V06 - Prisoners and Pawns

by Howard Weinstein

  Teri watched the maneuver on her screen. "Damn, they're trying to bracket me," she mumbled. From here on, she would have to rely on instinct. No time to think about things. With a deft hand, she dove at a frightening angle. As the other two ships were just completing their turns back toward her previous position, Teri saw her only chance.

  She turned sharply and aimed the nose of her fighter nearly straight up, directly toward the enemy ship on her left. She would have to forget about the second ship for the moment, and hope.

  Her fingers squeezed the trigger and her ship loosed a blaze of laser bolts in a continuous stream.

  Her target swerved in a rapid evasive dive.

  She'd missed completely. And the other ship was right behind her now. A mountain was directly in front of hei; its peak higher than her present altitude. The mountain had a distinctive notch on its right face. Was this the one that

  Annie had told her about, where some artist had begun carving out a monstrous sculpture, leaving it for his sons to complete after his death? If it was—

  No time to go anywhere else, she thought. If I'm wrong, I'm dead anyway. If I'm right—

  She jerked the nose of her ship up, rising, aiming over the mountain, skimming its top crags. Blue sky filled her front windows. She had to fly by sight, by feel now. Her only advantage was the little she knew about the terrain, which was more than her hunters knew. Even before she cleared the rocky crest, she kicked her skyfighter hard over to the right, and whispered a quick prayer

  Behind her, the pursuing ship did the same thing—an instant too late, for just over this peak was a second, slightly taller mountain. Teri's blind advance maneuver allowed her to skirt the sheer face of the second, but the other fighter had made its move too slowly and it glanced off the cliffs, cartwheeled crazily, and plummeted to the ground a thousand feet below. Teri heard the distant thunder of the explosion.

  Lydia twisted in the gunner's nest, watching the last of her fleet of escort fighters disintegrate in a billow of angry red flame. The bulbous fireball quickly darkened as black smoke swirled around it. She clutched the mouthpiece of her headset. "I want that ship," she hissed.

  The dark-skinned pilot exchanged a glance with James, who sat next to him, hands tight on the forward gun controls.

  On the video screen in the aft compartment, Lydia saw what was happening on front view. The target ship was flying a panicked pattern of evasive dives and rolls now, but it couldn't shake them.

  And the same trick of terrain wouldn't succeed twice.

  Inexorably, the distance closed. Teri's vessel twitched and flailed like a frightened animal trying to get rid of an attacker whose teeth were locked on its tail. But all her efforts were futile.

  James sighted the fire-control screen, locked on his target, pressed the trigger The jagged pattern of bolts homed in on the other vessel—closes closes closer—hit! There was a brief flare, then a blast that shattered the enemy vessel into shards spinning in all directions, dancing in fiery glow as they arced away from the center of the explosion, then cascaded down to the desert and woods below.

  At the aft gun, Lydia frowned. She'd wanted to shoot the rogue down herself.

  "That's it, Lydia," James said into his headset.

  "No, it isn't," she snapped. "I still want Ham Tyler and the fifth-column traitot Resume search pattern. Start from the area where we first spotted that intruder vessel. There's a good chance it was on its way to pick up Tyler Now that we don't have to worry about anything in the ais divert all scanners to ground sweeps and cut our altitude. I want to see anything that moves down there."

  "So much for help," Ham Tyler said.

  He, Annie, and Barry could see the burning wreckage of Barry's aircraft farther down in the valley. They watched silently from the dubious haven of sparse woods.

  "We can't stay here," Tyler concluded.

  "Why not?" Annie said.

  He pointed to the sky. Her eyes squinted against the stark cloudless blue, but she saw it. The Visitor skyfighter that had survived the encounter was heading toward them.

  "Wait, Ham," she said. "We can hide."

  "They'll find us sooner or later And we've still got that invasion plan we've gotta get to the others. That's what all this was for."

  Annie snorted ironically. "Hard to believe some theoretical strategy caused all this."

  "Theoretical now, but deadly if Lydia gets to put it into effect," Barry pointed out, his alien voice throbbing with intensity.

  "But there's no way back to civilization that doesn't take us out in the open, is there?" Ham asked.

