by G. E. Stills
****
Rho’naa hesitated before knocking on the door to Kyra’s office. Since completing the trials on Euganta she had been patiently and waiting for assignment. Both of her companions had already received theirs and were gone.
This must be it. I wonder where I’m going?
“Enter,” Kyra answered her knock.
Coming to a halt in front of the desk, Rho’naa saluted. “Reporting as requested, ma’am.”
Kyra returned the salute. “At ease. Have a seat. We have a lot to discuss and much of it is unpleasant.”
This is not how I expected this meeting to begin.
“I’m going to start with the bad news,” Kyra said. “Tylee’s ship never reached Zanatha. In the past we suspected the Men-gar attacked and destroyed it and all hands.”
Rho’naa’s stomached lurched and twisted in a knot. Tylee dead? Oh no, oh God no.
“This is the supposition we had until the occurrence of recent events,” Kyra said. “A month ago we recovered a Men-gar warship. We discovered it adrift with all of her crew missing. Further investigation has revealed the ship was attacked, but it is largely undamaged. All the crew are missing however and by the bloody evidence found throughout the ship they are presumed dead. This attack was not our doing.” She shoved a folder across her desk. “This file contains a detailed report on the findings. I expect you to read it tonight.”
Rho’naa reached out and picked up the folder.
“This is not the only thing that has occurred.” Kyra pressed a button set in her desk and addressed the surface. “Keish’ar will you join us?”
A door at one side of Kyra’s office opened. It took every bit of discipline Rho’naa could muster to remain in her chair and avoid bolting from her seat to enter attack mode when the tall alabaster white being joined them.
Men-gar! she hissed mentally. What’s this thing doing here…alive? Millions of years ago this species tried and almost succeeded in destroying all intelligent life on Earth. They tried again a few years ago. Since early childhood, I’ve been taught to hate these loathsome creatures.
Her eyes darted to Kyra searching for an answer to her question. Her fingers turned white as her grip on the chair arms tightened.
“Have a seat Keish’ar and I’ll fill Rho’naa in with the rest of the story.”
Rho’naa shifted her attention back to Kyra while keeping an eye on Keish’ar.
“A week ago we intercepted a summons for help. To our surprise, the broadcast came from a Men-gar ship and was directed toward our location in space. We rushed to investigate and found Keish’ar in a failing lifepod. He told us a story that I even yet find difficult to believe, but extensive tests, which he volunteered to take, have shown he is telling the truth.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Keish’ar shift in his seat.
The words extensive tests caused a shiver to run the length of Rho’naa’s spine. Although ninety percent accurate, some of those tests were decidedly uncomfortable for the individual taking them. And he volunteered?
“He told us of a race of insect type beings. They invaded his home planet and subdued it in a matter of hours. They have a weapon that renders most, if not all, electronic equipment inoperative.”
Other than the weapon, it sounds much like the Men-gar. She didn’t say anything, but she was certain Kyra knew what she was thinking.
“We are enemies, but I think you should know,” Keish’ar said, “They eat their captives. We had human slaves on Sto’kan. They do not distinguish one of our species from yours. They eat both.”
“Why did you come to us? Why not go to your own people?”
Keish’ar looked at his feet and mumbled, “First because your area of space is closer… But more importantly, I think humans have a better chance of defeating them than we do. You’re winning this war you know. The Men-gar can’t defeat you.”
Rho’naa sat back in her chair for the moment speechless. To hear a Men-gar admit they were losing the war was unbelievable.
Keish’ar continued, “They must have a shield of some type because although nothing electronic of ours worked, theirs did.”
“So we need to capture one of their ships and duplicate the shield. Where do I come in? It sounds like a navel operation to me.”
“But one of your ships would never get close enough to capture an enemy ship before all the electronics were rendered useless. That’s where we come in.”
“We?”
“You, me, and a small team,” Keish’ar said. “Their large ships are in orbit around the planet, but smaller ships are on the planet itself. I think I can get us close enough to steal one.”
“And then what? From what you describe, these small ships are like shuttle craft, how are we supposed to get away into deep space?”
“They are interplanetary capable. We had a base on the moon. The small craft are able to fly from the planet to there. If they can go that far, they can probably go further.”
“Sounds like a lot of guessing to me,” Rho’naa snapped while glaring at him.
“I’m willing to risk that my guess is right… Are you?”
A scowl from Kyra caused Rho’naa to squelch her retort. The chair arms creaked as her hands tightened and her enhanced strength left deep finger impressions in them. Just in time, she relaxed before shredding the chair arms and forced herself to remain seated. How dare this vile being question my bravery?
“Tell her what else,” Kyra said.
“Kyra tells me you have a good friend that looks feline.”
Rho’naa narrowed her eyes. “If you have harmed her, I will kill you where you sit before Kyra can prevent it.”
“I haven’t touched her. I’ve only seen her and heard where they took her. She is being held in one of our maximum-security prisons under a mountain. At the time I escaped Sto’kan, they hadn’t discovered it yet.” After a pause, he shrugged his shoulders. “Now.”
