The air near John and Andy shimmered and the Satori appeared out of nowhere, the cloak dropping away to reveal the ship gliding in toward the street. The ship’s ramp was open, hanging down, almost touching the ground as the Satori hovered there like an avenging angel. Beth was on the ramp, rifle in hand, shouting something Charline couldn’t hear. Beth’s rifle flashed fire, bullets streaming from the gun at something back behind Charline. The aliens were back there. They must be recovering from the explosions.
No time to waste! She pulled herself up and began sprinting over the broken ground toward the ship. Andy and John were almost to the ramp already, but she still had a good distance to cover. She put everything she had into a final sprint.
Mid-stride, a rock shifted under her foot, turning her ankle. Charline had the briefest of moments to realize she was falling. She dropped her rifle, trying vainly to keep her balance, but it wasn’t enough. Charline went down hard, face-first into another rock.
Twenty
Andy pushed John up onto the ramp, then hauled himself up after. He looked over at Beth. She was aiming her rifle toward the enemy, grimly watching for moving targets. The first few shots forced the aliens to take cover again, but it wouldn’t last.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes!” Andy said.
He turned and saw Charline running toward them. Behind her, some of the aliens were recovering, starting to rise. Andy didn’t need to think about what to do next. His team needed his help. He took a knee beside Beth on the ramp and aimed at the alien closest to Charline. A trigger squeeze and that one was down.
“We have to cover her while she runs,” Andy said.
“Why didn’t she wait? Dan was going to bring the ship over to her,” Beth said.
Andy spared her a glance, saw her frustration. “She saw the ship and ran for it. Smart, in my book.” Maybe it would have been safer to stay put, but Charline had no way to know Dan planned to bring the ship to her. He brought his eyes back to scan for targets, but most of the lizards were still down from the explosions. They hadn’t been behind cover, and it looked like at least a few of them weren’t going to be getting back up at all. Which suited him just fine.
He wasn’t watching Charline when she fell, but he caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and saw her go down. He wasn’t the only one who saw, either. Her fall seemed to galvanize some of the lizards, and five of them nearby got unsteadily back to their feet, aiming their weapons at her prone form.
“Shit,” Andy said. No time to think about this.
He jumped down off the ramp and started running toward Charline, firing a few unaimed shots as he sprinted. That got the lizards’ attention focused back on him instead of Charline. Good enough, that was his intention. He fired again, and the aliens ducked behind some rocks to return fire. Badly, thank goodness. They were still firing wildly, and he was a moving target. Still, all it would take was one lucky shot. He didn’t know what one of those guns would do to him if it hit, but he was sure it wouldn’t be good for his health.
Then he was there, next to her. Charline was already trying to get back to her feet. He grabbed the back of her vest and hauled her up. Her shocked eyes met his.
“You came back,” she said.
“Of course I did. Didn’t you know saving damsels is a part of my daily routine? Now let’s get out of here.” With a crooked grin, he brought the rifle back to his shoulder and fired at one of the lizards, but he wasn’t sure the shot penetrated whatever it was wearing on its chest. It got back under cover though, which was good enough for now.
He heard Charline gasp, and turned. Some of the lizards near the Satori were back on their feet, and trying to get up the ramp. John and Beth were at the top, firing down from behind cover.
“Those fighters are coming back. On the ship, fast!” Dan shouted over the radio.
Charline took a step, and he saw her wince as she put weight on her left foot. Andy caught her shoulder before she fell again.
“You’re hurt,” he said. How was he going to get her safely onto the ship? This was his job, damn it! There had to be a way. He clicked his radio live. “Dan, Charline’s injured. Can you get closer?”
Dan didn’t reply, but he saw the Satori sliding sideways in their direction. Only ten meters away. So close.
“Charline, you need to run. I’ll cover you.”
She nodded, and took off, hobbling a little but making an awkward jog. Andy followed her, keeping his back to the ship so he could watch the lizards. He was making slower time than Charline, but there were at least a dozen of the enemy back on their feet again now, and they were just meters away. He fired off shot after shot, trying to keep them at bay long enough to get both of them back to the ship.
