“What happened to the hostile that escaped from the ambush when we came on board?”
“It’s dead. It was one of the two outside the control core room.”
“OK, lead me to the dock, though I don’t know what we’re going to do when we get there. How many hostiles are there left?”
“Seventy eight. I have a plan.”
“Would you like to share it with me?”
“Order the eighteen militia from the gym to leave the hospital and collect the outcasts bomb from the room you locked it in, then rendezvous with you at the freight dock. Tell them to bring a spare helmet with a fully charged field armor generator. I ordered one from the synthesizer near the hospital entrance. The hospital is quite secure now, all the surviving outcasts are accounted for.”
“You want me to blow the doors open? You said you have control of the internal and external freight dock doors. Just a moment, you said earlier that you told the Operators that the freight dock was extensively damaged. How did that happen?”
“It hasn’t happened yet, but it will soon. You are correct, I have control of the internal doors, but if I were to open them the outcasts would rush out and attack you. They are becoming restless now as they can’t get back into the habitat and I won’t open the exterior doors for them to leave.”
“You’re planning to open the doors, so we can carry the bomb in, walk out and close the doors behind us and then blow them to pieces. Now, I could have misjudged them, but I didn’t get the impression that they would be polite enough to stand back if we asked them nicely to let us plant a bomb in there, then let us leave and lock them in again.”
“I do not think you have misjudged them Sah Lee and although that scenario would be effective if they were to co-operate with your request, it is unlikely they would agree to it. So, I have an alternative approach to the problem. A gurney will arrive there shortly after the last of the outcasts are secure in the dock. You will put the bomb on the gurney, which will take it in. I’ll close the doors and then, when it is in position, you will instruct me to detonate it.”
“A gurney! Do you know how slow they are! And assuming it could get the bomb in there they’d destroy it with their particle beam weapons!”
“Sah Lee, please stop jumping to conclusions. That is planned for. I am reconfiguring the motivon in the gurney to accelerate it to a speed that will take it into position before they have time to react. I will need the spare helmet you told the militia to bring so I can reconfigure it to provide a high degree of protection to the gurney and bomb to ensure that it reaches its destination intact. You will strap it to the gurney along with the bomb. When everything is ready, I will briefly open the internal doors to the dock just wide enough and for just long enough for the gurney to enter, then close them again. You will line up your troops outside to provide a field of fire to prevent the outcasts from breaking out.”
“I see. Just one question, what’s a motivon?”
“Motivons provide the motive power in most small devices, such as gurneys and drones. The motivons on the gurneys move them smoothly and slowly, which is what is needed if they are transporting sick or injured people. I will reconfigure it to release all its stored energy at a high rate to get the gurney inside before they have a chance to stop it. If they open fire on it, the field armor will protect it for as long as it needs to before detonation.”
“I’m not completely convinced by your plan, but as it’s the only plan we've got, we’ll go with it. I’ll get everyone ready, then we’ll make our way to the dock.”
Sah Lee looked around for the biggest and strongest of her troops and called Militia members Torf and Wenten over. She told them to check the heavy caliber KE weapons the outcasts in the control core room had been using and, if they were still serviceable, to collect them and any ammunition for them. While they were in the control core, the eighteen Militia from the hospital arrived carrying the white cylindrical bomb the group of outcasts had intended to use to blow open the doors to the hospital. They had detoured to the Celestial Heaven armory on their way and were all armed with a mixture of KE and particle beam weapons.
As soon as Torf and Wenten returned with the weapons, Sah Lee called them all together to outline the plan, then led them to the freight dock.
The corridor outside the dock door was wide and high to allow heavy machinery to move freight from the dock into the warehousing and processing units further along the corridor. Sah Lee set out her troops in a formation surrounding the great dock doors, placing Wenten and Torf with the heavy caliber KE weapons in the center, directly facing the doors. While the troops were getting into position, the gurney arrived, moving slowly along the corridor.
“It doesn’t seem to be moving any faster than normal.” Sah Lee said to her AI.
“I have made the required configuration changes. When I override its normal operational mode, all of its circuits will overload and burn out quickly, but not before it has had time to deliver its payload. Do not concern yourself Sah Lee, the technology will work perfectly.”
Following instructions from her AI, Sah Lee supervised the operation to strap the bomb and the helmet to the gurney. Her AI positioned it in front of the doors, ready to go.
Satisfied that all her troops were in position, Sah Lee stood between Torf and Wenten and instructed her AI to open the doors and inject the bomb into the freight dock. The doors slowly inched open while the troops held their weapons ready to hold off any outcasts that tried to break out. All was still for a few moments as the doors opened, then the outcasts started to pour out.
“Can’t you open those damned doors any quicker!” Sah Lee snapped at her AI.
“Unfortunately, not. The doors are opened and closed hydraulically, I cannot make them move any faster.”
“Shit! Will the gurney go through with all of them crowding out?”
“Yes, the power of the upgraded motivon will push them out of the way and the field armor will protect it, but I have to wait until the doors are open wide enough before sending it in.”
