Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3

by Smith, S. E.

  The Emissary began braking maneuvers. Readings showed below zero outside air temperatures. Thank goodness they weren’t going to be outside in that. Their final target zone was a temperate seventy degrees now that it was night, the mist on the ground thickening.

  “Bull, can you confirm the shuttles can fly in current temps and wind speeds?” It had been her idea to park in the mountains though Bull had given her plan that interesting twist. They would still be exposed to the elements for a short period.

  “I can confirm.”

  Tough little ships.

  The ride was brutal. City had a new respect for hurricane hunter pilots. The buffeting was so bad, she saw, but didn’t feel it, when the Emissary banked between two jagged mountain peaks. She felt their braking maneuver, however, because the buffeting amped up. For several tense minutes, she thought they were going to crash into the side of the mountain and then they were on the ground sliding up against the mountainside, then rebounding until they finally came to a stop. A small snow slide tumbled down, the snow sizzling against the hot hull.

  “That was a seriously good landing, Bull,” she said. He didn’t respond. Perhaps he didn’t know how. With the engines off, the howling of the wind and the ice hitting the sides of the ship were loud enough to be disconcerting. Their current position was somewhat sheltered, thank goodness. But Dr. Dauwn wasn’t going to have a fun time here by himself—though it was probably still better than the time they were going to have.

  “Switching to shuttle control.” Bull’s voice was flat over the radio, because he was a one note guy. “Prepare for lift-off.”

  With control of both ships, he activated the phase cloak. They would head in, and gradually angle down, through the heart of the mountain. Depending on power usage, he’d pick their exit point and they should emerge into the open at a lower altitude and in a location their enemies could not possibly predict. At that point, they would switch to regular cloak and fly at tree height to their LZ. Tree height was still pretty high because this planet had some seriously tall trees.

  “Don’t open any doors while we’re gone, Dr. Dauwn,” City said over the radio. Not that he could. Rita would keep it all locked down while they were gone. “We’ll catch you on the flip side.”

  “Yes, Sergeant.” His voice lacked his earlier vagueness. If he was regretting his choice to stay, she couldn’t tell.

  She checked her passengers once more. Her Mikes looked like they were all now catching some Z’s. The Deltas had lost about half their diplomatic calm. Good thing they couldn’t see what she was about to see. They might wet their battle armor.

  The shuttles lifted off together. The hardest part was not being in control. Through the view screen vid, the other shuttle disappeared as the phase cloak activated, though it was still visible on her controls. She knew from the controls that Bull had activated the phase cloak on their shuttle, though she couldn’t “see” it happen since she was inside the shuttle. She tensed when the side of the Emissary drew closer. They passed through the outer hull, but the view of the now approaching mountainside wasn’t confidence building either. The wind hit them like a hammer once they were clear of the Emissary. She made herself breathe evenly as they approached the side of the mountain, Bull accelerating both shuttles. City tried to look away, but it was not possible.

  They reached rock—and passed into it. They were moving fast enough now that the strata of the rocks appeared blurred. Even with the meds, she might get sick. She looked down, tracking power use and shield stress to distract herself. At least the wind wasn’t in here.

  “Heat against the hull is rising,” she noted. Was it friction against the shields or were they close to a magma tube? “Do you copy the heat buildup, Bull?”

  “It is within an acceptable range,” he answered, “but I will adjust course.”

  This meant they’d emerge from inside the mountain sooner than planned. Was it better to burn to death inside a mountain or get shot outside one? She honestly didn’t have an answer.

  As the inside of the mountain continued to rush past, some strata were cut with red lines that could be magma. She didn’t check. She didn’t want to know. Bull had kicked their speed up the top edge of safe. A Bull out of hell? When she thought she couldn’t bear it any longer, they burst free of the mountain and out into the winds. Her shuttle rocked, and she clenched her hands so they wouldn’t try to correct course. She checked the readings as the cloak shifted from phase to regular. Power usage was higher than they’d hoped, but still in the safe range. No stress damage, though they’d pushed that line, too.

