Earth Arise (Oblivion #8) - Joshua James Page 0,2

responded Lee.

“And an alien told you how to do it?”

“Yes.”

“Quiet, you two!” yelled one of the AIC guards.

“A little grey alien with glowing yellow eyes? Who also has telepathic powers?”

“Yes,” whispered Lee.

“Cool.”

“You believe me?” Lee was a little surprised.

“I had a run-in with that yellow-eyed thing myself.”

“What did he tell you?”

Ben looked behind him. For a moment he was worried that the guards escorting him would think he was crazy. Then he remembered he didn’t give a shit about them or what they thought.

“He told me how to free yo—” Ben got hit in the back with a rifle butt, hard.

“I said shut up!” yelled the surly AIC guard.

Ben and Lee reached the captain’s quarters on the Veruvian. Standing in front of a wall-sized window was Captain Rhule, back to his shackled guests, hands clasped near his lower back. Director Engano sat on a couch in the corner, sipping what looked to be some kind of alcoholic beverage. She smiled and waved at Ben and his father, just with her fingers.

“Leave us,” ordered Rhule.

“Sir?” The surly soldier was surprised.

Rhule turned his head and looked at his subordinate. “That was an order, Private.”

“Sir, yes sir.” The guards left the captain’s quarters, leaving them alone.

“Come take a look.” Rhule said it like a suggestion, but Ben knew that it wasn’t. He and his father walked over to the window.

From the window, Ben and Lee could see Europa in the distance. Between them and the battlefield that was Jupiter’s moon, they saw a floating ship graveyard. They were a mix of AIC and UEF vessels, but many more of the latter. A fleet of fully operational AIC warships, battleships, and dreadnaughts, with their fighters in tow, waited alongside the Veruvian.

Rhule turned to Ben and Lee. “I’m guessing you’re wondering what happened here. Let me tell you.”

“We won,” interrupted Engano. Rhule gave her a dirty look. She shrugged. “Not that it will matter in the end.”

“Won what?” asked Ben.

“After the attack on Vassar-1, by what command believes was your United Earth Federation, all our ships and troops were recalled from throughout the universe. All of them. We haven’t been impressively organized of late, certainly not in the last few years of this bloody war, but that business on Vassar-1 had quite an effect. I have to hand that to you.”

Rhule nodded at Lee as if he were personally responsible for the ruin that was the AIC capital world. Ben expected his father to refute the charge, or at least clarify that the UEF wasn’t at the heart of all this, but he merely glanced at the warships outside. “And they were all sent here, to this moon,” Lee said.

Rhule raised his eyebrows. “Do you know why?”

Rhule and Lee had a couple of things in common. One that really stood out in that moment was how hard they were to read. Their body language and tones of voice gave little hint as to what they were thinking or feeling.

“A counterattack,” Lee said without hesitation. “Take out or take over Europa, and the path to Mars and Earth’s moon is clear. Take out Earth’s moon, and Earth is vulnerable.”

“Exactly so,” Rhule said calmly. “That’s what the AIC intends to do, as revenge for losing our capital. This is one last all-out offensive meant to end this war, either in victory or defeat.”

Lee cocked his head. “But you have your doubts?”

Ben sensed it too, and he wasn’t nearly as perceptive as his father in these little games. Rhule clearly wasn’t on board with his side’s plans.

A muscle twitched in Rhule’s neck. He glanced at Engano. “I do.”

He turned again to face the image of the warships outside. “We’ve never had the resources to match the UEF. We didn’t in the beginning or the middle, and especially not now that we’ve lost our capital planet.”

Ben thought the destruction outside was an indication that they were correcting that, but Rhule seemed to read his mind.

“We had the element of surprise here, which allowed us to overwhelm and defeat the blockade whose remains you see out there in the void.” Rhule turned away from the display. “But now that’s gone. The UEF knows we’re coming.” He paused. “Now add this new alien wrinkle that you and Madam Director here have provided, which leads me to doubt that it was even the UEF that attacked our capital world in the first place. In fact, I have reason to believe that there’s conspiracy afoot.” He took a seat behind his desk.

“Conspiracy?” asked