“You could hear me?” She sat on her heels and glanced at the nearest prisoners.
“Yeah, everyone’s fully conscious in their pods,” he said, wiping his mouth with a trembling hand. “Part of the aliens’ torture process.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I needed a test case before I tried the rifle on my sister. Figured you being Special Forces and all, you’d survive and might even come in handy.”
“There’s supposed to be a revival kit with restorative crap the Chimmer make a freed prisoner drink,” he said, sitting up with visible effort.
“I find no such item in this chamber,” MARL reported.
“Just telling you what I learned liberating a few of their diabolical labs, when I was on active duty. Are you the entire rescue force, lady? And your whatever-it-is here?”
“Tech Sergeant Jill Garrison to you, and yes, there’s only MARL and me.” She rose, bracing herself to free her sister next. “I was a Special Forces support tech—I’ll show you my unit tatt later.”
“Gabe Carter, captain, retired.” He got to his feet shakily. “We should try to catch your sister when you blast her envelope. The floor is damn unforgiving.”
Jill glanced at him. “Right now I doubt your ability to catch a fly, let alone Lily.”
“Pretty name.” He staggered to her sister’s container and braced himself. “We’re wasting time—do it.”
Taking careful aim, Jill shot out the corner of Lily’s cage, wincing as the entire container lit up with rebounding energy, before her sister fell in a limp heap. Gabe managed to break her fall, even if he hit the floor with her. Jill moved to her sister’s side, setting the pulse rifle close at hand.
Gabe grabbed the weapon and rolled away before she could stop him.
“What the hells do you think you’re doing?” she asked.
He was moving among the ever shifting lines of containers. “I need my crew. You need my crew. We’re obviously in a bad situation here.” Glancing over his shoulder, he said, “What’s our escape plan?”
“I don’t have time to explain everything to you now. We’ve got to traverse a short hallway, but MARL can provide cover. Then we have to crawl for a long time through ventilation shafts and pray we don’t get discovered, so don’t rescue anyone bigger than you are, because my guess is you’ll barely make it, with those wide shoulders. After that, it’s a day’s hike to a river valley where we can hide out and regroup.” She heard a controlled blast from the rifle and then another. Cradling the unresponsive Lily’s head in her lap, she said in a fierce whisper, “Hey, two men, maximum. We’re tight on time. We can’t rescue everyone today—we’re outnumbered and outgunned.”
“We’re also over the time limit you allotted,” MARL said. “The Khagrish will be making their late night rounds and the door to this chamber is ajar.”
“Can’t you close it?” Gabe reappeared and laid the rifle on the floor next to Jill. “The guards haven’t opened the door once since I’ve been here.”
“This chamber cannot be opened from within, except via special command to the AI system,” MARL said. “Do you want to take that chance?”
“No.” Jill was decisive. “We’ve got to move. No fucking time to search for Megan, damn it.” Leaning over Lily again, she brushed her sister’s hair away from her face. “Come on, sis, we’ve got to get out of here. Wake up.”
“We’ll have to carry her.” Gabe leaned over.
“We can’t carry her through the ventilation shafts.”
“And there’s no other way out?”
“Not at this time, other than on foot through the complex. MARL and I didn’t anticipate the need to withdraw through the building.” Jill glanced at the floating, imprisoned humans packed into the room. “I had this naïve idea I could set all the colonists free and we’d crawl to freedom.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening.” He squeezed her shoulder. “You did good getting this far in the situation, sergeant.”
Leaning on each other, a man and a woman in utilities staggered to a stop behind Gabe. Both were white faced and barely keeping their balance as they stared at Jill and MARL.
“What have we got going down here, sir?” the man asked, his voice hoarse.
“A selective rescue. Time to evac and plan for another try later.” He turned to Jill. “Meet Brent and Flo. This is Jill.”
Acknowledging her with a nod, Brent asked, “Weapons?”
“We might be able to scavenge a few more from the abandoned complex on the way out,” Jill said.
