All Or Nothing

All Or Nothing

An Anunnaki Story

Chapter 9

Mummu sat in the control room chatting with the other crew members. They were laughing and having a good time when the call came in. Suddenly everyone was all business.

“We’re being hailed Commander,” said Lieutenant Anshar.

“Who is it?” Mummu asked.

“Prince Kuru,” Lieutenant Anshar’s voice betrayed her alarm.

Nothing good ever comes from Kuru, Mummu thought.

“On screen,” Mummu commanded.

The screen lit up with Prince Kuru’s angry blue face. Again, the translation device made Mummu feel like he was watching a poorly dubbed movie.

“What made you think I was such a fool to think that you would pay me correctly and keep your end of the bargain? I kept watch and scanned your transports. Your actions have been deceptive and you cannot be trusted. This will not go answered.”

“Whoa now,” Mummu began, taken aback, “I do not know what you’re talking about, Prince.” Mummu suddenly felt as if he were completely out of the loop of some important information.

Prince Kuru rolled his eyes. A universal expression, Mummu thought. Then Kuru made a face that revealed contempt for Mummu. Prince Kuru took a deep breath and through the translator, he said, “I demand to speak with your Admiral. Immediately!”

“Lieutenant Anshar, redirect this hail ASAP!” Mummu commanded.

“Yes, sir!” Lieutenant Anshar immediately sent the hail to Admiral Tolk on Mars.

“Someone has some explaining to do,” Mummu grumbled as he marched to the elevator. “Anshar, you have Conn.”

“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Anshar said as the elevator doors shut.

Mummu was so angry he was trembling. Apsu never allowed him to get blindsided like this before. As he stepped outside the building, Mummu tapped his universal device and said, “Locate Captain Apsu.” The synthetic voice from his device answered, “Captain Apsu is at home.” Mummu hailed a taxi and proceeded to Apsu’s home, which was next door to his.

Still fuming as he exited the taxi at Apsu’s house, Mummu marched up to the door and pounded on it furiously.

Apsu’s image appeared on the monitor in the door frame. “What’s wrong?”

“Let me in,” Mummu ordered.

“You look like you want to murder someone.”

“I need an explanation.”

“Of what?”

“Why Prince Kuru just hailed us claiming he’s being cheated out of his share of the gold.”

“Oh, shit!”

“No kidding!”

The door slid open and Mummu went inside.

“There is a good reason I didn’t tell you,” Apsu said immediately as Mummu entered his house.

“So you know what this is all about? When did you find out?”

“I knew Tolk wasn’t living up to the agreement for a while.”

Apsu's withholding of that information stunned Mummu. “What? And you didn’t tell me why?”

“Plausible deniability.”

“Oh, bullshit Apsu!”

“And your reaction was one of genuine surprise, right?”

“Of course.”

“Exactly why I didn’t tell you.”

Mummu’s expression changed from furious to confused to understanding. “They can’t blame me for being part of something I didn’t know about, right?”

Apsu nodded. “Right.”

“You were protecting me? From what?”

“People will not be happy if this starts a war. They will find someone to blame. It’s bad enough that I knew.” Apsu ran his fingers through his hair. “So don’t be mad that I’m trying to protect my best friend, OK?”

“Oh,” Mummu suddenly fully realized the magnitude of this entire situation, and his eyes grew wide. “OH!”

“Yeah,” Apsu said. “Do you still want to kill me?”

“No, now I want to kill Tolk. If this starts a war that jeopardizes our mission.”

Apsu nodded, turned away from Mummu, went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and retrieved two bottles of ale. He handed one to Mummu, who had followed close behind. Apsu clicked his bottle against Mummu’s.

“To Ma’adim. We may not live to see her restored,” Apsu said, taking a long drink from his bottle.

*****

Seven months had passed since the disturbing result of the deformed baby in Enki’s lab. Tiamat hadn’t stepped foot in their lab since that day. Seeing one deformed fetus was enough. But Enki left her a message to come to his lab, so maybe they had something good to report.

Tiamat did not expect to see what greeted her as she stepped through the doorway of the lab. Standing next to Enki was an obvious cross between an ape and Anunnaki, wearing a patient gown. It was shorter than Enki by about half a meter, stocky, standing erect, with a thin coat of hair covering its body. A large sloping forehead, a pronounced brow, and jaw gave it the appearance of being more ape than Anunnaki. But the most shocking thing about it was that it appeared to be a young adult.

“How?” Tiamat was at a loss for words.

“Oh, a special mixture of growth hormones, nutrients, and scientific expertise.” Enki smiled broadly.

