OMEGA Guardian

by Stephen Arseneault

  At the end of a shift, I sat on my bunk. "There are sixty-eight guards on duty during any shift. Add in the additional sixteen who guard the entrance, and the plateau outside, and we have eighty-four per shift, and two hundred fifty-two total. It appears that only three, one at the doorway, and two in the towers outside, have blaster rifles. I am certain that there is an armory somewhere near the Talisan barracks.

  "So, with two shifts running at a time, we will have a hundred thirty-six guards to contend with down in the shafts. Back on top here, there will be thirty-two. We can either plan to take them all at once, or just enough of them for us to slip out of here."

  Jallis offered a confused look. "Are you saying that we could in effect liberate this whole mine? If so, what would we do with everyone? We don’t have a transport to get all these people into orbit, and if we did, we don’t have ships to get everyone out of here. If we make it out, we have a better chance of coming back to liberate them than we do of trying to free everyone at once. It’s logistically impossible."

  I replied, "I had the same thoughts. I just wanted a second opinion. I will have a plan for us to mull over after tomorrow’s shift. Get a good night’s sleep. We will likely need it if we decide to put the plan into action."

  When the next shift had come to an end, I sat close to Jallis on his bunk. "This is the plan. We start by taking out the shaft guards with our picks when we first arrive at our shafts. We then move up to the transition guard who is checking quotas. He sits in a chair by the conveyor, facing away from the shafts. After that we take the elevator. There are two guards standing there, and as with the others down there, they have shock sticks. I counted off the steps, and with a run from the main shaft, we should cover that ground in five seconds. That should allow sufficient time to take them out before they react.

  "The guards do not have comm down in the mine. There should be no word of our actions. There are two guards up here at the top of the elevator. When the doors open, we need Garmon to be lying on the center of the elevator floor. You and I will be waiting on either side, just inside the door. When the guards come in, we jump them.

  "Next, we will have to snake our way around the other guards that are on this level. I believe I can take down the guard by the exit door with the shock stick before he can react. On the other side of the door are two more guards. We should be able to surprise them as well. One of them has a blaster.

  "Once out on the plateau, there are two remaining guards, one in each tower on the ends of the plateau. You and Garmon will have to put on guard uniforms and then walk out to each tower. By my calculations, it should be night outside. That should allow you to reach the towers and climb the stairs. If nothing looks suspicious, you should still be able to surprise the guards and recover the two blasters that they have.

  "After that, we can lower ourselves to the jungle floor and slip away. If I am correct, they will not pursue us down there, leaving us free to head for the spaceport. We will have to devise a plan for taking a transport from there. If all goes well, we might have as many as seven hours down in the jungle before they realize something is wrong."

  Jallis replied, "There are a lot of moving parts to this plan that have to go exactly right. Once we start this, either we are dead or we escape down to that jungle."

  I nodded. "My question to you then is this, are you in?"

  Jallis thought for a moment. "If we stay here, we are dead within a year; I can already feel the dust affecting my lungs. The lead poisoning will also make us dumb as time goes on. So, I’m ready as soon as you are. And count Garmon in with that. I do foresee one other problem."

  I replied, "And what is that?"

  Jallis gestured toward his ore hauler. "Layda, she hauls my ore. If we leave her, she will be killed as reprisal for our actions and as an example to others. I believe her to be physically capable of joining us, and she seems of high intelligence."

  I nodded and smiled. "Ask her if she is willing, although her alternative is likely death. Use your powers of persuasion to inspire her. Convince her that it is in her best interest."

  Jallis stood and walked to Layda’s bunk. Five minutes passed before he returned.

  Jallis spoke. "We are a go for first thing in the morning. We have until the elevator reaches the bottom to cancel this plan. If you do not speak of it by then, I will proceed to my shaft and take out the guard."

  I sat back on my bunk as I replied, "Until the morning, then. Sleep well, for tomorrow you will be free."

  Jallis laughed as he lay back on his own bunk. "Yeah, I will be free, or dead one."