Brent and Flo exchanged dubious glances and checked with Gabe. He shrugged. “It’s her party. We owe her for getting us out and she’s in charge.”
Lily moaned and curled into a ball of misery on the floor. Her eyelids fluttered, but she didn’t waken.
“We gotta go.” Gabe scooped Lily from the floor and adjusted her in his arms. “Lead the way, sergeant.”
Jill worked her way through the crowded room, pushing the envelopes holding her fellow colonists aside as gently as she could. She felt the weight of their combined gaze as a physical pressure on her shoulders. At the door she halted, facing the room. “We won’t leave you behind next time, I swear.”
“The hall is currently clear, but the guard has begun evening patrol,” MARL said. “He’ll be here in five minutes at the present rate.”
“Can you hide us with your distort shield all if we go in one tight group?”
“Probably.”
“All right, MARL can project a limited distortion field, so stay tight on my six,” she said, pushing the door open.
With the AI floating at her side, Jill led the way to the room where she’d exited the ventilation system, relaxing fractionally as the last member of her newly extended party slid past her. She shut the door and locked it, going to check on Lily, who Gabe had set leaning against the wall.
“Jill?” Her sister was conscious but groggy. “What happened to me? Where are we? Where’s Megan?”
“It’s a long story,” she said, giving Lily a hug. “We were kidnapped from the colony by aliens, probably the Chimmer. Right now we have to get out of here. I—I couldn’t ‘t find Megan, not yet anyway. Do you think you can crawl?”
Her sister did a double take. “Are you kidding me? Crawl to where?”
Jill gestured at the ventilation grate, which Gabe was in the act of removing. “We have to go through there to get out of the complex and make a run for a safer place.”
The soldier gave Lily an encouraging smile, holding out his hand to her. “I’ll give you a boost.”
Jill helped Lily to her feet. “If we want to be clear by dawn, we need to move.” She addressed the other two soldiers. “We have to proceed quietly. There are several places where we have to work our way past rooms where the Khagrish guards usually congregate. So far I’ve been lucky.”
“Let’s keep the streak going then. You should take point,” Gabe said. “I’ll bring up the rear. Brent, give her a hand into the maze.”
“MARL needs to go first.” Jill waited for the AI to propel himself through the opening. “And be sure to close the grate behind you,” she said to the captain. He was probably insulted at the reminder but merely nodded.
Lily retreated a step. “I can’t go in there, there’s no way. I can’t.” Tears running down her cheeks, she appealed to Jill. “You know I have claustrophobia—how can you expect me to crawl into a box? Isn’t there a door to the outside we can use?”
“There are exterior doors, but we’re too far away from any of them, and we’d be caught by the guards before we got there.” Jill tried to rein in her impatience. “I’ve gone through this shaft twice with no problems, and I know the route is clear. Please, sis, this is our only chance at escape. You’ve got to try.”
Gabe stepped forward, giving Lily’s shoulder a squeeze. “My team and I’ll be right there with you. I give you my word nothing bad will happen. Take deep breaths and focus on Brent—he’ll go ahead of you.”
&nb
sp; The guard is on patrol. MARL’s voice in Jill’s head amped up her tension. She grabbed Lily by the elbow and dragged her to the wall below the vent. “We’re all going to get caught if we don’t move now. And since I tried to kill the head scientist in charge here, I’m better off dead than taken prisoner again. If you love me, sis, you’ll make yourself crawl.”
“You what? What happened to you?” Lily’s question was shocked and sincere.
Jill gritted her teeth. “Long story. I’ll tell you later, but trust me, we cannot get caught.”
Gabe said, “I’ll guarantee your sister will be right on your heels. Go on into the vent.”
Brent made a stirrup with his hands, and Jill got herself through the opening. As she crawled away, hoping the captain would be more effective than she’d been in getting Lily past her phobia, she heard the others coming one by one behind her.