  “Wind’s not as bad down here.” Still wasn’t great.

  They’d emerged at a higher altitude than planned, so Bull steered them into a course that felt a lot like a nose dive. He used reverse thrust to slow them down as the tree tops rushed toward them.

  She felt the ship strain as the nose came back up, then slammed back in her chair when he kicked into high.

  Bull had some big brass—she stopped the thought. From this day forward, she was substituting Bull out of hell for bat out of hell and eliminating big brass anything from her thoughts. She checked the timing to their LZ.

  “Rita, stop the music.” She activated her comm to the rear of the shuttle. “Prepare for first stop in fifteen.”

  * * *

  Kraye’s gaze moved from the view in front of him to the controls counting down to the moment OxeroidR would give him control for the final approach to their landing place. It ticked down swiftly, even as OxeroidR braked for the landing.

  “Dude can multi-task,” Caro murmured next to him.

  He did not look at her. He could not afford to take his eyes off his controls and she had the power to distract him. He could not multi-task as well as the robot, so he did not think about their interaction before boarding the shuttle, well, he did not think about it much. It was also in the distraction column though it gave him considerable incentive to survive this mission so that he could do it again.

  “I have control of the shuttle,” he said. The shuttle quivered some as he took over control, applying what Caro liked to call the speed brakes. Another screen gave him a countdown to the LZ. The robots had perfected the stop and drop as it tended to confuse tracking, and taught him to do it, too.

  On tracking, he saw the other shuttle stop and drop first. He followed it in, feathering the controls and braking hard. The shuttle made a tight turn over their landing spot so their sensors could take a quick look.

  “Looks good,” Caro said. “Put her on the ground.”

  This shuttle had vertical lift and descent functions. He switched to this even as the engines protested the fast stop. While the shuttle made a fast descent through the small break in the trees, he checked power usage, shield strength, and other systems integrity. The shuttle hit harder than he liked, but they were down.

  He cut the engines. They needed to save power for the assault on the encampment and then, once they completed their mission, they would need to do all of this in reverse to get back to the Emissary.

  “No sign yet that anyone knows we’re here.”

  She did not sound relieved. Like him, she did not assume that the enemy would give them any preview of their intentions. They would pounce when they thought this ship, or those on it, were vulnerable.

  “Rita, what’s the atmosphere like out there?”

  It is acceptable.

  This was as expected. Its humanoid population was much like theirs. And the probe’s readings had shown it was within the acceptable range for them. Their Garradian battle armor also filtered out harmful toxins and bacteria, as well as allergens, he’d heard Caro tell the female Delta.

  Caro was already on her feet, palming the hatch open with one hand, while the other lowered her face mask. “Delta1 and 2, you wait on the bridge.”

  Neither one protested, just moved quickly to obey. Caro shut the hatch behind them. Her teams were ready except for their Infrared—IR.

  The
lights in the cabin lowered until they were completely off.

  “Turn on your IR,” she ordered.

  Ahead of them the hatch began to lower, revealing the dark outlines of a forest. The hatch hitting the forest floor caused the thick mist to retreat in slow rolling waves.

  “Clear,” she ordered.

  The two rows of Mikes ran down the ramp, spreading efficiently out. Kraye and Caro followed them to the edge of the ramp and stopped, their weapons ready.

  “Anything on the sensors, Rita?” Caro asked.

  “Small life signs only.”

  “Roger that. Mike1 and 2?”

  “Clear.”

  “Clear.”

  “Alpha team, deploy,” she said.

  “Roger that,” came the flat reply.

  * * *

  In stark contrast with the wind-blown, jagged peaks where the Emissary waited, this forest was on the edge of steamy. Thankfully, the alien battle armor they’d found on one of the Garradian outposts provided some temperature adjusting capability—though it had to work hard when the adrenalin kicked on.

