ARMS Domers Unite: (Book 6)

by Stephen Arseneault

Harris shook his head as he grinned. "Here I thought you were supposed to be the smart one. You do realize you probably wouldn't survive the pressure of three kilometers of water, right? And an ascent from that depth would probably take a full standard day. Nobody goes that deep without a rigid diving suit."

  Bax leaned back against a counter. "That hadn't occurred to me. I must be getting dumber being around the two of you for so long."

  "Yeah, that must be it."

  Tawn said, "The pressure issue will be gone once that drains. Might not be bad to have anyway. The bot making three of those?"

  "Yes. As much as I want to leave the two of you down here, I still need a ride off this planet."

  Sixteen hours passed before the water spewing out of the firing hole in the right-hall barricade dropped to a trickle and then stopped.

  Harris looked through the hole. "That water is still moving fast. I say we give it a few more hours to see if it continues to fall any more."

  Bax pushed him out of the way to have a look. "Forget that. We might have to fight the current, but who cares. Let's get this wall down and get out of here."

  Harris pointed back at the main hall. "We may have to take out the other half of that seal back there. I still think we should wait. That current is way too strong."

  Bax turned. "I'm not waiting any longer. If you want to follow me, you can. Otherwise, I'll see you when you get up top. And going around to just come back through this way is ludicrous. I'm taking out the top half of this wall here."

  Bax pulled her weapon as Harris and Tawn were pushed back. Five shots knocked back the upper half of the barricade.

  Harris shook his head. "The current is too strong."

  Bax climbed up on the open wall. "I'll just have to fight it, then."

  Before Harris could reach for her, she was into the water on the other side, making a valiant effort to keep her footing. It only took seconds for the effort to fail. Baxter Rumford was swept hard down the hallway going away.

  Harris leaned over the wall and yelled, "Don't fight it! You'll only wear yourself out!"

  Tawn stepped up to have a look. "She's moving out pretty good."

  "Next stop is fifteen hundred kilometers away at the next hurricane generator."

  "We have to do something. We can't just let her get pushed that far."

  "Come on. We're heading back to the maintenance room. We'll have the bot build a few more diverters. We'll try sending the water back this way and toward a different tunnel going out. We may not see her for a few more days. She's gonna have a long walk back from however far that pushes her."

  The bot was tasked. Five hours later, the water was flowing back in the other direction. Another twelve hours after that, a tired Baxter Rumford walked into the maintenance room, where Tawn and Harris were relaxing in their chairs.

  Harris chuckled. "Look who's back. You have a nice swim?"

  "Shut it. I thought I could manage that. First time in a current that strong."

  "You can't win when it just keeps pushing and pushing. Anyway, looks like that level and current out there might be manageable now. Will still be tricky though."

  "I know. I just spent the last dozen hours fighting my way back. I was sixty kilometers down that tunnel before I was finally able to stop myself. I'll need a good rest once we get topside."

  Harris stood. "Our biggest issue now will be getting through those doorways, but I have a plan."

  "And what would that be?"

  "I had the bot build us a raised platform. All we have to do is drop it in the water going through that door. The legs are ultrathin and won't offer much resistance to the current. And I had two built. If we work these right, we might be able to make it to the stairs without stepping in the water at all. Throw one down, climb on, throw the other in front, move to it and pick up the first."

  Bax shook her head. "That's a half kilometer through that drum room. It’d take forever. How about we just use it to get through the doors?"

  "We can do that too. Are you ready?"

  "I was ready a couple weeks ago."

  — Chapter 10 —

  * * *

  The trek to the stairwell going up was managed without incident. A torrential waterfall cascaded down from stair-turn to stair-turn, dropping through the center as a constant heavy rain. The hike up took five hours.

  Harris stopped as they reached the midpoint of the climb. "Still no comm signals."

  Bax replied, "That can be a good thing, right?"

  "The Denzee comms use a different method. But I'm not detecting any signals from them either."