His weapon clicked, empty. Cursing, he slapped the ejection button, letting the spent magazine drop to the ground. In a smooth motion, Andy pulled another magazine from a pouch and seated it into his rifle. He looked into the sights again, horrified to see the lizards all rushing him at a run. He squeezed the trigger, taking one in the head, then another.
Something slapped him in the chest, hard, and he flew backward off his feet. Everything was a red haze of pain. His head cracked against the ground, and the pain went away.
John watched Andrew sprint off the ramp, worry and pride warring in his heart. He watched Andrew haul Charline to her feet, get her moving. Saw him cover her retreat.
Saw him shot. Saw him fall.
Something broke inside John. With a yell, he ran down the ramp, firing bursts as he went. He took down three of the aliens as they tried to board his ship. Reaching the bottom of the ramp, he shot down two more before his weapon clicked empty. Charline was there by then, and Beth was behind him, covering him as he hauled Charline up onto the ramp.
The Satori shimmered around him, vanishing under the cloaking device again.
“Dan! Bring us closer!” he shouted into the radio while seating a new magazine. “Andrew’s down!” He could see Andrew, laying there in the rubble, the aliens coming up on him. One of the enemy tried to grab Andrew by the arm, but John’s burst took him in the shoulder and he pinwheeled away. He kept firing, but they were all around Andrew now. “We need to get closer!” he shouted again. Another alien grabbed hold of Andrew, started hauling him away, and John couldn’t risk a shot at this range.
The ship was moving again. No – the ramp was moving. Retracting back into the Satori, taking him with it. “Dan! Stop the ramp!” he shouted.
Beth was tugging on his arm, hauling him up, into the ship. She was saying something to him.
“...fighters are incoming, Majel says ten seconds, Dan’s taking us up.”
And the Satori was moving, rising, climbing away from the ground at a rapid rate. He was too numb inside to feel the wind buffeting his face. He slumped to the cold steel beneath him as the ramp closed and sealed. Dropped his rifle.
Andrew was gone. Taken. He’d seen them hauling the son of his heart away. Now or never, came that whispered memory again, but this time the tone was all sadness.
Dan brought the nose of the ship straight up, rocketing away. The fighters curved their course to follow, and he poured on the speed. They’d know where he was. He’d see if they could keep up.
As the Satori leaped skyward at his command, he kept one camera trained on the ground they’d just left. He had the camera trained on maximum zoom. Crushing guilt gripped his heart. He’d failed. Andy – who’d treated him like he mattered from their very first meeting, at a time when he hadn’t believed he could ever feel that way about himself again – was left behind. So he punished himself by watching as the aliens hauled Andy away from where he’d fallen. He watched yet another shuttle land, more of the lizardlike things exit the ship, while two of the aliens carried Andy aboard the shuttle. It took to the air again, making for the larger ship.
The fighters had fallen farther behind. He was putting the Satori through her paces, and then some, still building speed as they headed out into th
inner atmosphere. Another minute, and the air was thin enough that the fighters lost them, breaking out into a search pattern. They hadn’t given up – but they no longer knew where to look.
His radar showed that shuttle docking with the massive ship, now below them, hovering over the ruins of the city. They’d gotten Andy, and he’d been helpless to stop them.
Could he have moved the ship a little faster? Majel had said the railguns were too strong. They’d have hurt their own people, if they had fired on the alien troops. But there must have been something else he could have done. Dan’s head sagged. Now that the adrenaline of the chase was fading, all he felt was the pain of losing someone who’d been counting on him.
He looked over his shoulder. Beth had her arms around Charline, who’d started sobbing with relief as soon as she’d cleared the hatch into the ship. Dan thought those sobs had changed tenor, from relief to grief. Beth looked up and caught his eyes, and he saw an echo of his own helplessness there.
