The Reticuli Deception (Adventures of Hannibal Carson Book 2)

by Alastair Mayer

  “You’ll do fine,” she told him. “It’s all automatic.” She checked the instruments. “Almost there. Get to the aft hatch, you know what to do. I’ll be on the ground right behind you.”

  Marten muttered something unintelligible and headed aft. Roberts heard him donning the gear and picking up his weapons. That part he could handle; he’d won prizes in competitive shooting back at his college. Between that and his native timoan reflexes, she thought they had a good chance.

  A few moments later his call came forward. “I’m at the hatch, as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Jackie touched a switch to slide the hatch open, and angled the Sophie around to adjust her approach vector.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Carson heard someone fumbling with the locker door and got ready. As the locker door opened, he triggered his impromptu smoke bomb—made from a meal heating pack and the hydraulic fluid—and pushed the door open, to evade any attempt to grab him. The thick billow of acrid, choking smoke confused his captor, and Carson dived for the deck to evade him. His right foot slipped on the fluid he’d spilled earlier, and his knee hit the floor hard. His left knee, the same leg Vaughan had kicked. Damn. Despite that, he managed to hold onto the emergency tent canister in his left hand.

  “Carson’s escaping!” the man behind him yelled, and then “Fire!”

  Carson didn’t know if that last was meant as an alarm because of the smoke, or a command to someone with a gun. He wasn’t waiting to find out. He rolled upright and ran down the corridor, favoring his injured leg and hoping he remembered the right way to the entrance hatch. As he went, he pulled the tab on the tent package and tossed the pack back over his shoulder.

  “Stand clear, tent deploying,” it said in a synthesized voice, then promptly began to extrude poles and unfold itself, jamming the passageway. Carson heard yells and curses behind him as he reached the main hatch.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Marten crouched on the deck, helmet and retro-pack on, tools strapped to his side, and clutching a carbine across his chest. He checked the heads-up display in his helmet again. Yes, the retro pack was armed. Jackie had started a count-down, which was also displayed. He looked out at the ground rushing backwards below him. I should never have left home, he thought.

  The countdown reached zero. Jackie’s voice yelled “GO!” in his helmet speaker, and he rolled forward out of the hatch.

  He felt the slipstream buffet him as he cleared the doorway, and in his inverted view, saw the Sophie flying away. Then the retro’s stabilizing rockets fired and he was jostled violently as it turned him into position for the full braking thrust. He caught a glimpse of the ground bare meters away, and then felt a huge shove from behind as the braking rockets fired. Then he hit the ground with a slam.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Jackie banked the ship hard right to give her some distance from where Marten would land, and then flared the ship a hundred meters from the Velkaryans. A burst from the ventral thrusters slowed the Sophie and she settled to the ground. Jackie hoped that between the repairs the Velkaryan ship needed and Marten providing a distraction, they wouldn’t notice her right away.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Marten shook off the impact and hit the quick releases on the retro-pack. He fired three quick shots at the Velkaryan ship, not intended any damage but wanting to keep their attention away from Jackie’s ship.

  Smoke billowed from a gap in the Velkaryan’s hull. That was new. As he watched, the two men who had been working on that gap dived to the ground and rolled under the ship. His shots were having the desired effect. He fired again at the ship, then paused as the hatch slid open. He shifted his aim towards it. If anyone came out of there with a weapon. . .

  Wait, was that Carson? It was! He came running out of the hatch, bobbing and weaving as though he expected somebody to start shooting at him. But he wasn’t running towards Marten or to the Sophie, just away from the Velkaryan ship. That complicated things.

  Marten shifted his aim again, leading Carson.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Jackie grabbed her pistol and ran for the hatch. Now she was to be the distraction while Marten freed Carson. This was the dicey part of the plan. The Sophie’s hull should help protect her from small arms fire, but the Velkaryan ships they’d encountered previously had also mounted heavy weapons. Please let them be fried from the particle beam’s EM pulse. Jackie ducked under the hull and fired several shots toward the Velk ship. There was someone a dozen meters from it, running hard. Carson? She saw Marten, saw him fire, and Carson went down.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Carson ran as fast as he could away from the Carcharodon, trying to ignore the pain in his leg where Vaughan had kicked him. He didn’t have a destination in mind, just as far from there as possible, and perhaps hide in the scrubby vegetation until he figured something out.