  Annie shook her head. "Nope. Of course, we could wait till dark."

  "Same problem, Halsey," Ham said. "Where to hide so they can't find us." He shaded his eyes and searched the sky. "Oh, God."

  Annie reacted sharply. "What?"

  "Look—"

  She and the Visitor followed Ham's pointing finger. The skyfighter was bearing down on their rest stop, moving slowly, as if stalking prey it knew was there.

  "Halsey, get us out of here," Ham said.

  "Ham, we can't. There's no way—"

  Her argument was cut off by the streak of a laser blast from the sky. They were being shot at! The first line of tracer bolts sizzled the trees ten yards from their position, close enough to convince Ham the Visitors weren't simply guessing. They were trying to smoke their quarry out—but for capture or murder? He had no idea which, and didn't really care to stick around and find out.

  "Now, Halsey!"

  "There's a cave. If we can get to it without them actually seeing us, we might be able to fool 'em."

  "Go!" Tyler barked.

  Annie cut off the main trail into thicker foliage, and Ham and Barry followed. The stocky Visitor had trouble fitting through small openings in the bushes. Thorny branches ripped the artificial skin on his face and hands, revealing dark green, scaly hide.

  Above them, the skyfighter had stopped shooting. It weaved unsteadily, like a hound sniffing for a lost scent.

  They reached a clearing they'd have to cross, and Ham glanced over his shoulder. He saw the hesitation of the ship.

  "This might be our only chance," he said. "Go!"

  He pushed Annie ahead, then Barry, then plunged through the knee-high grass himself. In front of him, Barry stumbled and Annie stopped to help.

  "No—keep moving!" Ham shouted, scooping the Visitor to his feet. They started running again. Ham sensed movement overhead, but before he could decide whether to look back, he felt the searing heat of a laser shot as it shrieked past his head. It barely missed them, blasting a hail of dirt clumps and sand into the ait He heard the incongruously faint hiss of the vessel's maneuvering thrusters as the pilot tried to hover steadily enough to allow the gunner a clean shot. A stream of laser bolts slashed the ground alongside as the trio kept running. Ham started a serpentine pattern, hoping to confuse the gunner by splitting their line into a multiple target. They can't shoot all of us at once, he thought as he swung his laser rifle up and fired at the ship.

  The power of the energy streaks made the hair on Ham's neck prickle. Two incoming bolts sliced a heavy branch off a tree as the three of them ran past it. Annie tripped over the branch, her leg entangled in leafy twigs. Ham stopped this time.

  "No! Get Barry and that plan to the cave—I'll catch up!"

  Ham paused for a heartbeat, then turned and propelled Barry ahead of him. He fired at the skyfighter again, hoping the distraction would give Annie enough time.

  She kicked at the branch and scrambled to her feet.

  The skyfighter's cannon blazed again.

  The laser bolts struck the ground inches from Annie—she leaped away, her eyes catching Ham's, urging him to Go, don't wait, and then the next barrage came. Ham had started to turn, to leave her behind, knowing she'd catch up, when he saw and heard—and inhaled the smell of burned flesh.

  Annie was down, writhing in pain, smoke coming from an ugly scorch on her side. Ham skidded as he pu
shed Barry to cover in the trees just a few feet away. They were so close to shelter . . .

  In the time it took him to change direction, Annie became still. He reached het; ignoring the continuing fire from the ship overhead.

  Sudden laser fire came from another source, and it was directed not at the ground, but at Lydia's ship. A glancing hit on the small aircraft's side rocked it and spun it halfway around.

  "Ham, look!" Barry called.

  Tyler ignored him, but Barry saw another Visitor vessel streak across the sky. Lydia's damaged ship turned and limped toward this new attacker. Barry hurried out and helped Ham carry Annie to cover They laid her gently on the dry yellow grass, where they saw that the burn went clear through her denim jacket, deep into her skin.

  Tyler's hand waved helplessly over the wound, his face masked with grief. "Halsey, no . . . not now. We—we almost"—his voice choked down to a whisper—"almost made it."