And John? God, Dan knew Andy had been important to him. But John was still kneeling on the deck where he’d come in. He hadn’t moved, except to sink deeper into himself. Tears streaked his face. Dan hadn’t seen him like this since...well, not since Satori died.
Dan looked back to his radar. The shuttle carrying Andy was docking with the enormous ship now, as were the other shuttles. The fighters had returned to circle nearby. And the alien ship was slowly, ponderously moving back up and away from the planet.
Very soon, it would make its own wormhole, or do whatever it was these aliens did to travel the stars. Dan was pretty sure of that. And once it did, that would be it. Their odds of finding Andy again, if that ship left the system, would be microscopic. That was assuming Andy was still alive – but Dan felt in his gut that he was. He’d seen them drag Andy off, seen the aliens haul him onto the shuttle, seen the shuttle dock with the larger ship. Why go to all that trouble for a body?
No, he’d hold out hope that Andy was alive. So the real question was: what could they do about it?
Twenty-One
Pain was the first sensation Andy felt when he came to. It blossomed across his chest like fire. Every inhalation was sharp agony. He remembered being shot, falling. He figured the shot had fractured a couple of ribs. That thought brought on intense relief. He was still alive. When he’d been shot, he figured he was dead, and it just hadn’t caught up to him yet. If those guns had been firing projectiles, instead of whatever those energy balls were, he would have been right.
The third feeling was fear. Because the floor beneath him wasn’t the familiar steel deck of the Satori. It was some sort of metal, but the texture felt odd under his fingers, rough in a sandpaper sort of way. And the lighting had a greenish tinge to it. He lay very still. He wasn’t on the Satori, which could only mean one thing.
That guess was confirmed when a large, clawed hand reached under his chin to grab him by the vest, lifting him up into the air. His feet dangled uselessly inches from the ground. The broken ends of his ribs grated against each other, and he couldn’t stifle a pained cry.
He was nose to snout with one of the aliens. Up close, he could see the eyes, so reptilian. Scales covered it everywhere Andy could see. The thing inhaled through its snout, sniffing at his face, then exhaled through its mouth with a loud sound, turning its head aside as it did. Andy gagged from the stench of its breath. It seemed like the feeling was mutual.
The alien was wearing the same sort of armor he’d seen on the others – a set of metal body plates fitted together to drape halfway to its knees. That seemed to be all it was wearing.
It made a sound halfway between a hiss and a snarl. Andy was struck by how similar to the ratzards it sounded. Two more aliens came up behind him, one taking each of his shoulders, supporting him. The one in front of him released its grip, and he sagged back into the grasp of these new captors.
He glanced around the room. It was round, with only one door set on the far side from him. The ceiling was a dome above his head. A single table was directly in front of him, and he saw his vest, radio, and rifle piled there. Another alien stood by the table. Andy looked wistfully at the rifle. If he could just get it into his hands, he’d show them something.
There was a workbench off to Andy’s right, set against the wall. The alien who’d released him went over there and began toying with a few of the tools, its claw almost caressing as it slid over them. Andy steeled his shoulders and got his feet planted firmly on the deck. He didn’t recognize the shape of the tools, but it wasn’t the first time he’d seen someone who enjoyed torture playing with his toys.
The alien picked up something that looked like small tongs in its claws. It reached the tongs into a wide-mouthed bottle, removing something from inside. Andy took as deep a breath as his ribs would let him, and braced his feet against the floor. The aliens holding him felt his muscles shift, and increased their grip on him. The pain in his ribs flared again, and he gasped, exhaling the breath he’d taken. Andy sagged a little.
He heard a wheezing laugh from behind his left shoulder. He turned his head to look, and saw a crumpled mess on the floor. It took him a moment to realize the ragged pile was the source of the laughter.
The mess shifted, revealing Paul’s face as he rose from where he’d lay curled around himself.