  The shift alarm buzzed as usual. I woke and dressed for the day. Jallis and Garmon each had a solemn look on their face; each was ready. I glanced over at Layda only to receive a firm smile and a nod. We all walked together as the Talisans herded us down the hall to the elevator. When we reached the bottom, I remained silent as we walked to the tool room. With that silence, our escape plan was now in motion.

  When I reached my shaft, the guard was already in place in the chair where he would normally spend most of his next sixteen hours. A voiding bucket that sat beside him would be for his required breaks.

  The Talisan guard never looked up and never saw the end of the pick before it dug into the back of his skull. It was a grisly undertaking, but necessary for our escape.

  I turned toward Garmon. "Just stay behind me."

  When I turned back toward the main shaft, I had a shock that I was not prepared for. Another miner and his ore hauler had wandered down the wrong shaft inadvertently. I stood frozen, not sure of what to say. The miner’s expression then turned into a nasty grin. He ran back to the main shaft and then down toward his own guard. As I walked out into the main shaft, I could hear the faint thud of a pickaxe being buried into a skull as the errant miner executed his shaft guard.

  Again, I waited for Jallis and Layda; they had yet to emerge from their shaft. The Feldon that had executed his guard returned to the main shaft with a wide grin. He turned and moved quickly down the next shaft with his bloodied pickaxe raised as his ore handler followed with a captured shock stick. In a near panic I located Jallis’s shaft and hurried down it to find Jallis and Layda in a scuffle on the shaft floor with the Talisan guard.

  The two Feldons were holding their own against the larger and stronger Talisan. I reached down, grabbing the Talisan by the back of the neck, lifting him into the air. Before he could let out a scream, I drove his head face-first into the solid rock wall. The Talisan slumped from my hand as the life left his body.

  "Get up and let’s go. We have another Feldon that is going crazy out there. He came down my shaft by mistake and saw the dead guard. He is now running from shaft to shaft, exacting his own justice."

  We moved quickly and quietly up the main shaft until we had come to the guard who was preparing to take quotas. Jallis ran forward and did the deed with his pickaxe. We proceeded to the end of the shaft and stopped just short of the corner. I checked that Jallis was ready. He nodded.

  We rushed around the corner only to find a single guard standing by the elevator door. I looked back to see the second guard sitting on his voiding bucket with a stunned look on his face. With two hard steps I met his rising skull with my pick. Jallis had surprised his guard as well.

  As I turned back, Jallis laughed. "What a way to go. Hahaha!"

  I wiped my pickaxe on the dead guard’s uniform and then joined Jallis, Garmon, and Layda on the elevator.

  Jallis spoke. "You two, lie down in the center like you're injured. When the doors open, move around like you're in distress."

  As the elevator approached the top I shook my head. "I hope we are able to exit this elevator before word is sent up over a wire comm. I would imagine that there is nothing but chaos going on down there now. I don’t think our friend will quit until every Talisan below is dead."

  Jallis nodded. "Let’s hope they take their time. The elevator takes eight minutes in either direction. As soon as we see it going
back down, we will have sixteen minutes before someone else comes up. That may be guards or it may be slaves. If we want any success against those towers, we need silence."

  The remaining minutes of the ride up were quiet. Jallis hugged the left wall as I took the right. When the elevator came to a stop, the doors opened to two guards with their shock sticks in hand. The writhing Feldons on the floor did not seem to raise much concern. The guards entered the elevator with their attention fully on our decoys. I struck first, with Jallis following a second later. The guards were quickly pulled from the elevators and dragged into a side room, where the pickaxes were removed.

  Jallis spoke. "What do we do with them now?"

  I looked back into the hall. "We prop them up in their chairs. Unless their supervisor comes by, I don’t think anyone else will notice. From there, we work our way around to that exit door."

  After arranging the guards, I was startled as the elevator doors closed and it proceeded to head down. We had sixteen minutes until it would reach our level again. Under my direction, we moved two hallways over and turned onto another hall going toward the exit door. I walked around a corner, only to be confronted by a Talisan guard.