  Barry looked away, trying to locate the sounds of aerial combat. Then, in the distance he saw Lydia's ship circling like a wounded beast trying to keep its strong side to its enemy. But the attacker was too quick, peppering its target with warning shots. It kept missing, apparently intentionally.

  Smoke filled the cabin of Lydia's skyfighter. One trooper lay dead on the deck, and the pilot worked valiantly to keep Lydia's tail gun facing the flitting enemy vessel which was shooting at will.

  "Why don't they destroy us?" Lydia said almost to herself.

  "They're toying with us," James answered from the front. "Lydia, we're running low on fuel. If we don't surrender, we'll crash."

  Lydia heard him, but continued to angle her cannon in the futile search for a killing blow.

  "Lydia!" James repeated. "We've got to land now"

  Her face screwed up in fury. "All right—land!" she spat.

  "That's it!" Elias crowed from the cockpit of Zachary's borrowed ship. "They're goin' down!"

  Maggie smiled from the pilot's seat next to him. Julie turned with a thumbs-up from the weapon turret in the rear. Zachary and the other resistance fighters in the midship cabin readied their weapons.

  "Zachary," Julie called, "we need you now. Do your official act."

  The Visitor climbed forward to the communications console next to Elias. He waited for Julie's signal.

  "Maggie," Julie said, "follow them down, close but not too close, until we see how they react and until we know if Lydia's on that ship. Okay, Zach, your turn."

  Elias activated the radio and Zach leaned in. "Disabled vessel, come in, please. I am speaking for Diana, the supreme commander She knows about your unauthorized and bungled attempt to capture Donovan and Tyler; the human criminals. She has ordered you to cease your activities immediately and will be coming down to take command herself. You are also ordered to activate your locator beacon so she can find you upon her arrival," the young Visitor said with complete seriousness. "You will acknowledge this communication."

  They all waited to see if a reply would come. Finally, Lydia's voice said: "Orders acknowledged. Beacon activated."

  The signal from the downed ship locked on to the sensor screen while the ship's computer calculated the coordinates. Maggie changed her course accordingly and flew around a mountain. There, down in a dusty field, the disabled fighter squatted, vapor venting from its damaged engines, cabin door open, and Visitor soldiers climbing out.

  "Okay, people, when we land, we mean business," Julie said. "If they even look like they're going to shoot, we shoot first. These uniforms should buy us a couple of seconds of surprise. Maggie, land head-on. I'll take the front laser to cover the rest of you. Elias, you're in charge of the landing detail."

  "You got it, lady."

  Maggie set their vessel down about ten yards away from Lydia's ship. The Visitors had been milling around, examining the scars of the brief dogfight, and the security commander had just ordered them into formation.

  Elias peeked out the side port. "Line up them bowling pins, just line 'em up," he said. He looked back at the rest of the landing party standing with him at the two side hatches. Julie sat up front, next to Maggie, who remained at the pilot's controls. With both hands on the laser triggers, Julie nodded and Elias popped the hatches. He and the others jumped out, weapons raised.

  Behind her dark glasses, Lydia's eyes narrowed. The troops from the other ship—no helmets, no eye-protectors.

  "They're impostors," she growled. Then, loudly: "Weapons—open fire!"

  The first reply came from Julie at the laser cannon, laying down a spray of energy bolts no more than a yard away from the Visitors' boots.

  At the same time, Maggie spoke from the loudspeaker of the skyfighter: "Don't move—hands in the air—or you'11 be killed where you stand."

  Lydia did a double take as her shock troopers followed Maggie's instructions, totally oblivious to their commander's previous order As if reading Lydia's mind, James turned to her and said, "I think your order's been countermanded."

  For emphasis, Julie fired another short laser burst over the Visitors' heads. They ducked involuntarily, but kept their hands up. The rebels quickly relieved them of all weapons and hardware.

  Inside the ship, Julie slid out of the weaponry seat. "Maggie, take the lasei; just in case. Don't hesitate to fire if they rush us." She picked up a hand laser, then jumped down to the ground and walked over to the Visitor commander.

  "Julie Parrish, isn't it?" Lydia said smoothly.

  "Doesn't really matter does it?" Julie asked rhetorically. "All that matters is that you didn't get what you came for."

  "Hey, Julie—look," Elias called.

