Focusing on the flicker as each of the two disappeared, he speculated on the design of the cloak. He dissected the evidence, and when he understood how it worked, he set about finding ways to negate the advantage the cloak provided.
Very clever, Criss. It seems I underestimated you.
And then he felt a prickle of fear. Perhaps he’d been mistaken assuming the capture of the crystal would be a trivial certainty. Of course, he’d forge evidence proving it was the incompetence of the Kardish soldiers that caused the failure. But the king and his advisors wouldn’t be fooled for long. At some point, the finger would point to him.
Backing up and tracing through events yet again, he tracked Sid and Lenny until they disappeared onto the cloaked ship. Later, from the lodge roof, Cheryl and Juice joined the humanoid aboard the same transport. Yet he couldn’t find a point where any of them departed the cloaked craft. So, you’re all either still on board or have more tricks in play.
Goljat recognized that one pathway out of this mess started with the capture of the cloaked craft. This would lead him to some, and perhaps all, of Criss’s inner circle. Like dominoes falling, that would eventually topple Criss.
Linking to every device on the planet, Goljat searched for sound signatures, vibration patterns, and other markers that might reveal the location of their ship. He came up empty, and though disappointed he wasn’t surprised.
He reasoned that the craft wasn’t flying at that moment, at least not anywhere near the planet’s surface. So it’s either grounded or out of the atmosphere and somewhere in space. Determined to avoid the king’s wrath, he resolved to be meticulous in his search. He’d make a spectacle of his efforts in the hopes this would negate any question of his power or competence.
Until new information guided him otherwise, he would conduct a comprehensive search of the planet for the grounded transport. He’d deploy every available soldier and have them enlist the populace in the hunt. They’d look everywhere—in caves, behind walls, within groves of trees. He’d motivate the humans to cooperate using threats, deaths, and destruction. It would be traumatic for the masses, but if the craft was on the planet, he’d find his prize.
A search off planet created different challenges. Space was a vast, empty vacuum. There weren’t millions of devices scattered about to exploit. Without air, there was no sound and vibration to analyze. And he certainly didn’t have a populace to draw upon to form search teams.
Logically, an Earth ship didn’t have many places to go in space. It could circle the planet in orbit, it could head for the demolished Lunar Base, or it could travel across space to the nascent Mars colony. Guessing doesn’t help me. I need to find it.
He understood that the cloak functioned by channeling energy around the ship’s outer surface and passing the flow onward unchanged. No device in the current Kardish inventory could detect or defeat that technology.
But he could design such a device. A beam must go a greater distance to travel around the outside of the ship. Going around something always takes longer than going straight. That tiny smidgeon of extra time was the Achilles heel of the ship’s cloak. It would appear as a time anomaly, and he knew how to detect it.
Goljat needed Kardish techs to construct his detection device. He showed them every step of the manufacturing process, but after that, he had to wait while they fabricated and assembled the device in their workshop. Frustrating, but I have no choice. With the best techs on the job, he had hours before his detector would be ready for launch.
And that gave him enough time to stage his comprehensive, planet-wide search. Launching wave after wave of Kardish transports filled with soldiers, he deployed them around Earth in preparation for an invasion. He would manage every aspect of the offensive. This time there would be no mistakes.
* * *
Bored with looking at equipment he wasn’t allowed to touch, Lenny sat on the floor and leaned back against a cabinet. Bending his legs, he rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his temples.
Sid squatted next to him and scanned the space. “Did you run across anything that’s reflective?” Keeping low, he shuffled around the room, looking at the smaller items. “The number of Kardish out there is increasing, and I don’t want to be sitting in a spot where they might see me.” He picked up a small flat plate, looked at both sides, and set it back down. “A mirrored surface would let me keep my head down while I watch.”
“Ask and you shall receive,” said Lenny. He reached for his pack and pulled out the wire filament he’d rescued from the drone. Lifting his butt, he dug into his pocket, pulled out his nib pouch, and removed the camball from among his treasures.
He held the faceted orb near his face but found it hard to see details in the dim light. Looking up and around, he spotted a shaft of light coming through the window and scooted over so it cast its glow onto his hands.
“I’m pretty sure this has a filament port.”
“What is it?” Sid sat next to him and watched Lenny work.
The camball had a loop he’d used to hang it from a chain. Lenny pushed his thumb on the loop, and it shifted to expose a tiny port. Like threading a needle, he fed in the filament wire, lined it up, and established a connection. “Hold on. I think we’re in business.”
He connected the other end of the wire to his com, rose to a crouching position, and rested the camball on the sill of the window that faced the field deck. He sat back down next to Sid, enabled his com, and accessed the camball.
“Your web link is off?”
Lenny nodded as he worked. “I’m using a direct wire connect.” He toyed with settings on his com, and a miniature three-dimensional image projected in front of them. He watched it while he fiddled. In a swooping display, he saw a bare arm, a delicate shoulder, and the swell of cleavage.
Oh shit. The vid from the travel restaurant. He tweaked the com as fast as he could. The image faded and resolved as a display of the field deck.
