The Lenape warriors secured their prisoners without hurting them unnecessarily.  They knew how to take prisoners in times of war.  Of course, when they took native prisoners, they got assimilated into the tribe.  These Englishmen would not.  But damaged people were likely to be more of a burden than a help to the tribe, so they were naturally careful, even with the wounded men, even knowing that they would eventually go back to their English settlements.

Lockhart still held the sonic device.  He stepped up to the riverbank and spoke across the river.  His voice carried like a man speaking into a public address system, so more than well enough.  “Lars.  All settled here.  You can bring your people over.  You need to decide what to do with your prisoners.  Some are wounded.  Unfortunately, Doctor Miller can’t help them.  He was a servant of the Masters—Mister Muller from Hans’ day, so he got shot.”

Lockhart’s wristwatch communicator went off and interrupted his thoughts.  “Should we bring the horses down or stay here?” Lincoln asked.  “Nanette wants to know if there are wounded people that she and Sukki might help.”

“I don’t have my magic,” Nanette interrupted.  “But I can help.”

“I don’t know if we will be permitted to help.  Sometimes, the Kairos says the chips have to fall where they will.  Anyway, come on down, and bring Louis and Commander Takar with you.  I better say something about the commander.  Out.”

Lockhart picked up the sonic device when there was already movement on the far bank.  “One more thing,” he got to say before a scream and death wail went up from the other side of the river.  Something rose out of the mud on the far bank and swallowed a man’s whole leg.  It did not bite off the leg at first.  More like a snake than a worm, the mouth began to grow wider.  The worm wanted to swallow the man, whole.

An energy beam of some kind came from the rise in the path—a good shot.  The worm bit down and began to squirm, flinging mud everywhere.  Another, much stronger beam of power came from Elder Stow’s weapon.  The top half of the worm turned to ash.  The dead worm, the leg inside, fell into the water and began to float downstream on the surface.  The man on the shore also caught a bit of Elder Stow’s weapon, but the burns hardly mattered.  He had already passed out and would be dead in a minute without ever regaining consciousness.

Lars and his people, after some arguing and yelling, fetched the worm out of the water and dragged it up on the riverbank where the travelers and the prisoners waited.  Lockhart met them there and a tall, blonde, young man said, “Just one, I hope.”

“A sanguar,” Lockhart identified the worm.

“How did it get here?” Lars wondered.

“Lars?”  Sukki asked.  The young man nodded and hugged her but kept his eyes on Lockhart.

“Commander Takar from a Kargill prison ship stopped here to make repairs.  He said one escaped.  He said only the one.  He is an Alzarian and should be here shortly.”

“Ahluzarian,” both Sukki and Lars corrected him, and Lockhart continued.

“The commander said this world was marked no-go but also a sanctuary planet.  What do you mean, sanctuary?  When did we get that designation?”

“Since Elizabeth and the formation of the Men in Black, though really it goes back to Catherine of Aragon.  You remember the Galabans from Galabar.  They really were refugees, but they tried to take advantage of that status and plant a colony here.  When you met them, they already had supply ships and more colonists on the way, hoping to plant a second colony.  Catherine—Alice diverted the ships to a new home world and found transport to take the ones off the Earth.  People caught in a war, especially innocent bystanders, are welcome here temporarily, like in Hideko’s day.  There is no fighting allowed on this world, or in the atmosphere, or in orbit.  In fact, there should be no fighting in this solar system.  If the people are discrete, they may come until we find a new world where they can hopefully be safe.”

“You worked this out with the Kargill?” Lockhart asked as Lincoln and Commander Takar walked up.

“Basically,” Lars hedged. “I pretty much told the Kargill this was how it had to be.  He needed to send Mister Smith, the Zalanid, to contact the nearest Men in Black office whenever an alien intrusion was detected, and he had to help the Men in Black deal with it; refugees, friendly visitors, hostiles, or whatever.  The Kargill raised no objections.  The Kargill honestly prefers peace and letting people develop as they will in their own way without interference.  The Reichgo interfere with everyone, which is why I am glad the Kargill has two Genesis planets and the Reichgo have none in their area of space.”

“Lars?” Lincoln asked.

“Moonwalker,” Lars said and finished his thought with Lockhart.  “Jax had to deal with one group in the early nineteen-eighties, just before he retired.  You might not have been privy to that.”  He turned to the Ahluzarian and spoke bluntly.  “You do not belong here, and you have no business being here.  You need to mark in your records that if repairs are needed, you need to go to Mars or one of the moons of Jupiter, or even Earth’s moon, but not Earth.”

“It is much more difficult to make repairs on a planet without some sort of atmosphere,” Commander Takar said.

“It is,” Lars agreed. “So, make sure you don’t need to make repairs around Earth space.  The Kargill police and the other Kargill forces I won’t name don’t belong here.  We have no need for interstellar police and certainly no penal or prison ship should ever come here.  Earth does not need to be overrun with nasty, evil, or dangerous people and creatures. We have enough of our own.”

“I will make a note,” Commander Takar said.

“For all the good it will do,” Lars said without explanation.  Still, he seemed satisfied and turned to Lockhart. “So, where is Katie?”

