“You’re in no position to make such demands. You have no business here, Lumsulu.”
“There is an attempt to override my systems, it would be best if I power down,” said Huey.
“Go ahead, I’ve got it covered.”
Huey’s eyes dimmed and the bulk of the RDU came to rest on the ground beside Laja.
“Now what?” asked Laja.
“Now you leave and don’t even think about doing any fancy pipe work.”
Laja half turned to give the impression he was thinking about it and noticed a slight distortion caused by an active cloaking device. He now knew exactly where the Femesumma was standing.
“The human there needs medical help,” shouted Laja, while buying himself some time.
“Not my problem. If you don’t leave, I will be forced to open fire.”
Laja knew what he had to do and without further delay, he made his move. Even without his flute, Laja could direct enough energy at the target and still make something of an impression. The lives of the humans depended on his accuracy and the surprise attack worked. For a bystander, it looked nothing more than a flick of both wrists, but by the time this energy reached the Femesumma, there was enough force to knock it clean off its feet.
Laja could see the impression the Femesumma made when it hit the ground, but there was no time to gloat and he bounded over. The Femesumma was a quick draw and managed to fire off a couple of plasma bolts, forcing Laja to take evasive action.
He couldn’t see the Femesumma, but imagined it was standing over the humans, weapon pointed squarely at their heads.
Having covered enough ground to launch himself the rest of the way, Laja left the ground and hurtled towards an invisible target.
Fortunately for everyone, he hadn’t lost his touch and making contact with the Femesumma created a strange gong-like sound, which neutralised its cloaking device. The Femesumma staggered backwards as a result and with its weapon raised, it pulled the trigger. At such close quarters, dodging this plasma bolt was a serious test of Laja’s reflexes. Time seemed to stand still for a moment, which was all Laja needed to create a protective shield and the blast was deflected.
The energy still carried a considerable amount of force and Laja struggled to stay on his feet. There was a look of horror on the face of the Femesumma as the bolt returned to sender, tearing a hole in the shoulder of its body armour and sending it hurtling into the stone wall of the dwelling.
Laja was ready for a follow-through, but there was no need, the Femesumma was out cold, the air heavy with the smell of burning carbon and flesh.
“That was close,” said Joeum.
“A little too close,” admitted Laja.
Once back online, Huey was able to hack into the defence system and make sure they weren’t in for any more surprises. The door was next and Huey checked for any additional security or traps, but thankfully he came back with a negative.
“I will go first, to be sure,” and with that, Huey depressed the latch and this time the door opened.
The building was far from the ruin it appeared on the outside. Its large open plan layout displayed the usual high tech fixtures and finishes they had come to associate with the Femesumma. The good news was that there were no Femesumma waiting for them, but neither was anyone else. It appeared that they had been moved elsewhere.
“Where to?” asked Lim.
“I’m not sure, because my map is suggesting they’re still here.”
It was the kind of delay they could have done without and Huey resisted the temptation to say, he told them so.
Looking around, the level of equipment was staggering, even if they hadn’t the faintest idea what most of it did.
Huey was invaluable in this respect and helped describe much of what was here. Including a laboratory that had been set aside to study the many different types of plant that could have once grown here. Samples of hundreds of species had been collected and these were housed in neatly labelled glass containers.
All this research was lost on the Formless Ones and when they came across it, it was destroyed, so to see all of this here, was remarkable.
Huey brought the still unconscious Femesumma inside and placed him on the examination table in the laboratory area. Clom was resting on one of the bunks after being given painkillers and they were working a treat, he was tripping and fell asleep with a smile on his face.
Clom had no idea how long he’d slept and was awoken by someone calling his name. He rolled over on the bunk and noticed how blurred his vision was and he just couldn’t seem to clear it.
He could see a bright rectangle of light, which told him that the door to this place was standing open and he wondered whether he should call out. When he did, his voice sounded weak and his mouth was dry, really dry. Clom tried to remember how he’d got here and then it started to come back to him.
The light outside was quite bright, so maybe he’d been out for longer than he realised because he seemed to remember it being darker when they arrived. Had he really slept through the night? What sort of medication had Huey given him?
He was still waiting on a reply from the first time he called out, so he tried again, a bit louder this time. Still nothing, and he began to worry. There was nothing else for it, he would have to get up, so he swung his legs off the bunk and eased himself onto the floor.
His leg felt reasonably okay, those painkillers had done the trick, but the side-effects were something else and his eyes still refused to clear, which was a worry.
“Com.”
Clom nearly leapt out of his skin. “Jesus.” Clom looked left and right, trying to work out where the voice had come from. It sounded like Huey. It had to be, he was the only one who persistently called him Com.
“Com, down here.”
Clom blinked a few times and looked down as he’d been instructed and all he could make out were two glowing blue lights.
“That’s it; you’re looking at me now.”
