by Selina Rosen
Nothing but silence answered him for the longest time, and his anger flared again.
"Lieutenant, all that is left is for you to say Yes, Sir and report back to the ship immediately."
"Yes, Sir," she said.
The transmission closed.
Briggs screamed in frustration and slammed his fist into his consol, causing warning lights to flash and sirens to wail.
"Get these fucking things turned off!" he ordered the crew.
"Sir," Yumby seemed reluctant.
"Spit it out, man!" Briggs screamed as the emergency alarms shut down.
"Well, Sir . . . the station-wide emergency system which you just activated?"
"Yes?"
"Well, Sir, when it comes on . . . the. . . um. . . the cells automatically. . . uh. . . open. . . in the brig," Yumby explained not without cringing.
"What!" Briggs screamed. "Why the hell would they do that?"
"It's a safety precaution sir," Yumby explained. "People in the brig aren't usually receiving anything more than discipline, and . . ."
"Are you telling me that all those lunatics are loss on the station again?"
"Not the whole station," he said with an air of pride. "I was able to close the cell block off before they had time to escape."
Briggs seemed to be relieved. "Good then they're still locked up."
"Yes, Sir, but . . . Well, they are mostly the maintenance people."
"So?" Briggs snapped.
"So, there are several maintenance hatches in the cell block, and they know their way around the service ducts," Yumby explained.
"Why would they put something so freaking important basically on the arm of my damned chair? How freaking stupid is that . . . Gas them!"
"But, Sir . . . the ducts serve the entire station, and . . ."
"Yumby, you find a way to contain those prisoners, or I'll see to it that when I go down I take you with me. Do you understand!" Briggs screamed.
"Yes, Sir," he said. Then just stood there.
"Do it now!"
Yumby ran to his console and started keying frantically.
Briggs jumped up and started pacing, again pulling at what was left of his hair. "It's all coming undone. I have to think. What do I do now? What is my next move?" He was talking out loud, and when he looked up and realized that everyone on the bridge was staring at him as if he had gone round the bend, he yelled at them all. "Don't you have anything better to do than stand around on the bridge all day?" No one said anything; no one moved. "Well?"
"Sir," Drex started. "We work on the bridge."
"Oh . . . I know that! Don't you think I know that!" he said momentarily stopping to glare at them all.
What next, Briggs? Everything is coming apart, and now all the lunatics who want nothing more in this world than to kill you are loose and running amuck on the station again. If some broom pusher doesn't kill you, it's a sure bet the Tribunal will fry you. You have to do something amazing and brave.
Suddenly he knew exactly what to do.
"I . . . I can't wait for Stratton to get back. I will have to go to the planet's surface myself without the information and try to save our relationship with the natives. Lieutenant Yumby, you're in control until I get back." He turned on his heel then and headed for the door. "Yumby, get me a crack team of Elites and three GSH's, and have them meet me in the hanger. We will be taking a fully loaded and fueled battle cruiser. If the natives won't talk reason, we'll at the very least teach them some respect."
"Yes, Sir," Yumby said.
"Well . . . Get to it! While you're at it, call maintenance. When I get back I want that damned emergency control button to be . . . Somewhere else."
"Where, Sir?" Yumby asked.
Briggs turned to look at the man, his eyes becoming two slits. "Oh, you're pushing it, Yumby. Just tell them to put it somewhere where it can't be accidentally activated."
"Yes, Sir."
"Good," Briggs started towards the door. "I'm on my way to the hanger."
* * *
Yumby sighed with relief, glad to see the back of Briggs. He was also pretty pumped about being in control. That is he was pumped until he received the answer to his call.
"They've escaped! All the prisoners have escaped! I don't know where they are, but they're not in the cellblock. I have deployed the troops, but they could be anywhere . . . Man, we are so screwed."
Yumby took in a deep breath and moved to the Captain's chair. "I have accepted temporary command while Briggs goes planet-side, Wiksel." An audible sigh of relief could be heard from Wiksel's end. "Tell the troops to double their efforts. Over"
"Will do. Over."
"Lieutenant Yumby, should we warn Captain Briggs?" Drex asked.
Yumby looked at Drex and smiled. "Warn him about what? The situation is under control."
* * *
"This changes everything," David said. "Now we can't just sit around here wasting our time letting blood sucking lizards hang around on our genitalia."
"For the last time, shit boy. The wretched bastard wasn't on my dick," Levits cursed from where he sat holding the poultice the native priest had given him on the bite.
"Well, you wouldn't have guessed that from what you wanted me to do," RJ said with a wicked grin. She turned her attention to Topaz. "Aren't you done yet?"
Topaz looked up from where he stood working on the apparatus that was now attached to Taleed. "This is a complicated piece of equipment, RJ. It's robotics, it takes careful thought and delicate adjustments. You can't just slam it together with rubber bands and baling wire."