Lockhart turned away from the river and the others followed.  “She found two vials on Doctor Miller’s person.  I think Elder Stow is analyzing the contents.”

They only waited one minute to hear Elder Stow’s report.  “Really quite remarkable given the age and the available technology.  Bacterial suspension.  Really quite virulent and contagious if you have no immunity.  I imagine one drop in food, soup, even water, especially water would be sufficient to start, and the disease would spread naturally from there.  The viral suspension is even impressive.”

“What are we talking about?” Katie asked before anyone else could ask.

“Ah,” Elder Stow held up the vials.  “The C is for cholera, a particular nasty bacterial disease if, as I said, you have no immunity.  The S is for smallpox.  That is quite well done since as you may know, all pox and pox-like diseases are alien in origin.  Measles, chickenpox, smallpox, and all.  Smallpox is a virus and quite deadly.”

“Hardly needed,” Lars said.  “There are enough natural carriers among the English and French, the Dutch and so on that have come to these shores.  The native population has already been through several episodes of these diseases, and other diseases, and been devastated.”

“I guess the Masters were not satisfied with letting nature take its own course,” Lockhart said.

“Is there a way you can make the diseases inert?” Katie asked.

“This time we can’t just throw it in the river,” Elder Stow said as he nodded.  “That will just spread it like wildfire, but there is a way we can kill these samples.  I will start working on it.”  Elder Stow paused.  “You know, my people have tried again and again to resettle this planet—to remove you sapiens or enslave you in some fashion, but even in our worst, I don’t know anyone who ever suggested biological warfare.  It takes real evil to consider using disease in that way, and despite what you may think, even the worst among the Gott-Druk would not stoop to such evil… Well, there was the Spanish Flu…”

“The Masters don’t appear to have any such compunction,” Lincoln said.

“Makes me wonder what planet the bubonic plague came from,” Sukki said, offhanded.  She still had nightmares from Prudenza’s day.

“Actually,” Lockhart got everyone’s attention.  “The Masters are noted in the Men in Black records as spreading the plague at several key points in history.”

Katie turned to Sukki.  “While you were melting cannons outside Constantinople, we were dumping that doctor’s vials of pneumonic plague in the sea.”

“Oh yes,” Sukki said.  “I had forgotten.”

Louis rushed forward in the face of the Lenape warriors, getting in front of Commander Takar and the travelers.  “Wait,” he shouted.  “Cousins.  Listen first.  These people are friends of the big Swede.  They are outsiders, not English or French.  They are not your enemies.  We heard the guns and are coming to see if we can end the fighting.”  He turned to Lockhart.  “Yes?”

Lockhart shrugged before he spoke.  “We are strangers here.  We are not your enemies.  We will see what we can do to help.”

Decker spoke to the men.  “I assume you came upriver to cross over and come back down this side to fall on your enemy.”

“Brother Moonwalker said to signal when we are ready, and he will keep the Englishmen busy while we attack their rear.”

“Good plan,” Decker said.  “I am sure Lars would not mind if we added our guns to the effort.”

“Decker…” Lockhart began.

Katie interrupted.  “Sometimes we have to,” she said, and took his arm.

Lockhart knew he was outvoted.  “Let’s at least look first,” he said, and turned to the men in front who had clearly relaxed.  “I’m Lockhart.  This is Katie, Decker, Commander Takar, and Louis…”

“We don’t like Mohawk in our land,” one of the men said, and turned to Lockhart.  “Morharala.  Come.  We will show you.”

They moved up the trail and Louis explained to Lockhart and Katie.  “Morharala is Big Bird tribe.  They are Turkey Clan.”

“Big Bird?” Lockhart said and looked at Katie.

Katie grinned. “Don’t start.”

When they reached a rise in the road, they were still relatively far away. They could hear the occasional shots from the flintlocks or matchlocks, and sometimes see the puff of smoke the black powder produced, but they could not see the people well with the eye.  Morharala wanted to move them to a side trail where they could circle around the enemy, but Lockhart made them pause.  “Look first,” he reminded them.  He and Tony got the binoculars.  Katie and Decker got the scopes for their rifles, and Decker snapped his in place.

Tony let Lincoln take a look, before he helped Louis see.  Lockhart shared his first with Morharala before he turned to Commander Takar, but it seemed the Commander had his own spyglass of a sort, and Morharala wanted to share the glasses with the rest of his crew.

“Visual line of site helps,” Lockhart told Commander Takar.  “You know, I worked as a police officer for nearly fifty years, though much of that was with the Men in Black.”

Commander Takar stopped spying on the people in the distance and tapped the spot on his neck before he smiled.  “A good long time,” he said.  “About the same for me.”

“My father,” Elder Stow stepped up.  “Two things. First, the sanguar is somewhere down by the river edge.  I can pinpoint the spot in a minute.  First… or Second…” he called up a holographic image of the men in the trees down below.  His scanner turned the trees to ghost-like images so they could be seen, but the men in yellow stood out.  “There are twenty, mostly by the riverbank and spread out down the river a bit, wherever they can shoot from cover, I assume.  There are three more behind, holding two dozen horses.  The natives, including the ones with us are in red.  Sorry, I can’t say which one is Swedish.  We are in blue, and I have taken the liberty of presenting Commander Takar in green.”