“What are you doing lying down there?”
“We don’t have much time. You have to find the rest of me before my power fails.”
“The rest of you? What the hell! Where is everyone?”
“They’ve been taken. Now hurry.”
“My eyes, I can’t see very much.”
“Pick my head up and I will assist you.”
“I don’t get how this happened.”
“Can you please hurry!”
Swearing under his breath, Clom reached down and took hold of Huey’s head. “Christ this thing weighs a ton.”
“My head weighs twenty point two kilos.”
“Yes that’s what I said, it’s bloody heavy.”
“Can you turn me around? All I can see is your body.”
“Yes, yes. Is that better?”
“Walk outside.”
Clom obliged and half a minute had gone by and he was wondering if Huey was still functioning because he hadn’t said anything.
“Go left. Can you walk any faster?”
“Not lugging this sort of weight around, no.”
“Wait. There, over by that tree.”
“Which one?”
“Can’t you see it?”
“My eyes aren’t right, remember?”
“Just walk.”
Then Clom saw it, the dull glint of metal and with Clom’s assistance, Huey looked over his body and was pleased to see that it was still in reasonable shape.
“Right Com, let’s not waste any more time. You need to reattach my head.”
“I’m going to do it?!”
“Do you see anyone else around? I should have just enough power to reboot,” Huey’s voice was beginning to fade.
“You sure about that?”
Huey didn’t answer, as he was establishing a link with his body, which had begun to move on its own accord. The sight of which was a bit weird, particularly when it rotated upright with its arms outstretched.
“Quickly, place my head in my hands.”<
br />
Clom did as he was instructed and then stepped back and watched Huey’s arms move his head into position. Huey then talked Clom through the recouping process and Clom was relieved when he heard a click and then a sound that rose in pitch and eventually exceeded his audible range. Huey’s eyes glowed brightly again and Clom spoke to him, but couldn’t get a response. The lights were on, but no one was home.
Clom was about ready to give up when Huey finally said something. It sounded like he was reciting a code of some kind. Probably part of the rebooting process and a few moments later; he rose from the ground and looked as formidable as ever.
“How are you feeling?” asked Clom.
“My systems are at seventy-five percent.”
“We’re probably in the same state then.”
Together they headed back to the stone building, Clom with a slight limp and Huey’s damaged gyro, forcing him to glide at a slight angle.
The place had been trashed.
“Looks like they’re not planning on coming back.”
“I need power. Can’t hold conversation without it.”
Clom collapsed on the bunk. “What the hell kind of drug did you give me?”
“The kind that kept you alive.”
Huey had managed to plug himself into a power source and Clom gathered he was getting some sort of service from it.
“Your hair looks great. Can we get on with it?”
“If I am to help you survive, my components have to be working at their peak. It is fortunate that there is still power here.”
Clom rested his head back on the bunk, his leg didn’t hurt now, it just felt a bit numb.
Without warning, Huey appeared beside him, taking him by surprise. “Done already?”
“I am fully charged. Let’s take a look at the leg.”
Huey was pleased to see that Clom’s leg was responding to treatment and the numbness would wear off. Huey had found water and rations of some kind, which he assured Clom were safe for consumption.
“What happened while I was out of it?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“The place looked deserted once we got inside.”
“It wasn’t. There was a concealed compartment and they rushed us. My map wasn’t faulty after all.”
“I don’t understand why I wasn’t taken.”
“The medication.”
“What about it?”
“It lowered your vital signs to the point that they considered you as good as dead and you were no threat to them if you were dying.”
“So you nearly killed me!”
“You were in no danger. Walking shouldn’t be too much of a problem for you now, so I think we should leave.”
Clom wanted to know where they were going.
“If we act quickly, we have a chance to save most of your party.”
“You know where they’ve been taken?”
“Every living thing leaves a trace of itself behind and I can follow a trail as long as it’s still fresh.”
The problem was that the trail wasn’t fresh because Clom had been out for so long and it was time for Huey to get his holographic map out again. A red glowing light confirmed their location. Luckily, they hadn’t been taken far.
“So we can trust that thing?” Clom pointed to the hologram.
“Of course. It looks like they’re being held underground.”
“Underground?!”
“There’s a tunnel that goes right through the mountain. You remember the track we came across for the hovertrain; well it will lead us straight to them.”
The tunnel would also take them to their main objective, the telepoint.
“We’re surely going to come across more of these Femesumma, so don’t you think I should have a weapon?”
“You have me.”
“You didn’t fare so well in the last round.”
Huey stopped and turned to face Clom. “You have a better idea?”
“I was merely saying that if we were both armed we might stand a better chance.”
“Without a weapon, you stand a better chance of being taken alive.”
“I take it then that you plan on getting me captured?”
“There’s more than one way to skin a Jaggett.”
“No, not this again. What the hell is a Jaggett anyway?”