  He heard shots, and ahead of him the dirt fountained as bullets hit. He dived for the ground and rolled sideways, away from his previous track. As he lay there, panting, he heard shouting from the ship but no more shots. He cautiously raised his head, then ducked again as he saw someone running towards him.

  Wait, had that been Marten? Carson looked again. Yes it was, the timoan was running towards him, periodically turning and firing a carbine towards the Carcharodon.

  “Carson, this is no time to take a nap! Let’s go! To the Sophie!” Marten held the carbine in one hand and gestured with the other, then swung back to fire again.

  Carson turned to look. Yes, there was the ship. Jackie was crouched underneath it, shooting at the Carcharodon. Carson scrambled up and started to run again.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Between shots, Jackie turned her head to check on Carson and Marten. They weren’t in the line of fire, that had been part of the plan, although Carson managing to get out of there and take off on his own had not been. At least he’d been on this side of the Velkaryan ship. She turned back and fired again. Several men were coming around the aft end of the ship carrying what looked like short rifles. There must be a hatch on the far side. She fired in their general direction, forcing them to duck, and yelled at Marten and Carson.

  “Hurry up; they’re going to start shooting!”

  As if to confirm her warning, two of the Velkaryans raised their weapons and fired several bursts in her direction. Dust puffed up in front of her and she heard bullets ricochet off of Sophie’s hull. Something slammed into her left shoulder. She collapsed to the ground.

  Shit, that one hurt! It had hit her from the back; it must have been one of the ricochets. She fired a few unaimed rounds and then transferred the pistol to her left hand so she could cautiously feel the injured shoulder with her right. It was wet and sticky. A glance at her blood-covered palm confirmed her fear. I don’t have time for this!

  She switched the gun back to her right hand and squeezed off another shot, doing her best not to flinch at the rattle of impacts on the hull above her and hoping that none of those were armor-piercing. She fired again. How much ammo did she have left? She looked back towards Marten and Carson.

  Carson was limping a little. Marten had caught up to him and was helping, but their height difference made that look awkward. She turned back and fired a couple more shots towards the Velkaryans, then, ignoring the pain in her shoulder, swapped the magazine for a full one.

  Carson was only a dozen meters away now. Jackie and Marten both began to lay down concentrated fire at the Velkaryans to force them to keep down while Carson crossed the remaining distance to the Sophie. At least one of them went down as if hit, she didn’t know if that had been her or Marten. It didn’t matter.

  Carson was on the boarding ramp now, on the side away from the Velkaryans. Jackie fired a few more shots as she backed away under Sophie’s hull, coming up the ramp just behind him.

  “What about Marten?” Carson yelled over the sound of gunfire.

  “We’ve got it covered. Grab a seat!”

  Jackie hastened to the control deck, trying n
ot to wince at the pain burning her left shoulder, and slapped at the controls with her right hand. The ship’s systems had been idling, the thrusters powered up immediately. She left the hatch open and the ramp down.

  “What are you doing?” Carson demanded.

  “Rescuing you. And now Marten.” She lifted the Sophie a few meters above the ground and steered toward the Velkaryan ship at low altitude, ignoring the thump of bullets hitting the hull. Sapphires were tough to start with, and Ducayne had beefed up the hull plates after the incident on Chara III.

  “You’re hit!” Carson said. He’d seen her blood.

  “Good of you to notice. Grab something to put on that while I fly the ship.” She could still use her left hand, but moving the arm was painful. Fortunately she could fly Sophie one-handed, and with either hand.