"Whatever the hell those things are," RJ said with a smile.
Topaz chose to ignore her. He stood back and looked at the boy. "Try it now."
Taleed moved his elbow, and the robotic hand grabbed the rock he'd been reaching for. His eyes lit up. "I am whole. Look Haldeed, look! I have hands." He experimentally tossed the rock, and it hit Topaz right between the eyes.
"Hey!" Topaz shouted, rubbing the wounded area. He turned to RJ and smiled. "Now that's freaking gratitude for you."
"Oh!" Taleed said his features becoming a mask of apology. "I am so sorry, Old One. It's just that my excitement is far greater than is my aim."
"Don't worry about it, son. I say that every morning when I go to the bathroom," Topaz said wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. "So isn't anybody going to say it?" he demanded.
"You are a genius." RJ walked over and kissed him on the check. "Aren't we all very impressed at how clever and resourceful Topaz is?" She started clapping, and the rest joined in. Topaz bowed less than graciously.
"However!" RJ said holding up her hand and stopping the applause.
"However?" Topaz asked with a mock pout.
"Yes. However, we don't have time to celebrate. David's right. The call from the station does change everything. Stratton, Bradley and the others are expected back on the station. If they don't show up there soon, they will be under suspicion, if they aren't already, and we miss a valuable opportunity to gain access to the station. One I don't think we can afford to waste." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded her head as if to answer a question that no one had asked.
"Give me a minute," she said and then turned and walked away into the brush.
They watched as she left.
"I hope this means she finally has a plan," David said.
"Or at the very least that she's going to make one," Topaz said nodding. "It's rather unnerving to have a leader who suddenly stops leading"
David nodded his head in agreement.
"Hey! Look, Haldeed! I think I've got it this time," Taleed said as he threw another rock. This time the rock hit Haldeed between the eyes
Haldeed slung his hands around angrily, You are either a very bad shot or a very good one. "I . . . I'm sorry. I wasn't throwing the rock at you, I was throwing it to you," Taleed insisted.
Perhaps you should try throwing something softer than a rock, Haldeed suggested rubbing his
head.
"Yes, maybe I should," Taleed said and went in search of something to throw.
Bradley caught Stratton's attention and shrugged towards an area behind one of the skiffs. Bradley left and was followed a few seconds later by Stratton. They stopped in a grove of small trees about fifty feet behind their own skiff.
Bradley looked back in the direction of the group, then back at her. "I'm not sure I'm exactly comfortable with that lot making decisions that affect us all," he said.
Stratton nodded. "I know what you mean. We have the only viable ship, and I would think that would at least buy us one vote. We're being left completely out of the loop."
"Do you trust her?" Bradley asked.
"RJ?" Stratton asked.
"Yes, RJ. Who else?" Bradley said a little impatient.
"I trust her to get us all killed if it serves her purpose. I think we, unlike her own people, have the unfortunate position of being expendable to her. I trust her not to kill us or double cross us, but I don't trust her not to get us killed," Stratton said. "She's a freak with feelings, that in itself makes her the scariest thing I've ever seen, but then there's the . . ."
"Disorganization, the obvious insanity," Bradley supplied.
"Yeah, those," Stratton said with a laugh. "Decker's getting better, but he certainly isn't ready for open combat, and I can't even guess at what she's got going on in her head. What she's going to order us to do."
"Have you noticed how her right arm jerks all over the place? What's up with that? Is that some sort of nervous twitch?"
"No, I read about it in a briefing. It's some defect caused by a flaw in her genetic engineering," Stratton said. "From the way she acts, I don't think it's the only one.
"We could sneak back to the skiff. We might be able to get Jackson inside and get the hatch closed before they figured out what we were doing," Bradley said.
"That's a risk I don't think we can intelligently take," Stratton said in disbelief. "These people aren't exactly the kind of people you want to catch you in a double cross. I doubt we could even get past them. Have you watched Poley? The one they call her brother. In spite of what she said, I'm guessing he's some sort of freak, too. I imagine that he kills completely without conscience. He appears to be watching everything at once, and yet he rarely speaks, and his features hardly change. No, I don't like it, but I'm thinking we're going to have to go along with whatever plan she comes up with. Unless you just want to blow our brains out right here."
"Now that's good, clear thinking."
They both practically jumped out of their skin as RJ seemed to fold out of the plants behind them. "She's absolutely right, Bradley. We don't like to be double crossed, and if I even think that something you're doing or are likely to do is going to cause me or one of my crew to be injured or even that it may endanger our mission, I'll kill you without conscience. That's just the sort of girl I am. You know – flawed and defective." She turned and started back towards camp, then turned around. "Well, come on. I've got my plan."