Lenny felt his confidence waning and recognized that the meds were wearing off. He snuck a glance at Sid, who appeared focused on the projected view of the Kardish vessel outside the window. Lenny decided to pretend the display of the girl never happened. Maybe he didn’t see it.
Taking Sid on a tour of the camball’s capabilities, he displayed different angles and views and zoomed in on a few random workers. “There are facets pointing in every direction, we can watch through any of them, and everything gets recorded, even if we’re not watching.”
“How are you able to use this ball without giving away our position?”
“The camball doesn’t send out any signals. Light waves are always bouncing around, and that’s what it records. It’s the same way our eyes catch light. The camball just records what it sees.” Lenny pointed to the filament. “And my com is talking to it through the wire, so there’s no communications broadcast to give us away.”
“Can we see up at the hangar door?”
Lenny found the facet with the best view of the overhead hangar door, zoomed in, and selected it for display. “Here’s the record of the door since I turned on the camball.” Lenny sped through the vid. Since the door hadn’t moved in the last few minutes, the display showed a still image.
They spent the next hours sitting on the floor and viewing what they could see of the vessel from the camball’s vantage point on the windowsill. Together they discussed the array of items attached to the inner hull of the dreadnaught, the lack of distinguishing features on the facades along the front row of buildings in the box city, the structure of the drone garage, and even the drones themselves.
They were trading observations about the hexagonal drone cubicles when a low rumble echoed through their hideout. Lenny froze, waiting for the sound to fade. It continued, and after several moments, he turned to Sid, who still looked at the image display. Showing impatience, Sid twirled his finger as he pointed. “Find out what’s going on.”
Lenny didn’t have to search long to find the cause. A parade of
troopships, hovering in a single-file line that stretched into the distance over the box city, snaked forward above the open field deck. The ships landed at the far end of the field, one behind the next, creating a straight row down the length of the deck that ran parallel to the edge of the box city. When the first row filled, a new one started next to it.
They watched the craft—small relative to the immense open space—land in long lines. The activity was fast and efficient, and after a couple of hours, rows of ships covered a third of the deck area. And still, craft waiting to land snaked out over the box city in a line so long, the end faded from sight.
“This is one serious mobilization,” said Sid. “How many soldiers do you think each of those can hold?”
“Maybe fifty? What would you say?”
“I was going to say sixtyish.”
“They’re all headed to Earth?” Lenny knew the answer but felt the need to say it out loud.
The tone of the rumbling sound changed. Lenny flipped through the different facets of the camball and found the cause. Vans filled with Kardish soldiers streamed onto the field deck from a door in the wall on the same side where they hid. The vans drove across the edge of the deck in front of the drone garage, then turned and disappeared down a far row of troopships.
Lenny lost sight of the vans when they turned into the sea of craft, but he presumed these soldiers were crew for the ships. This assumption was confirmed to some extent when a stream of empty vans began zipping by in sight of their hideout window, likely returning for another load of Kardish soldiers.
Chapter 34
Criss, seated at the scout’s ops bench, studied a projected image of the Kardish dreadnaught. Its black featureless hull offered no hints of the world inside. Exhausted from their recent travails and bored from the monotony, Cheryl and Juice slumped in the chairs behind Criss in a restless sleep.
A hatch needs to open at some point, thought Criss. It might be for the passage of drones, supply ships, or troop carriers. They may be leaving the Kardish vessel to continue the campaign against Earth, or returning from the surface after a period of deployment. Whatever the event, Criss waited, poised to act, certain an opportunity would present itself.
Hours passed and still he waited. A flicker drew his attention, and a slit of light signaled the rise of a hangar door. He executed a thrust-pulse, and the scout started a slow drift toward the opening.
“Rise and shine. It’s show time,” he called back to his leadership. Cheryl popped awake, eyes alert and ready for action. Juice yawned and stretched, then leaned back and closed her eyes.
“C’mon, sleepy head,” said Cheryl, reaching over and shaking her forearm. Juice sat upright and rubbed both eyes with her palms.
As the hangar door rose, the growing flood of light darkened with shadows, and then like a beehive emptying in attack, small craft poured out of the opening—dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. Instead of a swarm, though, the stream of craft formed a line that stretched from the Kardish vessel and began to encircle Earth.
Criss’s plan had been to sneak in on the heels of a small pack of craft either entering or exiting through the vessel opening. He hadn’t anticipated a procession of ships filing out for such an extended period.
“Whoa,” said Juice, digesting the scene. “Criss, you need to stop this.” She brought her knees up under her chin and hugged her legs. She looked over at Cheryl and back at the image projection.
“If stopping them is possible at all,” said Criss, “our best odds lie with the original plan of fighting from the inside.” Tap. The scout moved forward below the line of Kardish craft.
“You’re going under them?” asked Cheryl.
Criss nodded. “They move in a predictable formation.” Swipe. “Or they have been, anyway.” The stream of Kardish transports flowed outward, and as long as they continued their current pattern, a safe margin existed for the scout to slip beneath.