  As the final levels of stairs were reached, the water flowing in became a problem. A huge waterfall was charging through the hole the Denzee made. One side of the stairs was completely engulfed in the torrent.

  Tawn said, "Don't care for the looks of that. You lose your footing and it's right over the side and down."

  Harris chuckled. "We'll send Bax through. If she makes it, we'll know it's safe. If not, well, at least it wasn't one of us."

  "Gee, thanks."

  Tawn reached over, tugging hard on the handrail that lined the wall side of the stairs. "Could be we just have to hold onto this. The water pressure should force us against that wall. Stay upright and use the rail to pull yourself up the steps."

  Harris returned an apprehensive look. "I don't know. I would hate to get stuck halfway through that. There's no turning it off."

  Bax turned with her blaster in her hand. "Maybe there is."

  "Is what?"

  "Is a way to turn it off. We move up to that position and then try to blast away the section of wall right below that stream. Should send it to down below us and clear the stairs in front of us."

  Harris looked up at the fall. "Not a bad idea. Maybe you are the smart one here."

  Ten minutes later the trio reached the ladder section that spanned the last two levels. The short climb had them standing in the room that had been constructed atop the stone. Harris cracked open the door to the outside. For the first time in weeks, sunlight shone on their faces.

  Tawn stepped up onto the outside walkway that surrounded the small building. "Do we chance a deep scan from here, or just stick with passive?"

  Harris held up his arm pad. "Passive first. If we get nothing we can do a full."

  Bax looked down at the bog and up at the sky. "Uh, anyone notice there are no hurricanes? And what are all those red flowery plants down in the water?"

  Tawn stared. "Not much for wind either. Wouldn't have thought it would all shut down so quick."

  Harris pointed to the west. "I show a massive storm in that direction… just over the horizon. And I would bet that red flowery thing is the Denzee food they planted."

  Harris ducked. "Get down! I just picked up two Dulons coming in this direction!"

  Bax and Tawn dropped to the deck as Harris chuckled. "Wow, how gullible are you two?"

  Bax scowled. "Moron. What if that had been real?"

  "Then I'd have been going back through that door. You think ducking is going to do anything for your signature out here?"

  Tawn sighed. "You got us. Funny. You're the funniest stump on this planet. Now, how do we get a signal away so we can get out of here?"

  A hundred fireballs lit up the sky at once, all dropping toward the Gondol Stone.

  Harris checked his arm pad. "Banshees! And the Hailstorm!"

  Bax leaned back against the wall. "Thank goodness. Don't know that I could have taken even another day with the two of you."

  Tawn scowled. "We feel the same."

  The ramp dropped down to meet the edge of the stone. A worker bot came forward. "Welcome."

  Harris hopped up onto the ramp. "What happened? Where are the Denzee?"

  "The Denzee have been driven back to Jellon. We are negotiating for their surrender."

  "Surrender? How'd that happen?"

  "We fought a war in the heavens above us. Ninety banshees defeated a fleet of a hundred twenty Ratoons
. Our casualties were high, but the Denzee retreated, being unable to jump in more ships due to the boson bombs."

  "How many Banshees do we now have?" Tawn asked.

  "With the latest delivery, our numbers have surged to one hundred forty-eight. The Denzee have seven hundred thirty Ratoons, with three new ships emerging from Jellon per day."

  "Per day? For those beasts? How’s our production at Midelon?"

  "We are out of resources. All new hulls are coming from New Earth."

  "How many Banshees do we have that we made ourselves?"

  "After the battle here at Gondol, seventy-two."

  The ramp lifted as Tawn hopped aboard. Seconds later, the Hailstorm was surrounded by superheated atmosphere as it shot up through the sky. A jump to Midelon was made and minutes later the modified fighting freighter settled on the grass near the bunker.

  Gandy was standing with Trish and Sharvie. "We were wondering if we'd ever see you again. What happened?"

  "We got trapped down in the underground," Harris said. "Wasn't sure we'd make it out."

  The specifics of the story were relayed as the group sat in the supply hut while working over a set of MREs.

