Alien intrigue, p.23
Alien Intrigue, page 23
While semidarkness descended across the nearby face of Vokslem, winds picked up in the spot Kelley, Juno, and Baltart had chosen. It was no longer the quiet cove. The winds pushed waves crashing against coastal vegetation. Then moisture-laden clouds arrived overhead, obscuring the moonlight, and rain pelted the area.
“Do we wait?” Baltart asked Juno when he was informed of the change in weather. The thought of eating more ship’s food nauseated him.
“Kelley and I think it’s better to go now,” Juno replied. “Do the worsening conditions pose any difficulty for you?”
“Not for me,” Baltart replied.
On the ground, the Radag commanders waited under their camouflaged shelters. Over their comm channels, they’d discussed when the aliens might make their move. It was every commander’s thought that it would happen under cover of night. This evening’s stormy weather convinced them that the aliens would come now.
The New Terran pilot, Gaylene, who’d been summoned by Kelley, arrived in the bay. Per Kelley’s request, she wore an environment suit.
Kelley hooked a thumb toward Juno and offered no further explanation.
Gaylene shrugged, climbed the ramp, and raised the walkway on the container’s side. As she made her way toward the pilot’s cabin, she patted a solid tentacle. “We’ll have you in your seas soon, Baltart,” she said.
Baltart burbled happily.
When some of the water splashed Gaylene’s legs, she laughed.
Obeying another of Kelley’s requests, which she suspected had also come from Juno, she slid her hatch closed, as she entered her cabin.
Kelley and Juno took up positions in the little space available to them. They were tucked just inside the ramp on opposite sides of the container.
Kelley signaled the ramp closed, and Gaylene managed the bay operations to launch the traveler.
The Radag commanders listened to the reports from the Imperium transport imperators. The Krackus ships tracked the shuttle that exited the freighter.
Each commander hoped the shuttle was headed toward his position, and each warrior team yearned for the opportunity to score some kills.
Gaylene let the controller follow the landing coordinates.
During the ship’s descent, the controller made minute adjustments to balance the increasingly fierce atmospheric conditions.
One Radag commander exulted. The imperators had reported the ship’s intended destination, and his warriors had won the prize. Then, as he listened closely, he learned that the shuttle wasn’t headed for a landing. Instead, it neared the coastline.
The commander ordered his warriors to abandon their shelters. He leapt aboard the team’s only vehicle, grasping the twin handles of the energy weapon.
As the driver accelerated into the torrential rain, he heard his commander’s deep growl, which thrilled him.
When the traveler neared the coast, Gaylene released the controller. She lowered the ship slowly, spinning the bow toward the coastline.
“Stand by, Baltart,” Juno said.
Kelley triggered the ramp, allowing it to descend until it was in line with the ship’s deck.
Rain and seawater in equal amounts blew into the traveler’s interior.
Baltart registered the scents of home, and he eased much of his bulk out of the tank to crawl across the ramp.
Gaylene had just signaled the traveler’s maneuver when the attempt to surreptitiously insert Baltart was destroyed.
The driver of the Radag commander had driven with abandon, crushing vegetation to arrive where waves crashed against the coast’s vegetation. The commander and he were in time to observe the alien craft suspended in midair over the waves. Its rear ramp was down.
The commander took aim and squeezed the trigger of his mounted weapon. A massive bolt of energy raced to envelop the alien ship.
Gaylene’s link to the controller failed. She lost all ability to fly the ship. Then the grav engines shut down.
The traveler’s initial upward tilt allowed Baltart to slip free of the ship. He plunged about three meters to enter the cool dark waters. Turning to wave a tentacle in goodbye, he was shocked to see energy envelope the ship. Suddenly, he was in danger. The ship was sliding rearward toward him.
With powerful movements, Baltart narrowly escaped the ship’s plunge into the sea.
Juno and Kelley didn’t have time to give a thought as to who had damaged the ship or how. They faced imminent demise. Waves rushed toward them. Then they were underwater, carried down by the traveler, whose aft end slipped toward the steep shelf.
SADE and sister used the hatch edge to pull themselves outside the traveler. Then they used their arms to create spinning motions that prevented them from sinking deeper. These were temporary actions.
Kelley and Juno knew that seawater would soon work through their joint connections and short their motor functions. After that, they would sink to the bottom, where pressure would force water into their avatars. When the cold water met their hot kernel, the crystal would explode, and their existences would come to an end.
Juno was the first to feel a tentacle wrap around her waist. As she rose to the surface, she saw Kelley enveloped by another tentacle.
Baltart sputtered as he broached the surface. “You’re heavy,” he complained. “Danger! I must get you to shore.”
“Where’s the danger?” Juno yelled above the fierce winds.
“Lightning struck the ship,” Baltart explained, as he worked to round a small headland. “It came from the shore.”
Juno turned her head toward the shore. In the driving rain, she couldn’t make out an enemy placement. The ship had already sunk beneath the waves, and she gave a thought for Gaylene.
