Toth

by James C. Glass

  “Where are the big weapons?” asked Michael.

  “We haven’t seen them. So far our boats have been left alone. I would put big weapons at the top of the rock where coverage of the sea and sky is greatest. They could be anywhere, on any side, I don’t know. But if you get inside their big weapons will be useless. Your vulnerability will be on the approach.”

  They talked for two hours, and a plan evolved. A few scattered boats with small crews would sail east from the north and south shores of the big island, rowing in on Toth’s stronghold from the west and south under cover of darkness with sails and masts down. The main force would sail from the south shore to a point well east of the stronghold and then charge in to blow the entrance on the east side. There was no easy way. Many casualties were expected. They would make their move in only twenty-eight hours.

  Adah and Sabine graciously offered Michael a spare bed for the night, while Osen and Krisha returned to the little band of defenders hunkered down in the rocks above the beach. Michael went to bed with an M-34 within reach, and quickly fell asleep, but sometime in early morning he awoke from a dream, sweating. He was in the forward observation bubble of a Gull and below him a mountain rose from the sea. As he flew over it the top of the mountain opened up and laser beams probed to greet him, a gigawatt of optical power coming straight up between his legs as the Gull roared in evasive maneuver. Awake, he still heard the roar, but decided after a moment that it was only the faint sound of burning coal veins high in the mountains, and then he went back to sleep again.

  * * * * * * *

  Michael awoke well after sunrise, and his legs were stiff and sore from the previous day’s climb. Adah, age seventy two, had already left for the day, riding a cart up a steep tunnel in the west to put in a four hour shift in the iron smelter Michael had not yet seen. Everyone, regardless of age, worked hard on the island. It was the reason they had survived.

  Sabine served him a breakfast of potato cakes and water, then took her digging stick and headed towards the beach in search of small mollusks that supplemented their diet. Derald had arisen before dawn, and was in his shop. He’d asked that Michael join him there, said Sabine.

  Michael walked to the rocks above the beach where Krisha had placed her little force of marines and villagers, and he found them all awake and alert in dugouts from which they peered out to sea between massive boulders. Osen and Krisha were together in one hole, with assault rifles, Osen plugged into his radio. “Any sleep last night?” asked Michael.

  “A little,” said Krisha, looking like it had been very little, if any. “Did you hear anything last night?”

  “No. I slept pretty sound.”

  “We thought we did, early this morning, a low rumbling sound and then it was gone. Didn’t see anything, but it was pitch black out there.”

  “Anything from Nik?”

  “Nothing,” said Osen. “We’re ready when you are, sir. Some of the people were up before dawn to pick up boats from the south side. They’re bringing them around late this morning. Looks like we’ll have ten boats to work with.”

  “Load three and make sure the masts can come down. The rest of the boats will be diversionary. Krisha, keep everyone in place until we’re ready to sail. Toth might sit out there and wait for us, or he might try to hit us here first. Have you seen any boats at sea?”

  “Nothing, sir.”

  “Okay, I’ll be with Derald until mid-afternoon. If Nik calls, I’d like to hear about it. I don’t know about you, but I’ve the feeling Belsus is still up there and we might be getting some backup soon. Let me know.”

  Michael made the climb to Derald’s shop again, and found him at his cluttered table scribbling on a piece of bark. “How are you feeling today?” said the old man. “The trail we were on yesterday continues around the mountain to our foundry. Would you like to see it?”

  “I need to be back with my people by mid-afternoon,” said Michael.

  “There is time, then, and I can show you the large vessel we’ve nearly finished. The walk is flat just beyond where we stopped yesterday.”

  “That’s good news,” said Michael, smiling.