“Can it talk?” Tiamat inched closer to get a better look at the creature.

“He’s a male, and we have named him Adama,” Ninki offered.

“He has trouble communicating verbally,” Enki explained, “so we are teaching him to sign.”

“Can he understand what I’m saying?”

Adama nodded his ape-like head.

“Oh, good,” Tiamat responded. “Pleased to meet you, Adama.”

Adama made some signs with his stubby fingers and clumsy hands.

“He says it’s nice to meet you too,” Enki interpreted.

Tiamat couldn’t take her eyes off Adama. “Can you reproduce this success?”

“Way ahead of you,” Ninki responded.

“Yes, we have many more growing as we speak,” Enki offered.

“Excellent.” Tiamat felt relieved that this project was finally taking a positive turn. “When can they learn how to mine and dredge?”

“Adama could start training now.” Enki’s voice had an air of pride.

“Let’s put him to work and see how he does. I’ll make the arrangements.” Tiamat started toward the door, then stopped and turned around. “One of you will need to go along to translate.”

“Yes ma’am, be happy to,” Enki replied.

*******

Apsu sat in his captain’s chair in the control room, watching Tellus on the viewscreen as they slowly orbited the planet. It was a beautiful blue because so much of it was water. The land was in one area, leaving the rest of the planet nothing but the ocean. It was beautiful. Suddenly, Lieutenant Anshar interrupted his revelry.

“Captain, Incoming message from Admiral Tolk.”

“I’ll take it in my ready room,” Apsu answered.

Apsu stood and strolled into his ready room. Apsu hated getting messages from Tolk ever since he knew about the situation with the gold payments to Kuru. It’s going to be more bad news. I just know it, Apsu thought. Taking a seat behind his desk, he answered the call.

“Admiral, hello.”

“Apsu, Prince Kuru, and I had a heated conversation yesterday about the amount of gold we were paying him.”

Apsu took a breath as if to speak.

“You can save your I told you so,” Tolk continued. “He is not an amiable man to negotiate with. I have agreed to send him one half of what we mine until we make up for the gold we shorted him.”

“You shorted him,” Apsu pointed out.

Tolk ignored Apsu’s comment. “What we must do is tell the mining camps to send him half from now on. Once he’s repaid, they will send him a third. Got that?”

“You want me to relay this message, I assume?”

“Why else would I be calling you?” Tolk sounded agitated. “You can send one message and reach all the camps at once. I can’t and they need to know ASAP.”

“Yes sir. I’ll get right on that.”

“See that you do. Tolk out.”

Tolk must have been referring to the communication hub Tiamat set up, Apsu thought. It’s time to visit the med-bay.

**********

Apsu messaged Tiamat to meet him at the communication hub so he could send the message from Admiral Tolk. When Apsu reached the communication hub, Tiamat was already there.

“I need to send a simulcast message to all the mining camps,” Apsu said.

“Do you need me to set it up or do you know how it works?”

Apsu raised his hand and made a circle with his fingers as he spoke. “I have zero experience with one of these things.”

“OK, I’ll set it up for you.” Tiamat tapped a few virtual buttons on the virtual console. “When you’re ready to speak, tap this button to record your message.” Tiamat pointed to a button on the console. “When you’re done, tap it again. Then to send the message you tap this one.” She moved her hand, pointing at a different button.

“Got it.” Apsu tapped the record button. “Attention all camps, this is Captain Apsu. I’m relaying a message from Admiral Tolk. Until further notice, you are to send one-half of the gold mined to Prince Kuru instead of one-fourth. I repeat you are to send Prince Kuru one-half of the mined gold. This will continue until further notice. Captain Apsu out.” Apsu tapped the button again to end the recording, then sent the message.

“What was that about?” Tiamat asked, wide-eyed.

“Tolk has been shorting Kuru on the gold payments. He thought that Kuru would never find out.” Apsu sighed. “But he did.”

“Oh no.”

“I used to respect Tolk, but now.” Apsu’s brow furrowed. “Now I can’t even look at him without being disgusted.”

“How could he do that? He put the mission in danger, not to mention all of us.”

Apsu scoffed. “I don’t know. Maybe it was an act of desperation on his part. Maybe things are worse on Ma’adim than we were told.”

“Maybe he’s just a psycho,” Mummu said, walking into the room.

“A possibility,” Tiamat offered.

“Insanity aside, this still puts us in a precarious position with Kuru,” Apsu said angrily. “We know nothing about Kuru, which puts us at a disadvantage.”

“Kuru knows nothing about us doesn’t that put us on equal footing?” Mummu asked.