  Tawn said, "There's this immense freezer down there, one for each hurricane generator. At the final stages of terraforming, all these plants would be spread across the globe, followed a month or two later by a horde of insects. Mostly for pollination I think. Strange though, no animals or fish."

  "Tell us what happened here over the past month," said Harris.

  Gandy crossed his arms. "The emperor refused to give us any more supplies. We've built all the Banshee's we can build. We attempted to grab a Ratoon to bring back here for salvage and that ended in disaster. We lost another of our Legions, six Banshees, and two dozen bots that we sent aboard. Sharvie thought we had their systems locked out, but they still managed to detonate the self-destruct. Luckily, we knew enough to move the Hailstorm away after dumping the troops on there."

  Sharvie nodded. "I still think it was a ploy to get us to commit resources. I got into systems that had refused me before. I was using a few new methods, but nothing that should have allowed that."

  Tawn finished her meal, setting a rib bone on the package she had pulled it from. "Still can't believe they keep the bones in there. Anyway... Gondol is covered with red flowery plants. Is that from the Denzee?"

  "They had a hundred Dulons out there dropping that stuff. You say it's already blooming?"

  "What we saw was. There was still at least one hurricane rolling around out there too."

  "Yeah. We had a couple good fights with them when attempting to stop their destruction. They finally gave up on that and began to seed the planet. Those hurricanes seem to stay in one spot. We were wondering if we should go out and kill those plants. We brought back a sample for Alex to analyze. He's working up a herbicide for us."

  Harris asked, "You said the Denzee were negotiating for a possible surrender. Who with?"

  "The emperor," Gandy replied. "Who else would even approach them?"

  "He doesn't have the means to take them on."

  Gandy shrugged. "I guess he's trying to use our force in a bluff."

  "If they join forces again, we're right back where we were before. How does this keep happening?"

  Bax said, "It's happening because you can't finish the job. Until the emperor is dethroned, he'll keep coming back to this same effort. If I were the Domers, I'd be looking for another double-cross. And with the Denzee now growing their food on Gondol, they'd be all too happy to see the Earthers and the Domers stabbing each other in the back."

  Alex came over the comm: "I've completed an initial analysis of the Denzee plant. They refer to it as rubinatious. I don't believe it has a use as food. It is extremely toxic to Humans. When refined to a fine powder and spread through the atmosphere, a planet could be made to be unlivable by Humans for a thousand years."

  Harris replied, "You think they're getting ready to do us all in?"

  "A single crop from Gondol would contain enough rubinatious to end the lives of every Human on a single planet. The crop at Gondol will be ready for harvest in four months. With a new crop every four months after."

  "So we're still talking Human extinction. I wonder if the emperor knows this?"

  "Doubtful. We have had no direct contact with him since you went missing. Gandy has made repeated attempts only to be rebuffed. Our only contact has been with a supply manager who is responsible for delivering the Banshee hulls."

  Tawn asked, "Has anyone checked to see if they made any alterations from the original units?"

  Trish asked, "Should we have?"

  Bax sighed. "You people are about as disorganized as the Domers back home."

  "You're welcome to take on the task of managing those hulls as they come in."

  "I will, then. Give me authorization with them and I'll get started with that right now. And I'm offering my services on this because for the past month I've been trapped three kilometers below the surface with these two imbeciles."

  Tawn returned a phony smile. "We certainly enjoyed your company. Especially at the point where you took a ride toward that other generator. Harris and I were both just ecstatic for you."

  "Stow it, Freely. I'm trying to be helpful here."

  "Alex," said Harris, "grant Miss Rumford the access she needs to manage the outfitting of the incoming Banshee hulls from New Earth. And give her the needed access to examine our current hulls, excluding those we constructed here."

  Tawn returned a half scowl. "You sure that's a good idea?"

  "No. But it needs doing, and she's good at seeing that it gets done. Maybe you can keep an eye on her."

