Free Trader Complete Omnibus

by Craig Martelle

  Inside, he found a living quarters with books, many, many old-style books. There was technology, too and a door that was locked. Pik jabbed at it with his spear, but to no effect. He bolted from the small building and went to the next, a larger structure, with windows open to the side. Pik jumped in front of the window and looked in. It appeared to be a laboratory, similar to the facility he’d awoken in on the RV Traveler. Old Tech dominated the space. Pik ran around the building to find the door, entering when he did.

  He made a quick tour around the facility, and not seeing any weapons or the Professor, left without touching anything. The third building looked to be a barracks of sorts. It had two rows of bunk beds, all recently slept in. On the other side of the room, there was a long table with bench seats and a fabricator set into the wall. A small restroom was off to the side. Brandt’s bugling and stomping alerted Pik to a danger outside. He opened the door and looked into the compound.

  The mob had returned. This time, they remembered their weapons. They were trying to form a circle around Brandt, but he was swinging his great horns from side to side and pawing at the ground. The mob hadn’t seen Pik as they menaced the King of the Aurochs. Urged on by the man-horse, one darted toward Brandt’s exposed flank and jabbed his spear into the Aurochs’ hip. The point didn’t penetrate as it wasn’t sharp enough.

  Brandt jumped around, swinging his head violently at the attacker, hitting him, and sending him flying into the nearest building. The misfit crumpled to the ground. Brandt completed his turn, chasing back another misguided adventurer. Pik used his spear to drive the creatures back as he entered the circle. Since they were already there, he used his mindlink to talk with Brandt.

  ‘There’s no one inside, and where are the others?’ Pik asked Brandt. Brandt bugled again and again, to let everyone on the island know that he was engaged with the enemy.

  ‘Don’t answer me. We’re in the compound and no one’s here. Watch out!’ Pik said over the mindlink, unsure of whether the others would hear or not.

  The Underground Complex

  Micah had heard Pik’s call as they left their positions and moved past the door in the mound. The others wanted to run but Micah stopped Fea and waved her back. She brought them together and whispered, “If there’s no one in the compound, then maybe they are hiding. A place like that--” Micah pointed to the mound. “--looks like somewhere an ancient would hide.”

  Aadi thought it made sense and he nodded. Fea didn’t care either way. Bronwyn was concerned with the creatures that Brandt and Pik faced. She knew that they were mostly harmless, and she had confidence that she could control them. When she tried to speak, Micah put her finger to her lips.

  Micah led Aadi to the door. Fea stood to the side. There was a hand-pad next to it. She put her hand on it, expecting a red light indicating that she wasn’t authorized access. It didn’t light up at all. She pulled on the door and although it was heavy, it opened after she used both hands and braced herself. Aadi and Fea stood close by, ready to protect Micah if someone lurked below.

  They peered into the darkness. The ‘cat’s eyes adjusted the quickest, and she nodded and walked in. Micah followed, pulling Aadi behind her. Bronwyn watched them go, then turned and ran for the compound. Zyena watched from her perch above the mound. Unwilling to fly underground, she went after the girl to watch over her.

  Fea continued down a long set of stairs that led far below the surface of the island. The ancients’ lighting system seemed to be half-functional. Every other light panel was dark. The heat of the island’s day, although not bad, didn’t penetrate to the depths as it cooled considerably on their way down. When they reached the bottom, they found a corridor that led in one direction. The poor lighting showed doors at various intervals.

  Micah shrugged and pointed. Fea went first, running ahead, only to stop, listen, and then run some more. Micah walked carefully, a sword in one hand and a blaster in the other. She wanted to be ready for anything. Aadi watched, unblinking.

  As they came to the first door, Micah looked at Fea and nodded. The ‘cat shrugged. She couldn’t feel whether anything was inside or not. Micah turned to tell Bronwyn to stay in the corridor with Aadi, but the teenager wasn’t there. Micah panicked and ran to the stairs, wondering if Bronwyn had sensed something that made her afraid and stopped.

  The steps were empty. The door remained open at the top, casting light into the shadows.

