Galaxy Spies

by Philip R Benge

  **********

  Kurt Bowers of the Lyren freedom movement lived in the village of Rouen, from where he journeyed each day to the capital city to work. He was feeling very scared for his son at this moment in time, for he had heard on the news about the disasters that had occurred in space, of the attack on their fleet, and of the attacks on their outposts by the soldiers of Earth. His son Karl was serving on Rigel, and he couldn`t find out if he was still alive or whether he was in fact lying dead upon the hard ground of an alien world, killed by some savage only just out of the stone age. He now felt something else deep within his heart, it was a hatred of Earth and its people, and so intense was this feeling that he forgot his former values and sent an anomalous message to the state police. In the message he told them that five people, who he believed were from the planet Earth, were hiding out in the village of Rouen. He gave them instructions of where in the village they would find them, where they could kill them. He didn`t think about his plan to turn traitor, he didn`t realise that the state police would trace the ownership of the house to his friends, and then onto him and finally to the capital city and the leaders of the freedom movement, hate coupled with worry for his son blinded him to everything. In fact his feelings caused him to do something that he would have thought was beyond his abilities, he went to the house where the earthmen were staying and burst in on them, armed with a small Phaser pistol that his son had left behind on his last visit home for his father`s protection. Bowers rushed in just after Ray Connors and Peter Summers had reached their amicable agreement.

  “Put your hands where I can see them earthmen, I am here to ensure that you do not escape the authorities that are even now rushing to imprison you, to kill you, for the many murders carried out by your people out there in the depths of space.”

  “What murders are you talking about; we have committed no murders, in space or anywhere else.” Colonel Michaels said angrily refuting the accusation.

  “My son and his comrades; that is who I am talking about, your comrades have killed my boy on Rigel and he is all that I had left of my darling wife, and you must pay for it.” Bowers was now crying as he thought about his poor boy murdered so far from home by barbarians. Their hearts went out to him, but they also knew that they must act against him. They had to overpower him or risk imprisonment, or worse.

  “Please sir, don`t do this, I assume that you are one of the freedom movement, you must realise that your wife and son would not want you to hurt us, or to have you hand us over to the state police, put down your weapon and let us escape this village while there is still time.” Colonel Michaels begged of the broken man before them.

  Kurt Bowers screamed with rage at the Colonel. “Do not tell me what my wife and son would want me to do, you are not even worthy to clean their shoes, you are just another officer, another vile individual who cares for nothing but his own desires.” Bowers was beyond reasoning with now, although they had to try.

  “Please Sir, you must let us go, do you realise what will happen to us should the state police take us prisoner?” Jean begged, she hoped that a female voice might sway him, as the male voice of Colonel Michaels had only enraged him.

  While Colonel Michaels and Jean had been talking to Bowers, Ray had moved behind Jean, who had stood up when Kurt Bowers had entered the room. He used her body to shield his own actions, he slowly but carefully took out his throwing knife and waited for an opportunity to present itself so that he would succeed without any of his friends being hurt in the process. The opportunity was presented when Colonel Michaels seeing Ray`s actions deliberately focused Bowers` complete attention on him, he slowly moved toward Lieutenant Bragg`s position.

  “You are a good man; you must see how wrong your actions are, please put your gun down and let us go free.” While he was speaking to Bowers the stricken man`s eyes followed him leaving Ray free to act. His knife flew through the air at the same time as Colonel Michaels threw his body away from the line of fire of the Phaser pistol held by Bowers. This distracted the poor man even further as Bowers` eyes followed Michael’s diving body. The knife sank deeply into the tendons on Bowers arm cutting them, and the Phaser pistol in Bower's hand dropped harmlessly to the floor. Bowers screamed out in pain as the knife bit into his flesh and then he broke down and wept as he watched Colonel Michaels scoop up the fallen Phaser.

  “Lieutenant, will you please go upstairs and check to see if there is anyone about.”