  Twenty meters from the Velkaryan ship she turned hard to port and touched a series of controls on a side panel. Outside, the scrubby vegetation burst into flame in the now oxygen-rich exhaust of the Sophie’s thrusters. She swept her ship in an arc, leaving a trail of fire on the ground as she went. That would screen Marten’s pick-up from the Velkaryan shooters.

  Heading back to his position, she killed the oxygen feed and opened the scoops to mix in outside air, cooling the exhaust. She reached Marten moments later, dipped the ship towards him and he leapt for the boarding ramp. As he scrambled up it towards the hatch, she was accelerating away from the Velkaryans. As she looked back she saw the last of them hustling to get aboard their ship.

  Carson came back then, just ahead of Marten. She felt her left shoulder go cold as he sprayed something on it, then felt him press a bandage into place. “It doesn’t look deep,” he said, “but we should get you into the traumapod when we can.”

  “Thanks.” She hit a switch to close the hatch. Looking at the rear view screen, she saw the flames from the fire she’d set being fanned outward by the Velkaryan’s thrusters as their ship lifted.

  “Here we go again,” she said, “strap in.”

  42: The Kesh

  Aboard Sophie

  “Quickly, what can you tell me about their ship, Carson?” Roberts asked as he finished buckling himself in.

  Carson thought. “Not much. Named the Carcharodon, run by somebody named Vaughan but I don’t think he’s the captain. Sorry, no idea on what armaments it might have. It was damaged by a particle beam and that took out the electronics briefly.”

  “That’s something, anyway.”

  “But they may be back on line by now.”

  Marten had been watching the aft view screen. “Yes, they’re in pursuit. No sign of a weapons pod yet.”

  “They wouldn’t be chasing us if they couldn’t do anything when they caught us,” Roberts said, and made random motions with the controls. The Sophie twitched and weaved in response.

  Carson looked at the rear view and then out front. There was something in the sky ahead of them.

  “Again? Is that a flying pyramid ahead of us?” he said.

  Roberts glanced up at the screen. “So, the Kesh decided to come back and play after all.”

  “The Kesh? You’ve already met them?”

  “Long story, no time. Yeah. Marten, what’s the Carcharodon doing?”

  Marten didn’t answer right away. Carson turned his head to see what the timoan was looking at.

  “Nothing,” Marten finally said.

  “What do you mean, nothing? Is he closing on us?”

  “No, he’s falling behind. In fact, I don’t think he’s moving at all.”

  “What?” Roberts banked the Sophie into a right turn, making space between herself and the two other ships. Neither was moving relative to the ground. As they watched, the Velkaryan ship began to move towards the Kesh pyramid, at a sideways angle to its normal fore-aft axis.

  “Well, well,” Carson said in a hushed tone. “Does that mean what I think it does?” If so, this was another technology beyond anything humans had.

  “Tractor beam,” Jackie said. “I guess that makes sense. If they can manipulate gravity, why not a tractor beam?”

  By now the Carcharodon was almost close enough to dock with the pyramid ship, if it had docking facilities. The pyramid, with the Velkaryan ship in tow, began to accelerate upwards.

  A voice came over the comm system.

  “Ketzshanass to the Sophie. Please meet us on the far side of the moon in two hours. There are things we must discuss.”

  Roberts keyed her mike. “Uh, Sophie here, Ketz. Copy that.”

  The pyramid picked up speed and disappeared into the sky.

  “Is it just me, or did that—alien—sound annoyed?” Carson asked.

  “No,” said Marten, “it’s not just you. I think we pissed them off.”

  Carson looked back and forth from Marten to Jackie. What had they been up to? “All right you two. While we’re on our way to keep that rendezvous on the moon, I want you to fill me in. What was that all about?”

  “You’re welcome,” Jackie said.

  “What?”

  “For the rescue, Carson. You’re welcome.”

  Oh. He’d escaped by himself, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. And it was nice to have had a getaway vehicle waiting. “Uh, thank you.” He looked at Jackie’s shoulder and felt a twinge of guilt. “You should get into the traumapod.”