She faced Kyra. “We need to rescue her and the other prisoners and right away.”
“My thoughts exactly and that is why we are here…to plan.”
CHAPTER FOUR
At last the month of preparation was behind them. The cruiser lay silent at the edge of the Sto’kan system and behind the outermost planet. Rho’naa faced the three people of her team in the small conference room and rehashed the mission with them.
In addition to both Stan and Madra being skilled fighters in both armed and unarmed combat, they had special abilities deemed critical to the mission. Her gaze shifted to Keish’ar. Although she still detested him, his knowledge of Sto’kan and the insect creatures known as the La’new, was indispensable.
“So let us go over our mission one last time. Once we’re safely on the ground, our first mission is to free the prisoners. Keish’ar has stated there are five of them, including Tylee.” She narrowed her eyes. “He has further assured that he can find a safe place for them to hide.”
“I can,” Keish’ar said.
She ignored his comment. “Once the prisoners are hidden, we start our other mission, obtaining information on their electronics-disabling weapon. Their electronics appear to work even when the weapon is engaged which indicates they have some type of shield that cancels its effect. We need information on that too. I hope we can send that information to this cruiser through a burst transmission. That will depend on whether the weapon is on all the time or just during attack. If we are unable to transmit, the alternative is to steal one of their shuttles and get to our waiting cruiser with enough lead-time for it to escape. In any event, we have to find a way to get the information to our people. Any questions so far?”
She paused and watched the shaking of heads.
“If we are able to transmit the information, our job is finished. From that point, we, along with the prisoners we’ve rescued, hide and wait. Let’s j
ust hope our R&D people are quick in developing a way to neutralize the nulling weapon and we’re rescued soon.”
For a moment, she waited to see if there were any questions. There were none. “Good, then let’s do this.”
She led the way as the team trooped through the ship and came to the launch bay. They crossed the hanger floor and stopped in front of a small craft colored black as space and designed special for their mission. Inside, each of them backed into a crash cage and strapped in.
Rho’naa stared at the being across from her. “You know I still don’t like you, Keish’ar, and if you screw this up or hamper things, I will kill you. Just thought you would like to know that.”
He grinned at her. “I don’t much like you either, but thanks for the warning. I’ll be on my guard.”
The craft they entered was composed of nonmetallic. The electronics on board were limited to what they had deemed a critical minimum. Once the occupants left the craft in the upper atmosphere it was designed to disintegrate and burn up completely before hitting the ground, hopefully to be dismissed as just a meteorite.
Rho’naa checked that the two human members of her team were secure in their decel cages. When she finished checking them, she faced Keish’ar whose cage was facing hers. Her lips tightened, but she made certain his was secure also.
With everyone else secure, Rho’naa stepped into her own cage and locked herself in. “We’re ready,” she told Drago.
“I’ve already linked with the computer on board. I will establish a link with the ship’s main computer and launch us.”
Minutes later he announced, “Launch complete. Sleep cycle for you and the others will now commence.”
The small ship cruised nearly invisible toward Sto’kan with ever-increasing velocity. Just short of the atmosphere, the craft slowed to a halt.
“Rho’naa time to wake,” Drago said.
She shook her head and opened her eyes. Glancing around, she saw the others were rousing too. “Status?”
“The new gravity drive worked flawlessly. We are positioned at five-hundred kilometers and now that everyone is awake, I will move us to the one-hundred-fifty kilometer debarkation location.”
“Any sign we’ve been detected?”
“None.”
She glanced around the craft and the other occupants. She watched as her team fitted their breathing masks and after receiving a nod from each member, opened the hatch to space. One by one, each of them jettisoned themselves from the craft. The planet’s gravity, though weak at this altitude, drew them downward with ever-increasing velocity. The team drifted apart. The chance of a small human body being discovered was remote.
Rho’naa monitored the temperature readout in her heads-up display closely. When it approached the danger zone, she spread her legs and arms. The webbing attached to them billowed and slowed her decent. When the temperature dropped sufficiently, she drew her limbs together and plunged deeper into the atmosphere. As they closed with the ground, the team came closer together. With limbs spread, they dropped the final few yards and landed on the ground lightly.
Rho’naa checked her watch and nodded in satisfaction. The decent had taken a little over a half hour. She removed her body-chute dropping it to the ground. Holding her hand on her brow, she studied the mountain, their ultimate destination, twenty kilometers away.
“Drago, can you communicate with the cruiser?”
“No. their position is beyond my range.”
“I was certain that would be the case.”
“To have the cruiser move further in the system would put them in great risk of discovery.”
“I know that too, and it would also make it nearly impossible to contact the other ship outside this system. We will deal with it.”
Beside her, Keish’ar groused, interrupting her mental conversation with Drago. “I don’t know why we landed this far away from our target.”
“Less chance of being spotted when we were airborne,” Stan supplied.
Keish’ar scowled at him. “But the chances are equal we will be seen when we’re hiking over twenty kilometers of flat grassy plain.”