The concentrated fire from the troops looked like it would keep the outcasts in the dock until the gurney made its entrance. The outcasts must have realized that the door would shut as easily as it opened, two of them pushed through the crowd and dropped a thick metal plate into the gap, then more pushed their way through. Finally, the doors opened wide enough for the gurney to get through and it shot forward, scattering outcasts as it thrust its way inside. The doors began to close, and the troops firepower forced the surviving outcasts back inside. A group took cover behind the closing doors, firing back at the troops and throwing grenades out into the corridor. As soon as the doors met the metal plate laying between them they stopped moving, then started opening again as the safety protocols activated to prevent the doors damaging any equipment that may be obstructing them.
“Detonate the bomb as soon as it is in position!” Sah Lee told her AI.
“We have a problem Sah Lee. The metal plate the outcasts dropped is preventing the doors from closing. It is not safe to detonate it with your troops deployed as some of the blast will come through the doors propelling debris and shrapnel. You must move your troops safely out of the way before I can detonate it.”
“If I do that, the outcasts will break out with nothing to slow them down. The corridor will fill up with them. We’ll be outnumbered and have another firefight on our hands!” She ran to Wenten and grabbed the heavy caliber KE weapon. “Everyone fall back!” She broadcast on the mission comms. “Now! I’ll cover you while you get clear. She grabbed a full magazine and clipped it in. Run, now!” and started firing at the hostiles by the doors. Her soldiers and the Militia ran along the corridor, away from the doors.
“The field armor on the gurney won’t hold up much longer. You must move away now! If I don’t detonate the bomb in the next few seconds, the outcasts will have rendered it harmless.”
“I can’t go yet, the moment I stop firing they’ll pour through the
gap!”
“It’s now or never Sah Lee. Run and I’ll leave it for as long as possible, but as soon as the field armor starts to fail I have to detonate it.”
She looked round and saw that her soldiers and Militia were well away from the danger zone and still running. She dropped the KE weapon and turned to run. At that moment the bomb detonated, and a huge blast came through the doors. It picked her up and ripped her helmet from her head, disabling her field armor. The blast also picked up the heavy metal plate that the outcasts had dropped in the doorway. As Sah Lee was smashed against the rear wall of the corridor, the metal plate hit her edge-ways just below her right hip.
Chapter Ninety
Medivac
Sah Lee opened her eyes. At first, all she could see were ceiling lights moving above her, then Taris came into her line of sight as he leaned over.
“I can’t move my head.” she said.
“That’s because it’s restrained to prevent you from moving it.”
“Where am I? I feel like I’m moving.”
“You’re on a gurney on your way to the passenger dock.”
“I’m OK now, stop the gurney. I can walk from here. Where are my soldiers? Are they all right? And the Militia? What about the hostiles in the freight dock? I need to be there until we have dealt with them.” She started to struggle and try to get up.
Taris put his hand on her shoulder “Stay still please Sah Lee. The outcasts are no longer a problem, they are all dead. Some of your soldiers were injured in the firefight, but none as bad as you. You’re not walking anywhere. You have multiple injuries and you’re lucky you’re still alive.”
“Let me up Taris. You exaggerate. I was fine after that scratch I got in the Control Core, I’m sure I’m well enough to walk back by myself.”
“You’ve got a broken scapula, clavicle and upper humerus, three crushed upper thoracic vertebrae and two crushed cervical vertebrae. Additionally, you have six smashed ribs on your right which have penetrated your lung. You have a major depressed skull fracture which you are bleeding from as well as a subdural hematoma…”
“Your brain is bleeding.” her AI told her.
“…that is potentially life threatening. I have inserted a tube through the fracture into your brain to drain the blood but that’s only first aid. It needs proper treatment urgently. How does your right leg feel?”
“Now you mention it, it does feel a bit funny. It’s itching too. Can you scratch it for me?”
“I haven't time to go back for it, it’s more important that I stay with you until you get collected.”
“Back for it? Get collected? What’s happening?”
“Just relax, everything is going to be fine. Ker Din Ser Forn is going to treat you, or ‘repair you’ as he put it. His medical technology is so far ahead of ours he makes us look like savages trying to treat you with prayers and incantations.”
Sah Lee started struggling again. Without saying anything more, Taris pressed an injector tube to her neck and everything went black.
◆◆◆
Sah Lee woke up laying on a bed on Ker Din Ser Forn’s ship. He was standing next to her.
“You kidnapped me you bastard!” she croaked as she sat up, then had a coughing fit that racked her body. She swung her legs over the side of the bed to stand up and then remembered what Taris had said about going back for her leg. Looking down, she saw she had both legs and wondered what he had meant by that. She pushed herself off the bed and stumbled as she stood up. Ser Din Ker Forn caught her and helped her stand upright.
“It might be best if you sit down for a moment. You have recovered from major injuries and it will take your body a little while to re-adjust.”
“Get your hands off me!”
“You still blame me for saving your race and your ecosystem?”
“You could have saved all of my people and my planet if you hadn’t fucked about getting the Ants in while you sat on your ass and watched my people die.”
“Sah Lee, I intervened far more than is conventional for the People. Our cultural values are different from yours. What would you have thought of me if I had swooped in, destroyed the outcasts and then quietly left again?”