  The guard spoke. "You! What are you doing here?"

  I looked up at him sheepishly and shrugged.

  The Talisan scowled. "Another lead head. Your days of mining are over. Let’s go see the cook so we can get you into tomorrow’s stew."

  For a moment I was frozen in my tracks at the thought of having eaten the remains of other sentient beings. Cannibalism was something that had been looked upon with abhorrence by every species in the AMP as well as in the New Alliance. It seemed that the Talisan might have refused to heed that message.

  Jallis rounded the corner and jammed a shock stick up under the arm of the unwitting guard. As the guard slumped to his knees, Layda followed up with a pickaxe to his skull. A side room was found to dispose of the body, and our venture continued.

  When we reached the end of a third hall, I stopped the others. "This is the last guard before we go outside. The door out has a window, and one of the guards beyond has a blaster. I will rush this guard; the rest of you stay here until I signal. When that door opens, we will only have a moment of surprise. If the guard manages to fire his weapon, any thoughts of slipping out quietly will be gone."

  I peered around the corner to see a guard sitting in a chair with his back to the wall. His shock stick was sitting on his chair on one end, with the other propping up his protruding chin. It was evident from my angle that the guard was asleep. I moved up quietly, reached slowly over, and squeezed the trigger for the shock stick. The guard convulsed violently and slid to the floor.

  I glanced out the window to see two guards again sitting in chairs, and again, one of them was asleep while the other fidgeted with an item in his hand. I looked back at the others and waved them forward. Jallis lined up behind me with his pick in hand as Garmon and Layda held up shock sticks.

  I reached for the doorknob and twisted. It would not turn. It was locked from the outside! I tried again with the same result.

  Jallis whispered, "What is wrong?"

  I replied, "The door is locked from the outside."

  Jallis’s head rocked back in dismay. Everything had gone perfectly up until this point, and now we were trapped in the mine with no way out. I turned back to look down the main hall as a buzz sounded, signaling the elevator was moving again.

  I said, "We have eight minutes before this place erupts in chaos. I’ll consider any ideas anyone has."

  Layda stepped up. "We need them to open the door for us. How do we make that happen?"

  I looked at the Talisan guard that had slumped out of his chair onto the floor. He wasn’t dead, but his eyes remained glazed over from the shock stick to his chin. I grabbed the Talisan by the uniform on the back of his neck and picked him up.

  I turned back to the others. "Get ready. When that door opens, I will get the near guard, and I will need you to take out the far one."

  The others nodded. I held the guard’s face up to the window and knocked on the door. I pulled him slightly to the side so that his face was not fully visible and knocked again.

  A voice could be heard from outside. "Hold on. What do you want, Donnat? We aren’t supposed to open this door."

  I knocked again and then held the end of the shock stick to the doorknob. When the knob twisted and the door opened slightly, I triggered the shock stick on the knob. I then jerked the door open, pulling the stunned guard toward me and through the doorway as the others rushed past. A second shock from the stick sent the Talisan folded over to the floor.

  When I looked back to the outer hall, I could see Jallis tugging at his pickaxe, attempting to unstick it from the skull of his latest victim. Layda then returned with another pickaxe and a scowl and put an end to the two stunned guards at my feet. I propped the door open with the guards body and proceeded out into the hallway beyond.

  I said, "Jallis, you and Garmon grab the uniforms off these two and get dressed. Each of you will take a shock stick and walk out there as if nothing unusual is happening. When you get to the base of those towers, climb the steps and zap those last two guards. Pace yourselves so that you both arrive at the same time. I will be here with the blaster should either of you need backup."

  Jallis spoke. "Why do you get the blaster?"

  I replied, "When was the last time you fired one? Or better, have you ever fired one?"

  Jallis slowly shook his head. "Well, no."

  I smiled. "I have been through the marksman course with a similar rifle. If you get in trouble, get back out of that tower, and I will take care of it."

