Before descending to the second level to search out the power center and Jeannie, Kren had left a sizable fighting squad at the juncture between the levels. They’d discovered there was at least one more level below the one they were on, and it was imperative to keep the Monsudan forces from boxing in the attack force from behind.
It was an attack force in every sense of the word. The warriors had agreed that once Jeannie had been found and secured, they would break off in squads in the attempt to take out as many of the enemy as possible. Many men vied for the privilege of searching for the queen’s lair.
Near the power chamber, the drones kept coming at them. Kren and one of the squad captains piled up the robotic bodies with shot after shot. The only problem with the boom cannons was that they held thirty rounds at the max. Kren was down to five, as was the captain helping him hold off attack. The other captains stood ready to take their place when needed, but they would run out of shot just as quickly. Everyone had several magazines to reload with, but Kren worried about how many drones the hive possessed. Estimates had been calculated, but no one really knew their numbers. Now that they were in the thick of the fighting, he feared that the Risnarish force’s boomers might become depleted. There seemed to be no end to the drones rushing toward them.
Arga appeared next to him, clapping a hand on Kren’s shoulder. His face was alight with fierce joy. He was getting long-awaited retribution for his guardian’s disappearance.
Cutting the power had ended the hideous alarm that buzzed fit to make a man’s ears bleed. Arga yelled anyway, too hyped up to speak at a normal volume. “Done! Let’s go find Jeannie and Retav.”
With his own boom cannon close to its end, Kren let his partner take point. He kept an eye on the map Jeannie had made and directed the group’s advance through winding tunnels. With every junction going to new corridors, legions of drones spilled out at them. The enemy sprayed scattershot close enough to damage the armored hides. A few capture fields were able to immobilize the Risnarish fighters. Injured and frozen men were dragged away by others, out of the way of the fighting. Squads peeled off to advance through the tunnels, standing to protect the rear flank of the main rescue group.
Kren ground his teeth together to see friends bleeding. It fed his need to obliterate the enemy once and for all. He set aside his cannon to conserve on ammo. He fired plasma shot into the hordes of drones, wishing his enemies could feel fear and hurt before destruction. They went down in silence, a sharp contrast to the Risnarish screaming either in battle fury or pain.
The drones fell in droves, and more came to take their place. No man showed any inclination to back down, but the fight took on a more desperate tone. The Risnarish knew that death was imminently preferable to capture. The warriors would fight until they could fight no more.
Pouring sweat like the men around him, Kren fired and fired, the plasma rifle in his hand throwing out destruction until it was spent. He dropped back to reload it and his boomer. Arga did the same. Nex took point.
The fight raged on, the Risnarish gaining inch by painful inch.
* * *
When the power failed, Jeannie’s final missing memory clicked into place. She remembered how she’d escaped the hive.
The latest round of experiments had ended. The instrument the Monsuda and drones referred to as the “memory blocker” had been affixed to her right temple, taking away knowledge of what she’d been through, as well as repressing the previous memories that returned with each abduction. As before, she was relieved that it was over, that she’d forget it happened until the next time. That there would be a next time filled her with dread, but for now she could dive into oblivion.
The attending drones had floated her stretcher toward the portal. A flailing child was ahead of her, being herded rather than floated. He was a husky boy, about twelve years old. He was causing his minders enough problems that her attendants had left her to help contain him.
Why he hadn’t been immobilized in a capture field like Jeannie and the others she’d seen taken was not clear. There was some conversation between the drones, and she had a sense the boy had developed some sort of resistance to being frozen.
The struggle went on for some time, with the shouting boy managing to fling the spindly drones he laid hold of. Unwilling to take him down through more violent means, they had quite a fight on their hands. Yet little by little, they pressed him toward the portal. Meanwhile, Jeannie lay on her stretcher as minutes passed by.
The stretcher had her immobilized as always. Jeannie’s gradually retreating memory retained the knowledge that the capture field took a terrific toll on the mechanism. Unless plugged into a wall dock in one of the labs, the stretcher held its full charge for only a short time. It had something to do with the technology being old and resources falling short of replenishing outdated tools.
It didn’t matter. Watching the fight stretch out between the boy and five determined drones, Jeannie realized she had twitched in response.
She twitched. Her body had moved.
With none of the drones paying her any attention, Jeannie had strained to break free. At first she could do little more than manage minute jerks that accomplished nothing. But as the seconds and minutes passed, she started to drag herself toward the edge of the stretcher. She felt as if she moved through thick sludge, and she expended herself until she thought she would black out from exhaustion. Surely the drones would succeed in getting the boy through the portal and turn their attention to her before she made it to freedom.
Yet they were still shoving the tiring child toward the portal, a mere foot from pushing him into the saucer that would take him away when she rolled off the stretcher. Jeannie landed hard on the floor, but the resistance was gone. She could move freely.
A surge of adrenaline got her to her feet. The boy was in the saucer, its hatch being closed in his screaming face. A drone hurried to the control panel, ready to send the saucer on its way as soon as the hatch was secured and the other drones got out of the way.