“If that had happened we would have thought you were a god, but you didn’t, which revealed you as a demon.” she spat out.
“We are not gods. We don’t want to be gods, but we are not demons either. As a race we have overwhelming power, but that comes with a terrible responsibility. If we intervene, we become godlike. If we stand by and do nothing we are judged as demons. We are constantly treading a fine line, but we do not want to run the universe and make it obey our rules. We are flesh and blood, the same as you. We are far from perfect, but we try to do what is best and to let galactic cultures evolve in their own way. We are different from you, and every other culture that has ever. and will ever exist in the universe. We consider ourselves to be outsiders and believe we should observe but not interact with the rest of the universe. But it is hard to stand by and watch great suffering. Have some understanding of us Sah Lee.”
“Understand you? If I could, I would kill you all! Now take me back to Betzel Base.”
Ker Din Ser Form sighed, and his shoulders dropped. “Very well Sah Lee. We are standing off, two hundred kilometers from Betzel Base. I have a military lander ready to return you.” He turned and walked to a wall, where he opened a synthesizer and pulled out an army jumpsuit and boots and gave them to her. “Get dressed and I’ll send you to the dock with the lander, but before you leave, please remember that if you need anything from me, I will give you whatever you need. You are destined for great things Sah Lee, your name will be known throughout the galaxy. To achieve that you will need help from time to time. Your AI can contact me whenever you need my assistance.”
Sah Lee blinked, or thought she did, and was standing at the bottom of the ramp of an army style lander. She pulled on the jump suit and boots and walked up into the empty lander.
Chapter Ninety One
Forness Two
A cool red sun shone on the cold, dry, moonless planet. Gusts of wind in the thin atmosphere blew clouds of red dust and ice crystals through the fronds of the scattered fern-like plants that rose up to ten meters high from the rocky ground. Small creatures scuttled between the rocks, making a living by ambushing and eating each other, scraping the algae off rocks or crunching through the tough bark of the hardened plants that survived there.
Located in the mostly empty space between the spiral arms of the galaxy, few stars shone in the sky of the planet, the second in the solar system of the red dwarf called Forness. Tidally locked, the sunward facing side of Forness Two gained just enough warmth for the remnants of life to cling on, while the dark side was so cold that the atmosphere had frozen solid. The planet was so unappealing that no civilization had any interest in it although at some time a long forgotten race had placed a wormhole in the solar system for unknown reasons.
It was the perfect location for a base that you didn’t want anyone to find.
A small group of temporary habitats nestled against an ancient rock outcrop. An old and scarred corvette stood near the buildings, with a scattered assortment of civilian ships varying from battered freighters up to new luxury yachts.
This undistinguished hideout was where a certain reptile called Tk'ng Dach Rm was believed to be. Outcasts frequently formed into small groups but were too disorganized and undisciplined ever to pose a major threat. Recently - in galactic terms, larger groups had been working together under his direction.
The attack on Aarn was too big to have just been a rag-tag band of rejects. There had been a coordinated assault with the capital cities of all the nations on the planet being taken out by orbital bombardment at the same time, then a fleet of armed ships capable of atmospheric flight descended to attack the planetary inhabitants while freighters landed to set up camps for large groups of outcasts. The invasion had all the signs of an attempt to exterminate the indi
genous population and colonize the planet. There was only one person who could have organized this. Tk'ng Dach Rm.
Cast out and reviled by his civilization for unspecified crimes, Tk'ng Dach Rm gathered around himself a coterie of outcasts, quickly earning a reputation for violence and determination that was only surpassed by his ego. He believed that he was destined to rule the galaxy and his path to greatness would only be achieved by eliminating all those who crossed him, including his entire civilization. As his campaign of destruction and violence proceeded, he gathered more outcasts around him until he had the core of a small army. His exploits had attracted the attention of one of the People, Ker Din Ser Forn.
Much of Ker Din Ser Forn’s time was taken up with his main task as an Archivist. He, and his fellow Archivists, spent time living in civilizations, many of them pre-emergent, documenting every aspect of their culture, history and technology. From this they compiled an Archive which was kept by the People as a permanent record so that once the civilization had fallen, as all but the People’s did, they would never be forgotten. When he wasn’t immersed in creating a civilization’s archive, Ker Din Ser Forn took an active interest in the wellbeing of the citizens of the galaxy which was unusual amongst the People. Despite the People’s great power and their technology that was so far ahead of anyone else’s that much of it seemed like magic, they were strictly non-interventionist. Well, not too strictly in Ker Din Ser Forn’s case.
Halfway round the planet from the huddle of buildings, a stealthed corvette and a carrier dropped into a geostationary orbit. The freighter disgorged fifteen landers. Ten carried thirty-six soldiers each, two were fully manned and equipped field hospitals and three more carried supplies and equipment. Hugging the ground, the fleet of landers sped towards the settlement.
The landers assembled four kilometers from their target. Three hundred and sixty officers and troops disembarked, retrieved their specialist equipment and assembled into their companies and platoons. Officers gave last minute pep talks and briefings. When all reported ready, the signal was given, and the battalion moved towards the buildings, light infantry first, checking for mines and outposts.
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