  Jallis nodded as he helped Layda disrobe one of the dead guards. With the uniforms on, Jallis and Garmon proceeded to walk towards the ends of the plateau. The fact that blaster fire was not heard during their walks was a good sign. As they reached the towers and began to climb the stairs, I peeked around the corner. Using the sighting scope on the top of the rifle, I zoomed in on each of the towers. The guards appeared to be at ease as the others climbed.

  Through the scope I could see Garmon as he smiled and zapped the guard. When I turned back toward Jallis, I could see that the two were fighting, and Jallis was taking the worst of it. I sprinted toward the tower and twice stopped to take aim with the blaster. I could not get off a clean shot.

  I continued my sprint and raced up the steps into the tower. A bloodied Jallis was standing over the dead guard. The leg of a broken chair had been thrust through the guard’s neck.

  Jallis spoke as he breathed heavily. "I thought I was dead. He was swinging me around like a sack of Genaline peaches. I managed to grab that chair, but I missed him and hit that counter instead; that’s when the leg broke off. He picked me up and body slammed me twice before I got my hand on that leg. I got in a lucky strike on the last swing. I might have a busted fore rib."

  I placed my hand on his shoulder. "I’m glad you were able to overcome. Let’s get your brother and Layda, and get off this mountain."

  Chapter 10

  As we came down the steps of the tower, Garmon and Layda were came from the other. Garmon smiled as he held up a blaster while Layda brandished a bloody pickaxe.

  Jallis spoke. "When we first arrived, the guards pointed in this direction for where they dumped bodies. Let’s see if there is a way to lower ourselves down."

  I held out my hand. "I just thought of something. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. Where do they take the ore once it’s mined? It has to be loaded on ships. If they are bringing ore ships all the way down to the surface, we may be able to find our ride out of here that way."

  When we reached the edge of the plateau, there was no indication of a method to be lowered to the jungle floor. I took the blaster and zoomed in on the bottom of the ravine. There were no carcasses, no bones, no sign of bodies being pushed over the edge.

  I said, "I think the ravine and probably the jungle
story were made up to keep us in line. There is no indication down there that anything at all has happened here. Had anyone been thrown over, there would be bones."

  Layda tapped my shoulder and pointed back toward the door. "I think we have a bigger problem."

  Feldon slaves were pouring out of the doorway to the mine. The one crazed Feldon had managed to free the remaining slaves by overpowering the Talisan guards. After a short discussion with the proclaimed leaders of the revolt, it was learned that they had taken out the active guards and then raided the quarters of those who were sleeping. An armory was then found and a dozen more blasters liberated.

  I spoke to the leaders. "The Talisans lied about the jungle. There are probably no such things as Garantian bears. There is also no way down from this plateau."

  One of the leaders pointed back into the mines. "We will have to find or make ropes."

  I replied, "I have another idea. They have to be taking this ore somewhere. Wherever that is, they have ships to transport it out of here. If we want off this planet, we need a ship or many ships."

  The Feldon leader again pointed back into the mine. "There is a shaft down in the mine where the ore is carried away. If we follow that, we will find our ships."

  I nodded. "How good are you at climbing? I think we should send a group around this mountain as well. They have to be taking the ore out somewhere on the other side."

  The Feldon replied, "Our people are not the best at scaling mountainsides. Our ancestors lived on a mostly flat world."

  I turned to Jallis. "How about you? Do you think you could handle the terrain of the mountainside?"

  Layda spoke. "I don’t think we will have to. It looks like there is a path leading away from behind that tower."

  I replied, "OK. Here is what we are going to do. I need twenty volunteers and four more blasters. We will take that path around. The rest of you, find that ore shaft and follow it to wherever it leads. We will try to meet up on the other side. If you run into trouble, send a runner to let us know the situation. We will do the same. And before you go. If you haven’t ever fired a blaster and you are holding one, stop back in the bunk room and take a few shots at the far wall. It will at least give you a feel for what happens from your end of the rifle."