Criss’s decision matrix sprouted branches suggesting he stay outside to see how the threat developed. But the strongest branch, his pathway forward, concluded that the coordination of this remarkable deployment consumed the attention of the gatekeeper crystal and the Kardish support crew remaining on the dreadnaught. His best opportunity lay inside, now, and he acted accordingly.
The scout drifted through the hatch below the exiting craft. When it crossed the threshold of the hangar opening, the gravity of the Kardish vessel grabbed the scout, tugging it downward toward the deck below. Tap. Criss slowed the scout’s descent but let it drop as fast as he dared.
To avoid the line of departing craft, he directed the scout toward the outer hull of the vessel, staying near a huge wall that divided the ship into sections. The moment the ship touched, he powered down the engines and all peripheral subsystems.
Tapping in front of him, Criss projected a panoramic image of the scene outside the scout. To the right of the display, a string of Kardish craft rose one after another from a vast, open deck.
They watched the hypnotic scene in silence until Cheryl broke the spell. “How do we know if they made it? And how do we find them if they did?”
As he panned the inside of the dreadnaught in a slow sweep, much of what Criss saw echoed an eerie familiarity with the time he’d spent on the other Kardish vessel two years earlier. An expanse of open field deck spread out in front of the scout. A huge wall dividing the ship into sections filled the view to the left. The drone garage rose on the horizon straight across the field, and the vista of the gray-white box city showed in the distance to the right.
He centered the image on the line of departing Kardish transports. Only one row of craft remained and the exodus would be complete. A movement behind the last craft drew Criss’s attention, and he shifted focus to view an imposing flatbed truck driving out from the main thoroughfare of the box city.
Continuing past the last of the transport ships, it headed across the deck in a straight line toward the scout. It stopped near the center of the field, well away from their position.
Criss’s interest wasn’t in the truck, but in the awkward contraption the vehicle carried. It had a spherical head about as wide as the truck bed and a collection of long, thin spider-like legs folded at unlikely angles underneath. The result was a compact clump. He dug deep into his knowledge record and couldn’t associate this device with anything that hinted at its purpose or function.
“What the hell is that?” asked Cheryl.
Before Criss could speak, Juice added, “If we destroy it, will we stop the attack?”
Criss answered in reverse order. “We can destroy it if we act now, but it will be suicide for us, and I am confident the Kardish would replace it with another in short order.” He zoomed in for a closer view. “As for what it is, I don’t know.”
The last troop transport lifted from the deck, and as soon as it cleared the overhead hangar door, the contraption rose from the truck bed and followed.
They tracked it as it floated up to the hatch in the dreadnaught hull. When it passed through the opening and out into space, the legs beneath the head unfolded. Criss decided they looked more like the tentacles of a jellyfish than legs of a spider. What is your purpose?
It moved out of view, and the hangar door closed. They were now shut inside the dreadnaught, while outside, invaders were preparing to attack Earth.
Criss swiveled to face Cheryl and Juice. “That deployment is an overwhelming military force. Earth will suffer tremendous destruction and loss of life, and perhaps even the annihilation of human civilization. I agree with Sid’s instinct. The way to stop them is from here, inside the Kardish vessel.”
Rising from the pilot’s chair, he continued. “Given the number of craft involved, the gatekeeper must focus resources on coordination and management. I’d say we have five or six hours before it’s too late to stop them. What can we achieve in that time?”
“You have an idea.” Cheryl’s intonation made it a statement.
“I killed
the Kardish prince. I’ve known they’d come for retribution, and I’ve been open and honest with you about that. Surrender me to the Kardish on the condition that this end.”
Juice let out a gasp. “No.” Her chin quivered, and she looked at Cheryl. “The leadership will not consider this option for the next five hours, if at all.”
Cheryl started to speak, flashed a shadow of a smile, and continued. “We have three people, two objectives, and one ship.”
Criss’s crystal lattice experienced a new stimulation. You count me as a person! Then he focused on her message. “You see our two objectives as discovering a means of stopping the Kardish and of finding Sid, who may have discovered such a means.”
Cheryl nodded. “Let’s devote our first efforts to finding Sid. If he and Lenny made it here, they’ve had time to hatch a plan. While we look, we’ll brainstorm. If we don’t find them, we’ll act on our best idea as time runs out.”
“I agree,” said Juice. “But it needs to be a better plan than tossing Criss to the wolves.”
Criss sensed that Juice’s affection for him and Cheryl’s affection for Sid colored this decision. Protecting them—his leadership—dominated his existence. If Earth dies, they will too, and I’ll have failed.
While he was willing to save them and Earth by sacrificing himself, he didn’t yet know how to surrender in a way that would guarantee such an outcome. He’d experienced the Kardish gatekeeper’s savage cruelty when it attacked him in his vault under the mountain. He didn’t trust the powerful crystal.
* * *
“Where are you off to?” asked Cheryl as Criss made for the rear of the scout.
“To get some gear. Might you search for Sid’s mark until I return?” He disappeared down the passageway.
Cheryl slid into the pilot’s chair and toyed with the image projection system as she considered a best approach.
Crystal Conquest Page 26