The guard nodded, and Tidbit walked back to Jenny, purring loudly. He waved Jenny and Tidbit out the door with a finger to his lips and turned to the man.
The Guard who had been standing outside the door smiled broadly as she and Tarafau followed him back to the Council room. When they got there, the Councilors were engrossed in the screen before them. They motioned for Jenny and Tarafau to take seats on the dais next to them.
"So far, he has only confirmed what we already know, but he is getting more and more willing to answer questions as he goes. The other man chewed his tongue off between sessions and bled to death. The unconscious one has revived, but as we feared, remembers nothing. So you see how important this one has become." Myla told them once they were seated.
As they sat there, Jenny was surprised to find that instead of speakers, the audio feed was direct mind contact. She heard both the Guard's questions and the answers of the scarred and frightened prisoner, very clearly.
Most of the questions sounded almost routine. How was he recruited? What was his commander's name? What was his mission? All of these he answered freely.
He was recruited from a merchant's guard on his planet. His commander's name was Morgent. His mission was to find The Gatekeeper's gate and to pillage the storage shed of any items that might be useful. But when the Guard finally asked him what dimension he came from and how they had come to Earth, he suddenly stiffened, his bloody eyes wide, his ragged mouth in an "o" of surprise. He coughed once, blood spewing from his mouth and went limp.
The Guard turned away from the lifeless, shattered thing still suspended in his bonds. He looked up at what was probably the camera and shook his head morosely. "I was afraid of that," was all he said.
"Trapped!" Ingot fumed as he terminated the screen, "trapped to implode when a certain question was asked."
"I don't know how to get around a mind trap like that," said Liliath. "We're going to need as many prisoners from the Earth raid as we can get. It may take some time to figure this out. In the meantime, we aren't much ahead of where we were before."
Jenny put her head in her hands. As grisly as it had been, she felt no compassion for the man who had died, only disappointment that they still didn’t have the information they needed. The life and survival of her planet depended on it.
"What do we do now?" she asked, hoping she had kept the plaintive note out of her mental voice. This was no time to appear to be weak. People were depending on her.
For a moment, no one spoke. Finally, Liliath raised her head. At this moment she reminded Jenny of every scary dragon painting she had ever seen. She seemed to grow as she sat before them, tendrils of smoke leaking from her nose and mouth, her eyes narrowed and the end of her tail twitching like Tidbit when he was agitated or angry. Then Jenny realized that her colors were shifting from blue and green to red and purple.
For one startling moment she thought that Liliath was responding to her whine, then she realized that Liliath wasn't looking at her.
"We have been too soft." The murmur in her head accompanied the low auditory rumble that was emanating from Liliath. "Words burn in me. I can no longer suppress them. We cannot afford compassion or benign non-interference in this case. While it is true that we do not advocate force, we cannot sacrifice the peace and growth of worlds without end for the avarice and violent natures of a small minority. I can no longer tolerate it!" And she brought a clawed fist down on the dais so hard that it nearly threw Jenny out of her chair.
Myla stood and placed one hand on Liliath's heaving shoulder. "I'm with you," he sent quietly. "We need to finish this once and for all."
Ingot nodded solemnly, reaching up and placing his hand on her chest. "I agree. This is an infestation that cannot be allowed to continue. Our patience is at an end."
The three turned as one to Jenny. "Earth has become the lynchpin." Ingot said, "If we are to be successful in routing the Groga, it all begins there. Set your plans into motion now. While you are accumulating the intelligence we require, we will assemble the other Guardians and put enhanced security on every known gate. Most of the worlds where there are gateways are as vulnerable as Earth. Planets and universes that are fully aware of the gates are few for reasons you have probably guessed by now.
The Guards who will be returning with you will brief all of the Guardians on Earth of the new security procedures which will be implemented immediately. This includes increased, on the ground, personal Guards for every Guardian and their Gates, as well as automated weaponized security measures that are being installed on every gate even as we speak, starting with the Earth gates. We do not think these incursions are happening through known gates, but we are taking no chances.
There is a reason why they are attacking gateways, but it is puzzling if they have their own ways of getting into other dimensions. There also seems to be a deadline they need to meet, at this point. We need to focus on getting this information, as well as their points of egress and their overall plan. So much depends on this.
The cultures are rare that are fully ready to embrace the gateways and their best uses. For the most part our function is to prevent incursions such as the Groga from happening. I do not know the purpose of The Creator in making the network of gateways, but I do know that this isn't the first time the cause of evil has been facilitated by them. Those of us who stand for good cannot allow unsuspecting populations to be ravaged in this way, if it is within our ability to stop it."
"I cannot promise success," Jenny replied, looking each in the eye in turn. "I can promise that my team is dedicated to doing our best. With your help and the guidance and training that is being generously provided, I hope to grow into my calling. For now, however, I will continue to depend on the experience and wisdom and skills of those who support me. Thank you for the trust you have put in me."
Tarafau laid his hand on her shoulder. "We must return. The operation is ready to set into motion and we need to be there. I assume the Troopers who are supporting us have already arrived at Sanglarka?"
Ingot nodded.
"Then we will be off."
"May the Creator of All Things grant you the strength and courage you require." Ingot said.
As they turned to leave, Jenny, straightened her shoulders. There was work to do.