  Lieutenant Charles Bragg bounded up the wooden staircase and into one of the darkened upstairs rooms to look out of its solitary window to check that all was clear before they moved off. Unfortunately, he noticed movement along the street, people were leaving the houses near to the one that they were occupying, uniformed men with Phaser pistols were moving in behind the walls of the houses and the vehicles that were parked in front of some of the buildings. He called softly downstairs.

  “Colonel we have company, we are surrounded by the Lyren state police, and they mean business.” Colonel Michaels rushed up the stairs while Ray went to look out of the kitchen window, what they saw confirmed what the Lieutenant had seen, that they were in trouble.

  “Well we cannot fight our way out; we are outnumbered and assuredly out gunned.” Colonel Michaels stated. Jean for one looked worried, as did her brother, but more for her than for himself.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” She cried, fearing that in just a few minutes time they would all be lying dead upon the cold hard floor of their refuge.

  “It will take some doing sis.” Peter Summers said sadly. To be free for so short a time and then sent back to prison with his sister and their friends for company was sickening, Peter Summers thought, but he kept his worries to himself.

  “There may be a way out everyone.” Ray Connors said to a quietened room. “I noticed that the cupboard upstairs has an entrance up into the loft, these building are mostly wood, and they are not the best built of houses that I have seen. It is possible that we may be able to break through the loft partitions of this and the other houses that are attached to this one, and escape from the last house in the terrace without being seen. They should all be empty now as the state police have taken all of the locals out of harm`s way. But we must be quick or else the police may well take up residence in the house next door.”

  “Let`s check it out Ray, you others keep a watch on our friends outside and also our injured friend here, I don`t suppose they will give us much time to act.” With that, Colonel Michaels followed Ray up the stairs and into the cupboard. They climbed up the shelves in the cupboard, which were the one thing in the house that were fixed firmly to the walls, and pushed up the hatch to climb up into the loft space. Colonel Michaels produced a small torch from out of nowhere, turned it on, and illuminated the far wall with its surprisingly bright beam.

  “You were right Ray, it looks like it is only made of wood I was worried for a moment that they might have put in a fire wall. We should be able to prize the individual slats out and crawl through, but we will need a diversion though to cover the noise of the breaking wood, for it is awfully quiet out there now.”

  “A few Phaser blasts into the parked vehicles should cover any noise that we make up here, and our own vehicle blowing up and setting fire to the house should cover our escape Colonel.”

  “I could have done with you on some of my more hazardous exploits Ray.” Colonel Michaels said grinning across to Ray.

  “Come on Colonel, we should be able to find a suitable tool in the garage to use to jemmy the wood apart.” The two men returned to the others and Colonel Michaels quickly told them the plan while Ray found two large screwdrivers, left behind in the garage by the owner of the local newspaper in case any maintenance was required, and having them handy would save him from having to return home for his tool kit.

  “Lieutenant you keep watch on the back of the house from upstairs, Jean you and your brother go up into the loft and start work on our escape route, don`t make any loud no
ises though until we start to fire at the vehicles outside. I will turn on this radio and play some music loud enough to cover any noise you make while you start work up there.” Colonel Michaels said, and reaching over turned on the radio and tuned in a band playing martial music, he turned up the volume so that everyone in the house could hear. Kurt Bowers looked angrily at his captors waiting for a chance to escape.

  “Tell us when you are in need of some extra cover Peter and we will provide it.” Ray said calling softly up to the disappearing backs of Peter Summers and his sister.

  Peter and his sister were soon sitting in the loft space, and Peter was just about to start pushing the flat edged screwdriver into the first slat when Jean, who had the torch, noticed that they seemed to be held in place by three lengths of wood. One long one ran along the bottom end of the slats and two other shorter lengths of wood that ran across the top of the slats, they went at an angle from the eaves of the house up to the centre where they were fixed to the central roof beam.

  “Peter why don`t you try undoing those screws first, we might be lucky and get by without making any noise at all.”

  “Well done Jean, even the Colonel and Ray missed those.” He said with relish.

