My minor in Xenology didn't quite prepare me for the sight of a Cack in the flesh. Those Who Dwell Within, sometimes called the Indwellers, stand two and one-half meters tall. They look like a cross between a bipedal praying mantis and a walking saguaro cactus—from which they get their nickname. A green chitinous pseudo-exoskeleton covers their bodies in long vertical strips. These are joined by cartilaginous tissue through which sensory hairs protrude like spines. The one that crawled toward us on its four arms as we pulled our way out of the connecting tube into the Cack ship, triggered all sorts of fight-or-flight responses which I trembled to suppress.

A blast of hot dry air drew beads of sweat across my forehead and evaporated them almost as quickly. The indweller who greeted us hooked its feet under two handholds, anchoring itself to the wall, and chittered, whistled and clacked its mandibles at us. The translating device attached to its shell below its oval-shaped head said, "Forgive this servant being Circling Winds. This servant seeks the lords of He Who Looks Up."

"We are they," Phil said.

It examined us with bulbous black eyes, flapping leaf-like ears as it listed to the translator's chitter.  Somehow, despite the awkwardness of microgravity, it pulled at the anchor points in the passageway with its four arms and bobbed "up" and "down" repeatedly as if bowing at the waist. Clinging to the wall like some large armored green spider, it continued bobbing, moving side to side in quick insect-like jerks and clacked its mandibles. I was glad I had not even been born when we had fought the Cacks.

"Follow this servant leading to the chambers awaiting the lords of He Who Looks Up."

Casting me a glance and a shrug, Phil replied to the crouching Circling Winds, "We will."

Barely waiting to hear the translation, Circling Winds turned and leaped away, shooting down the narrow tube-shaped passage like an arrow. He paused to glance back at us as we drifted along behind before rocketing down a dim side passage into a cylindrical room. Overlarge acceleration couches lined the side of the cylinder. Two Cack workers and a crawdad, each with tools attached to belts around their torsos or appendages, lay strapped in face down. Our guide joined them on an empty couch and turned to us. "Secure yourselves against the growing acceleration to come."

The acceleration couches were not padded; though they were covered in some sort of plasticized surface which imparted a little give. Phil and I lay back against the couches face up. We fiddled with the straps until we got them adjusted then waited, listening to the untranslated conversation between the Cack and an operator in another room. Transparent doors closed, sealing the room at each end, and a warning drum sounded. I braced myself and the room began to spin. In less than a minute of acceleration, a strange trick of perception made the corridor outside the clear doors seem to spin while our room remained stationary. I had only just begun to get used to the "pull" of the centripetal force when the room lurched and began to move "down." It was almost too much for my inner ear to take. I closed my eyes and concentrated on repressing my rising nausea.

Eventually, the elevator came to a stop and an all-clear rhythm drummed from the room's sound system. The other occupants freed themselves from their restraints and left.

Our guide waited just long enough for us to stagger out into a corridor running along the outside edge of the ship's spinning habitat section. We followed Circling Winds to a door where it stopped and whistled and chittered. The door opened into a cooler and brighter room and Circling Winds stood aside. We entered a common room with a half-dozen smaller personal chambers leading off from it.

"You will find the place containing your needs of sustainment. The tool-slaves are taught your speech, though conquering understanding must occur."

"I'm sure we'll manage," Phil said.

"Shines Like the Sun will call you when the Lords of He Who Looks Up are complete. Waiting until then, you may shape your own time."

Circling Winds left and I surveyed the room, noting a lack of furniture. Long low shelves extended from the walls and smooth glazed ceramic covered every surface. Even in the personal chambers, not a single cushion or pillow could be found. I examined a long, shallow, dish-shaped depression in an alcove recessed into the wall, fearing it was meant to be my bed, then returned to the common room.

I tried to check my data feed, but our netpieces would not interface with the Cack network. Phil had found a com panel and was talking to sub-commander Harlow back on the Torchbearer when I had finished my inspection.