Despite Baltart’s encumbrances, he quickly rounded the headland, and placed Juno and Kelley on the rocks. “You must hide,” he said. “I’ll return for Gaylene.”
Before Kelley could warn Baltart that Gaylene couldn’t hear him through the bulkhead, the Vokslem had ducked under the waves.
While Kelley crawled crablike across the rocks, Juno ducked into the lee of a big boulder to block her avatar from receiving more sea spray.
“Isn’t this a disaster?” Gaylene mumbled to herself. She’d felt the impact of the traveler striking the sea and assumed the ship had slipped under the surface. Soon, the touch of her suit against the hatch detected the cold. She gave a thought to Juno’s unusual requests that she wear an environment suit and close her cabin’s hatch. Who’s talking to you, Juno, she wondered.
Gaylene didn’t shut down her suit’s outer sensors. That’s why she was able to hear the thump against the hatch. Being someone who wasn’t a fan of swimming, the thought of a predator outside her cabin scared her. Successive thumps only frightened her more.
Then Gaylene heard the thumps take on a rhythm, a beat. Her heart jumped. She believed it had to be Baltart. Her next thought was that the grav engines were offline. Therefore, she couldn’t signal the hatch open. She banged on the hatch to indicate she’d received Baltart’s message.
As Gaylene dug into a small cabinet mounted on the bulkhead, she murmured, “I love you, SADEs.” Her hand grasped an emergency hatch release tool. With force, she drove the chiseled end through a protective covering. The end slid home into its receptacle in the bulkhead. Then she activated the tool. The motor whined as it fought the pressure against the hatch.
Baltart detected the noises within the bulkhead, and he deduced that Gaylene was attempting to open the hatch. He attached his tentacles to the far bulkhead and then placed two against the hatch. Powerful suckers sealed him tightly to the hatch and the bulkhead. Then he contracted.
At first, Gaylene was overjoyed that she thought she was saved. Then, as the tool in her hand whined and the hatch failed to move, she momentarily despaired. Suddenly, the hatch lurched a few centimeters, and the pitch of the tool lessened.
As seawater flooded Gaylene’s cabin, she saw the white of round suckers and the red orange of flexing tentacles. Water continued to fill the cabin, and she tapped Baltart’s upper tentacle to signal him that he could release.
The hatch wasn’t far enough open for Gaylene to clear the opening with her environment suit, but her New Terran stature served her well. She jammed a shoulder against the hatch edge and stuck a boot into the frame. As seawater covered her helmet’s faceplate, the hatch succumbed to her efforts, and she was free.
Expecting to make like a swimmer, which she’d never practiced, Gaylene was surprised to feel a tentacle wrap her robust waist. Then she was swiftly pulled out of the ship.
Noting that Gaylene still wore her environment suit, Baltart stayed below the surface and made his way back to where he’d dropped Kelley and Juno.
Juno ducked her head around the boulder every minute to see if Baltart had returned. As time dragged on, she worried that Gaylene might be lost. An app signaled Kelley’s return, and she sent,
At that time, Baltart surfaced and deposited Gaylene in the shallows. A wave threatened to knock her off her feet, but Baltart tightened his grip to steady her.
“Absolutely well done,” Juno hissed to Baltart.
“This is what friends do for one another,” Baltart replied.
“We’re exposed out here, Baltart,” Kelley said. “Is there a better place to hide?”
“The nearest safe point is four kilometers away,” Baltart replied. “The waves break over an uplift and crash heavily against the rocks. I would have to approach underwater.”
“Then you can take Gaylene to safety,” Juno proffered.
“Begging your pardon, Juno, but I’m not leaving Kelley and you,” Gaylene replied defiantly. “We stand a better chance against the Krackus, if we stay together.”
“A correction, Gaylene, the Krackus aren’t your immediate adversaries,” Baltart interrupted. “Although I don’t speak the language, I recognize it. I heard Radags celebrating the downing of your traveler.”
“Black space,” Gaylene muttered, before she added a few more choice words.
“Based on what we know of this race, they’ll search for survivors in the morning,” Kelley mused. “We must trek inland and get as far away from the coast as possible.”
“Agreed,” Juno said.
Gaylene turned to Baltart and held her hand high. The Vokslem reached a tentacle, and the tip whipped against the outstretched hand.
“My undying thanks,” Gaylene said.
“Be safe, my friends,” Baltart said, and then he sunk beneath the surface.
Juno and Kelley watched Gaylene pass them and make her way across the rocks. Despite the pilot’s mass, she was making good progress.
Kelley eased to the front of his companions and followed a path that he’d found.
Juno noted with satisfaction that the rain washed out every trace of their passage.
By the time the star crested the horizon, the storm had passed. The air was heavy with humidity, and Gaylene had tired.
Kelley and Juno brooked no argument, as they relieved Gaylene of her suit. They dared not leave it behind, as it would tell the Radags that they’d survived the ship’s demise.