MARL moved steadily ahead, turning his lights off as he approached each grate and then re-illuminating as soon as he was safely past. Jill was relieved to see the Khagrish guards’ break room was empty at this hour, since she felt that was the most dangerous point in the escape route and had doubts about how silently her companions could move. The three ex-soldiers were doing fine but she was sure her sister was having trouble. Clearly Lily wasn’t bouncing back well from her imprisonment in the Chimmer cage.
Brent had been behind her, and he slid from the vent into the ruined building with ease, pivoting to help Lily, who was white-faced and trembling. He half carried her to a clear spot and Jill joined her. Flo and Gabe arrived in short order.
“Next?” said the captain, surveying the ruins with a frown.
“It’s a hard day’s hike to the river valley where I’ve been hiding out,” Jill told him. “That’s where I found MARL. He’s been shielding the place from scans and overflights, and he says he can defend it against a ground attack if required.”
“Did you say we might be able to get our hands on weapons here?” Gabe’s voice was dubious.
“I found two pulse rifles, so yeah. We should grab more of the rations as well. I can show you where. By myself I couldn’t move enough debris to search all the cabinets but with your help—”
Lily grabbed her sleeve. “I need to rest. My legs are jelly.”
Gabe snapped off a few orders. “Flo, stay here with the lady. Brent, you and I are on foraging duty with Jill.”
“We can’t linger too long,” Jill said as she led them deeper into the building, two of MARL’s manifestations lighting their way. “The Khagrish are going to get suspicious of this place sooner or later. I’d hate for tonight to be the night.”
“Point taken.”
The two men were able to dislodge a stack of debris in the storage area Jill had plundered previously, uncovering a small treasure trove of the ration bars, more containers of fluids and a locker with six pulse rifles and two hand weapons.
“Now I feel better,” Gabe said as he checked the blaster he’d grabbed and slung a rifle over his shoulder by the strap. “I prefer to be able to shoot back at the enemy.”
Jill sent a thought to MARL via the earpiece. How are things at the main complex?
Systems quiet, no reports about missing humans. We should go during their early morning shift change. Less likely to attract notice then.
Agreed. “MARL says everything is good. We need to move out in a few, while the Khagrish rotate guard units over there at the lab.”
But when they arrived at the rendezvous point, Lily was slumped over, asleep or unconscious. Flo was checking her pulse as the others came into the area. “She doesn’t seem to be in physical distress, pulse is good, but she keeps slipping in and out on me.”
“I’ll carry her for the first part of the journey,” Gabe said, holstering his blaster. He nodded at Brent, who was going over the salvaged weapons. “We’ll trade off if she’s not up to walking.”
Jill touched her sister’s cheek. “Why is she having so much trouble? The three of you are doing ok.”
The captain hoisted her sister into his arms. “How did you do when you were released?”
“I don’t know. I woke up in the Preserve, face down in the rain. I was a bit shaky but not like this.”
“I’m thinking maybe the four of us have a measure of protection from all the injects and implants we had over the years, courtesy of the military,” Gabe said. “Your sister’s a civilian, yes?”
“Right, she’s a teacher and her twin is a doctor. I persuaded them to join me in living on Amarcae 7, being part of the colony.” And I surely do feel guilty about the decision now.
“Ever heard of stasis syndrome? I saw it once in civilian expedition members who’d gone on an extended field trip and didn’t prepare adequately. I think Lily may be suffering from that.” Brent shook his head.
“What can we do for it?” Jill asked.
“I’m no medic but a lot of rest, concentrated nutrients, fluids–”
“At least she was able to make her exit from the lab complex,” Gabe reminded Jill. “I’m thinking she has maybe a touch of this syndrome Brent’s referring too, and just overexerted herself. Let’s get her to somewhere safe as rapidly as we can. “He gestured at the ruins where they stood. “Certainly there’s nothing here we can use to improve her condition. How about your valley?”
“Good fishing, caves for shelter, small game to hunt,” Jill said. “MARL can generate heat.”
“We catch whatever passes for small, furry rodents on this planet, I can make a good nourishing broth,” Flo said. As they all stared at her, she shrugged. “I grew up on an outer rim planet, kind of low on amenities so we did a lot of subsistence hunting.”