“No,” Apsu began, “Kuru programmed a translator with our language to speak to us. How did he gain knowledge of our language? That would have taken some time.”

“He had to be listening to our transmissions ever since we got here,” Mummu answered.

“That has bothered me from the start,” Apsu said.

“What can we do about it?” Tiamat asked.

“We need a plan,” Mummu stated.

“I already have one,” Apsu said with a mischievous grin.

All Or Nothing

An Anunnaki Story

Chapter 10

Mummu listened apprehensively as Apsu described his plan. He didn’t like the plan, but it was the only one they had.

“You want to stow away with the gold shipment, right?” Mummu asked.

“Right.”

“But what if they aren’t dropping the gold off near one of their camps?” Mummu asked, concerned. It’s a possibility Kuru might not want them to know where their camp is.

“We will just have to wait for someone to come pick the shipment up,” Apsu stated matter-of-factly.

“What about our skin color?” Mummu asked.

“I think I can make a blue pigment that I can apply to your skin. It will let you pass as one of them,” Tiamat offered.

“Okay, say we make it the entire way into their camp, then what? We will not understand anything they say,” Mummu stated.

“This is just a fact-finding mission. We aren’t a spec ops team.” Apsu stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger and looked thoughtful.

“What?” Mummu asked.

“Spec ops, but not spec ops,” Apsu replied.

“Huh?” Confused, Mummu tilted his head as he looked at Apsu.

“Navy special forces,” Apsu answered. “If I can get Admiral Tolk on board with this plan, there’s a chance he could arrange for two of them to help us out.”

“I would have to agree with that,” Mummu replied.

“It would make me feel better if we had them there,” Tiamat added.

Apsu looked at Tiamat quizzically. “No. You are not coming."

“Why not?”

“You’re a medical officer.”

“And?” Tiamat gave Apsu the, I dare you to say what you’re thinking, look.

Apsu closed his eyes and bowed his head. Looking up, he said, “You can come along, but you follow my orders.”

Tiamat saluted. “Yes, sir.”

Mummu held back a laugh.

“I’ll contact Tolk and see if he can make the arrangements. Plan to move forward with the next gold shipment.”

**********

In his ready room, Apsu talked with Admiral Tolk via his virtual computer.

“Captain Apsu, it’s good to hear from you," Tolk said. "How's it going on the Nibiru?".

“Everything is fine, Admiral,” Apsu replied. “The reason I’m calling is I want to do a fact-finding mission. Right now, Prince Kuru has the upper hand. We have very limited information about their kind. We don’t even know how big Kuru’s camp is. I would like to take two Navy special forces officers with us to infiltrate Kuru’s camp and find out if they have any weaknesses we can exploit.”

“And if you get caught, this might be the last straw for Kuru.”

“But what if Kuru doesn’t have the military strength to back up his threats? Are we running scared when we shouldn't be? What if it’s all posturing?”

“OK. I see your point. I’ll see what I can do, but don’t get your hopes up.”

“Thanks, Admiral.”

“Tolk out.”

**********

Apsu left Mummu in charge of finding out when the next gold shipment was. What he found so far was that one heavy cargo shuttle gathered up the gold from all 30 camps. Once it picked up the gold, it delivered it to the coordinates Kuru gave them. The idea was to meet the cargo shuttle at the final camp it was visiting and stowaway with the gold. The next shipment was in three days.

Mummu strolled into the control room from the elevator. He didn’t see Apsu, so he headed to the ready room. The door beeped and Mummu heard Apsu’s voice telling him to enter. The door slid open. Mummu walked inside.

“Anything to report?” Apsu asked immediately.

“The next shipment is in three days.” Mummu took a seat as he spoke.

“That doesn’t give us much time to plan.”

“What did Tolk say about Navy special forces?” Just as Mummu asked, Apsu received an incoming message on his virtual computer.

“It’s Tolk,” he said, answering the call.

“Captain,” Tolk said as his image appeared on the virtual screen.

“Yes, sir, Admiral,” Apsu answered.

“I have arranged for NSF to join you on your mission.”

“How soon can they get here?”

“They are on their way now. Good luck. Tolk out.”

“Yes!” Mummu shouted as he jumped from his chair and punched the air with excitement.

“Now we have to arrange for the cargo shuttle to pick us up with the gold shipment.” Apsu slightly swiveled his chair back and forth as he stroked his chin. “We might need a shipping container just for us.”

“I’ll get right on it.” Mummu hurried out the door. Although these kinds of missions were dangerous, Mummu couldn’t help but be excited about it. The last time he did anything like this was during the war. That was before they promoted him to commander. Those were the days, he thought.