  “And leave you to fly the ship? I don’t think so. I’m not bleeding out. Just cut away my shirt, clean up the wound, and put a fresh bandage on it. That should hold me for a couple of hours. Pod later.”

  Carson knew better than to argue.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The far side of the moon

  “Why did you not follow protocol? You were to wait here, not engage the Velkaryans,” Ketzshanass said. He, Carson, and Marten were gathered in a pressurized tent on the back side of the moon. Jackie was present via commscreen. It was neutral territory; the Kesh had no desire to bring Sophie on board again so long as it held antimatter, and Jackie refused to leave her ship.

  “The opportunity arose,” Jackie said over the comm. “The particle beam—a defense system?—engaged them first. We hadn’t heard anything from you, we didn’t know if you really intended a rescue.”

  “We did. We had to disengage certain defense systems first.”

  “Apparently you didn’t quite finish,” Jackie said. “What did you do with the Velkaryans and their ship?”

  “We left them somewhere where they won’t bother anyone for a while.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Marten.

  “That’s all I am going to say on that matter.” The crest feathers lowered a little.

  “Oh. Well, thank you,” Carson said. “We do have some other questions, certain things which don’t quite add up.”

  Ketzshanass said nothing, appearing to consider this. “Yes. I am afraid we have not been entirely truthful with you,”

  “Well, there’s a surprise,” Jackie said over the comm.

  Ketzshanass’s crest feathers rippled. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s a surprise that anyone admits that sort of thing unless they have to. But I was also being sarcastic, for which I apologize. There were too many little inconsistencies and large omissions in your story so far.”

  “As you say.” Ketzshanass paused again. “There are still some things we will not discuss, but ask what questions you have.”

  Marten got in the first question, but Carson had been wondering the same thing. “Is this—the planet—is it your home world?”

  “It is a world we inhabited. Leave it at that.”

  “There were two waves of destruction on the planet, some decades apart,” said Carson. “What happened?”

  “There was a civil war, a violent one. The background will require more explanation. We Kesh damaged ourselves badly, but worse, we apparently attracted the attention of someone else.”

  “What?” said Carson. Just how many spacefaring species were there? “Who?”

  “A species from out
side of what you call T-space. We call them degkhidesh—” the middle syllable sounded like someone clearing their throat “—which means roughly ‘enemy’ or ‘beings that hate the Kesh’. They apparently evolved independently of the terraformed worlds, although we don’t have a lot of information on that. They initiated the second round of attacks here and nearly finished what we’d started. Records are incomplete.”

  Ketzhanass paused, then continued. “We don’t think we drove them off, we think they left when they decided they were done. Perhaps they have no interest in terraform planets, artificial or natural, and just decided we were no longer a threat. Since we suspect they left monitoring systems in place, that is a belief we try to encourage, by the way. Your actions here did not help that.”

  Carson thought he saw Jackie’s image on the commscreen blush, and he felt a twinge of regret himself. “Sorry about that,” he said.

  “They would have noticed eventually. We have been considering how and when to contact you humans to warn you.”

  “Warn us?”

  “Just so.”

  That put a chill on the conversation. During the lull Carson decided to ask something which had been nagging at him. “Did you, the Kesh, build the pyramids?”

  Ketzshanass paused for a considerable time before answering that. “We built our pyramid-shaped ships. We did not build the pyramid you found on Chara III, or others like it on other terraformed worlds.” He raised a hand to forestall Carson’s obvious next question. “No, we don’t know who did. But our ancestors did pretend we were the builders, that was part of what caused the civil war.”

  “What?”

  “The details are lost, deliberately suppressed by a Kesh ruling class which would have everyone believe that our—their—ancestors lifted us from the mud to the stars completely independently. We now believe the truth is that they found and exploited a pyramid on our ancestral homeworld, allowing us, them, to develop star flight some ten thousand years after the original builders were gone—”

  “Whose years?” said Carson.

  Ketzshanass’s crest feathers rippled. “The difference is not significant.”