“Lucky for us.” Jill straightened. “All right, decision made. We head for the valley as fast as we can go. Time to run silent. We have to cross the open field, although MARL can provide a distortion cover as he did in the corridor over in the complex. Then it’s a day’s hike to the river valley.”
“The guards are changing shifts as scheduled,” MARL said.
“Time to move. I’ll take point, since I know where we’re going. Brent, Flo, stay close on Gabe’s six until we all reach cover across the field.” Gabe might technically outrank her in the Sectors but this place was off the charts, she knew what she was doing and she gave the orders.
The group made good progress during the day. Lily continued to be weak although Jill found it encouraging to see her sister remain conscious and coherent for the most part. The men took turns carrying her when necessary, while Jill led the way and Flo brought up the rear.
In the mid afternoon thunder clouds gathered overhead. Gabe jogged ahead to confer with Jill. “Should we search for shelter before the downpour begins? I’m concerned about your sister—being caught in the open during a big rain won’t be good for her.”
“I’m not arguing,” Jill said. “When I was first released into the Preserve, there was an awful gale, but fortunately the Badari had a shelter.”
“I want to hear more about these Badari of yours, but first things first. Where do you recommend we hole up?”
“I don’t know.” She studied the forest as if an answer was going to reveal itself on demand. “I headed straight to the river valley, made myself push through. There’s a system of caves in the bluffs there.”
“No problem, I’ll go reconnoiter ahead.” Gabe took off at an easy run.
Jill kept moving along the direct route to the valley as the first fat drops splattered from the sky. Nothing about this rescue was going the way she’d planned, other than Lily being safely out of the lab. But Megan was still there and in danger, along with all the others from her colony. The sense of failure was a gnawing in her gut but no matter how she reviewed her actions and decisions, there was no way she could have obtained a better outcome.
Gabe sprinted through the brush toward her about fifteen minutes later. “I found a place between some rocks where we can make a shelter and not be at risk from the lightning. We’ll have to
veer east.”
Jill studied the sky and realized there was no way her party could descend the cliff at the valley in a gale such as the one she’d experienced on her first night with the Badari. Even if she called for a forced march and reached the rim, then she and her companions would be in an exposed position on the cliffs and vulnerable to wind and lightning. “I’m not happy about the detour but lead the way.”
The captain had found a good spot, in the lee of a rock formation jutting from the ground. Lily was placed against the back wall under an overhang, with MARL close by to provide heat for her, while the Flo stood guard and the others gathered branches to build a barrier blocking as much of the exposed opening as they could. The men worked fast, drawing on survival training from their military days.
“How’s your pet for power?” Gabe asked as he and Brent tied vines around the larger poles to give their structure stability in the rising winds.
“He says he has unlimited resources,” Jill said, tossing her wet hair out of her eyes as she held the branches together.
“No need for a fire then.” Gabe glanced at the sky. “Smoke wouldn’t give us away tonight, not with this storm coming but better to be safe than sorry.”
“I have a few ration bars in my pack, which will have to be it for dinner. They’re about as tasteless as the ones in the Sectors. Once we reach the valley tomorrow, I’ve got dried fish, berries and fruit in my cave larder.” Jill grinned. “All the comforts.”
As soon as the shelter was done, the humans gathered in a cluster close to MARL for warmth and Jill shared out the ration bars, giving Lily a whole one, despite her sister’s protests.
“The storm will blow itself out before morning,” she said, raising her voice to be heard. “We can be on the move at first light and reach the valley by midmorning. At least the Khagrish can’t put anything into the air to do a recon sweep tonight, even if they figure out we pulled off a raid under their noses.”
Gabe merely nodded as he shut his eyes and leaned against the rock wall in an attempt to sleep.
“I’ll take first watch,” Flo said. “Since I wasn’t helping to carry Lily, I’m probably more alert than these guys.” She jerked her finger at Gabe and Brent.
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