  Bronwyn’s gone to the compound to talk with the misfits, Micah thought, then opened the mindlink, even though she knew it could alert the Professor to her presence. ‘Bronwyn is on her way to you, but not us,’ Micah said over the mindlink. Pik confirmed he heard her and they’d watch out for the girl. Micah also hoped that Zyena had heard and was with her. Zyena was large for a Hawkoid and could intimidate the misfits if they became hostile toward Bronwyn.

  Micah returned to the doorway and shook her head. She knew exactly where the girl had gone. She suspected that they should have sent her with Brandt in the first place, but in the original plan, she wasn’t going ashore. Aadi thought the same thing.

  None of that mattered at that very moment, where they stood in an underground corridor, not knowing where the Professor was, or Braden or G-War for that matter. And she wanted to find them.

  Micah grabbed the handle and yanked the door open. The lights inside came on, showing a store room of sorts. It smelled musty and dank. Dust lay undisturbed on the surfaces of boxes on shelves. She shut the door and signaled that they needed to move on. They hurried to the next door and the next. This was a storage area, off the beaten path. She didn’t need to see what was in the crates, that wasn’t her purpose in being there, and checking empty rooms was wasting their time.

  She pulled the group together and whispered, “If we don’t find something soon, I think we need to go back outside.” Fea shook her head and pointed down the corridor. Aadi shook his head as well. They’d all heard Pik’s call that no one was in the compound. Bronwyn would calm the mob. They were convinced that Braden was somewhere in the underground complex, as they were beginning to think of it.

  For a moment, Micah wondered if such a complex existed below the ancients’ compound in the rainforest. She shook that off. Thinking of more Overlords running around was too foul to contemplate.

  She was closer to finding Braden and G-War, because she could say with certainty where they were not.

  Fea ran past the last few doors along the sides and stopped at a larger, heavier door at the end of the corridor. She nodded and pointed at it. Micah had put her sword away to pull the first door open, and it was still in its scabbard. There was no way she could open doors and carry the sword. She dialed the tightest beam possible on the blaster and held it firmly, ready to fire.

  With a deep breath, she yanked on the door, but this one was secured. She put her hand on the panel and it turned green, which both pleased her and frightened her. How and why did it recognize her?

  No time to think, she pulled the door open to reveal another corridor. This one was well-lit, wide with impressive doors arrayed along one side. She pushed Aadi through to face one direction while she jumped in behind him, facing the other way. The corridor wasn’t empty. There were boxes along the walls and a Bot stood there, too. Micah didn’t hesitate, she fired, hoping that its energy shield wasn’t active.

  Hope was a lousy plan. Her shot reflected from the Bot and barely missed her head as it flashed past, too fast for her to move out of its way, had it come more directly at her. She looked behind her at the scorch mark down the corridor where the beam had spent its energy.

  She crouched, ready to dive through the door and away from the Bot if it fired, but then realized that it was a Development Unit, a smaller version of one, but a Bot that didn’t have weapons, only the defensive shield.

  She relaxed only slightly as the presence of any Bots suggested that there could be a Security Bot somewhere. She tried the closest door, getting a green indicator from the panel before
it unlocked to allow them in. She pulled it open and dropped to a knee, ready to fire. The room was a massive laboratory into which most of the doors in the corridor opened.

  Bots and Old Tech. This was a laboratory of the ancients.

  Bounder and Ferrer to the Rescue

  Bounder and Ferrer threw caution to the wind once they heard the King of the Aurochs bugling his dismay. They raced together down the path while Skirill flew before them, back and forth across the trail looking for hidden enemies.

  What the Hawkoid didn’t see was the net buried under the sand, its supports hidden against the trees. The net sprang up as the Wolfoid and Rabbit ran by, wrapping itself around them and bundling their limbs.

  Their momentum carried them forward until they both landed in a heap, side by side in the sand. Bounder twisted his head to look for enemies who might attack them while they were held tightly within the net. Skirill circled above the trap, watching, wondering if the two could extricate themselves. Skirill expanded his circles, flying farther and farther from the Wolfoid and the Rabbit. When he was certain there were no creatures nearby, he returned to the trap, back-winging to land next to it, where he started using his talons to pull the net from his friends.