Rho’naa dug a map from her backpack. She set it on the ground and the others gathered in a circle. “We are here,” she pointed, “this is our next destination.” She pointed to an area near the mountain. “I guess we’ll see if their nulling weapon is in use.” She touched the map and a detailed holographic image formed in the air. Good, our electronics work. She glanced first at Stan, then Madra. “Can you take us there?”
Both nodded.
“Then let’s do it people. Take Madra’s hand,” Rho’naa ordered Keish’ar, not explaining. When Stan offered his, Rho’naa took it. A dimly glowing field formed around each pair. Both couples vanished leaving empty air where they had been standing seconds before. An eye blink later, they were in the foothills of their mountain destination.
“What?” Keish’ar stammered while gazing around their new location in bewilderment. “How?”
“We have abilities you are not aware of. Teleportation is one of them. Now you know why landing twenty kilometers from here was no problem. We have other abilities that will be revealed as circumstances require. I still don’t trust you, Keish’ar, but I know we have to work together.”
The team wound their way closer to the mountain, remaining out of sight in the valleys. Finally, they crawled to the summit of a small hill and observed. Keish’ar pointed to a black spot partway up the mountain.
“That is the entrance. Just inside the entrance is the living quarters for six guards. On the other side of the living quarters is another door that opens into a short corridor maybe thirty paces long. At the end of the corridor is another door. The two doors cannot be open at the same time. The small corridor can be quickly filled with a lethal gas.”
“How is it that you know so much about this prison?”
“I helped design it. The chamber itself was a small natural cavern before we expanded it to the size it is now. There are shackles set in the walls for thirty prisoners.”
“Shackles?”
“Yes the prisoners are secured to the chamber walls. This prison was designed to house the worst of the worst criminals prior to their execution. None ever escaped.”
“You said, was?”
“The prison hadn’t been in service for a number of years prior to the capture of the humans.”
While the rest of the team remained concealed, Keish’ar started across the helicopter-landing pad in front of the cave entrance. He stopped short when a large yellow insect type creature raced out of the cave entrance. Its six legs were a blur of motion as it raced toward him.
“Oh shit,” Rho’naa gasped.
She and the rest of the team scrambled from hiding, guns drawn. Keish’ar drew his own. Four deadly red beams played on the insect cutting it to pieces. Keish’ar stumbled back in retreat from the clearing. Three more of the insects appeared at the entrance and scurried toward him. Beams lanced out again, striking the one in the lead. Large gashes appeared on the creature wherever the beams struck, but it kept coming until all three legs on its right side had been sheared off. They shifted their fire to the third insect. Keish’ar tripped and fell backwards.
“Legs,” Rho’naa yelled. “Cut off its legs.”
In a nick of time, they disabled the third one, but the fourth reached him. It stood over him, mandibles reached down for his head. Suddenly the insect dissolved into small particles of sand, which rained down on Keish’ar. Rho’naa glanced to the side, saw Madra’s outstretched hand and knew she had used her transmutation ability on the creature.
Using his heels and elbows, Keish’ar scrambled back further. No more of the creatures appeared. One of the insectoids still lived, although three of its legs were sheared away and it still struggled to reach Keish’ar. Its movement ceased when the dea
dly red beam from Rho’naa’s gun severed its small head.
Keish’ar reached the outcrop of rocks joining rest of the team. Breathing hard, with guns at the ready, the team waited for more insects to appear. When none did, Keish’ar stood and brushed the sand from his clothes.
“What is this? What happened to the La’new on top of me?” he asked indicating the sand.
Rho’naa smiled smugly. “Another of our abilities.”
She didn’t further explain and they advanced cautiously to examine one of the bodies. They all grimaced and Rho’naa’s stomach became squeamish when she thought of the probable fate of the prisoners inside.
“These things are fucking ugly,” Madra said. From the look on everyone in the team’s faces she was expressing aloud what all were thinking. “They remind me of a giant cockroach, only yellow.”
The gashes made by their beams had filled and dripped a green substance, obviously the insect’s blood. Rho’naa shrugged and forced the feeling of sadness to the back of her thoughts. “Let’s go check out the prison. Spread out and be ready.”
Cautiously, they crept in through the open entrance door. The headless, legless bodies of two La’new lay at the entrance. The team skirted them to examine the room further. The chamber was in total disarray, with overturned furniture strewn around. Burn holes marred the walls and furniture, evidencing the scene of a desperate battle. They crossed the room to the door leading into the prison cavern. Men-gar bones, picked clean, were scattered in front of it.
Rho’naa reached up to press the button that would open the door and Keish’ar grabbed her wrist desperately.
“Don’t open the door.” He pointed to the red light that glowed above the buttons and the twisted remains of a mechanism below it. “The room on the other side of this is filled with the lethal gas and the switch to operate the evac pump has been destroyed.” He pointed to empty pegs on one wall. “All the breathers are gone. If you open that door the gas will fill this room and kill all of us.”