Jeannie couldn’t escape that way. She needed to run if she was to elude her captors. But where? She knew something about this place...this ship. No, not a spaceship. A hive, was it? No, that was where bees lived. Knowledge slipped away, like water through her fingers. It was then that she remembered the memory blocker stuck to her temple. She snatched it off and raced into the blessedly empty corridor.
From there she’d slunk her way through the structure she now thought of as a spaceship. She ducked out of sight into the various chambers any time she heard the telltale click-click-click of oncoming drones or the even lighter steps of the Monsuda themselves. She left the memory blocker in one of those chambers. Slowly she found her way outside by heading in the opposite direction of where most of her tormentors went. She’d ended up in a dense forest on an alien planet, unsure of what had happened to her and with no idea of where to go.
Jeannie’s memories of her escape were clear now. With the power off, her stretcher would not be able to maintain the capture field. The mechanisms were old and failing. The shortsighted Monsuda, with all their scientific know-how, had squandered Risnar’s resources and couldn’t maintain the machinery anymore.
The Monsuda had to be stopped and Jeannie knew what she needed to do once she got free. She took a deep breath and tried to move.
She twitched.
Chapter Twenty
From the front of the line, Bort shouted, “I’m out!”
“Moving up,” Kren called grimly.
Arga came forward with him. Kren was on his last rounds of plasma fire and knew his partner faced the same situation. Everyone was at critical. Soon they would be out of firepower and at the mercy of the capture fields.
No one had called for retreat, however. They continued to press forward, determined to see the offensive to the end. Kren hoped the end didn’t include all the residents of Hahz b
eing stretched out on Monsudan lab tables.
For his part, Arga maintained the savage joy of the fight. He even grinned at Kren as he fired round after round of plasma bursts at the enemy. “I think we’re getting into a critical area. The big bugs have come out to play. We must be near the queen or super-sensitive parts of the hive.”
He was right. It wasn’t just drones they fought now. The Monsuda themselves were sticking their insect heads out and firing scattershot at the Risnarish men.
“It also might mean we’re putting a real dent in the drones,” Kren shouted back. There were far fewer of the mechanisms confronting them. The now depleted boom cannons had done their job.
“Probably both,” Arga said. He whooped as a Monsudan fell to a plasma burst and jittered as it smoked. “Best day of my life!”
Kren couldn’t agree with that assessment, not as long as his main mission remained unaccomplished. Beneath the sounds of fire being traded, he moaned, “Jeannie, where are you?”
* * *
Jeannie scurried down the corridor, heading toward the distant sounds of a firefight. She wasn’t sure what she would do once she got to where the action was. In fact, she doubted her sanity. What lucid, weaponless person would run toward an armed conflict?
Yet she needed help if she was to pull off what she planned to. That meant finding someone she knew, someone she could enlist in her crazy idea.
If she was honest with herself, she also had the desperate hope of finding Kren alive, unhurt, and fighting his way to her. She hated the thought of him going into danger over her, but the selfish part wanted to discover she was indeed that important to him. Her shaky trust needed to see him come running to her rescue, even though she’d pulled herself out of immediate danger.
As she hurried along, she peeked into the various labs she passed, making sure there were no drones ready to spring out at her. Lab after lab came up empty.
Her luck didn’t hold, however, at least when it came to victims of the Monsuda. As Jeannie paused at one doorway and snuck a peek in, her eyes met those of another woman. A bronze-skinned beauty, the lab subject appeared to be of Native American descent.
Her dark eyes widened to see Jeannie standing there. “Help me. Please!” she begged.
Jeannie’s brush with nearly being imprisoned in suspended animation for life made her pause for an instant. It was a moment for which she felt immediate guilt. Part of her yammered that she needed to get moving, to not get caught again, to run and not look back. Yet wasn’t it her conscience that had prevented her from jumping into the portal and zooming away to safety? That and the need to be with a certain striped Risnarish man who might be risking his life for her right now?
Such thoughts passed in less than a second. Before they were done, Jeannie was running into the lab, heading for the frozen, naked woman.
The prisoner blinked tears free as she breathlessly said, “Thank you. Thank you for not leaving me.”
Jeannie looked at the side of the stretcher where the drones always fiddled about. Her gaze fell on heavy scarring of the woman’s left leg. Had the Monsuda done that to her?
“That’s old. Ignore it. I try to,” the woman said impatiently.
Jeannie frowned. “I don’t know where the release is. There are several different buttons and switches on here.”
“Push them all,” the other woman urged. “I don’t care if it kills me. It’s better than being brought here again.”
Jeannie couldn’t disagree, but she didn’t like messing with another’s life. “Are you sure?”
“Hell, yeah. Go for broke, babe!”
Jeannie pushed one button after another. There was no discernible change, but at least she didn’t kill the woman. “Damn it. Which one? They always mess with something on this side of the stretcher when they—”
She flipped a switch as she spoke, and the other woman jerked up and off the stretcher. She nearly fell in her desperate bid for escape. Jeannie caught her, saving her from a nasty tumble. “Careful.”
The woman caught her balance and stood up straight. “I got it.”