**********

Coming up with a blue pigment that looked natural on the skin was proving to be more difficult than Tiamat expected. So far, she had found 11 different formulas that didn’t work. She felt she was getting closer to the correct mixture, though. The last pigment she made was the right texture but turned too dark as it set into the skin. She was sure this time she had it right.

Five assistants were walking around with various textures and shades of blue forearms. Tiamat assured them that after a few showers it would come off. She had to make it durable enough not to come off during the mission.

“OK, hold out your arm,” Tiamat instructed her assistant, who already had one blue arm. Her assistant held out her arm. Tiamat used an airbrush designed to be used for makeup and sprayed a thin coat over her assistant’s forearm. They waited for the pigment to set into the skin, then compared it to the image of Kuru Tiamat pulled up from the communication logs.

“It looks good,” the assistant commented.

“I agree.” Tiamat smiled happily. “I’ve got to show Apsu.” Tiamat rolled up her sleeve and sprayed some of the pigment on her forearm, waited for it to set, then headed out to show Apsu her accomplishment.

**********

As Tiamat entered Nibiru Headquarters, a facial recognition device scanned her face.

“You do not have clearance for this building, please wait here,” a synthesized voice told her.

She waited. Soon, someone exited a door on the other side of the hallway where the elevators were. She was dressed in the typical red and black Guardian uniform.

“Hello,” the woman said. “State your business here, please.”

Friendly, Tiamat thought. “I want to talk with Captain Apsu," she stated.

“I’m sorry. Captain Apsu is in the control room. Can I give him a message?”

"I'm his wife. Why can't I visit him?"

"I'm sorry but this building has been restricted. Only personnel who work in this building or high ranking officials are allowed to enter. I can give him a message for you though."

“No, I’ll just call him,” Tiamat said disappointedly, turned, and walked outside. What’s up with all the security? She thought. Outside, she called Apsu on her universal device.

“Apsu here.”

“Can you come outside? The security guard won't let me come up to talk to you. I want to show you something."

“How important is it?”

“It’s about the fact-finding mission.”

“I’ll be right down.”

Strolling out of the building, Apsu said, “I’m sorry about all the security. Ever since the whole Kuru thing, only people who work in the building or high ranking officers can enter.”

“I see.” Tiamat held out her blue arm. “Look what I did. It’s going to be difficult for them to spot us right off, don’t you think?”

“Outstanding job!” Apsu smiled brightly as he inspected Tiamat’s handy work. “And just in time.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re going to be picking us up at the last camp tomorrow evening at 19 hundred hours.”

“Oh.”

“You can still change your mind,” Apsu offered.

“No, I still want to join you."

“OK. We are leaving at 18 hundred hours. Be ready.”

“Yes, sir,” Tiamat said with a grin and an exaggerated salute.

“I love you.” Apsu took Tiamat in his arms and kissed her softly.

'“I love you too,” Tiamat said as they pulled apart.

“I’ll see you later.”

Tiamat had a spring in her step as they parted ways, each to their respective job.

**********

Armed with high-powered automatic rifles, Apsu, Mummu, and Tiamat waited on the loading dock of the cargo shuttle’s last pickup spot with two special forces officers. Mummu was having second thoughts about this fact-finding mission. He had a sinking feeling that something was going to go wrong. However, there was no backing out now. They set the plans in motion, and the cargo shuttle was on its way to pick them up. His stomach tied in knots, Mummu paced back and forth, fidgeting with his rifle nervously.

“Cut it out you’re making me nervous,” Tiamat complained.

“I can’t help it. I’m getting a gnawing feeling something is about to go wrong,” Mummu answered.

“We’ll be fine as long as we listen to these guys.” Apsu motioned to the two special forces officers.

“You’re in excellent hands,” one of the special forces officers said.

“Just do as we say and you’ll be fine,” the other said.

Mummu nodded, but he didn’t feel any better.

“There it is.” Apsu pointed at the incoming shuttle.

“I just hope this blue paint fools them,” Mummu stated.

“As long as we don’t have to speak to anyone, we should be fine,” Tiamat reassured him.

The cargo shuttle landed, opened its huge loading door, which opened downward and became a ramp. They waited for the shipping containers filled with gold to be loaded onto the shuttle, then climbed into the empty storage container reserved for them. The shipping containers were small enough to be carried by a forklift. It was a tight fit. They had to sit because there wasn’t enough room to stand. The dockworker wished them luck as he closed the lid of the shipping container. He closed it but did not latch it so they could get out later.