  Tawn winced. "I should have seen that coming. Alex? Please monitor Miss Rumford's activities for anything unusual or suspicious."

  "The thanks I get for saving us…" said Bax.

  "Saving us?"

  "Who blasted that waterfall? Allowing us to slip by?"

  "OK. I guess I can give you that one, but it wasn't all you’re making it out to be. We'd have figured a way out before long anyway."

  "Keep telling yourself that."

  Bax walked out of the supply hut.

  Gandy stood. "I have crops to tend to."

  Sharvie followed. "And I'm still reviewing our encounter with the Denzee."

  Trish looked up. "I guess that leaves us."

  "Has anyone been looking at scan results from Jellon?"

  "What's to look at? They're turning out a few new ships a day, and those buildings are still expanding."

  "And the emperor?"

  "He's had a diplomatic vessel parked there for two days. Alex has been trying to decrypt the comms, but hasn't had any luck so far. Every time we find a hole they seem to plug it up."

  Harris said, "Alex, open a comm to the emperor. Make it from me."

  The emperor's image displayed several seconds later. "Mr. Gruberg, my long lost business partner. Where might you have been for the past month?"

  "Busy. And I can see by your ship at Jellon that you have been too."

  "I'm always interested in negotiating peace. And again I ask, what has been occupying your time for the prior month? Visiting Domicile perhaps?"

  "Nowhere near there. Let's just call it a sabbatical. Some much needed rest and recuperation."

  "And is there a specific reason for this comm?"

  "Just to let you know that we're back and ready to put an end to the Denzee. I'm told this shipment will see sixty-four hulls delivered."

  "That is what's scheduled, yes."

  Harris scowled. "Don't tell me you're thinking of backing out of our agreement again. You know that's gonna ruin your reputation with the rest of the galaxy, right?"

  "I will admit that shipment to be tenuous at the moment. It is actually a current negotiating point with the Denzee. Now that they have their crop planted on Gondol, they seem much more interested in peace."

  "I bet they are," Harris replied. "You wo
uldn't have happened to have gotten a sample of what they planted out there, would you?"

  "Yes."

  "And did your analysis bring forth any revelations?"

  "If you're referring to the Human toxicity potential, then yes, I am aware. And as part of our current negotiation, the Denzee would be providing us with the means to produce an endless supply of anti-toxin. That aspect of their supposed food was a concern for us."

  "Let me guess, the Domers won't be receiving any of this anti-toxin?"

  "The Domers are perfectly able to make their own deals, Mr. Gruberg."

  Harris shook his head. "You're a real piece of work, Mervin. You make this deal and you're again dooming half of all humanity. That doesn't bother you?"

  The emperor leaned closer to the camera. "So long as I have breath in my lungs I will make every effort to bring all the colonies in this region of space under one solid, stable, government. Have I not made that desire clear to you before?"

  "Plenty. And that ambition will be your undoing. These Denzee will do away with all Earthers once they have a clear path to do so. And right now you're clearing the way for that to happen."

  "Our negotiations are ongoing, Mr. Gruberg. Check back periodically for status on the next hull delivery, if you would. Until then..."

  The comm closed.

  "Can't believe he's trying to sell us out again," said Tawn. "Another couple deliveries and we'd have a force big enough to exterminate the Denzee for good."

  Trish asked, "Any way to attack now? Maybe force the Earthers out of their negotiation?"

  "That's a possibility."

  Harris said, "You two have a look over that while I chat with the colonel. We can discuss fully when I'm done."

  Tawn and Trish stood and headed for the bunker in discussion as Harris turned back to the display wall.

  Alex said, "Robert Thomas should be on momentarily."

  An image appeared. "Was starting to think you were dead."

  "We had a few opportunities. What's the status there and on Domicile? Anything new since I've been gone?"

  The Denzee haven't been seen. As a result, the pacifists are once again clawing back their power. Our short run toward at least preparing our industries for turn-on, should the need arise, has now turned back to 'Where can we cut?’ It's not encouraging to say the least."