“We’re wasting time.”
Together they left the dwelling to begin their descent back down to the track and Huey had asked Clom to inform him should he need to stop for a rest, as he was still mending. Despite some stiffness, Clom couldn’t complain and compared to yesterday, his leg was a hundred times better.
They reached the track in good time, a flat and uninterrupted path to their objective, apart from a few places where the vegetation had taken hold, but Huey made light work of these.
There were good views out across the plain and Clom had been focusing on a couple of vortexes in the distance that were busy carving up what was left of the landscape.
Huey was quiet, perhaps contemplating if machines were capable of that. Maybe this one was, although Huey was too busy checking their status to be contemplating and he had identified multiple heat signatures up ahead. None of them posed an immediate threat, but Huey wasn’t taking any chances, as he had no intention of losing his head again.
The tunnel entrance came into view and with all the vegetation hanging over it, it looked more like a cave. Dark and uninviting.
Huey stopped abruptly and even after a few moments, he still hadn’t said anything.
“What’s going on?” whispered Clom.
When Huey spoke there was a crackle of interference in his voice. “As I suspected, the Femesumma have set up a security device around the entrance of the tunnel and this is preventing me from getting any closer.”
“What can I do?” asked Clom.
“Leave it to me. I should be able to fire a scrambling device into the tunnel and that will take care of it.”
A panel opened up on the side of Huey’s body and he retrieved a small egg-shaped object and this he inserted into the turret on his left shoulder. There was a high-pitched whining sound and then the projectile punched the air, flying out the end of the muzzle and into the mouth of the tunnel.
“Good shot,” said Clom.
They waited a few minutes and Huey confirmed that the device was working and together they moved forward and entered the tunnel. There was a surprise in store. A streamlined vehicle floated motionless, just twenty feet from the mouth of the tunnel and a door on its side stood open, inviting them to climb aboard.
Huey retrieved his scrambling device and only after he’d attached it to the side of the vehicle was he was happy to continue. The problem with these scrambling devices was that the introduction of a new device could neutralise Huey’s, but he was prepared for such a scenario.
Clom wondered why he was telling him all this, but he let the bag of bolts ramble on. Huey entered the carriage first; to be sure they weren’t walking into a trap and informed Clom that this was one of the original carriages, which would have made a complete hovertrain. Each carriage could operate independently and this carriage was fairly large. It was designed to be driven from either end and Huey led Clom over to the controls, which looked pretty straightforward.
It seemed odd that no one was about and without any warning, the carriage door closed. They looked at each other with the same blank expression. Neither of them had touched anything, but they had triggered something because Huey dropped to the floor and his lights went out.
“Perfect,” said Clom, under his breath.
The carriage began moving along the tunnel and after pulling and pushing every switch and button on the control panel, Clom resigned to the fact that there was nothing he could do to stop it. He remained at the controls, while the carriage continued at a steady pace, towards a brightly lit section. A station perhaps.
Clom thought about hiding, but what was the point, they’d got him. He could only
watch helplessly as the carriage drew alongside the platform and there waiting for him was a welcoming party of Femesumma and RDUs, bristling with weapons.
Apart from the Femesumma they had overpowered yesterday, this was the first time Clom had got a good look at them and they didn’t seem best pleased to see him.
Clom looked over at Huey who was still where he had fallen and the door to the carriage opened and two armed Femesumma stepped aboard. One of them kicked Huey and then they both focused their attention on Clom.
“On the ground, devil.”
He could see an RDU behind them and with all this firepower it would have been suicide to resist. Face down, he was restrained and then dragged to his feet.
“Don’t look at us, devil. Keep your head down. Don’t speak. In fact, don’t even think. Just move.”
Clom was led through the door and off the train and he gave Huey a glance on the way out.
“That thing can’t help you now.”
He was escorted along the platform where the other Femesumma stared at him with contempt and then bundled through a door and down a flight of steps. Once at the bottom, there was a long passage, which had an unfinished look about it. Some of the overhead lights were out and the walls were just rough stone.
Before they reached the end of the passage, Clom was ordered to stop. They were standing in front of a steel door and the larger of the two Femesumma held its palm against a panel on the wall and the door swung open. Clom was then pushed into a short dimly lit passage where two RDUs were stationed and he noted that their eyes flashed in response to their presence.
One of the RDUs approached and Clom felt a sharp pain in his chest and when he looked down there was a smoking hole in his shirt. Where had that come from? The RDU had shot him with something and within a few seconds, he blacked out.
Clom had been out for a while, but he was coming round and could hear people calling his name.
“Clom. Clom,” it was Lim’s voice.
Clom opened his eyes and there were Lim and Joeum looking at him.
Clom felt like he was going to puke and leaned to one side and retched.
“Same thing happened to us,” said Joeum. “Bastards have had us in here for days.”
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