18: Guerilla Tactics
Above Vokslem, the peacekeeper’s imperator was informed of the alien shuttle’s destruction. That was his signal to ignite the ship’s engines. Powerful multiple ion thrusts sent the battleship surging forward.
The peacekeeper’s pilot set a course to orbit the planet. The ship was headed for the alien freighter. The imperator hoped to catch the defenseless ship before it could escape the system.
Aboard the freighter, Captain Juneski stared at her telemetry officer in disbelief.
“Due to the atmospheric disturbance, their signal was always weak,” the officer explained. “Suddenly, there was this extraneous static and then nothing.”
“Could Gaylene have made for the other side of the planet?” the captain asked.
“Negative, Captain,” the officer replied confidently. “The storm is local. If the traveler had broken into the open, I’d have picked her up loud and clear.”
“Keep on it,” Juneski directed. She returned to her command chair and reviewed her orders from Commander Tocknicka. She was told that if anything untoward befell the landing crew she was to make for Jumanus, which was closer to Vokslem than Helgart. Besides, there was little that the outpost could do to help the stranded party, if they were still alive.
Juneski hated the idea of leaving the landing party, but she believed in following orders. Furthermore, she had to admit that Tocknicka’s tactics made good sense.
The telemetry officer searched for any signal from the traveler, and the pilot scanned the storm’s edges for sight of the craft.
Suddenly, the pilot detected peripheral movement. Three seconds later, the young officer shouted, “Danger, Captain. The peacekeeper is rounding the planet’s horizon. Its engines appear at full thrust, and the ship has substantial velocity.”
“Pilot, execute escape plan,” Juneski ordered briskly.
The peacekeeper imperator had been informed of the freighter’s exact position by the transport imperators, which is why he made the approach he did. The freighter was bow on to his ship.
Firing the engines and using the attitude jets, the young pilot sought to make for the nearest system exit. That would be above the ecliptic. With trepidation, he watched the distance close.
“Permission to push the engines,” the pilot requested urgently.
“Push them till they blow,” Juneski shot back. “I don’t think that imperator intends to take this ship captive.”
The pilot furiously tapped his panel, while his implant authorized the safety releases. Engine output went from ninety percent to one-hundred-five.
Aboard the peacekeeper, the pilot adjusted course to intercept the accelerating quarry.
“Will our missiles catch them?” the imperator demanded of his armament officer.
“They’ll need a passive interlude, but we should be successful,” the armament officer declared.
“Ready barrage,” the imperator ordered. When he received the response that the ports were open and the gunnery sections were prepped, he added “Fire!”
“Missiles away,” the armament officer announced enthusiastically. It was his first time targeting an enemy ship. The fact that the adversary was a freighter didn’t matter.
“Incoming,” the freighter’s telemetry officer called out.
Juneski waited impatiently for the telemetry to calculate the closing rate.
“Captain, we won’t make it,” the telemetry officer reported despondently.
“Focus on the job,” Juneski ordered calmly. “I need details.”
“Apologies, Captain,” the telemetry officer replied. “We’ll be about six minutes short of being able to transit.”
Where’s a SADE when you need one? Juneski asked herself. She knew a SADE could interfere with a missile’s guidance system. Then again, she wondered if a single SADE could divert the entire barrage.
“Talk to me, Pilot,” Juneski directed.
“It’ll be close, Captain, but even with engine safeties off, I think we’re going to come up short,” the pilot replied.
“You think?” Juneski queried.
“Sorry, Captain, I’ve never had alien missiles fired at me,” the pilot replied nervously.
“Do your best,” Juneski said. She realized she wasn’t helping her youthful pilot concentrate.
“The missiles have gone ballistic,” the telemetry officer reported. He shared a grin with the pilot. It was the break they needed.
The pilot made a quick course correction.
“The missiles went active,” the telemetry officer said.
When Juneski saw the pilot reach for his panel, she said, “Give them some time to expend reaction mass.”
The telemetry officer counted off in his implant chronometer. After four minutes, he proffered, “They’re passive again, Captain. Recommend now.” He was one of the older crew members aboard, and he had a sibling who had made Trident captain.
“Course change, Pilot,” Juneski ordered.
The pilot made a second correction that forced the missiles to reactivate. When he learned that the missiles had gone ballistic again, he waited for the telemetry officer’s cue. Then he repeated his maneuver. The third course change appeared to have the missiles expend less time active.
“Captain, I think the entire barrage has run out of propulsion,” the telemetry officer reported. “They barely came onto our new heading.”
“Pilot, make one more course correction, and back off the engines to ninety-five percent,” Juneski ordered.
Nervously, the pilot decreased the engines’ output, as he made a final course change.
“The missiles remain ballistic,” the telemetry officer reported gratefully.
“Pilot, I want clearance from that barrage,” Juneski ordered. “I don’t want any of them going off due to proximity detection.”
Choosing to run the freighter at a ninety-degree angle to the barrage’s trajectory, the pilot waited until his distance from the missiles had a measure of safety. Then he turned the ship toward the ecliptic and the opportunity to transit and make for Jumanus.