They nodded and started after her. When Stratton came up even with RJ the woman draped her arm over Stratton's shoulder, causing Stratton to jump. "By the way – just for the record – Poley is a robot with AI, not a freak." She turned her head and looked right into Stratton's eyes. "Oh, and here's something else. I don't like being called a freak. I can handle being called disorganized, insane, even flawed. But don't you ever call me a freak again. Understand?"
"I.. I'm sorry," Stratton said. She was glad when RJ released her and walked on ahead. She turned to look at Bradley, and she didn't have to tell him how scared she was. He could see it in her eyes. She let out a long, slow breath and then started to breathe normally.
"I am going to work very hard at never pissing her off again," Bradley said in a whisper.
Stratton whispered back. "If she wasn't intending to use us for cannon fodder before, I'm pretty sure she just changed her plans."
"And you see? I can still hear you. So please shut up," RJ yelled back at them. "Or I'll make up a cannon fodder assignment especially for you."
RJ walked back into camp and right up to the fire. They followed and sat on the ground behind the others.
"All right," RJ said with a broad smile, "I have a plan."
"Yes!" David said in an excited tone.
RJ smiled at him and then continued. "The way I see it, the battle is on two fronts – the station and the palace. So we are going to have to break into two units. We will transfer enough power from the fully powered skiff to fly the other as far as capitol. That should still give us plenty of fuel to make it to the station. Jackson, can you fly the skiff?" RJ asked.
"Yes," Jackson answered.
"Good, that makes my plan that much easier. Now here's what we're going to do . . ."
Chapter Sixteen
David didn't know how this had happened. RJ had taken Poley, Topaz, Levits, Stratton and Bradley with her to the station while he was stuck going with the natives, Jackson and the wounded guy to the capital. Apparently he was being left behind because he had just recovered from space sickness and couldn't go back into space right away. RJ explained that it was just as well since those going with her were all familiar with space and spacecrafts. David pointed out that he had as much experience in space as Topaz did, and RJ quickly reminded him that Topaz hadn't been sedated through most of it. Levits had quickly added that Topaz also hadn't slung shit all over everybody.
David knew the truth of why he had been chosen to stay planet side, and even though he really didn't like the whole space package, it still chapped his ass to be left behind because he was considered too sickly and too stupid to be taken on the space part of the mission.
"What's wrong?" Janad asked from where she sat beside him.
"I don't like being left behind is all. I want to be part of the team," David said.
"You are part of the team," Janad said taking his hand in hers. "Part of our team."
"You know what I mean, Janad," David said. "I wanted to go with RJ. I have always gone with RJ."
"You don't want to be with me," Janad said with a mock pout. David smiled in spite of himself. "See, that's better. We need you here with us, David. They have all the high techs; we need you more than they do."
Taleed, who was playing with his new hands nervously, looked up at David. "I only hope I can do my part," Taleed said. "What if I am no better a leader than my father?"
"You will do fine, My Prince," Janad said.
"But I . . . I have never talked to the populace in a mass before. What if I don't say the right thing?" Taleed asked nervously. "I don't know what to say – how to tell them that everything they believe is nothing but lies. I could ruin everything by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time."
David laughed. "Well, then perhaps this really is where I am most needed, because I know everything about talking to the masses. It has been proven that I am not a great leader. I am, however, a grade-A, number one bull-shitter. I'll teach you a few things, help you know what to say, and how and when to say it – but you have to promise me one thing."
"What's that?" Taleed asked anxiously.
"That you never let the fact that people will listen and follow you let you lead them where you know in your heart they should not go," David said.
"I promise." Taleed said with a sigh.
That is a possible solution to one of my problems, but there can be no easy solution to the other. They tell me to overthrow my father – as if it is nothing. I am to take what is his and make it mine, and then what of him? He is a proud man, and right now – according to what the aliens have told me – he is a very sick man, maybe even dying. How will I live with myself if I betray him, and can I really hope to take power without betraying him?
* * *
Taheed looked out the window at the ship that had landed below. He knew looking at it that it was a machine of battle. He took a deep breath and let it out.
"Ziphed, my brother," he said heavi
ly.
"Yes, my lord," Ziphed answered. Ziphed's radiation sickness had quickly escalated so that he now had to have two younger priests to support him. They were sick, too, but with less of the gold metal around their necks, and younger – and therefore stronger – constitutions, they were not dying as fast
"Go and meet their Leader. Tell him that all of his men must come out of the ship. Bring dancers there to entertain them so that they do not become suspicious. Tell him that only he and two of his men may enter the palace. Tell them that this is our custom during the days that Azure Lune shines brighter than Grande Lune. Pretend as if all is well between us, and we still wish to trade with him . . ."