"Yes, sir. The Flower gave the command to break orbit as soon as your shuttle docked." Harlow was a thin little man with short bristly black hair just long enough to keep him from being called bald but short enough to not draw too much attention to a hairline already in full retreat. "They ordered us to follow and told us we could confirm the order with you after you settled in there."

"Still, it would have been nice to have gotten some advance notice," I said, joining Phil at the screen.

Phil shot me a warning look, and then addressed Harlow. "Continue to obey any lawful order coming from Shines Like the Sun's C&C unless it is directly countermanded by myself."

"Yes, sir."

"That will be all for now."

"Acknowledged. Torchbearer clear."

Phil stared at the blank screen and scratching at the point of his chin thoughtfully. After a moment of silence, he asked me, "Did you sense anything odd in the manner we were received?"

"You mean, having a servant hurry us off to our rooms without even an officer to greet us? It does seem odd. I had always thought the Cacks were big on ceremony." The silence of my netpiece suddenly became oppressive. I punched up the Cack media networks on a com panel, seeking any news of what was going on outside the ship but, judging from the awkward translations, Cack media wasn't even talking about Sunshine. I searched for any Solarian feed, even one from our own ships. Even with Cack's own com panel, I couldn't find a connection past the Cack military network. I closed the feeds in disgust and put the com panel on standby. "I hope they don't expect us to conduct a war from here."

Phil stared off thoughtfully. "No. The nobles travel together, but they rejoin their flagships before the fighting starts."

"That's assuming he's interested in us and not just our ships."

Phil snapped a frown at me. I could see him thinking the same thing. The Cacks wouldn't be able to crew our ships, but they didn't need us to command them and we'd make nice hostages if that became necessary.

"Surely they realize that it is our discipline and our combat doctrine and not our technology that makes us effective," I said. "They'd never be able to maintain that without the fleet officers."

Phil smiled and shook his head ruefully. "It'll never come to that. The contract was fairly open-ended to allow us to respond to changes in circumstances. As long as they keep paying us, they effectively own us."

* * *

The fleet traveled considerably slower than my ship Argippos. Just lining up Phil's two-hundred ships of the combined Solarian/Pentaminc fleet and Sunshine's escort, took hours to transit through the gate.

Once through, we stopped at a little colony called Biggs to service and re-supply our ships. The Quantum Wave Effect Generator that made the H-drive possible had the unfortunate side-effect of occasionally degrading important ship components. It worked by harmonizing all the ship's particles into a single waveform, thus causing the ship to become subject to the theory of indeterminacy. 

The Cybernetic Awareness would then collapse the waveform in another location, causing the ship to instantly jump there. Because stray particle interactions could potentially collapse the wave-form prematurely or incompletely, the jumps were limited to the microscopic scale. But as the jumps happened instantaneously, the only limit to the effective "speed" of the H-drive was how rapidly the CA could repeat the process. One could even say the H-drive allowed the ship to travel at the speed of thought. In the case of heavy warships, that was anywhere from four to six times the speed of light, with merchant ships, tenders, and support craft traveling about half that speed.

The SI-Transit Security Force, better known as Innman's Pilgrims, was already in orbit around Biggs when our fleet arrived. I knew Fleet Commander Innman held the contract with Sunshine to provide security for all of the transit stations in Solarian occupied space. I wondered, as we jockeyed for position with four hundred ships in high orbit, if he had left any behind.

Over the next three days, hundreds of more ships poured into the system. First came Fleet Commander Solomon with one hundred ships of the FarStar Trading Alliance's security force, then Fleet Commander Moony swept in with one hundred fifty shiny new ships of Universal Security Systems, followed over the course of several days by one hundred ten battle-scarred ships of The Patriotic Force of the Free Government of the Thousand, commanded by Fleet Commanders Arden and Ormond who had been laying siege to their own planet.