  The trees seemed to reach up and touch the stars sweeping across a carpet of deep, dark blue. Fern-like plants clustered around the wide bases of those trees. Some trees were straight and tall, others twisting and turning in curves that gave it a fairytale ambiance that City was sure would not last. Any small heat signatures had scampered away when the hatch had lowered.

  Alpha4’s heat signature had swept over them, bringing City’s heart into her throat for long seconds, then she’d headed for the encampment. According to her heads-up display, Bull—Alpha1 still beat her there. The robot could move when he wanted to. If the heat signatures were reading right, he had Rocky on one shoulder and Tiger on the other.

  It was strange to feel worried and puzzled.

  They started getting video from inside the encampment.

  “Okay, let’s get ready for phase two.”

  She and her Mikes headed back inside their shuttle. Kraye climbed into the other shuttle.

  She kicked Delta1 out of her seat and fired up the engines. The sims were great for practice, but there was nothing quite like the feel of an engine firing.

  She hadn’t removed her headgear, so she could monitor the video feed from Alpha1. He was good. He made sure to give them a 360º view as he penetrated the encampment. The video was IR, so it took her a few beats of her heart to realize what the perimeter fence was.

  Web. Densely woven web.

  He zoomed in briefly, then moved on. Would these spider creatures be as large as the one they’d stepped on during the last op? He’d been as big as Jabba the Hut, eight legs—the two front ones curving forward like crab claws, and eight eyes in two rows. Big, crap-brown and disgusting with human blood dripping from his fangs.

  Alpha1 was inside the perimeter she realized. Bull could out ghost a ghost. He almost gave her robot envy. Just inside the perimeter were single size, evenly spaced huts. They started at the gate—the only way in or out it appeared—and continued all the way the around. Inside the circle of huts were three larger structures with barred windows.

  “Has Alpha3 been able to give us a more precise location of the hostages?” Zulu2 asked over the radio.

  He’d asked City’s next question. She wished she could ask—and get—an answer to the questions that lingered about the big bird. Would she betray them? Would she know her kids? If others of her kind lived here, it was possible that other hatchlings had been captured. And the biggie: what had she been forced to do to keep the kids safe?

  As she circled up there, what was she thinking? What was she planning?

  “I see movement from one of the structures.” This was Alpha2’s whispered croak. “It appears to be a guard patrol.”

  City studied their positions on her HUD. The heat signatures were close to Alpha1. She wasn’t worried about him being spotted. They could probably bump into him and not realize who he was. But if the bird wasn’t really with them—

  The video view changed abruptly. Who—it had to be Rocky. It moved forward in jerks and bumps. It might do to her stomach what their flight through the high winds had not.

  “Where—” she started to ask. Then she realized where he was.

  “He’s inside one of the prisons,” Kraye said.

  She felt her skin chill inside her body armor, a chill it could not warm.

  There were birds, birds like their bird, but also humans. Children and adults.

  * * *

  OxeroidR waited until Rocky had run through all three prisons before processing his next action. Only the middle building housed Harparians.

  Six of the bird species and about sixty humans were behind held in the three buildings, about five were children.

  Rocky flew silently from the barred window and landed on his shoulder.

  “They are not all prisoners,” he whispered.

  “How?”

  “Too well fed.”

  Ah. He postulated that not all the cells would be locked, only those with true prisoners, and that the fake prisoners would be armed.

  He ran through the video Rocky had broadcast, marking targets, at the same time formulating a plan. They’d packed the prison. Only five adults and the five children appeared to be actual prisoners. The human prisoners were separate from the Harparians. The children in one prison, the adults in the other. He could neutralize the fake prisoners in all three. Logic said he should focus on the birds. If he did not, the situation could become exponentially more complicated.

  He lifted Rocky and Tiger from his shoulders, setting them down in a deep shadow next to the central prison.