  Julie turned to see Ham Tyler and Barry coming down from the nearby hills. She waited until Tyler reached them, and she was stunned by the hollowness in Tyler's usually unreadable eyes.

  "Ham, what is it?" she asked, deeply concerned.

  His lips twitched for just a second, and his eyes became masked again. "Nothing," he said in a monotone. He gave

  Barry a quick glance, a tacit request for silence. The Visitor complied. Tyler handed the alien tape cassette to Julie. "This is Lydia's invasion plan. It's a doozy."

  Julie took it. "We have it already," she said.

  Ham's eyes flared, his jaw setting stiffly. "You what!"

  "We have it already." She gestured at Zachary. "This is a real Visitor and he brought us a second copy when Barry didn't come back or communicate with him. We were worried. We didn't know what might've happened to you all. Where're Mike and Chris?"

  Ham shrugged. "I don't know. They were back in town. We don't even know if they're alive. But we do know Maragato was a phony, a Visitor passed off as the real thing."

  "Jesus," Julie said.

  "Got a lot of stories to tell each othei; I'd guess," Ham said, glaring at Lydia, who was smiling now.

  "I've got a—how do you humans say it?—punch line for this whole incident. This invasion plan of mine, which you now have two copies of? It was a fake—just as fake as Maragato."

  Ham's teeth gritted and he stepped up to her "What?"

  Julie grabbed his shoulder "Ham, don't forget the venom on their tongues."

  But he was beyond hearing the warning or anything but what Lydia had to say.

  She laughed. "You foolish humans. It was a lure to get you and Donovan out where we could control your actions and capture you to make up for the loss of the human spies you freed from us." She stopped laughing when Ham gripped her throat and dug his nails into her plastic flesh, tearing it down to the dark scales underneath. Lydia snarled and her tongue snaked ominously from between her lips.

  "Don't threaten me, Lydia," Ham whispered. "Even if you blinded me, I'd still break your goddamned lizard neck."

  James started to move toward his commander. Elias stepped in with his laser-rifle barrel. "Butt out, man."

  Lydia tried to maintain a condescending smile as Tyler tightened his grip, his eyes slits of pure anger

  "Ham, don't," Julie said. Then, sharply: "Ham, d
on't! I don't know what happened out there, but this isn't the way to get her back!"

  He let out a deep breath, his hand still clamped on Lydia's oozing neck, the oil from her natural skin shining in the sunlight. "Maybe for you people it isn't. This wouldn't be the first time I killed somebody with my bare hands," Tyler said calmly. "It was good enough for the other guys. It'd be good enough for this—thing," he said contemptuously.

  "Well, if you're going to strangle her, hurry up," Julie said, impatience charging her voice.

  Ham looked at her, surprise lifting his eyebrows. "You don't care?"

  "No, I don't care. What I care about is getting to that town and getting Chris and Mike out—if they're still alive."

  Suddenly Ham released Lydia, wiping his hand on her uniform. "Quick strangulation would be too good for her anyway. And, like you said, we don't have time now to torture her the right way."

  "We're your prisoners then?" the Visitor security commander said.

  Julie shook her head. "We don't take prisoners. You already know that. This is twice in one week you're getting away. I almost wish things had been different. I almost wished you'd attacked our ship. Then we would've had all the reason we'd need to blast you out of the sky. Maybe next time."

  "That's not enough," Tyler said. "We need more Visitor uniforms. Get out of them."

  Lydia straightened defiantly. "No."

  Lydia nodded. "Yeah, Lydia, strip—you and your whole lizard pack here. The next time you see Diana, not only are you not gonna have your weapons or your ship, you're going to be buck naked."

  He said it without a trace of humor; and Julie and the others wondered what could be fueling Ham Tyler's furnace of hate toward the invading aliens.

  "A little light to undress by," Tyler added, walking over to the pile of newly liberated Visitor weapons and selecting a rifle. He set himself and fired a stream of energy bolts into the downed skyfighter, patiently holding the trigger until he hit something volatile and the ship exploded. Then he turned and came back to Lydia. He aimed the weapon at her midsection. "Do it—now. Or I'll burn you down before you can blink."