I had expected the Cacks to place the officers in adjoining suites so we could discuss how to integrate the fleets, but the Cacks had us scattered all over the spinning habitat ring. Remembering my role as Phil's Executive Officer or XO, I tried to work with the other sub-commanders to schedule net meetings for the fleet commanders, but everyone was preoccupied with personal issues and seemed content to let the Cacks handle fleet operations while waiting for Sunshine to call his meeting of the officers. "Each fleet is individually contracted with Shines Like the Sun and retains separate command structures," I complained to Phil.

"Many are owned by rival corporations. You can't expect them to ignore that." Phil had had some portable furniture brought over and leaned back in a soft chair catching up on some off-line media he had stored. "There are tons of legal hurdles involved here."

"Yes, I know that, but..." I paused searching for the nameless thing that had been bugging me. "It's their casual attitude. If we can't coordinate our actions, many of these ships will just be wasted. With a fleet this size, Sunshine obviously has something major in mind..." I suddenly realized what had bothered me. "How advanced would you say these Unbounded Ones are?"

"I don't know. About the same as Earth, I suppose. They were discovered by the Cacks early in their development and don't seem to have developed the H-drive or tachyon-cascade reactors."

"How many ships do you think it would take to pacify them?"

Phil slowly put down his datapad and gave me a piercing look. "What do you think is going on?"

I punched up an orbital display with the ship's labels turned off, but color-coded for each fleet. Nearly one thousand ships—most of them heavy cruisers—sat in orbit around Biggs. "Perhaps this isn't pacification. Could it be extermination?"

Phil got out of his chair and frowned at the swirling display of ships. "No. Genocide is even easier than pacification. A few large asteroids from orbit and poof! No more Unbounded. They only inhabit a handful of planets. The Solarian fleet alone could have blockaded them all. This is beyond overkill."

* * *

The fleet transited to the next system, a Cack outpost whose name translated as simply "Dark." A handful of small, rocky, lifeless worlds orbited a brown dwarf star. One of them had served as a military base before repeated renovations and re-purposings had left it something of a personal home and regional office for Sunshine. We had barely organized the fleet into their parking orbits and scheduled leaves and transport shuttles when Fleet Commander Sherman appeared with one hundred eighty ships of the Consolidated Colonial Space Force. That was when Shines Like the Sun summoned the fleet commanders to his flagship, the Flower of Dirt.

Sunshine looked like a tropical bird in his ceremonial garb. He stood on a dais in the center of the room wearing a robe of elbow-length plastic strips in bright red, orange and lime-yellows. Individually applied to his exoskeleton, the plastic strips bobbed and trembled around him as he greeted his friends and fellow Cacks of the nobility. We Solarians were escorted into the room by Cack guards armed with short-hafted, long-bladed halberds. I assumed the weapons were for ceremonial purposes. Each guard also wore large particle emission weapons which hung from straps across their shoulders. A dozen more, armed only with energy weapons, stood in an upper gallery ringing the room.

One by one, the fleet commanders approached Sunshine and got down on both knees to pledged their loyalty. On his turn, I watched Phil step forward and kneel. "I, Phil Porter, a loyal and trustworthy member of my hive, before the Great Maker and these witnesses, do foreswear all allegiance to every other hive and pledge eternal friendship and obligation to Shines Like the Sun and his hive. If I should fail in the least to redeem my pledge, may the Maker forget my name when he calls forth his re-creation.

I hadn't been briefed on the protocols. I stood in line behind Phil, watching the proceedings in anxious fascination, and worried about how to approach Sunshine. His presence was captivating. The usual non-verbal cues—facial expressions and body language—were either absent or all wrong. I waited and wondered what the Cacks must think of the twitching puckered faces of the Solarians. We must have seemed soft and vaguely gelatinous to him.

Shine Like the Sun clacked and whistled his reply. A human interpreter stood nearby listening to a translation device and paraphrasing the response in standardized international English. "I, being Shines Like the Sun, from whom my hive proceeds, before the Great Maker and these witnesses, receive your pledge of loyalty, making friends of your friends and enemies of your enemies. If failing in this I should not honor this obligation, may the Great Maker forget my name on calling for his re-creation.

A member of Sunshine's entourage announced, "Rise and welcome be."