Mummu could feel the cargo shuttle lift off. No turning back now, he thought. We’re committed. The flight was shorter than he thought it would be. He heard the cargo shuttle door open. He could hear people talking and a forklift taking out the containers. When the forklift picked up their container, Tiamat gasped. Mummu put his hand on her shoulder and motioned with his finger touching his lips to stay quiet. Tiamat nodded.

They waited in the container for what felt like hours until they were sure all the dockworkers had left. One of the special forces officers peeked out from under the lid of the container to make sure the coast was clear. They exited the container and looked around. They were standing on a loading dock on the outskirts of a large city. Large lights on the tops of poles adorned the streets, making it easy to make out what the area looked like.

“Oh my God,” Tiamat said.

Mummu looked around at all the buildings. “How long have they been here?” Mummu said, taken aback.

“A long time,” Apsu commented.

One of the special forces officers said, “Come on. We need to find out if they have a military.”

“How could they not?” Mummu said, mostly to himself.

Built on a gently sloping hill, they could see the streetlights illuminating many of the buildings. One of the special forces officers motioned for them to follow him as he walked hunched over. He sneaked his way along the loading dock they had been deposited on, staying out of the lighted areas. Apsu, Mummu, Tiamat, and the other special forces officer followed suit. They didn’t even make it off the loading dock before they heard two of Kuru’s people having a conversation as they walked along the street. The special forces officer leading them put his fist up, motioning for them to stop. They huddled together around the corner from where they heard the voices coming from. The special forces officer in front peeked around the corner then quickly pulled himself back. He had a distressed look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Mummu asked.

“This is a military base.”

“How can you tell?” Mummu asked in a hushed voice.

"There are several of Kuru's people patrolling the area around this corner, and they have weapons. That’s how I can tell.”

“They dropped us at a military base?" Tiamat asked, whispering her question.

“We need to get out of here,” Mummu said, his heart racing.

“Yeah, we got the information we came for. Let’s go.” Apsu said.

The special forces officer nodded. As they turned to leave, Apsu bumped into a large metal garbage can sitting on the dock and knocked it over the edge. It clanged loudly as it hit the pavement below.

“Hide!” One of the special forces officers said as he took off along the loading dock. Mummu could hear yelling behind them as they leapt from the loading dock and ran around the corner of the building.

Mummu spotted a line of trees not far from the building. "There," he said pointing toward the trees.

"Go," one of the special forces officers said and they took off running.

Mummu hoped it was a wooded area large enough that they could lose Kuru’s men. The shouting of Kuru's officers got louder as they ran. Mummu glanced back. Somehow, they were gaining on them. These guys are fast, Mummu thought. He heard a weapon fire and a thwack. Apsu dropped and lay motionless on the ground. They could hear the yelling of Kuru's men getting louder.

“No!” Tiamat screamed, stopped, and dropped to her knees at Apsu's side.

Mummu saw blood oozing from a hole in the back of Apsu’s head. Mummu grabbed Tiamat by the shoulders.

“Come on, we have to go,” he said, pulling her to her feet.

“No, I can’t leave him,” she cried, struggling to get away sobbing.

“What would Apsu tell you to do?” Mummu asked her as she sobbed. When she didn’t answer, he shook her by her shoulders and said, “Tiamat, what would he say?"

“Run,” she sobbed.

“Let’s go.” Mummu took her by the hand and, glancing back at the advancing soldiers as they ran for the tree line. They ran over rocks and through brush that whipped at their legs as they passed through them. The sound of the soldiers was getting further behind them now. We must be losing them in the brush, Mummu thought. Suddenly, they came to an embankment with the roots of a large tree hanging out over the edge.

“Here,” One of the special forces officers said, as he jumped over the edge and disappeared under the tree roots. They all followed suit. The area under the roots of the tree was large enough that they could all huddle together beneath the tree roots without being seen. Tiamat covered her mouth with her hands, trying to stifle her sobs. They waited there for a long time. When they were certain they had lost their pursuers, they left their hiding spot.

“We need to find a place where we can call for a shuttle to pick us up,” one of the special forces officers said.

“Yep,” the other one replied.

They walked a long way before they finally found a clearing where a shuttle had room enough to land.

Mummu tapped his universal device and said, “Nibiru HQ, we need a shuttle at these coordinates.”

A voice replied. “Commander Mummu, someone will be there ASAP.”

Tiamat dropped to the ground and sobbed uncontrollably. “I can’t believe we just left him there,” she cried.

Mummu sat down beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. “We had no choice,” he said, trying to console her. Now that he wasn’t running for his life, tears started welling up in his eyes. I just lost my best friend, he thought.