  “Wait,” he said. As he moved toward the entrance to the first building, he sent a written message to Zulus 1 and 2.

  Launch. Prepare to land both shuttles in ten minutes.

  As a device emerged from his frame and melted the door lock, he spoke once, his voice barely loud enough for the radio.

  “Alpha4 now.”

  He’d passed through the two outside prisons and was back with his two companions before the Lady dropped silently down next to them in the shadows by the middle prison structure.

  He turned his attention to this lock.

  The door swung silently open. He held up a metal hand, signaling her to wait, and entered. When he returned to the opening, the only sound from inside was the fluttering hum of sleeping birds. He looked down at Tiger.

  “Now,” he said. He looked up, meeting the Harparian’s gaze. She appeared as if she wished to say something, but instead she followed the caticorn inside.

  * * *

  Both shuttles on the ground? City studied the video coming back, but none of it was from Bull.

  “We’re lifting off,” she said into her rear intercom. “Strap in and get ready to deploy.” She activated her private comm with her Mikes. “We’re landing both shuttles. Prepare to defend both and assist in boarding passengers.”

  She watched Kraye lift off in Golf Sierra Alpha. She followed him and was on his six as he accelerated toward the encampment. They stayed low enough that the tops of some trees scraped the bottom of the hull.

  They came in fast. She reversed thrust, engaged vertical lift and dropped down next to GS Alpha. She dropped cloak and lowered the rear hatch as she yanked off her restraints and grabbed her weapon. The hatch slid back. Her Mikes were already down the ramp.

  She felt a twitch in her gut and said into her radio, “Kill your IR.” She hadn’t turned hers on and was grateful when the center of the compound lit up like a fairground.

  * * *

  OxeroidR caught up with the Harparian and passed her as Tiger, with Rocky on his back now, approached the two cages that held the young.

  The Harparian gave a soft call. The young stirred, ruffling their feathers.

  One made a sharp sound, but Tiger’s horn began to glow—a glow only visible because of the darkness in the prison. A low hum also came from Tiger.

  OxeroidR quickly u
nlocked the cages, and the birds came out, casting uncertain glances at their mother, but falling willingly in behind Tiger.

  “Take them to Golf Sierra Alpha, my friend,” OxeroidR told him.

  “That was the plan,” the caticorn said, breaking his long silence. He trotted toward the door just as the outside lit up as if it were day.

  * * *

  The door to a structure to City’s right burst open and Tiger galloped out, that was the correct word, Rocky clinging to his back and four Harparians running after him. City hoped that was a good thing.

  Mom and Bull came out on their heels.

  She didn’t have to ask her Mikes to help out. She pivoted toward the other shuttle, running to help Kraye—Zulu2, who was taking fire from that direction. Her HUD gave her heat signatures, even without the IR, thanks to OxeroidR and Rita.

  It was a lot like the sims, only the incoming fire blazing perilously close was real.

  Energy pulses. Estimate in disable, not kill, range.

  So they were looking to take prisoners. Good luck with that.

  She fired a burst, using the blunt nose of the shuttle for protection, then pulled back as multiple bolts hissed past, one striking the shuttle with a prolonged sizzle.

  On the HUD she saw Tiger, and the kids were almost to Golf Sierra Alpha. Zulu was closer, but whatever.

  With her own eyes, she saw a blur that her HUD identified as Alpha1 head into the nearer prison structure. Were there more birds in there?

  Cries and shouts blended together with the babble of battle chatter.

  She saw something approaching on her HUD. Something big, something almost as fast as Alpha1.

  Crap, a spider.

  She leaned out, kicking her weapon to kill and stepped out, firing repeatedly. It staggered back, but kept coming. Kraye joined fire with her and the thing began to fall back.

  City turned, her back to Kraye spraying that area with cover fire. Then they dodged back between the shuttles as they took a brutal round of incoming fire.