  “They are almost the same colour as the wooden slats; I only saw them because I was right up against the wood.” Jean said in defence of the other two. Peter smiled at his sister`s defence of Ray and got down to work. He had soon taken the bottom length of wood off and then the upper strip too. With the upper strip removed, Jean plucked the slats out of the way only for them to see another row of slats behind the first set.

  “Drat we will still have to lever a couple of these slats off so that I can get to the screws holding them in place unless. Jean you pop down to the garage and see if there are any saws amongst the tools in the garage, we can use one of them to cut the slats once we have one of them out.”

  Jean turned to her brother and said contemptuously. “Men!” Just the one word and then reaching forward she picked up the second screwdriver and took out the screws that held the retaining central strip of wood that run across the floorboards between the two rows of slats to the floor, and then the one that ran across the top. With this removed, Jean reached forward and Peter watched as the rear set fell towards them.

  “It is only the horizontal lengths of wood that are screwed down Peter. I will tell the others that we are already through into the house next door, you go through here and start on the next partition.” Jean said indicating the opening that they had just made, and with that Jean turned and going to the open hatch quickly climbed back down and then rushed down the staircase to tell the two men downstairs the good news, they were delighted with this good piece of luck. Standing up Ray pulled her to him and quickly kissed her. Jean smiled up at Ray and whispered ‘I love you’, but then she turned around and headed back to the loft and her brother.

  Outside the state police were obviously ready now, and to prove it one of them called out.

  “Earthmen we know that you are hiding in there, come out with your hands up and you will be treated with respect, you have done well in breaking your spy out of the Wallachia Fortress, now you must surrender, for we have you surrounded and we are very well armed.” The commander had heard earlier about the escape of their prisoner, and Rouen being on a road that ran directly up to the fortress had guessed just who they were, although he couldn`t understand just why they had chosen to come to this small village instead of escaping into deepest space.

  Colonel Michaels was playing for time so he returned this demand with silence. Two minutes later, he saw two state police officers moving towards them.

  “Ray ensure that your Phaser pistol is set on stun, we don`t want to make the situation any worse by killing one of them or else they may bring up a heavier weapon and simply blast us into oblivion.” Colonel Michaels then called softly up to Lieutenant Bragg and told him the same thing.

  “My weapon is always set on stun Colonel.” Ray Connors replied.

  “Ok Ray let`s stop those two from getting any nearer, aim for the ground just in front of them.”

  Ray and Colonel Michaels both slid the two windows in front of them out of their way and fired warning shots that kicked up the stones in front of the two officers. The high-pitched whistling sound of their Phaser fire making the two state police officers duck in fear as the energy bolts exploded just in front of them. The two officers seeing themselves caught away from any reasonable cover scurried back into the safety offered by a nearby vehicle. However, the two bolts of energy brought a flurry of Phaser bolts from the state police officers, and these exploded forcefully against the outside of the building sending splinters of wood everywhere. Then a burst of shots hit the glass in the windows, from which the two men were keeping watch, to send splinters of glass flying across the room. Some of the shards of glass cutting the faces and bodies of the Ray and Colonel Michaels and making them both hug the floor. Seconds later and another burst of shots came through the now empty window frames to explode against the far wall. Kurt Bowers took this opportunity to run for the door and rush outside screaming for the state police to hold their fire, they answered him by shooting him down, his last thoughts were of his wife and son, and how he would soon be seeing them again.

  From upstairs they heard the Phaser pistol of Lieutenant Charles Bragg opening up on an antagonist approaching from the rear of the house, there too the answering fire was explosive in the extreme.

  “Colonel their Phasers are not set on stun, they don`t care if they kill us!” Ray exclaimed, still lying flat on the floor.

  “My order stands Ray, we cannot afford to have the situation escalate until we are ready to depart.”

  “Ok Colonel let`s at least deter them by hitting them this time.”