  They made the steep, tedious climb again, more slowly this time, yet it seemed they climbed faster than the day before, and the slag-covered cliff was soon before them. They passed the entrance to the burning coal veins and made a precarious traverse along the cliff, the faint trail wandering crookedly through skree and past small trees clinging tenaciously to cracks in the rock. Up to their right a ruby-red peak thrust up at the center of the island. “The mines are up there, in a bowl-shaped depression below the peak. Fortunately for us, the ore is very rich, and there are also black nodules that are nearly pure metal, mostly iron, but some lead.”

  It was another hour before they reached the foundry, a second cavern with still another burning coal vein where men were tempering cast implements and rods of iron. In the floor of the cavern were large shafts going down to a magma lake where crushed ore was melted repeatedly in large pumice pots and brought up to skim off impurities, producing a low-grade iron that served their purposes. The heat was incredible. The men walked the floor with slabs of pumice tied to their feet, and retired every few minutes to cool themselves in two short tunnels leading to natural balconies on the cliff face. “The work is slow,” said Derald, “and we must make things over and over again. The sea air is very corrosive. I’ve tried several coatings with little success. This is something else we need.”

  They remained there only a few minutes. Derald took him outside, and pointed down to a bay surrounded by trees, where a huge platform of woven iron with four enormous pontoons of glass lay hidden, visible only from above. “There it is,” said Derald. “It is a square twenty meters on a side. Now we work on the life modules, large versions of what you saw on the crawler. The masts are wooden, and there will be three sails. It has taken us seven years to get this far.”

  Michael sighed. Another sailboat, only bigger and heavier. These people had indeed come far in only forty years, but their technology remained simple. Derald seemed to sense his mood. “You see why I said there is little we can offer to help you fight Toth?”

  “You’ve offered boats and people, Derald. I am very grateful for that. My hope is that we will succeed for you, as well as for ourselves.”

  Derald smiled and began to walk back on the trail, and stopped when he realized Michael wasn’t following. Instead, he was standing there, shielding his eyes with one hand to block sunlight, looking out to sea. A boat was there, moving very fast towards the west, getting closer to shore and producing a considerable wake stretching far behind it. Derald followed his gaze. “It’s one of Toth’s boats,” he said. “They’re usually further out than this one.”

  Michael cursed himself silently for leaving his night glasses behind, but the boat was coming in fast, turning about two hundred meters out to run a parallel course along the shore. He could see the boat was filled with men. Light reflected from the visors pulled down over their faces. All were armed. “I don’t like the looks of this. I don’t like it at all. We’ve got to get back to the beach, and quick!”

  They hurried back along the trail as the boat sped west. They shouted ahead: “A boat from Toth is close to the island, coming around from the west end! Stay inside!” Men were shouting ahead of them as they passed the slag dump and came around the cornice at canyon’s edge where they had a clear view of the sea north of them. Two more boats were charging in from the east, white wakes trailing. “Invasion! They’re coming in from west and east!” shouted Michael, and he heard his warning being relayed down the canyon. Helpless, he could only scramble as quickly as he could down the slippery, skree-covered trail as the boats drew closer and closer to shore, passing from his view behind trees.

  He was past Derald’s shop and halfway down the canyon when the roar of assault rifle fire struck his ears, a continuous thing that went on and on. An explosion, then another, grenades launched from rifles and when h
e reached the amphitheatre he could see streams of laser fire heading out to sea from the gully leading to the beach. Derald ran for a house. Michael ducked low, and rushed to the rocks where he’d seen Osen and Krisha. Both were firing, Osen screamed into the radio; “Nik, we’re under attack! Under attack! Come in!”

  A smoking pontoon boat lay only forty meters from the beach, engine growling. Bodies were draped over railings, and floating in the water. The second boat had turned, and was fleeing east, fire being directed at the third boat that had come in from the west and was now two hundred meters from shore. It dodged the geysers of water caused by grenades exploding near it. Tracers found the target, laser beams as well, but the boat kept going at high speed, chasing its surviving companion.

  A cheer broke out among the marines and villagers at the shore. They shook their weapons at the fleeing invaders and hugged each other in victory. “They’re getting away!” screamed Osen into the radio. “Two boats, heading east! The only thing out there. East of us, Nik, hurry!”

