Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) by Mark Wandrey (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📕

Zuul work with Human.” Shadow’s translator didn’t have to render this, because it was in understandable English.

“Bloody hell,” Drake said. “They’re laborers?” he asked Ulan. Iban had lost interest in the goings on and was playing with a strange rock on the cluttered floor.

“They slaves,” Ulan explained.

“What?” Shadow asked, his ears back and eyes narrowed.

“Slaves,” Ulan repeated, drawing out the word more carefully, apparently thinking Shadow was too slow to understand.

“Slavery is illegal in the Union,” Sonya said. Ulan stared at her without responding. “Shadow?”

“It’s not that simple,” Shadow said. “Union laws are both incredibly limited, and extremely absolute in many areas. Slavery isn’t one of those areas.” He thought about his reading on the subject. “You cannot commit genocide upon an intelligent race. However, if the race isn’t part of the Union, you enter one of those limited areas. I assume the Aku aren’t part of the Union. I don’t know; I’ve never heard of them until now.”

“Really wish Dad had let us have pinplants,” Sonya said. This was one of those times they all nodded in agreement.

“How did you get here?” Shadow asked Niss.

“My clan was captured by KzSha,” Niss explained, his English clearer than before. “Some eaten, others trained, others unknown.”

“Trained?” Rex asked. “What do you mean?”

“KzSha teach us jobs like mining and hazardous waste management.”

“They work you until you die?” Sonya asked, disbelieving.

“No, not die.”

“I don’t get it,” Shadow admitted.

“Aku not hurt by radiation or chemicals,” Ulan explained.

“So they’re armored radiation- and chemical-proof super bots?” Drake asked.

“We are not bots,” Niss said. His voice was neutral, sounding insistent but not offended. One of the alien’s arms came up, revealing short, dexterous appearing digits, which pointed at Shadow. “What this one said about the law is effectively correct. There is little detail about how the anti-genocide laws enforced by Peacemakers are enforced in regard to minor races lacking Union affiliation.”

Shadow’s jaw fell open in astonishment. He noticed his siblings were all staring as well. Ulan had moved over to examine the same rock Iban was staring at.

“Niss,” Sonya said, “please don’t take this the wrong way, but we thought you were just laborers.”

“We are,” Niss replied. “And slaves.”

“But your speech, your reasoning and knowledge, doesn’t suggest you’re simply laborers. Tell me about your society, please.”

Without fanfare, Niss told them about his home world. A world darker than most, with an orange star bathing it in high levels of radiation. They burrowed out dwellings through rocky outcroppings next to swamps, which they preferred over solid ground. Their people had existed in small tribes for eons, sharing a rich verbal history, and no real conflict. Part of their methods of communication, to adapt to the low light, involved a universal written language, scratched into rocks or mud. When they encountered the various written languages of the Union, it was easy for them to understand them.

“They’re natural linguists,” Rex said.

“Among other things,” Shadow agreed. “Niss, you said you have a verbal history?”

“That is correct.”

“How long is this history?”

“In years on our world, it is 295,000 rotations around our sun. You are Zuul, so it is 320,000 rotations around your sun, but you speak English, from Earth, which would be 304,000 rotations.”

They all gawked again. “How do you know these figures?” Shadow asked.

The hand he had gestured with retreated into his huge shell. When it came back out, it held a slate, which had obviously seen better days. “Ifess, my mate, found this in a garbage dump 120 rotations ago on this dwarf world. It is still networked.” He tapped the display, and the logo of the Information Guild came up, showing the GalNet. “There is much information to remember.”

“How much have you memorized?” Drake asked.

“Somewhat more than half,” Niss said. “We jump around a lot as information is needed. Humans are far back, so we went ahead and learned about them. We already learned about Zuul, since they fight here.”

“How much information do you think?” Drake asked Shadow.

“Half the GalNet?” Shadow shook his head. “There’s so much information in the GalNet, nobody on Earth has saved it all in one place.” He thought for a second. “Probably at least 10 exabytes, but I read a statement by one researcher in Sydney who thinks that if you include secondary references, it exceeds a zettabyte.”

Shadow looked at the unassuming Aku, who stared back at him with huge black eyes. “Niss, you’ve learned everything about Union law? Including mercenary law?”

“Yes,” the Aku replied.

Shadow smiled. “I’d like you to go over a contract.” Niss cocked his big head curiously.

* * *

Alan set the slate on the desk in his new quarters, shared with Captain Anderle, and rubbed his temples. The battle plan provided by Ifka was straightforward. A missile artillery bombardment against the Cartography Guild position 100 kilometers distant. The barrage had no real chance of success or even of doing serious damage. It was a cover to allow two platoons of Lumar to perform end runs toward the enemy. Alan’s CASPers would advance under the barrage, attacking directly five minutes after the Lumar engaged the enemy.

“Simple and stupid,” Alan said to the empty room. Captain Jill Anderle was off on duty, while he reviewed the mission profile. Under her command, Silent Night had dueled with the opposition Zuul and Pushtal, slowly bleeding each other, but not making any real progress. Now with just one additional squad, Ifka seemed to think victory was all but assured. Alan knew better. “The little weasel is running out of time.”

All those mines spoke of quickly played out reserves of Astatine-222. Ifka would have to move the mine soon, and she was afraid of trying while under siege. On his slate were details on the mine, which was actually a collection of massive mobile industrial machines. The entire