  The Wolfoid grumbled his dismay, wanting to howl at his failure, but he stayed quiet and started chewing on the rope before his muzzle. He couldn’t move anything else, so Bounder fought back in the only way he could.

  Ferrer shivered in fear. Once again, the world conspired against him. He closed his eyes and rocked, thinking of being home in his garden. Even the ship’s garden sounded warm and inviting compared to this. He convinced himself that he’d made a mistake in coming.

  Bounder started jerking his head as he made way through the rope, hoping it would tear apart. Ferrer made himself as small as possible, keeping his eyes shut. He thought the Wolfoid was panicking.

  Skirill found the clasps that held the net closed. He started undoing those, one at a time, and the rest was easy. With the edge of the net held in his claws, he flew upwards and pulled half the net away. Bounder kept scrabbling to get out, but Skirill shook his head. The Hawkoid took the other edge and unfolded it from the top of his two friends. Bounder jumped up, ripping the lightning spear from his hand. He untangled the spear, then grabbed a handful of Rabbit harness with his other hand and pulled Ferrer upright.

  Bounder nodded down the trail and with one leap, cleared the edges of the net and started running anew toward the compound. Ferrer leapt as only a Rabbit can, easily sailing over the trap and into the sand beyond. He bounded after the Wolfoid while Skirill flew overhead, encouraging him to catch up.

  At that point, they hadn’t been too far away. Bounder ran into the area as Pik and Brandt stood back to back facing the misfits in a loose circle around them. Bounder leveled his spear at the nearest and Pik raised his hand to stop him.

  The Wolfoid refrained from activating the weapon, but kept it trained on the creature with tentacles for arms.

  Bronwyn burst into the compound from the jungle and yelled. “No!” She ran first to the man-horse, stroking his thick neck and cooing to him. The other misfits dropped their weapons as they ran to be close to the girl. Pik and Brandt looked, eleven bodies pressed in on Bronwyn. The twelfth lay crumpled next to the wall, forgotten. The misfits lifted the girl onto the back of the man-horse, who beamed at being the center of attention.

  Skirill landed atop one of the buildings and watched the others.

  ‘Where’s Strider?’ Bounder asked.

  Strider is Coming

  Strider jogged upright alongside the path while Brigitte bounded along, looking at the foliage. Zeeka was up ahead, vigorously pointing at something. Strider slowed and leveled her spear, but Zeeka shook her feathered head. Brigitte sprinted ahead to catch up, or rather, she sprinted to avoid being left behind.

  Strider saw the heavily-used path beyond the Hawkoid. It led directly toward the compound, turning at the point before them and going to an opening in the hill above. Strider indicated that Brigitte should stay there with her pistol aimed down the trail leading into the jungle. Strider dropped to all fours and ran up the hill, stopping at the metal gate that blocked the entrance to the tunnel. It was locked with a device that could be accessed from either side. Strider expected that she could blast it open with her spear, but didn’t want to do that.

  Not yet anyway.

  The plan called for them to converge on the compound. Strider knew that Braden and Micah would want to know about the tunnel. Maybe this was the access to the undersea facility they were looking for. She tried to peer through the darkness, but could only see to the bend. Many feet had gone that way many times. She was wondering who had traveled that path when she heard Brandt bugling in the distance. The compound was further than she’d thought.

  She turned and bolted down the hill, waving at Brigitte to follow as she passed the Rabbit.

  Zeeka jumped into the air and flew hard down the trail, leaving the others far behind. She realized she’d made a mistake when the rocks started pelting her from above. She dodged and weaved, trying to get away, but one hit her in the head, stunning her. She careened off a tree and into the undergrowth. Strider and Brigitte raced forward, oblivious to what happened to the Hawkoid.

  Rocks started pelting them, too, but Strider had seen this before. She leaned back, braced her lightning spear and sent bolt after bolt into the trees, scattering the monkeys in all directions. She and Brigitte jogged forward, carefully watching as they passed. They continued ahead, unaware that a mere two strides away, Zeeka was unconscious and crumpled within a bush.