Phil rose and stood aside. Throwing caution aside, I strode up next and knelt down. "I, Kenneth Phon, a loyal—"

Sunshine chittered loudly. "No need to pledge your honor," the flustered translator blurted. "Your superior's pledging is yours as your failures are his. Accepting his pledging, I accept all from him."

I shut up and bowed my head, hoping they understood the gesture, but mostly to hide my burning face. Sunshine leaned forward and his ears flapped faster. I looked up and, despite the dim light, saw myself reflected in his large black eyes. He spoke softly as if his reply were personal and not meant for the assembly. A device he carried translated, "Seeing you here is my pleasing. I am hoping you to choose to travel with us on this task of going forth." 

"I would be honored to do so."

Sunshine clacked his mandibles. "It is goodness. Ensuring your swift return home I will when The Unbounded Ones are resolved."

"I thank you."

A moment of awkward silence followed after which Sunshine's attendant announced, "Guest, rise and welcome be."

I scurried off to a reception area, avoiding the glances of my fellow Solarians. Phil greeted me with a wry smile and handed me a cup of strangely flavored water. "Completely frictionless."

I grimaced and sipped the water. "You don't have to tell me I made of fool of myself."

"No, it was a bold gamble which paid off spectacularly."

"You're joking."

His smile lifted at one corner. "Only half. You succeeded in gaining more recognition than Sunshine's own commanders. I expect you'll be re-appraised by his court now."

I surveyed the cluster of Cacks gathered around Sunshine, then cast a glance at the Solarians chatting nearby. A number of opaque expressions were turned my way. "As what?"

Phil smiled knowingly. "We'll see when they start offering favors." 

He paraded me through the room, introducing me to each of our fellow fleet commanders. Arden and Ormond complained endlessly of the difficulties of trying to obtain military objectives while functioning as the base of operations for a government in exile. They seemed to alternate between veiled pleas for sympathy and requests for more tangible support. Moony was even less pleasant.

"Watch this one," Phil whispered. "He's a sociopathic social climber. If he's nice to you, it only means he's trying to take advantage of you before he knifes you in the back."

"Phil Porter and Kenneth Phon," Moony said with a faint sneer in response to Phil's introduction. "I didn't expect your kind out here when there's fighting to be done."

"Our kind? Excuse me?" I asked, genuinely surprised. The fact that Phil was of European descent while my family originated in the Far East only confused me.

"Martians," he said. "You're both from Mars originally, no?"

I could see Phil swell with indignation. "If you're suffering from the ignorant belief that Martians are cowards, then I'm afraid you're quite mistaken."

"Oh? And just what action did you two see during the wars?"

I was debating whether to mention the incident with the W. Ashbless when Phil jumped in. "We were defending our colony, the same as you."

Moony looked at Phil critically. "I don't remember any fighting on Mars."

Phil stepped up closer to the older heavier man. "Mars is a lot closer to Earth than Gooberstone or wherever you're from. Perhaps you resent us for not fighting your war for you."

Though no one looked at us, the surrounding conversations died out. Moony's face grew stony as he lost his sneer. I could feel the tension mounting as they glared at each other.

"Speaking of action, what brings Universal Security here?" I nearly blurted, hoping to change the subject.

Moony gave me a puzzled look as if wondering why I was speaking.

I plunged onward. "I don't see how The Unbounded Ones rate the extra firepower."

The condescending sneer returned to Moony's face. He nodded toward Arden and Ormond. "You don't seriously think those two would have left their precious world for anything as trivial as the Unbounded do you?"

"I was having difficulty explaining them."

"If you two weren't so ignorant, you'd know Shines Like the Sun's friend Bright Fortune governs several nearby systems. You'd also know Bright Fortune nearly got Shines Like the Sun executed for treason."

Moony sipped his drink smugly and let that info sink in. I had known all that, though I hadn't realized we were so close to Bright Fortune's systems.

"I expect we're headed toward a little civil war when this charade is over. Moony smiled. "At least we'll finally see if you Martian's can fight."