She grinned at Jeannie, the expression flashing bright in her lovely face. Jeannie couldn’t help but laugh in return. Two survivors, sisters of misfortune.
“Thanks so much. I’d hug you, but I’m naked and that might feel weird,” the woman told her. “Where did those little bastards put my clothes? Oh, there they are.” She snagged a bright pink blouse and jeans from a nearby rolling table and yanked them on.
The sound of fighting was coming closer. It reminded Jeannie of all she wanted to do. “What’s your name?” she asked her new friend.
“Anneliese. Anneliese Thompson.” The woman stabbed her feet into worn sneakers and bent to tie them.
“I’m Jeannie. Do you remember how to find the portal from here?”
Anneliese flashed her a bitter smile. “I do right now. No one’s slapped a memory blocker on me yet. They had a few more tests to run.”
“Get going. One way or the other, I don’t think we have much time.”
Jeannie turned, ready to run on in her search for Kren. A strong hand on her arm arrested her flight. She halted and looked at Anneliese.
The woman asked, “Are there others? Like us? In the labs?”
Jeannie thought of the man she’d seen on her way in. Of all those pods with frozen people. “Some are even worse off than us.”
“I’ll help you rescue them,” Anneliese said. “I can’t leave this nightmare with more still living it. I never leave people behind.”
Anneliese sounded military. Maybe she was, with her strong build. Jeannie drew a steadying breath. Her aim had been to keep the Monsuda away from Earth’s billions of people, to keep them from using this hive’s portal ever again. She hadn’t figured on rescuing the humans already here, but now that Anneliese had pointed the need out, she couldn’t turn her back on them.
She nodded to Anneliese. “Let’s get moving, then.”
They ran out of the room, searching the remaining labs. The sounds of fighting went on, coming closer though more sporadic.
* * *
“Arga!” Kren yelled as his partner took a hit from scattershot and staggered. While Kren dropped back to check on him, Nex and Bort surged forward to take point.
Arga grimaced. Blood dotted his armored skin in small drops. “I’m okay. That pop didn’t have much power behind it. I’m down to my last few shots, though.”
Kren took aim at a Monsudan that chose that moment to peek around a corner. He missed, but Bort scored a direct hit. Kren checked how many rounds he had left and scowled at the number. No matter. He’d go for as long as he could in the hope of finding Jeannie.
He told Arga, “Keep to the middle of the group. Save your shots for the ones you know you can make.”
He headed forward, getting up front again. The drones were definitely fewer now, and the Monsuda weren’t showing up as often as before. He thought they must be regrouping for a final assault or perhaps concentrating their defenses around the queen.
It gave him hope he might find Jeannie in time to grab her and beat a retreat. Then they came upon yet another junction leading to another corridor, and all hope fled.
The hallway was clogged with drones and Monsuda, protecting whatever was in that direction. The enemy opened fire, and Kren knew his warriors were done.
As their last-ditch offense exploded in a hail of plasma with scattershot flying at them, Kren wondered if he’d survive. Though nothing could be worse than being captured by the Monsuda, at least he might see Jeannie again. Maybe he’d have the chance to tell her he was sorry for having failed her.
Nex flew backward with a yell, his hide peppered. Bort’s plasma gun fell silent as it spent its last round. Kren stepped up to lead the charge, and immediately scattershot pounded into his chest and stomach. Pain bloomed, tak
ing the breath from his lungs. Yet he would not stop. With Jeannie’s name on his lips, he crouched to make himself as small a target as possible and fought on.
Then he could no longer move. A capture field had hold of him, freezing him to the spot until the Monsuda could claim him for their hellish labs.
He heard Arga yell and knew they were all finished. Suddenly, the air filled with howls from many Risnarish throats, sending chills down Kren’s spine. Strangely, the cries sounded celebratory rather than the final calls of the doomed. His men sounded like they were cheering.
Then the Monsuda before him turned, their buggy legs clattering down the metallic hallway. The few drones retreated in confusion as well. Kren discovered he could move again. The capture field was gone. He wheeled around to face his group, to find out what had sent the enemy on the run.
The men of Hahz parted to let a charging pack through. Risnarish men, strangers to Kren, rushed up the space. The pair in front hurried past Kren, aimed their boom cannons, and blasted the laggard drones to pieces.
One of the unfamiliar men, his stripes golden and white, turned to Kren. Scarcely believing the strangers’ fortunate appearance, Kren said, “I guess the Assembly sent you? Welcome to the fun.”
The apparent leader of his saviors laughed, his silver eyes hectic with excitement. “I’m glad we could make it. I’m Jape Ihucas Bolep.”
His name indicated he hailed from Cas, the closest village to Hahz. Kren put his hand over his bloody chest. “From my spirit to yours, we are glad to see you.”
Jape looked at Kren’s bleeding torso. “I guess so. Any closer and that round would have gotten all the way through your skin. Can you tell me which of you is Kren Zvanhahz?”
“I am. And I’m heading that way.” He pointed to the corridor now vacant of all but the remains of the drones the boom cannon had taken out.
Not of This World Page 25