  They saw no more monkeys as they followed the wide and well-used path straight to the compound. When they finally arrived, Bounder and Ferrer were there, with Brandt and Pik. Zyena and Skirill perched on the roof of one of the ancients’ buildings. Bronwyn was in the middle of the misfit mob, talking animatedly with them.

  ‘Where’s Zeeka?’ Zyena asked.

  ‘Oh, no!’ Strider cried. ‘The monkeys!’ She turned and ran on all fours back the way she’d come. Skirill and Zyena quickly caught up to her and flew past. They continued along the path until they broke into the opening beyond, at the bottom of the hill. They flew back, meeting Strider at the site of the monkey ambush.

  Zyena was first to see her, squawking loudly and hovering directly over the bush. Strider dug in and carefully tore the branches away from Zeeka. When they looked at the young Hawkoid, they saw that her wings were sound and her body seemed uninjured, but one trickle of blood escaped from a cut over her eye. Strider cradled the Hawkoid’s head in her hands.

  Zeeka came to with a start, pecking the Wolfoid’s foreleg. Strider yipped in pain, dropping the Hawkoid’s head into the sand. Zyena and Skirill cooed to their daughter, happy to see her eyes open. She turned her neck to and fro, worked out the kinks, then tested her wings. She nodded to her parents as she ran a few steps and launched into the air, but struggled to maintain altitude.

  ‘Go back to the ship and wait for us there,’ Zyena said, breaking the silence.

  Zeeka didn’t bother to nod as she slowly climbed, catching an updraft from the hill, then headed southeast toward the easily recognizable sail of the Warden.

  Skirill inclined his head toward the compound and the three of them raced back. Skirill couldn’t help but feel that he was wasting time. Where are Braden and G-War? For that matter, where are Micah, Aadi, and Fea? Wasn’t Bronwyn supposed to be with them? he thought.

  The Underground Complex

  Micah saw the Professor. Without turning, he said in a voice far too loud, “Welcome to my laboratory. I’ve been expecting you, although it took you far longer than I thought it would. Shame. I had hoped you were more intelligent, but no matter. Come in, come in.”

  ‘We found him. Zyena will show you the way,’ Micah said over the mindlink.

  “That won’t work in here, but I appreciate the effort. I will have to more thoroughly examine how that works in the genet
ically engineered creatures and how a human can use it. So very interesting.”

  The sound of equipment humming pulled their attention away from the Professor. A Security Bot slowly approached from the side. Unlike the ones at New Sanctuary, this Security Bot was more human in shape, with tentacles and various weapons attached. It even wore rough clothing, making it even more hideous to behold. It reminded her of the misshapen creatures outside, but she was under no illusion about the deadly nature of the Bot.

  A dual laser beam looked at her from over its left shoulder. Each arm ended in a vicious-looking knife attached to large, multi-barreled blasters. There was a tentacle that carried another weapon of some sort.

  And Brandt was in the compound with the shield generator. Micah carefully put her blasters on the floor and held her hands up. Aadi floated serenely, blinking quickly as a testament to his anxiety. He felt the same way he did when the Androids took him–helpless and afraid.

  Fea was gone, having dodged back out the door. The Professor looked at the floor and under the tables. “Find it and bring it back here,” he barked at the Security Bot. It opened the door closest to it and moved into the hallway, still humming with the power it exuded.

  They could hear popping sounds as it fired a myriad of weaponry in the corridor. Micah hung her head, biting her lip at the thought of Fea getting killed.

  The Security Bot returned, the limp ‘cat held loosely in the tentacle arm. The Bot hovered past Micah and Aadi until it was before the Professor, where it deposited Fea on the table in front of him.

  “She’s still very much alive, just rendered unconscious. She’ll awake shortly, after I’ve taken what I need, of course,” the Professor said as he put on a pair of glasses and studied the prone form of the Hillcat. He pulled a razor and shaved the hair from a leg, her abdomen, and a spot on her lower back.