“Don’t worry,” Paul said, his voice sounding raw. “This isn’t the part that hurts.” He laughed again. Blood streaked his face, dark hollows stark under his eyes. Those eyes flickered away for a moment, and Andy followed the direction of his glance. The lizard holding the tongs was standing in front of him. The thing he held looked something like a large slug, gray in color but pearlescent, reflecting light in a shimmering pattern.
“What are you doing?” Andy asked.
The lizard grunted back at him, then hissed something. It brought the slug-thing up toward the right side of his head, and Andy jumped back against his captors. He pushed hard against the floor with his legs, trying to get away, leaning his head away from those tongs. The alien in front of him hissed something else, sounding irritated, and in a flash of motion it had his its empty right hand wrapped around his throat, fingers gripping the side of his face. It dug the claws in ever so slightly, just piercing the skin.
The message was clear. Andy’s breath started coming faster, trying to hold back the fear that made him want to lunge away from this thing, no matter the consequences. He held himself as still as he could, but the fingers on his head gripped tighter anyway as the lizard brought the tongs up to his right ear. Andy felt the slug, slimy and cold, come into contact with his skin, and he shuddered as it wormed down into his ear. It was all he could do not to scream, gritting his teeth together as the thing wormed its way deeper into the canal.
The lizard released his head, and took a step back. It motioned to the two aliens still holding Andy up, and they released him. Without their support, Andy crashed to the deck, shuddering. What had they done to him? There wasn’t any pain, just a feeling of revulsion. And fear. He didn’t think he’d ever been this afraid before, but he was determined not to show it to his captors. With an effort, he sat up, then got one knee under himself. He glared at the alien in front of him.
It hissed something. Andy heard words form in his mind a moment later. “You understand me now, yes?”
Andy blinked. “Did you say that?”
“Yes,” it replied. “Translation is telepathic. Creature inserted into your ear provides transfer to its host.” It pointed to a hollow spot on the side of its head, where another of the slugs resided.
Andy heaved a silent sigh of relief. If the aliens were using the things too, then it probably wasn’t about to bore into his head and eat his brain or something. He hauled himself to his feet, right arm clutching involuntarily to his side as his ribs protested. “What do you want?”
“What I want,” the alien went on, “is to know where you are from. And how you came by your technology. I know it is not yours. The weapon you carried i
s a primitive thing. But your ship...it is not, is it? We know that power signature. Our scanners recognize it.”
“Don’t tell them anything!” Paul’s voice was desperate.
The alien doing the talking closed with Paul in two long strides, striking the side of his head and sending him sprawling. “Be silent,” it said.
It turned back to Andy. “I am Kassresh. We are the Naga.” Andy heard the name the alien had said, even as the slug translated it into something that meant ‘lizard people’ in his head. He had a feeling he couldn’t even begin to replicate the sounds Kassresh had made.
“This other one,” Kassresh went on, pointing at Paul, “has not been helpful. We tried kindness, binding his wound. And we tried pain. Perhaps you will be more forthcoming? Or perhaps you think us weak, since this one was able to resist us?”
Kassresh stepped away from where Paul still lay moaning on the floor. A few swift strides brought him to a console on the wall near the bench. He pressed a button there, and Andy heard a grating noise from behind him. He turned, instinct making him step away from the sound.
A panel of the floor behind him was sliding away, revealing a pit about ten feet deep, and long, but just a few feet wide. Andy looked uncertainly from the pit to Kassresh, but the alien was still standing by his panel. Kassresh nodded to the two guards, who had stepped back to avoid the hole, and they strode over to Paul, each grabbing a shoulder. He screamed in pain as they hefted him lightly into the air, and then dropped him into the pit. Paul landed at the bottom with a bone crunching sound, and Andy winced. Paul was an asshole, but he had a bad feeling that this was going to be worse than even Paul deserved.
Andy’s eyes went back to his rifle, over on the table, but the guard standing there saw his glance and hissed warningly at him.
“Now, we shall have something interesting to watch,” Kassresh went on. It ignored the exchange between Andy and the other alien and pressed another button.
Adventures of the Starship Satori: Book 1-6 Complete Library Page 20