  So what can Nik do about it? thought Michael, but then he looked out to sea and saw something that made his heart soar, the sight of a dark, flat shape moving towards them at incredible speed, meters above the sea. Tornados of water churned up from the vortices at the tips of droopy wings. It was a Gull, a flyer from Belsus. It turned east sharply as the marines screamed hysterically; “Get ’em, get ’em, get ’em!” They heard the roar of the engines, the crackle of a Gatling gun in the nose of the Gull, and then a tremendous explosion as an orange ball of fire rose from the sea. The Gull turned south, passed behind the island and instants later rushed straight over them, angling in for another kill. Cheering was drowned by the roar of the engines, and then suddenly stopped.

  From the east came a flash of light like an exploding sun, and the wings of the Gull were sheared off, smoking and in flames. The pilot struggled for control, dropping near the water and somehow turning, lifting thrusters whining as another blast tore off a tail section. Nearly on the water, the crippled Gull came in slowly, smoke pouring from it, and plopped gently into the waves only meters beyond the anchored boats of the settlement. There it floated as a hatch popped open, white smoke gushing forth, the sound of men yelling and the smoke dissipating to a trickle. “All of you down to the water!” yelled Michael. “Get them out of there!”

  Marines and villagers dropped their weapons and ran, splashing into the water and swimming as a figure emerged from the hatch and climbed three metal rungs down to stand on what little remained of the Gull’s port wing. He was covered with soot and white foam from a fire extinguisher, but he grinned and gave the splashing rescuers a thumbs’ up.

  The man was Floyd Mootry.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Jezrul was satisfied that Rudy Hoffman would not be an obstacle once Toth was dead. Toth himself had designated the future leader of the people, and Rudy was probably the only man left who maintained true loyalty to His Lord. He would obey the words of Toth as he would obey the command of a God. Once Toth was gone, Jezrul’s position would be secure. It was only a question of timing, whether to wait or act soon. A battle was coming, a battle that could destroy all his plans. Quick decisions would have to be made without discussion with or groveling before the optical image of a man degenerating before their eyes, a man old beyond old who hid whatever remained of His true self behind panels in the throne room below.

  Jezrul thought these things as he sat in lotus position on a boulder by the large pool in Toth’s garden. He was lulled by the sound of the waterfall, yet aware of the few counselors watching him there. Even now they saw him as leader, and he would play the part, decisive, firm, a man of deep spirituality who took the time for quiet, thoughtful meditation. Rudy would arrive soon, and then the audience with Toth when he would plead the case for Kari. Regardless of Toth’s decision he would have that woman, if only for a short time, baptize her, show her The Pleasures—The Pain. Especially the pain. The very thought of it made him tremble.

  Rudy was late. He had gone to the gun crews and their scanners for an up-date on the big island where their troops should now be landing. So why the delay? Surely there would be no resistance, no armed response on the part of the islanders. They were primitives hanging on to barest survival.

  His legs were cramped. He opened his eyes and stood up, folded his hands reverently together and walked the garden trail with growing impatience. Finally, he could stand it no longer, climbed the steps to the platform above the fishpond, and made his exit from the garden. He walked the curving passage towards the staircase, and suddenly stopped.

  The lights had dimmed to near darkness and were now bright again. Again it happened. Lights flickered back to brightness as power returned. He knew the cause of such a power variation, had seen it before on the days of battle practice.

  The laser cannon had just been fired—twice.

  Jezrul ran. He took the stairs three at a time up the closed staircase, threw open a metal door to hear screaming and cheering coming from the gun crews. The smell of ozone was heavy in the air. The great domed turret was rotating as the gunners swept the sea in their sights, but there was no more firing. Rudy ran towards him, breathless and smiling. “We just shot down a landing vessel from the starship, hit it twice and watched it go down in flames! It came out of nowhere, Jezrul; it must have come in close to the sea! There was an explosion, and a ball of fire. The ship appeared suddenly, coming up from the sea and circling the island a few hundred meters up, and the crews locked on it instantly, firing as it was coming down again! We destroyed it, Jezrul! There’s no way Queal can get his people back to the ship!”