“Morharala,” Lockhart called, but they were already staring at Elder Stow’s projection.  “Colonel?  Major?”

Decker glanced at Katie before he spoke.  “Katie and I are the best option.  We will take out the horse guards and make sure no one escapes.  Tony and Lincoln can stay here with the rifles, scopes, horses, and Nanette who is presently our healer.  No good if she gets injured.”

“Decker.  I can help.  I am not a porcelain doll.”

“My wife,” Decker told the Morharala.  They smiled, and Commander Takar laughed when he got the translation.  “Lockhart, you need to take Elder Stow and Sukki with you, for your own protection, as you say.  Take the Turkeys.  Take Elder Stow’s sonic device and offer the English a chance to surrender.  You know, use your best police stuff.  If they refuse to surrender, we may have to fight.  We can use this place as a redoubt.  Commander Takar and Louis should stay here, and Commander Takar, see if you can get a better spot on your lost prisoner.  Humans squabble all the time, but we don’t need alien worms eating people.”

Katie snapped her scope to her rifle and handed it to Lincoln.  “Ready sir,” she said, offering no additions or corrections to the plan, but Lockhart spoke to Morharala before he pulled his shotgun.  “We are going to get the English to surrender.  If any of you run out ahead to attack the English before they surrender, you may be accidentally shot or badly burned.  We are dealing with powers here you cannot understand.  I’m sorry, but that is the way it is.  I will say if we have to fight.  Elder Stow, please take off your glamour and Sukki please put yours on.”

“Yes,” Suki said.  “I mostly forget I can do that.”  She appeared as a Neanderthal girl and Elder Stow appeared to be her real father.  Elder Stow handed her a disc as Commander Takar shouted.

“Gott-Druk!  Suddenly, it makes sense that you have equipment way beyond what the Kargill was able to supply us with.  My scanner is just a relay.  It sends information to my ship’s computer to analyze and returns to appear on my grid.  I imagine your vastly superior equipment is self-contained.”

“Up Sukki,” Elder Stow said, ignoring the Ahluzarian.  Sukki and Elder Stow rose about ten feet in the air before they disappeared.  “We will go with you, but unseen if you don’t mind,” Eder Stow said, and he got out his now invisible screen device to set a Decker Wall a few feet in front of them when they stopped.

Lockhart gave Decker and Katie five minutes before he pushed through the woods toward the main river path and the river.  He stopped at the edge of the path.  The English were all closer to the water, hiding behind trees and bushes, hoping to catch a native sticking his head up on the other side of the river.  He had to wait a minute for Elder Stow to finish setting his screen device, and then he handed Lockhart his sonic device set to broadcast his voice.

Lockhart spoke and his voice echoed through the woods.  “Throw your weapons down and put your hands on your head.  You are surrounded and cannot escape.  Surrender and no harm will come to you.”  He waited.  Several guns fired but the bullets did not stand a chance of getting through Elder Stow’s wall.  Lockhart heard guns fired back by the horses and knew Katie and Decker were busy.

He spoke again.  “Throw down your weapons and come to the path through the woods, hands on your head.  You cannot escape but if you surrender you will be treated fairly.”  He waited again.  Two men came to the path.  They had guns and fired them at Lockhart and his group.  Lockhart returned fire with his shotgun.  Both men went down.  Guns went off by the horses and from the hill.  Men began to fall all around the woods.

“Last chance,” Lockhart said.  “Surrender and you will live.”  Men began to come to the path and guns got thrown in the dirt.  Some of the men were wounded.  Most were not, but they had enough.  Elder Stow became visible, his glamour of humanity back in place.  He showed Lockhart his scanner projection and Lockhart spoke.  “You two hiding in the bushes by the river.  Come out now and surrender or die.  Your choice.”  One started to get up, but the other shook his head.  “Both of you, now,” Lockhart said, and Elder Stow turned his weapon on the tree beside the men.  The tree burst into flame and Lockhart repeated, “Both.  Now.”  They came.

“That is all of them,” Elder Stow said, and he made Sukki visible, her glamour removed so she looked human again.

“Morharala.”  Lockhart turned to the natives behind him. “Please collect the weapons and keep the men on their knees for the present.  No killing, understand?”  The natives were not going to argue after what they saw.

Decker and Katie brought four more prisoners from the horse area, two being wounded.  They killed five men there.  Tony and Lincoln killed two from the hill and wounded three others.  Lockhart killed two.  There were seven uninjured prisoners, until Katie arrived.  She looked at them carefully and called to Lincoln up on the rise.

“I have a man here that looks familiar,” she said.  She grabbed the man’s chin and turned the man’s head even as the man tried to hide his face.  As Lincoln responded, the man broke free and turned to run.

“Mister Muller from Augsburg,” Lincoln said.  Katie shot the man.

“Doctor Miller,” one of the men protested, but he dared not move in the face of such firepower.  Katie searched the dead man and found two vials.  One had an ‘S’ on it.  The other had a ‘C’ scribbled in crayon.