  With that, both men sat up and picking a target each sent a well-aimed shot out of the broken windows to hear two groans that indicated that these two officers would not be taking a part in the proceedings for a little while. Unfortunately, this brought even more bolts of Phaser fire heading towards them and the outside walls of the house, quickly reducing the wall to kindling making it resemble a sieve rather than a wall as the light from the streetlights shown through the growing number of holes in the wall. Ray stood up again, beside the window he sent another Phaser bolt flying from his pistol to cause their attackers to duck for cover, but one soldier must have been braver than the rest for he returned Ray`s fire, his energy bolt raking Ray`s arm and causing Ray in turn to duck back down. He looked at his ruined shirt and the painful red line that went up his arm, and then he wondered how he had managed to hold on to his pistol.

  “Colonel much more of this and one of us is going to be dead real soon. Peter Summers is probably through the second partition by now but we still need to delay our friends outside for a little while longer. They are close to finishing us of with their Phasers, but I`m also a little worried that they might get bored with firing at us with hand Phasers. They just might decide to lob a couple of grenades in here which could spell the end of both of us, what we need right now are some delaying tactics, have you got any bright ideas?”

  Ray`s words were greeted by a new burst of Phaser bolts that burst through the tattered walls of the building and only narrowly missed both men, forcing them back to the cold floor once more.

  “Ray I`m soon to be a politician.” Colonel Michaels said by way of an answer and smiling called through the broken window.

  “Who is in charge out there, I want to speak to you, please hold your fire?” A moment later and the officer in charge of the state police replied.

  “I am in charge, my name is Captain Hans Kroeber, do you wish to surrender?” The Lyren asked hopefully.

  “Two of us do, if you can just give us a little time to convince the others I am sure we can end this without any further blood being spilt.”

  Captain Hans Kroeber thought about the matter for a moment, there was no reason why he couldn`t allow matters to cool, he
was a humanitarian after all and they couldn`t escape from the building, and having a squad of space marines as his prisoners would earn him a quick promotion.

  “You have five minutes, use it well.”

  In the house the two men smiled, they had their extra time to allow Peter Summers to get through to the end house.

  “You keep watch Ray while I set that vehicle in the garage to explode as soon as we are ready to leave.”

  Four precious minutes had gone by when Jean rushed back downstairs.

  “We are through to the last house, and it sounds quiet inside, Peter is investigating it now, we are ready to leave when you are.” Jean called quietly across to them.

  “Let`s go Colonel, we must be better off there, than in here waiting to die.” Ray said, he now thought that they stood a chance of getting away from Rouen alive.

  “Ok Ray I will set the timer in the garage, Jean you go up and don`t forget to collect the lieutenant, Ray and I have some theatricals to put on.”

  Jean rushed upstairs wondering about the theatricals, and looking into the rear bedroom called softly to the lieutenant to say that it was time to leave, and then the two of them climbed up into the loft. From downstairs came the sound of raised voices and then Phaser fire, seconds later Ray followed by Colonel Michaels ran up the stairs and into the cupboard. Ray stopped for a moment to collect some of the blankets and rugs, for they would need them to keep the cold of Lyre out while they were on the run from the state police, it was only a few seconds more and then they were up into the loft. Outside they heard the voice of Captain Hans Kroeber calling to ask if everything was ok. It had just started to rain heavily and whoever didn`t have to be outside rushed for the shelter of their houses, leaving the night to the state police.

  Ray Connors and Colonel Michaels had just joined up with Peter Summers and the other in the empty house at the end of the terrace and were now standing in the kitchen of the house.

  “We can escape through the back door and if we keep low we shouldn`t be seen.” Just then, a massive explosion shook the house as the staff car blew up in the house they had so recently vacated.

  “It is time to leave everyone.” Colonel Michaels said and opening the door, they all escaped into the night, as they ran they saw a group of military vehicles parked out of sight of their previous dwelling. Peter Summers chose a staff car similar to the one that they had just destroyed, and found to his surprise that the keys were still there. As they drove away into the night, Peter Summers enquired of Colonel Michaels.

  “Which way would you like to go Colonel?”

  “Straight ahead and take the first turning on the left, we are heading to take up the offer of a friend of ours.” Colonel Michaels said. Behind them, the sky was lit up by the flames coming from the house that had nearly been their final resting place. Ahead was the unknown, but one tinged with the hope of finding sanctuary with a friend?