  The gun crews cheered when they saw Jezrul, and he shook a fist at them in victory, and then grabbed Rudy by his robe and pulled him close, scowling. “Have you forgotten there were two landing craft when they first arrived? Where is the other one? You celebrate a victory and forget that seeing even one means their starship has somehow survived our attack! It’s still up there, with weaponry that can vaporize this island, and our fire has given them a target!”

  “We’ve seen nothing, Jezrul!” said Rudy, his smile fading. “The ship isn’t up there, I tell you. The attacking vessel was after our boats, I’m sure of it. That fireball we saw before we opened fire, I—I think it was one of our boats. We had to fire!”

  Jezrul relaxed his grip. “All right, then, that much was correct, and I applaud it. I applaud the accuracy of your crews, but calm them down! Get them on the scanners and sweep the sky. If something moves up there, shoot it, and keep watch on the island for any other aircraft. Do it now!” He released him, and Rudy scrambled up to the gun decks, shouting orders until the cheering had stopped, and all men were back at their posts. Jezrul climbed up behind him, went to a screen showing an optical observation of the island, highly magnified. The first thing he saw was a column of black smoke curling up where the island met the sea. The second thing he saw was a boat heading towards them at high speed, skimming the waves with a load of armed men. His men. One boat.

  Jezrul swallowed hard. “Hold your fire towards the sea, but search the skies! Our men are returning!”

  Rudy looked at him in dismay, and scrambled down the ladder behind him.

  They sprinted to the boat bay and the two remaining boats there, one of them filled with visored troops he had kept in readiness. “Open the door!” Jezrul shouted. “One of our boats is coming in!”

  “One?” said Rudy. “ONLY ONE?”

  “Quiet!” growled Jezrul, and Rudy recoiled from him.

  They heard the boat slow outside, the clang as it locked onto the lifting platform and then it appeared before the door, sliding towards them. The men looked grim, and clung to their weapons. There were several holes drilled neatly amidships, two of them scorched. Renz Haegele leaped from the bow before the boat had docked, and came to Jezrul, who took him by the arm while giving an order to Rudy. “I want silence in the bay. No talking among the men.” He took the boat commander aside as the
bay door clanged shut, and talked to him in a near whisper.

  “What happened out there? Where are the others?”

  “Gone,” said Renz, wiping his brow. “All gone, and I thought we were gone, too. When that aircraft came in for a second pass we were the target. I thought—”

  “It’s shot down, Renz, destroyed. It got the others?”

  “One boat, with Shaun commanding. They’d come around the island, and were behind us. They went up in a single explosion, pieces coming down around us. I didn’t know projectile weapons could do that, but the firing rate was incredible.”

  “What about Nathan’s boat?”

  “They hit us close to shore, projectiles and laser fire all along the rocks. His boat was nearly on the beach when they opened up. They focused on that first boat, Jezrul, and shot it to pieces in seconds! Why didn’t we know the islanders had such defenses? I got out of there instantly; we wouldn’t have had a chance!”

  “Don’t be a fool, Renz. Queal has managed to move all his forces to the island, and he was waiting for you. The error is mine in underestimating his quickness, but in doing so he has left the mainland unguarded, and we’ll take advantage of that. His next move will be to come here, and then it will be his turn to become an easy target at sea. There are several strategies, and he might come in from any number of directions, but there will be things other than laser cannon awaiting him. I want a circle of boats surrounding this island, Renz, boats filled with villagers he left behind. If I know this man as I think I do he is more a diplomat than a soldier. He will not readily kill the villagers to get at us.”

  “You want us to go out again, to invade the mainland?” said Renz, looking horrified.